The Historama Alex Ben-Arieh P.O.Box 32128 Tel Aviv, Israel 61321 Tel/Fax: +972-3-546-1971 Mobile:  +972-547-680-086 e-mail:   alex@historama.com

There's always a market for nostalgia, although it's not usually easy to locate it affordably or profitably. If you're planning to clean up some dusty clutter, or are looking to dispose of accumulated collectibles, either in units or collections, come to us! We can turn your merchandise into money through direct purchases, consignment sales or trades. IT'S FREE: consigning with us is free and carries no obligation! Top Cash Paid: we'll pay handsomely for items we buy or handle from you, or you'll make top cash from sales of your items through us. Quick & Easy: our service is fast, procedures are simple, and we'll bring your items to the market quickly. Professional: we have 25+ years experience with collectibles. Top Service: when you sell through us, you're assured the most effective and professional marketing support.

What Do We Take:

We are always looking to buy and sell merchandise that falls within our areas of competence, down to books, postcards, papers, pictures, maps, tunic buttons, jewelry, etc. We're in the "history" business and we buy and sell things that have a story of their own. Most things have worth on their own merits. Technically, We'll take anything - young or old; new (i.e. proof sets) or used, and note: we will consider and take any item in any condition. So don't write anything off; don't throw anything away: if you're unsure whether we'll accept something, call us - you might be surprised at what we will carry; if nothing else, the worst we can say is "no", and it won't cost you anything to try. Here is a rough guide of what kinds of merchandise we can take, and this is not a comprehensive list. Coins: any Stamps: any Paper Money: any Militaria: for example items from military, para-military, police, government organizations, private organizations, militia, irregular units; helmets; uniforms; identity tags/disks; badges, medals, decorations; regalia; accoutrements, equipments, webbing; paraphernalia, like mail bags, pennants; documents and documentation. Documents: books (both historical books and books on history); posters, fliers, stickers, pins, badges; stationary, envelopes, pens; watches and clocks; paper documents; official documents, ration cards, coupons, registration papers; institutional records - school, church, organization; transportation tokens, telephone tokens; passes, passports, identity cards, coupons, ration cards, travel and work documents; photographs; pictures, paintings; maps; Holocaust artifacts; Judaica, books, religious articles, commemorative items, memorabilia, charity boxes; certain durable goods, certain furniture or accessory items; jewelry.

Consigning With Us:

If you want to sell your merchandise directly to the collectors' market, or if we pass on an opportunity to buy directly from you, consign your items with us. We accept consignments all year round, and especially for our Spring and Fall mailbid sales. When you sell through us, your items get our full attention: professional price-list and catalogue productions with research, text and visual accompaniment, and simultaneous website support. Consigning with us is FREE and carries no obligations. You have nothing to lose - call today! Our Principles on Consignment: Items on general consignment are inspected by us first and placed into our regular sales offering with research, text, and visual accompaniment. For our mailbid sales, our approach is more earnest: our mailbid sales are periods of intense preparation and customer activity. Our presentation is professional, but the rules and procedures for bidder participation are simple and straightforward: there are no buyer's fees, the highest bids get reduced, there are several bidding options to help bidders maximize their budgets and reach for their desired lots, and we provide continuous service before, during, and after the mailbid auction. We don't believe in charging a bidder for participating by applying the standard "buyer's fee" on top of the sum he bids for a lot as most other auctioneers do. Likewise there are no hidden charges like "handling fees" in our mailbids. Both we and you, the consignor, benefit when interested parties bid on the merchandise and therefore don't penalize them for participating; rather, we get compensated for our time and effort in promoting consigned items by taking a flat 20% off of the final, adjusted winning bid for a particular lot.

Procedures for Consignment:

To consign material with us, please follow these procedures: Contact us first to let us know that you would like to consign with us. Send us the items along with an inventory list of the consigned items. Include in the list the 'name' of each item along with a brief description of what it is and state condition/state that it is being sent in. Please indicate if the items are being consigned to us specifically for Mailbid Sales, or also for general sales as well. Enter your desired price for the item: this can be a minimum "reserve" price, an actual desired target price, or an entry left open - for Historama to determine a minimum price and try to get the highest possible market price (please write "Open" in this case). Be sure to specify whether your inputted answer applies either general sales or mailbid sales, or both. Next to this figure, please enter the value for which the item is being insured by the mail service with which you are sending the items. Consignors must insure their shipments. Historama will compensate items lost while in our possession up to the value for which the items were originally insured. Please note that if your desired return amount is below the amount we feel we can receive for your merchandise, we reserve the right to adjust the price up, and either retain the difference to ourselves or just our usual commission - whichever is higher. An inputed target-dollar return may influence our establishment of an asking price. In any event, we cannot guarantee that items will sell. However, if a desired target price is high, it may adversely affect the saleability of the item. If we feel that your desired price is too high, we will notify you and try to arrange a more moderate asking price. In our regular price lists, consigned items are listed with fixed prices, but note that in our mailbid sales, a bidder can submit a bid that is under the ask by up to 30%, and in most cases it will be accepted unless there is an unpublished reserve (see our mailbid rules for more details). We do have the discretion to accept or reject consigned material; we will try to accommodate all submissions and requests but at the end of the day, unmarketably priced merchandise may not sell. As such, in cases where we have noted and informed a consignor that his or her material has too high a target return, if we cannot arrange a more moderate ask but we do keep the item for consignment - and it does not sell, until the consignor requests the material back, we retain the right to carry it on our lists and catalogues until we feel like removing it from our lists and returning it to the consignor. Should poorly selling (i.e. unsold) material conform to this circumstance, after a period of time between two mailbids (inclusive) and all the fixed price lists in between we will charge a fee of 25% of the consignor's target to return the item. At the end of the day, we are a professional business and we have to recoup the costs of time, effort, and financial expense incurred promoting items in our possession for sale; poorly selling, mis-marketed items not only hurt sales, they also reflect poorly on the image of the seller, and so we ask that if a consignor does not alter his target return to be in line with standard, market pricing, he pay us this nominal fee for holding us to his or her targets. Unclaimed Items: Otherwise, also bear in mind that we cannot 'warehouse' consigned materials indefinitely: if we remove unsold material from our lists and received no payment or reply from the consignor by the 90th day after our last notification to that consignor, the unsold (and unclaimed) items will become the property of the business and will be put up for sale. Liquidation: A consignor may request that his or her non-selling merchandise be liquidated at a compromised settlement price; for regularly priced items that happen not to have sold, we will take a 20% commission from the final selling price. If we liquidate an item that previously had an excessive asking price, we will take a 25% commission. On returned materials, the consignor will pay the cost of postage and shipping (including applicable VAT).

Trades and Trade-ups:

Get the collectibles you want: we accept trade-ins and trade-ups; some may be straight unit-for-unit trades, others may be part cash/part product - we're flexible. If you're interested in these services, please contact us first to make arrangements. We offer and undertake these services on condition that merchandise offered is legally yours.