Martin Milner, the former co-star of the acclaimed 1960s drama “Route 66,” has been gradually selling off items from his personal collection on eBay for the past few years. But a whole bunch more will be offered on the online auction site in the coming days.
A post on the promotional Facebook page for the “Martin Milner Private Collection” on eBay from sale administrator Rick Barnes on July 14 said:
As many of you have noticed, we haven’t had our auctions running recently. This is due to a number of reasons, but principally – eBay imposes very strict (and low) limits for inflexible periods of time. This has proven to be a challenge, but the good news is that we are now clear to list new items.
This upcoming week is shaping up to be a very exciting one. We will be listing a large amount of rare and very special Adam-12 items. This truly will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. These are the most authentic Martin Milner/Adam-12 items that will ever be available to the public. They ALL come directly from his collection and once they’re gone, it’s likely they’ll never be seen again.
So be sure to set your calendars for July 20th and find something interesting to bid on. We’ll do our best to have items in all price ranges. […]
So far, the sale has been amazing. The Milner family, and myself as the Sale Administrator, are very grateful for the support and kind words you continue to express. I assure you, they mean a lot to all of us.
Milner has sold more than 100 items of “memorabilia collected by Martin and his family, over the length of his television, theater, and film career. Badges, photos, mementos, personal items” on eBay.
I would have questioned whether Milner or his family is actually behind the account, except for this — one of the items being sold this month is a ceremonial key to the city of Rock Island, Illinois, probably dating to the 1970s. They don’t give those out to just anybody. And the rest of the items — including from “Route 66,” such as the screenshot above the dogtag that will be offered for sale — seem too rare to be just from a run-of-the-mill collector.
The eBay account dates to 2000, but Milner or his relatives started to sell stuff in earnest about 2009.
Milner co-starred on “Route 66” with George Maharis from 1960 to 1964 (my 2007 interview with Maharis is here). Milner spoke and greeted fans at the International Route 66 Festival in 2002 and 2003. But he no longer makes public appearances and, according to several sources, has been in poor health for the past decade.
(Hat tip: WQAD-TV)