03/05/2009: LeValley High Live

The Great Treasure Hunt draws Lehigh Valley residents with offer of cash for collectables.

March 05, 2009
By DOUGLAS B. BRILL

PALMER TWP. | Charissa Kromer, a laid-off nurse's aide, came to The Great Treasure Hunt with a handful of jewelry and two upcoming birthdays.

The Freemansburg woman wants to throw a party at the Build-A-Bear Workshop in the Lehigh Valley Mall for her daughter and also at least get a cake for her 1-year-old son.

Thing is, the party is $200, more than she could afford since she lost her job.

So she cherry-picked her jewelry box and met Wednesday with Treasure Hunt, which buys valuables and collectors' items and gave her $350 for her gold.

"Uh, yeah," it's tough to part with the jewelry, Kromer started, scrunching her face. Then she paused and laughed.

"But the money's better" than the jewelry, she said. "I don't know where half of it came from anyway."

Treasure Hunt, a group of buyers who travel the country, is stationed this week at the Holiday Inn Express off Corporate Drive just past 25th Street.

The group will be there from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Treasure Hunt, based in Winston Salem, N.C., buys sports memorabilia, jewelry, antiques and other valuables.

The company says it does much of its business with other collectors and people who want to clear junk from their homes.

But the unemployed like Kromer boosted turnout Wednesday.

A 24-year-old Bethlehem Township man laid off from welding sold an autographed Mickey Mantle plaque to make a car payment.

"Times are tough and this was just hanging up there" on the wall, he said, bouncing a 16-month-old daughter. "I'm a Mets fan anyway."

An Easton woman said she sold coins for $12 and said she'd search her doll collection for help paying the bills.

Kevin Batchelor, the Treasure Hunt appraiser in charge Wednesday, said a woman kissed him last week when her jewelry netted $550 for new tires.

Not all of the sellers had fallen on hard times.

A woman told appraiser Tim Pierce she was selling jewelry so she and a friend could go to the Bahamas.

James Fry Sr., 77, a retired trucker, wanted to unload five boxes of comic books for more space and for money to give his children.

Treasure Hunt had paid out $7,500 as of 2 p.m. and was expecting 100 sellers before the end of the day.

The top fetches, Batchelor said, were $2,200 for jewelry and $1,300 for the first "X-Men" comic book.

Another seller parted with an Ernie Banks rookie card, and someone got $25 for an Edison cement bag.

Pierce, the appraiser, said now's a good time to sell.

Gold is at its highest value in years, he said, and collectors' items have remained a steady value.

The bad economy, meanwhile, means more people are looking for extra cash.

"In my lifetime," Pierce said, "there's never been a better time to sell."