Personal FX: The Collectibles Show Online

This was probably the best live show that FX had on the air. For one hour a weekday, everyday people brought in items to be appraised by different appraisers. Then the person was asked if they were interested in putting their item up for sale and if they said yes, the viewer was given a phone number and at the end of the program, the hosts told how much the viewer was offering to pay for that certain item. The person in the studio had the option to either sell or keep their item. The appraisers were fun to watch and had some very informative information on various items. I really miss this show. The show also had a segment everyday, where they were out somewhere in this country and showed a lucky viewers collection to the rest of us. Some were very nice. The one appraiser that I really remember was Judith Katz Schwartz, as when the program started out, she was so prim and straight-faced, but as time moved on, she really started to open up and had a delicious sense of humor. Funny how when this show was cancelled by FX, the channel went downhill fast, as now all they show is reruns of "MASH", "Ally McBeal" and "Buffy, the vampire slayer"!! Whoopie!! LOL.

Back in 1994, I had a really lengthy vacation around the Fourth of July - something like 17 days off in a row what with two weeks paid vacation, weekends and the holiday itself. I stayed in town during that time, hanging out at my parents' house a lot.

I didn't have a TV in my apartment so I used to watch my parents' tube. I had just finished watching a segment of the X Files when a program came on called Personal FX. I was hooked instantly. I had always been fascinated with items in our home that had come from my parents' family homes and through inheritances from relatives' estates, and often wondered about their history, value, etc.

After my long vacation, I used to go to my folks' house on my lunch-hours just to catch Personal FX.

I can remember one episode during which co-host Claire Carter announced that the New York apartment in which the series was filmed was being renovated and that once said renovations were complete that Personl FX would return to the air.

It never did! Personal FX was the first -and best - of the collectible shows. And it vanished from the air! Almost fifteen years later, I'm still sore.

Way to go, FX.

My wife discovered this show and then got me hooked on it. I think that it came on around noon every day. We watched it almost every day and she would tape it when we couldn't be there to watch it. She absolutely loved it and got hooked on collecting some things herself such as Barbie dolls. Next thing I knew i was going through my childhood toys to see if I had anything of value. I saw some toys on there I had as a child that were now worth a fair amount of change and regretted I no longer had them. I also remember the super collectors segment when John Burke would go to someone's house or business and see very large collections. I have a few minutes of it on a tape somewhere and will set out to find it. I know that since it was on a now defunct TV station that it is probably gone forever. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

I watched or taped the show every time it was aired. I often heard one of the experts compare glassware to Blenko, which I collect, so I wrote to the director and asked if they had ever done a segment on the company. He answered that the crew was going to film there and told me when it would run. A few weeks afterward, I received a book and a huge piece of the glassware from Richard Blenko at the company! He must have assumed that I was a publicist with some clout, because he asked if I could get the company more media coverage.

The subjects covered on the show were varied enough to suit most collectors, and the experts' opinions seemed valid. I, too, took a second look at many of the things I had inherited or accumulated. That probably helped me do very well on eBay when I started trading there in 1998.

Interesting, fast-paced and amusing.

I'm not one of those people who watches loads and loads of television. I stumbled across this show while home sick with a bad case of the flu one day, and was immediately hooked. I developed quite a crush on John Burke. Both he and Claire did an amazing job of hosting the show together. You could really tell that they both loved their jobs.

The super-collector segments were excellent. I found myself interested in things I had never previously given a single thought to.

What I would really like to know is: Whatever happened to Jack the dog? Did one of the hosts adopt him?

I enjoyed Personal FX very much, not only as a program to watch but to work on. I was a west coast satellite truck operator during the time of Personal FX and they often contracted me to aid in their remote broadcasts. "Road Warriors" would fly out to the west coast and we would meet up to do a week's worth of programs LIVE via satellite. We visited people who collected everything from PEZ dispensers to Mickey Mouse things of every type and style; robots to rare and collectible cars. It was hard work, long and very early hours since the program aired live in New York but we were 3 hours earlier. So it meant crack of dawn set up and preparation. But every minute was fun and I would do it again in a heart beat. I remember a program we did from Montana during the winter. It was so cold, I had to replace several cable connectors because they had frozen and literally broke off the end of the cable. On the flip side, we got to stay in a great hotel in Hot Springs, where they actually had a heated pool....heated by the water from the hot springs in the area. Wow ! During a vacation to New York, I actually made an appearance on the live program with my ceramic RCA Dog, NIPPER. That was tons of fun and their studio apartment was extremely cool.