# "Collectibles" that are never going to be worth anything **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433 "2009-11-05T16:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/61 "2009-11-06T04:09:18Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > - Aren’t McDonalds spoon-shaped coffee stirrers from the 1970s and 1980s worth some outrageous amount? I don’t know about that…allegedly, they stopped making them because they were popularly used for snorting cocaine. No idea if that’s true. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/62 "2009-11-06T04:10:15Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > - Giveaways by fast food chains; e.g. glasses from Burger King, Happy Meal prizes, and the like. I’m drawing a blank on the most I’ve seen a happy meal toy go for. The average happy meal toy is worth from $1-5. Old cereal prizes are often worth serious money. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/63 "2009-11-06T04:31:08Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > All of my mom’s LPs some day they will be worth a fortune! Sadly all her Ray Coniff’s and Andy Williams are only worth about $5.00 each. Even the Whipped Cream & Other Delights is only going for $10.00. I’m stunned to read they’re even worth that much. I usually see those albums in the dollar bins at the flea market. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/64 "2009-11-06T04:36:51Z")
> [@Mavis\_Topholese](#): > > If you want a quick and dirty look at what’s collectible (meaning, what’s worth money) and what isn’t, visit your local thrift store, where you can get Herb Alpert’s entire catalog for $1 or $2 each, including “Whipped Cream And Other Delights”. EVERY THRIFT STORE IN NORTH AMERICA has at least one copy of “Whipped Cream And Other Delights”. What is the deal with that? Was Herb just handing them out on street corners? I think it must be a rule that every thrift store and flea market vinyl vendor have on hand a bunch of Herb Alpert records, as well as a shitload of Barbara Streisand, Barry Manilow and Mantovani albums. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/65 "2009-11-06T04:42:15Z")
I don’t think anything advertised as a “collectible” is ever going to be worth much. On the other hand my mother collected Hummel figurines, and my aunt seemed to think I could sell them. I gave them to my aunt instead. Hated those things. The “hypermoderns” are weird. I sold a Patricia Cornwell on eBay and it was amazing–I had it for $5. The price went up, and up, and up, and somebody ended up paying _$39_ for it, plus shipping. Why? It was in the bookstores 10 days after I sold it, for $29. They paid more to get it … 10 days before the drop date? It was not even an embargoed novel. There were plenty of copies around. (This gave me a very distorted view of eBay book sales BTW. But I got over it.) ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/66 "2009-11-06T05:22:46Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > No, but a significant fraction of the population bought it. [And who could blame them?](http://www.ugo.com/music/best-album-covers/images/entries/Whipped-cream-and-other-delights.jpg) I mean, except for the music. You mean my father didn’t buy that one for the music?!? 😕 But I really do wish that someone would tell my mother that her albums are worth a price somewhere between “bupkus” and “nil.” I’m tired of moving umpteen tons of vinyl during the Great Semi-Annual “Mom’s Gonna Clean Out the Storage Building” Spasm. I even gifted her with a device a couple of years ago, with which she could (with the help of her trusty, tech-savvy 12-year-old grandson) transfer her vinyl to disc or MP3, along with a collectible records price guide. The deal was supposed to be that she’d save the music she wanted, and then get rid of the crap that retails for less than $1.98. Anyone want to guess who still owns the entire Barry Sadler album featuring “Ballad of the Green Beret?” 😉 > [@](#): > > What about … Richie Rich and other Harvey-published comics? There’s a ton of 'em – 1960s and 1970s – in the basement at Dad’s house, in quite good condition. If I learned anything during my first marriage (other than “never marry an only child, especially one with a comic book collection,”\*) it’s that the average consumer’s idea of “in quite good condition” has almost no relationship to condition grades in the comic book and trading card market. Is there a white mark on the spine where a kid read the stupid thing? Downgrade by at least two levels. Is there a microscopic fold on one (or Og forbid) TWO of the corners of the covers? Might as well dig through the trash bin for another one just like it. A puzzlement to me! **I kid, I kid.** \* \*\*_Sort of…_ ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/67 "2009-11-06T05:58:37Z")
It’s been a long time since I was really interested in collecting coins, but I retain enough of that numismatic feeling that [this thing](http://cgi.ebay.com/2000-Painted-Walking-Liberty-Silver-Eagle-Dollar_W0QQitemZ270480935929QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item3ef9eb8bf9) makes me grit my teeth every time I see it. (A modern silver bullion coin that has Lady Liberty _painted_ in Red-White’n-Blue!) And of course, given my former interest in coins, well meaning relatives have given me a couple of just these things as a valuable gift! ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/68 "2009-11-06T07:06:10Z")
my gramma insists that ‘a collector’ in the papers in looking for movie posters and would die for my Pulp Fiction poster. Not even the people that come and buy people’s things for well below what they’re worth (and that’s what ‘the collector’ in the paper is ) want a foam core video store poster, they want the theatre one-sheet posters. But she also claims 16 year old shoes are the latest style because they are high heels. Just wait until she gets me to drag them to the resale shop. And the car ride home where she screams at me because they won’t take them. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/69 "2009-11-06T10:58:34Z")
“Collector’s Edition” DVD’s. They’ve got to be joking. I think the most valuable collectibles are things that are rare on accident, like error cards and mis-struck coins. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/70 "2009-11-06T13:35:09Z")
Hmmmm… Adfter reading this, I’m curious about the value of two packs of **Magic, The Gathering** cards I have. I have two completely unopened packs from the first year. They’re in the original unbroken plastic wrappings (so obviously, I have no idea what’s inside). A friend gave them to me, and I was never even curious enough to open them. What do you think they’d be worth? ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/71 "2009-11-06T13:54:08Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Baseball cards after 1975. Prior to that, cards were valuable because your mother threw them all out. After that, everyone “knew” the cards were valuable, so no one threw them out. It was made even worse after 1981, when Donruss and Fleer started making cards – there were just too many cards and the law of supply and demand took over. > > Even earlier cards seem to be dropping slowly in value, as people forget the players involved. > > But all this is typical of any collecting bubble. Often, a certain item (baseball cards, Beanie Babies, comics, home mortgages, tulip bulbs, etc.) become collectable and people jump in and start speculating, buying them because they are increasing in value. Eventually, the bubble bursts and the value drops to nothing. Remember how many people in your town thought they could turn this into a _retail_ business? Mostly the baseball-card shops and the comic book stores which popped up like mushrooms in the…what, late 80s early 90s? And, while not quite brick and mortar, someone in town ran a Beanie Baby store out of their garage (for a month or so – pretty sure that violated zoning). I’m actually amazed a few of these places stuck around…there were at least ten collectible stores riding the baseball-cum-comics-cum-magicthegathering wave. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/72 "2009-11-06T14:05:09Z")
I will go out of my way for an old car show-I enjoy looking at cars from the 1930’s-60’s. What amazes me-the guys who own these heaps seem to think that their beloved car is made of gold-and that a “restoration” consists of slapping some parts from JC Whitney on, with a $199.00 MAACO paint job. Most of these cars are worthless (except to another such “collector”). The only old cars that fetch huge prices are unique, limited production cars, or oddballs (like the Tucker). So the old geezer who has a rusting old 1958 Edsel in his back yard-and thinks it’s worth a million is deluding himself. You do hear(from time to time), of a bunch o valuable old cars found in a barn somewhere-but those instances are pretty rare.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/73 "2009-11-06T14:06:33Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > I can’t believe no one has mentioned [Billy Beer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Beer) yet. Beat me to it. Billy Beer is possibly THE supreme faux-collectible. I’m almost tempted to assemble a case of the stuff sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/74 "2009-11-06T14:10:14Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > No, but a significant fraction of the population bought it. [And who could blame them?](http://www.ugo.com/music/best-album-covers/images/entries/Whipped-cream-and-other-delights.jpg) I mean, except for the music. I was gonna say, did someone say $10 for a copy of this? I seriously can’t think of an album i trip over more often. Maybe the Eagles Greatest Hits. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/75 "2009-11-06T14:53:54Z")
A friend of mine spent hundreds of dollars on Xena cards, $300 for one card alone. I have not checked the Xena market lately but I would bet his “collection” is now worth about $20. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/76 "2009-11-06T15:01:17Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > What I’ve done is I put an ad on Craigslist offering some family members’ old records for free in exchange for digital recordings of them. I’ve gotten a couple of replies so far, from an audiophile/engineer and a hiphop artist. I haven’t given them away yet though, I’m still waiting to schedule it. > > I might be making a mistake in not charging for them, but I don’t really know the condition of them and all, so I figured I wouldn’t make much money on 100 random LPs. I did find the audiophile guy has an ad apparently offering to buy people’s records AND do transfers, but I already tipped my hand. You could get a $70 USB turntable and do it yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/77 "2009-11-06T15:11:09Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > my mother collected Hummel figurines, and my aunt seemed to think I could sell them. Yeah, for anywhere between $30 and $1600, depending on the figurine and condition. ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/78 "2009-11-06T15:18:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > On the topic of Magic cards, some of them are valuable because they really do have a significant impact in the game. Black Lotus, for instance, is worth thousands of dollars, because it’ll significantly improve pretty much any deck it’s put into, and it hasn’t been printed in decades. On the other end of the scale, though, they also made foil editions of some cards, explicitly for the sake of making them collectibles. Unfortunately, though, most of these foils are things like basic lands, which are the backbone of every deck, are produced in greater quantities than any other card, and will always continue to be printed for as long as the game exists. So a foil edition of a forest might be worth ten cents, instead of the five cents a regular forest would be worth. I haven’t played Magic in years, but if I recall pretty much any card that gets deemed an unfair “buyable” advantage (or simply any card that can unbalance the game) gets banned from tournaments. The Black Lotus is a specific one I recall (and I remember when everyone had their own bootleg copy, heh). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/79 "2009-11-06T15:23:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Hmmmm… > Adfter reading this, I’m curious about the value of two packs of **Magic, The Gathering** cards I have. I have two completely unopened packs from the first year. They’re in the original unbroken plastic wrappings (so obviously, I have no idea what’s inside). A friend gave them to me, and I was never even curious enough to open them. > What do you think they’d be worth? Not much. There’s practically no market for the unopened packs, they could be full of really crappy cards.I could pay you five bucks each for them if you want, and you won’t get a better offer. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433/80 "2009-11-06T15:24:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Hmmmm… > Adfter reading this, I’m curious about the value of two packs of **Magic, The Gathering** cards I have. I have two completely unopened packs from the first year. They’re in the original unbroken plastic wrappings (so obviously, I have no idea what’s inside). A friend gave them to me, and I was never even curious enough to open them. > What do you think they’d be worth? Tell me what it looks like. Is it like the first pack in this link: [Wizards of the Coast](http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/mtgcom/arcana1000/ask071008.jpg) If so, it’s probably Alpha. It’s possible it could be Beta as well. Check to see if it has “Unlimited Edition” or “Revised Edision” across the middle of it. If it’s one of the first two, it’s quite likely you could get around $300-$400 apiece for them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collectibles-that-are-never-going-to-be-worth-anything/516433.md?page=5)