Dumpdiggers finds a new voice on Squidoo

The earth has turned; all living things are starting fresh again outside my window. The leaves on the trees are green and the entire cityscape is suddenly alive with spring.

Timbits has been calling me, and Ace of Spades and even Chester Huff in Kenora – there’s a big dig brewing somewhere and these veterans are eager to pitch a hole.

There's excitement surrounding Dumpdiggers.com, and as many of you know there'll soon be an awesome social networking website at this domain; the launch date is June 1st 2008.

In the meantime, I, Rob Campbell would like to show readers the official Dumpdiggers Lens on Squidoo. Remember Squidoo? This is a multi-platform web publishing site that was created by Seth Godin to offer free media to anyone that wants it, for ANYTHING they want.

I discovered the site last year and used it for the first time last week, when searching for new and innovative mediums in which to market the Margaret Laurence book turned movie, The Stone Angel , and so I created The Stone Angel Squidoo Lens.

Big deal. Its free right?

Even though Squidoo is totally free to use, there's value here for readers and that creates a purpose for authors. Dumpdiggers just loves the flickr photo slide show widget, and the youtube.com channel, the eBay widget and the Google Blog search engine are also remarkably on topic. Check the official Dumpdiggers Lens.

Have a look and tell me what you think - I will respond to all queries.

Antiques Collecting

Dumpdiggers are the most passionate antiques collectors.

Dumpdiggers are experts that research, locate and excavate the precious objects that would otherwise remain lost. This begins the 'life-cycle of patronage' that every found item endures as it appreciates in value on its path to the museum - which is every true historic artifact's ultimate accommodation.

THE PATH OF A TRUE ANTIQUE
It's common for prolific diggers to unload their relics in bulk at pawn shops, Saturday markets and bottle shows. Antique pickers scour junk shops and flea markets to bring these objects to more knowledgeable dealers. Upscale customers buy these objects in high end antiques stores to add to their collections at home - where do true antiquities go next?

Here's a fine assembly of ornate 'oiling' cans. When I peruse this collection I'm left thinking about the genius mechanics, or the eccentric inventor who tinkers over his contraptions. What will happen to these items when their collector leaves this world? Will they be sold off individually? Or will the entire hoard be donated to a museum for a tax receipt against the capital gains accrued by the inheritance (in some States). The latter scenario has become quite common in Canada, and there are many small museums that now have huge collections - sometime their historic inventory is three or four times larger than the building's capacity for display (and it makes me wonder if sometimes whole rooms full of historic items sometimes get lost out the back door?).

ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES BLOGS
Passionate collectors can spend hours online following their hunger for history and researching their own pieces. Unfortunate most other antiques and collectibles blogs are huge photo collections with very little descriptive text. The shutter happy bloggers in this case don't spend any time describing the object's history, and if they write any text at all, its usually just to detail the condition of the item.

Dumpdiggers is always eager to add other like-minded sites to the blog roll, but very few domains exist that would benefit the Digger's Alliance. Just today however, I added Antiques Collecting to the list because I like the style and presentation of this blog's information. It could benefit from a few more pictures actually, but I like how it appears on the same template as Dumpdiggers and it shares a similar perspective on some subjects. Check it out!