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

The sale of the Jeffrey B. Ellis Antique Golf Club Collection (previewed in detail in my earlier post), which took place last week at Sotheby's, raised more than $2.1 million. A long-nosed putter from the 18th Century fetched a cool $181,000, and it's a safe bet it's not going to be spotted on the miniature golf course anytime soon.  Meanwhile, a square toe light iron from the 1600's corralled a tidy $151,000. It was the most lucrative sale ever for golf memorabilia, raising a lot of money for clubs that aren't even guaranteed to lower your score.

—David Coggins

Paying six figures for a golf club that won't shave any strokes off your handicap may seem on par with using a pitching wedge to putt. But golf memorabilia has begun to command such sums. On September 27 and 28, the Jeffery B. Ellis collection–perhaps the world's largest assemblage of historical wooden golf clubs–will go up on the block at Sotheby's in New York, an auction that is certain to lift prices even higher.

"There's never been a golf club collection this comprehensive that's come out for public sale," says Lee Dunbar, director of the Collectibles Department and a senior vice president of the auction house. Over 600 lots span the 1600s to 1930s, including a 250-year-old putter by Andrew Dickson, thought to be the first maker to mark his work. (Estimate: $200,000 to $300,000.)

Ellis began amassing clubs in the seventies at a Milwaukee Goodwill and soon learned to target the oddest specimens. "The strange ones that didn't perform well, the market didn't take to them, and they were left behind," Ellis says. Note the 1860s-era Left-Handed Long-Nosed Spoon ($7,500 to $15,000), which sounds more appropriate for a nightclub than a fairway.

A very Early and Important Square Toe Light Iron. Circa 1600. Est. $150,000 to $250,000

Currie Metalwood. Patented by William Currie Jr. 1891. Est. $25,000 to $40,000
The John Radel Duplex Iron. Patented 1928. Est. $2,000 to $3,000
Presentation putter. Made by McEwan, Circa 1825. Est. $25,000 to $44,000
The Roy Water Iron, Circa 1880's. Est. $15,000 to $25,000

Hey, kids! Want to retire early? Well, never mind studying hard and saving those pennies and dimes. Just hold on tight to your childhood ephemera -- like trading cards and such -- and maybe by the time you're ready to start auctioning off your belongings, one of your old favorites will be worth a small fortune.

Case in point: The Holy Grail of baseball cards, the legendary 1909 Honus "The Flying Ducthman" Wagner -- a card once owned by Wayne Gretzky, among others -- sold the other day for $2.35 million, almost twice what the seller paid for it six years ago.

There are only 60 or so of the Wagner cards in existence -- presumably because the famously clean-living Honus eventually refused to allow the American Tobacco Co. to bundle his image as a "tobacco card" with their cigarettes.

The card that sold the other day is considered in the best shape of all the 1909 cards left on the planet -- although as the seller, Brian Siegel, CEO of an asset management company called Emerald Capital LLC, put it: "You could stick [any of the Honus cards] in the middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card."

The buyer, meanwhile, is an "unnamed Orange County businessman" -- an appellation that we're hoping, really hoping, is not some sort of code for Charlie Sheen.

Now, if only we could find that Al Hrabosky card we put away in the attic 30 years ago. Hey, if The Flying Dutchman can pull in a cool 2 mil, who's to say what sort of bidding frenzy The Mad Hungarian's rookie card might generate?

--BEN COSGROVE