By Ed Epstein
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Ethan Afshani is a busy 21-year-old college junior who works part-time as a grocery store stock clerk and moonlights as a wheeling, dealing collector of Lincolniana.
"Collecting Lincoln has taken over my life," says the political science major at Canisius University, a small school in Buffalo, N.Y. "Very much so. I have collecting fever."
If it can be proved that Lincoln owned or touched an item, Afshani would like to own it if he can afford it on his limited budget. His collection includes a chair that the Lincoln family used in the dining room at the White House, strands of Lincoln's hair, and a pair of reading glasses that Lincoln used. For that item, Afshani matched the lenses in the glasses with Lincoln's eye prescription. Along with the glasses, he got a letter of authentication from a Lincoln descendant.
The precocious Afshani started collecting Lincoln items when he was 17, about the time the then-high schooler self-published a book for young people called Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln, examining letters that Lincoln wrote. But his fascination with Lincoln started much earlier, as a grade schooler.
Afshani is well aware that fakes abound in the world of collectibles, so he has lined up expert advice to avoid getting ripped off. "My mentor-guide is James Cornelius," he says. Cornelius is a top figure in the Lincoln world. He is the former curator at the Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield, Ill., and is secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Association.
And Afshani has reached out to other experts in the world of Lincoln collectibles for advice.
The young collector is going to get big-time national exposure, probably this coming autumn, when he is expected to appear in an episode of Pawn Stars, the long-running History Channel reality TV series that features sellers like Afshani bringing in interesting items to a Las Vegas pawn shop, where they haggle with the shop's owners to see if they can strike a deal.
Afshani flew to Las Vegas not long ago, after the show's producers accepted him as a participant. The item he brought along: a calling card from Mary Harlan Lincoln, the wife of Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, who lived until 1937. His asking price was $750.
Examining the item as the cameras rolled was Rick Harrison (pictured with Afshani in the photo above), the pawn shop's proprietor. Describing the back and forth, Afshani recalls, "Rick says $150. I almost laughed. I said I can go down to $700. He said $250. I said, 'You're getting there.'"
"After more haggling, I said that my rock-bottom price was $500. He said $350. I said I can't do that, so I took the item home."
If you've never seen the show, it is not uncommon for Harrison to make a low-ball offer. He usually reminds sellers that if he buys their item, he aims to resell it for a profit and that it will take time to find a willing buyer, especially for a specialized item like one related to Mary Harlan Lincoln. That tactic sometimes doesn't make an impression on a knowledgeable seller like Afshani.
The buying and selling experience is not unusual for Afshani, who, in addition to his grocery store job, makes money by consigning items to auctions of historical items. In addition to his Lincoln items, his collection includes items like Robert Lincoln's eyeglass case and letters or signed pictures from William Seward, U.S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and Dwight Eisenhower.
But Afshani remains true blue to Lincoln. This summer, he hopes to get a Lincoln-related internship in Springfield or Gettysburg, Pa., and he already has his educational path in view once he graduates from Canisius. He wants to get a master's degree in history from Gettysburg College and then pursue a Ph.D., hopefully involving work at the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Lincoln is his career choice.
In the meantime, Afshani, whose family has lived in upstate New York since around the 1830s, has started writing a second book. This one is based on dozens of letters written by his great-great-great-great uncle, Sgt. William Fermoil of Company I of the 94th New York, who fought at Gettysburg and other Civil War battles.
"My goal is for my collection to grow," he says. "I want items that were owned by Lincoln, touched by Lincoln, or items from his relatives and associates."
Photo courtesy of Ethan Afshani