historical

In the late 1990s, a woman browsing a garage sale in Kirkwood, Missouri, noticed a small bronze statue sitting among everyday household items. It was dusty, visibly worn, and missing part of an arm. Nothing about it screamed valuable—but something about it made her stop and look again.

You may not have realized, but a lot of vintage clocks now bring offers of big money from serious collectors. We look at vintage clocks that bring top dollar, and the pitfalls for collectors to avoid.

Some vintage license plates now command prices in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on their rarity, state, age, and condition.

A dollar used to be worth its weight in gold—or at least in cheeseburgers, movie tickets, and gallons of gas. From the 1950s to even the early 2000s, you could stretch that single George Washington bill a lot farther than you can today.

All inventions begin with a creative spark in the mind that is fueled by a desire to improve lives. These ones were definitely outside the box.