It's easy to forget that eBay hasn't always been the only game around to find vast collections of random objects. Jackson's, the Iowa-based auctioneer which was founded in 1969, operates under the inclusive motto: "The world is our market." On November 6 and 7 they're selling off lots of everything from German World War II firearms, to William Faulkner first editions, to Confederate currency.

German firearms from World War II

You can set off your collection of masterpieces with a painting of a bouquet of flowers by Gaston Marcel Lecreux, a French artist you've likely never heard of. Or you can bid on one of the 175,000 post cards. If you'd like to get a glimpse of these lots in person, feel free to stop by Jacksons--they're only a mile away from Waterloo Municipal Airport.  How many auctioneers can claim that?

--David Coggins

On April 21, a trove of rock memorabilia will be on the block in New York City at an auction benefiting Music Rising, a charity co-founded by U2's The Edge to replace equipment lost by musicians during Hurricane Katrina.

Despite the quality on display--a signed Epiphone guitar from Coldplay; a Telecaster used by Bob Dylan; a pair of black and white zig-zag striped pants worn on stage by KISS' Gene Simmons (and, we presume, subsequently laundered); The Edge's own beloved 1975 Gibson Les Paul--the star of the show is a 1966 Red Fender Mustang (right) that Jimi Hendrix played on both "Axis: Bold as Love" and "Electric Lady Land." The guitar is expected to fetch upward of $100,000.

The highest price ever paid for an electric guitar was $2.8 million in 2005 for an Arctic White Fender Stratocaster autographed by a host of guitar giants including Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Brian May, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Mark Knopfler, and AC/DC's mad schoolboy, Angus Young. Hendrix, of course, ranks higher than all of them when it comes to fretwork, having been tagged a few years ago as Rolling Stone's "greatest guitarist of all time"--in which case, a hundred grand starts to sound like a steal.

-- ANDREW NUSCA