Linda Mathews had some time to kill. The Tallulah resident had heard of the Treasure Hunters Roadshow, so she gathered a handful of old coins and gold rings and took them to the Holiday Inn Express in Vicksburg. Within an hour, she walked out with a check for $155.

“Better than it sitting there doing nothing,” Mathews said.

The Treasure Hunters enterprise, a private venture capitalizing on but in no way connected to the PBS “Antiques Roadshow” name is on a five-day stop in Vicksburg, its second time in Mississippi since the company began in 1996.

Unlike the PBS show, where people leave with estimates, Treasure Hunters pays cash and then turns around and sells items to one of the more than 10,000 collectors it represents.

So people line up with their war memorabilia, old dolls, train sets, pocket watches, jewelry and many of the other dusty contents of attics, closets and basements.

Often, the items are determined by the region — the staff tends to see more Native American artifacts in the West and Civil War swords and soldiers’ equipment in the South.

Matthew Enright, director of public relations for the company, said gold, silver and old guitars are particularly hot items now.

“Now’s the time to get rid of that stuff,” he said. “When the economy gets better, those gold and silver markets are going to come back down.”

Coins minted before 1964 are especially valuable because they are made with 90 percent silver.

At a recent event in South Dakota, a man brought a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar he’d bought for $350 in the 1960s — two days later, he had a check for $100,000.

“(Collectors) get into these hobbies that they enjoy doing and they pay a ton of money for them,” Enright said. “It’s crazy, the kind of money that these guys put up. They’re just not being affected by the recession.”

Although few sales bring six-digit figures, more than 30 of the 100 or so people who attended the first day of the Vicksburg stop walked out with more than $400.

“With the way the economy is, that’s good news to people,” said Anthony Enright, show manager. “It relieves some pressure financially.”

One Vicksburg man who went to the event Tuesday had been out of a job for more than six months. The $130 he left with was enough to buy gas to get to the job he’ll start Monday and to cover his expenses until his first paycheck.

“In Vicksburg, we’ll probably pump close to $100,000 or more into the local economy” through purchases, Anthony Enright said.

Treasure Hunters paid out more than $10,000 Tuesday and more than $6,000 Wednesday. Between 50 and 100 people stopped in each of the first two days but the staff expected an influx today, Friday and Saturday — they anticipated a two- to three-hour wait for inspections on those days.

Vicksburg resident Darlene Carter stopped in during a lull Wednesday afternoon. She came with a small-scale metal bicycle with a basket for flowers and small plants, a silver bracelet and a silver ring.

“I was searching my house over last night, seeing if I could find something,” Carter said.

Although some damage in the flower basket prevented a sale and she couldn’t get anything for the bracelet, Carter got a small check for the ring and planned to return.

“I watch (the PBS version) on TV and I’ve seen they had a doll, and I have one just like it,” she said. “I’m going to try again tomorrow.”

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Contact Andrea Vasquez at avasquez@vicksburgpost.com