For decades, the 19th century steamer trunk emblazoned with the Louis Vuitton emblem sat in a musty Topeka basement.</p><p>&ldquo;It belonged to a Frenchman,&rdquo; Tim Berry said of the trunk, which he and his wife, Linda, hauled from Topeka on Saturday to the Wyandotte County Historical Museum&rsquo;s version of the PBS program &ldquo;Antiques Roadshow.&rdquo;</p><p>The Frenchman came to the United States early in the last century and died in a mental hospital. Berry&rsquo;s parents, for reasons unknown, ended up with his trunk and clothes.</p><p>What the Berrys learned is that the trunk could probably fetch $10,000 at auction.</p><p>They also brought a signed 1943 Thomas Hart Benton lithograph, &ldquo;Morning Train,&rdquo; that Linda Berry had picked up at a sale out west for less than the price of a pair of sneakers.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they knew what they had,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Auction price: $3,500 minimum, the appraiser said.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty happy,&rdquo; Linda Berry said.</p><p>So were officials with the Wyandotte County Historical Museum, who held the antiques appraisal fair as a fundraiser for the museum at 631 N. 126th St. in Bonner Springs. </p><p>Next year, the museum is expected to operate with its annual budget reduced from $239,000 to $72,000, said director Trish Schurkamp. She said the museum would use about $25,000 from its contingency fund but needed to raise much of the rest.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to raise enough money to keep our doors open,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We also want to try to get the word out about the museum. A lot of people don&rsquo;t know who we are, or where we are &mdash; even a lot of people from Wyandotte County.&rdquo;</p><p>The appraisal fair &mdash; the first fundraiser of its kind for the museum &mdash; was held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Wyandotte County Park, 126th and State Avenue, at the George Meyn Community Center. Schurkamp said she didn&rsquo;t know what to expect from the event and would be happy to raise $5,000.</p><p>Individuals who pre-registered paid $10 to have one item appraised or $20 for three. Those who showed up at the door paid $20 for a single item and $40 for two or more. By noon, more than 100 had arrived, carrying everything from antique swords to radios, musical instruments to furniture sets.</p><p>Beverly Veraguth of Kansas City brought a sack of seven antique wood baseball bats that her husband, who works for a garbage hauling company in North Kansas City, found in the trash last week.</p><p>Among them: A Spalding &ldquo;Black Betsy,&rdquo; circa 1915, that could bring as much as $1,300, according to the appraiser from Manion&rsquo;s International Auction House, 4411 N. 67th St. in Kansas City, Kan.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the type used by Shoeless Joe Jackson&rdquo; of the Chicago White Sox, appraiser Andrew Turner said.</p><p>Appraisers manned 13 stations at tables in the community center. Some appraisers who were expected did not show. </p><p>Some attendees complained about the quality of advice they received.</p><p>&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t know his (expletive) from a hole in the wall,&rdquo; Larry Stallard of Parkville said of one independent appraiser. The retired American Airlines mechanic had arrived with a three-piece, hand-carved living room set that he brought from a home he has in El Salvador.</p><p>&ldquo;First thing he said is, &lsquo;You need to have these re-covered,&rsquo;&ensp;&rdquo; Stallard said, sitting on his couch in a far corner of the hall. &ldquo;Everyone knows you don&rsquo;t ever re-cover antiques.&rdquo;</p><p>Wanda Taylor was disturbed to find that none of the fair&rsquo;s appraisers had experience in Native American materials. She had traveled from her home in Omaha, Neb., for a weekend with her boyfriend and had brought along what appeared to be an Iroquois buckskin, beaded moccasins and headdress for which she had paid $800. But after paying the price of admission, she said, the appraisers told her less than she already knew.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m kind of a little disappointed,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Robert and Donna McClure of Kansas City, Kan., meantime, found that a turn-of-the-century tin bread box might bring $75 to $125, and an old coffee grinder $175 to $200. The vegetable and slaw cutter from Donna McClure&rsquo;s father&rsquo;s farm in Mattoon, Ill, was valued between $125 and $150.</p><p>Not that she has any intention of selling.</p><p>&ldquo;No, no, no,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Just curiosity.&rdquo;