I don't know Tom personally. I only met him once. At this point I would need to have further contact and learn a little more before I could endorse his appraisal service.




However I will tell you a little background about him:
(As related by Tom Clayton)

Young Tom got interested in collecting lures way back in the 1960's when he was a boy growing up in Wall, NJ.

What prompted his life long passion?

He saw a boat that had sunk at its mooring in the bay waters behind the Shark River Inlet. The boat was there in the water for a long time. He noticed one lonely plug, an Atom, that was stuck on the rope the boat was moored to.

Every time he fished from shore in the Shark River area, he would gaze wistfully at that plug and wonder if someone would ever go to the sunken boat to get it.

Nope, no one did.

So one morning young Tom decided to swim out to that wrecked boat. He pried the Atom plug off of the rope, swam it back to shore, and fished it!

At that point he knew he was hooked for life, both on fishing and plug collecting.

He started to build up an extensive collection of original Creek Chub lures. The collection grew until he got married and needed the money for his family, so he sold it.

Eventually, as the children grew (he has 3 sons), he realized his passion for collecting never really left him, and started accumulating lures again, one at a time.

It has been a labor of love for him, not as lucrative as he originally imagined. Nonetheless, far richer for him has been the contacts and friends he has made in the antique lure world. He has friends and associates from all over. He has written some acclaimed articles for Antique lure publications,. He has made friends and fishing buddies out of his customers.

Through it all, he feels proud to be able to document a small but significant piece of fishing history.