Don't Throw Out Those Bumper Stickers

NEW YORK — "Honk if you love Jesus" — and $1 million. In a sure sign of a rebounding economy, original Christian bumper stickers have become the market's latest hot collectible, with specimens from "Not perfect, just forgiven" to the original "Jesus on board" routinely fetching $10,000 to $50,000 at auction.

"There's strong affection and demand [for classic stickers] from collectors and Christians alike," says Jeff Teague, modern collectibles expert at Christy's auction house. "That combination is driving prices to levels we haven't seen before." The granddaddy of them all, and by far the most valuable bumper sticker in history, is the very first Christian bumper sticker: "Have you prayed today?" from 1958. Last month it sold for $1.2 million to a private investor who said he intended to frame it and hang it in his art gallery, alongside a Picasso.

"The cultural moment that bumper sticker captures is just as significant as the work of great masters," said the investor, who wished not to be identified. "And, frankly, there's not that many of these bumper stickers in good condition around anymore." With those kinds of dollars chasing the unlikely, rectangular gems, a gold rush mentality is on in church circles. Christian sloganeers who held onto their bumper stickers — or the cars they were attached to — from the '60s and '70s stand to reap handsome profits. Some people have spent days painstakingly peeling their old "No God, no peace. KNOW God, KNOW peace" and "Turn on to Jesus" stickers off their Camaros, Pintos and Datsuns, mounting them and selling them at conventions. ("Previously applied" stickers are worth about a tenth of the value of an original, unused sticker.)

Doug Phelps couldn't believe his eyes when he saw an original 1974 "God said it. I believe it. That settles it" sticker appraised at $5,000 on PBS's "Antiques Roadshow." "I had a dozen just like it on my guitar case" which he used during the height of the Jesus Movement, he says. The case was stowed away in a closet for 20 years. He took it to an expert, who recommended he have the stickers professionally removed and mounted. Phelps instead sold the entire case, stickers and all, to a collector who specializes in paraphernalia from the Jesus Movement, and made $14,000, enough to send his daughter to college for a year. "I never thought those things would come back around, but I'm sure glad they did," Phelps says. An even bigger legend in sticker lore is Lenore Crabtree, 73, of High Point, N.C., who worked in her church bookstore for 21 years. Her son used to bring home "every bumper sticker he could get his hands on" and tack them to his bedroom walls.

Recently, a friend visited Crabtree and peeked into her son's old room, which is exactly as it was in 1977 when he moved out and got married. "My knees went weak and I almost fell over," the friend says of the moment when she saw the cavalcade of bumper stickers affixed to the wall. "It was like seeing $10,000 bills everywhere." Crabtree took the stickers to a bumper sticker convention and came away with $340,000. "It was one of the most complete and pristine collections I have ever seen, apart from the tack holes which we consider minor blemishes," says expert Teague. Both Crabtree and her son now live in houses near the ocean. Some collectors have made cross-country trips in search of churches time forgot where, just maybe, they might stumble on an old stash of unsold bumper stickers in the basement or fellowship hall. Inspiring the hunt are several well-worn, true stories like Crabtree's and other small-town pastors who found they were sitting on a gold mine. John Dignant, 31, a recent sticker aficionado, found himself driving behind a VW bus in Santa Cruz, Ca., when he saw dozens of old stickers covering the back. "I flagged the guy down and offered him $20,000 for the car on the spot," he says.

That investment turned into $720,000 in profits when Dignant sold the stickers at a convention. Instead of risking damage by peeling them off, he sold the entire rear panel of the VW. It now sits in the foyer of an artist's home in Montana, in a Plexiglass box. "It's more than shabby chic," says the artist. "It's art that wasn't intended to be art, which is the best kind."

Celebrities have entered the mix, though many keep their passion hush-hush so the market won't skyrocket further. Billionaire businessman Phil Anschutz has invested roughly $5.3 million in a Christian bumper sticker collection, which is on display at the Denver Museum of Art through July 15. It includes a never-before-circulated "Honk if you love Jesus." Anschutz intends to start a Bumper Sticker Hall of Fame which will officially "retire" stickers which have given the Christian community years of exemplary service. Barbra Streisand has a "small collection of 15 stickers," her publicist confirms. And Bono, who has quietly collected Christian bumper stickers for 25 years, has "around 400." But the sticker phenomenon is dominated by amateur collectors who were lucky enough to hold onto their old stickers, and who now can drive "Jesus on board" all the way to the bank. •LarkNews.com, Joel Kilpatrick. All rights reserved.