Turning to Antiques to Seek Relief From the Recession

In these tough economic times some Mississippi residents are cashing in family heirlooms and jewelry to make ends meet. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

Phyllis King of Ocean Springs is sitting in line at the Holiday Inn Express in Moss Point at the Treasure Hunters Roadshow.

“I have an antique doll, some books that are over 100 years old, I have some silverware, and I have some silver coins.”

She’s waiting for her number to be called so that she can go in for an appraisal of her things. King is retired from General Electric, and she’s lost a lot of money in G.E. stock since the economy turned for the worse. So, like hundreds of others struggling through the recession, she thought she’d try out the road show,

“Just get rid of it now, while it’s of value.”

The Treasure Hunters Roadshow travels around the country, and business has quintupled in the last eight months. That’s a direct result of the economy and the record high price of gold and silver says Jim Hickman, southeastern regional director for the Roadshow,

“I mean a lot of people just need to make mortgage payments, it’s just as simple as that, and they have things to sell. Things of value sitting around that they don’t even care about, so they bring them in and sell them to us.”

Which means that as long as the economy stays poor, there’ll be long lines wherever the roadshow stops. For MPB News, I’m Phoebe Judge in Gulfport.