The Collectors

Finding the right Father's Day gift is easy if Dad is a collector.

Walk into retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Gray’s home and you’ll know you are in “The Hip Joint,” where posters, album covers, and music memorabilia honor legendary jazz masters.

Even with the hundreds of jazz recordings he owns, Gray can quickly put his hands on his favorite album, an autographed copy of Benny Goodman’s classic Benny Goodman Jazz Concert 1937–1938 No. 2 that he acquired in 1953.

“Somehow I talked my teachers into letting me out of school to go down to a local department store where Benny Goodman was on a marketing tour,” reminisces Gray, who was only 17 at the time and living in Washington, D.C. “I started collecting records selectively in 1948 or 1949, but that album is the one I cherish the most.”

Gray and his wife, Peggy, fondly remember saving enough to buy one jazz record a month when they were newlyweds. The collection, they say, came in stages, and some decades were better than others for jazz.

After recently cleaning out his collection a bit, Gray still has about 50 vinyl records—mostly by legends like Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. His collection of 75 laser discs and 250 DVDs of jazz concerts give him enough fodder for his volunteer job as program director for The Villages Jazz Lovers Club.

Although he listens mostly to jazz icons like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, he keeps abreast of new artists by reading JazzTimes magazine and websites devoted to jazz.

“I spend a lot of time searching on the Internet to add to my collection of laser discs and DVDs,” he says. “I don’t buy a lot of CDs—they have to be exceptional for me before I’ll buy.”

Paul Farineau has several collections, but the autographed baseballs on display in his den are his favorite, closely followed by his collection of official presidential inaugural medals.

“Collectors don’t collect because of money or what things could be worth,” he says. “They collect because they love the history behind the collections.”

His prized possession is a baseball signed by Red Sox great Ted Williams, a gift from Farineau’s son, Milo, who is responsible for acquiring most of the balls in the collection.

“I asked him what he’s paying for these, but he always says, ‘Dad, don’t worry about it,’” says Farineau with a smile.

Father and son recently returned from the final three games of the 2009 World Baseball Classic in Los Angeles, where they took a bag of balls hoping to get more signatures. Although they struck out getting new autographs this year, Farineau still has a collection that would be the envy of most baseball fans. He has signed balls from Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, and Carl Yastrzemski, just to name a few. After the Williams ball, Farineau’s second favorite item is a ball signed by the 1959 Red Sox team. As a native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Farineau grew up frequenting Fenway Park in Boston and is still a loyal Red Sox fan.

Farineau says it’s the history that drew him to his collections, especially the bronze presidential inaugural medals that are sanctioned by the inaugural committees. The first official inaugural medal was minted in 1901 for President William McKinley and only 147 were made.

“It’s by far my favorite because of its rarity,” says Farineau, who has a wealth of knowledge about the medals and the presidents they honor.

He has official inaugural medals from McKinley through George W. Bush. He’s still waiting, though, to get the official inaugural medal for President Obama.

“It’s incredibly expensive,” he explains. “The three-coin set of gold, silver, and bronze medals goes for $4,000 on eBay. The problem is that no one knows how many were made, and that price could go up or down.”

What started as an amusing idea at a flea market in 1985 has turned into a collection of more than 200 antique egg beaters for Villages resident Bill Biebesheimer.

“My wife and I enjoyed going to flea markets, but I tended to wander aimlessly while she shopped,” he recalls. “I saw a pattern of egg beaters and they all were reasonably priced and I said, ‘I know, I’ll collect egg beaters.’”

A retired civil engineer, Biebesheimer was quick to notice that the drive mechanisms in egg beaters are different. He says the most common have teeth, while others have perforations. The oldest in his collection—dating from the late 1800s—are cast iron. It takes an engineer to appreciate how the gears work.

“Some drive on the center, others drive on the edge,” explains Biebesheimer, who also owns a 200- to-300-bottle wine collection.

Biebesheimer bought two egg beaters in France on two different trips only to find when he arrived home that they were almost identical.

“The European market didn’t have the variety of egg beaters that we had in America,” he says. “Most likely, they used whisks.”

He cites the different dining habits between Europeans and Americans for the shortage of egg beaters on the continent.

“We use cake mixes,” he says with a smile. “They make pastries by hand.”

The collection of all shapes and sizes is displayed on the kitchen wall along with many of the antique tins that his wife, Judy, collects. The most collectible egg beaters, he says, are those with jars or bowls attached. His most valuable one is probably the Ladd Mixer Churner No. 1 at about $225. His favorite, however, is the One-Hand-Whip by Eagle Precision.

Today’s modern egg beaters are coming from China, and Biebesheimer says they’re not as sturdy as the ones in his collection. He also says that there is no real monetary value in his collection.

“There seems to be an endless supply.”

Anyone can buy a commemorative stamp, but a true collector looks for ones that have light cancellations.

“I personally like a stamp with a circle that has the city, date, and time socked right on the nose,” says Ted Harris, who owns more than a million cancelled stamps.

He admits that e-mail and meter mail have made it hard for purists like him to find used commemorative stamps.

Harris began collecting stamps in 1955 when his sister gave him a stamp album. Today, he has more than 50 albums and just as many shoeboxes full, but his real passion is getting young people interested in the hobby. He works with Boy Scouts who can get badges for stamp collecting and visits classrooms to make presentations. He understands that today’s kids have many more diversions to capture their attention than when he was young.

“I don’t expect immediate immersion from students,” he says, “but maybe someday they’ll remember and become interested.”

Harris describes himself as “simply a collector” who trades with other enthusiasts from all over the world. He is also the owner of the first-known golf cart covered with cancelled stamps, a project he completed with his granddaughters a couple of years ago.

His oldest stamp is a “Penny Black” from Great Britain from 1840, the first year that stamps were issued. His most unusual specimens are from the South Pacific island of Tonga, where stamps are shaped like bananas, coconuts, pineapples, and other fruit. His favorites, however, are the Queen Elizabeth stamps known as Machin Heads after the engraver who started making them in 1967.

“That’s a collection in itself,” say Harris. “They look alike to some people, but they are not.”

Harris combs garage sales looking for old envelopes that may contain one of the treasures he’s looking to find. He methodically makes lists of the stamps he already owns and what he needs. While some collectors hope to find a rare stamp for a few pennies, Harris says that is not his motivation.

“I have fun with it,” he says with smile. “The stamps are a place where I can go with my mind.”