Alan Titschmarsh, "the UK's best-loved gardener", is starting a television show about collectibles, a'la Antiques Roadshow. AR started in the UK and was brought over here stateside with lots of interest. While a lot of kitschy/cool items from the 50s and 60s are slowly creeping into genuine antique status, it would be a blast to see 'futuristic' 8-Track players and footprint-shaped shag rugs paraded as valuable collectors items. Alan says, "We're all about to learn what we shouldn't have thrown away."

While most respectable Americans would recognize the difference between a collector's coin and the real deal, the US Mint released a note saying the collectible 9/11 commemorative coin was not a real coin. I checked out the website and found nothing saying that this is an authorized US coin, but they don't exactly deny it either. The Mint's release wasn't preceded by any stories of anyone spending the commemorative coins, so it might be news for news sake: people aren't spending the genuine Sacajawea dollars, treating them as unintended collectibles - who'd be dumb enough to hand over a $25 silver disk to buy a $1 item?

Vintage products are getting a return to the store shelves. Aqua Velva, Brut, Vitalis: manufacturers are buying up old brand names and selling them again. I don't know if they'll play off the 'retro' idea and get new consumers to buy it, or if it'll appeal only to mid-50s insurance agents who miss their Brylcreem.

Sometimes a fake really is the genuine item! Collector Barry Friedman is an expert on indian-blankets not made by indians. According to Friedman, Navajo blankets haven't been made by the Navajo since the 1800s. And, they only started making Navajo rugs once white settlers began to ask for them. Despite not making them with their hands, these Navajo items still have their cultural impression and iconography on them, and can be highly collectible. Much as antique reproduction furniture has a increasing value despite not being exactly the real deal, Indian rugs and blankets have a value not connected to an ancient craftsman with a long lost trade. Friedman also says these can be found "almost anywhere - antique stores, eBay, want ads and swap meets," and can be an inexpensive alternative to buying rarer (or illegal) artifacts while still collecting a part of early American culture.

Moving away from collectible and into kitschy, BadArchitecture.org has been founded to document the horrors of building design in China. Some are strangely beautiful in a World of Tomorrow way, but some are just strange (like the one pictured above). The NYTimes spoke with the site founders, and made out a interesting point: Many of the bad buildings are designed to approximate Western styles, and are now being used as examples of proper architecture -- "like a designer who decides to study Venetian architecture by spending a weekend at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas...Kitsch derived from kitsch."