??? but I have all four covers of Youngblood #1. The foil covers! Authenticated by Dynamic Forces.
I got five Gretzky rookie cards I’m saving for my retirement. Fingers crossed.
2 things come to mind as a cause for this -
1.) The idea that ‘everything’ is a collectable - thanks to this marketing ploy - we even have limited edition cookies in collectable tins.
2.) The advent of the Internet and E-bay - thanks to ebay - its now much easier to find/get things that used to require specialty shops and flea markets. What used to be scarce is now much easier to find.
Price guides (like Becketts) are amazing - they’re great when you want to feel good about something ’ hey, the dealer has it less than beckets!’ - because while the idea of a price guide is good, you have to look long and hard to find people actually buying some of the items for the prices listed.
An interesting bit of trivia is that Gretzky will never sign one of his rookie cards for a fan. He only ever signed five of them, one for each of his kids. Those cards will be extremely valuable.
Well, then, I better collect his kids. I wonder how much they’d be worth and how much personal security they have.
So are you suggesting you can buy postage (to use) on eBay for under face value?
I wouldn’t be surprised. In the case mentioned by the OP, it’s going to be a shit ton of 4 cent stamps so you’d have to put eleven of them on a single letter so it’s probably not worth it.
A friend of mine is a stamp collector. He told me that stamp dealers get families coming to them all the time with stamps that they’ve inherited. They’ll have full sheets of various collectible stamps with famous actors or hundredth anniversary of historical events on them. Stamp stores will buy them for 50 cents on the dollar. When my friend would get a stamp catalog mailed to him it would be plastered with the craziest stamps like from the 1968 Olympics and such.
Yes. I haven’t looked for a while, but I don’t things have changed much in that field. I have a shoebox full of unused stamps that I’ve bought for under face, and that I use for postage. Some came from a friend who was a coin dealer in Australia, and they were even cheaper because some sheets were stuck together. (But when you soak them in water and separate them they are still valid for postage: you just need a little glue.)
Sad story about the **baseball cards **my brother & I collected religiously one year. It was the 1987 Topps baseball cards with a wood-grain pattern. We carefully cataloged and preserved them in plastic sheets. We got the entire set (and enough extras for a third set, probably). If only Mom hadn’t thrown away those 22-year-old cards, we’d be zillionaires right now.
Or not.
eBay has the complete set of 792 cards offered for $8.95
So much for that money-making scheme.
There were 17 cards in a pack for 40 cents each. 792 divided by 17 equals 46 packs minimum to get the whole set (assuming no duplicates, which is totally unrealistic).
Those 46 packs from 7-Eleven would’ve cost us $18.40 in 1987. :smack:
You think collectable cookies are bad. I have an anniversary tin of spam, in a collectable tin. The idea tickled me and, hey, if the apocalypse ever comes, I’ll have spam.
The anniversary tin is a replica of the original tin, so I’d guess that it’s not as valuable as the original.
As to the Monkee album, the Reader’s Digest article linked said that it was not valuable. It was only worth $19. That’s about $18.50 more than I was expecting.
As the son of an antique and collectible dealer and a sometime toy dealer myself, I agree with everything that has been said so far.
Right now, I’m expecting to see a wave of Phillies world series ‘collectibles’ all of which will be worth nothing.
There are, OTTOMH, two big exceptions to the nothing produced to be collectible ever is rule
Hess trucks- AFAIK, these still go up in value
Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments- Especially the Star Trek ones. They are manufactured to be collectible, but they are low in cost and often used on trees and get worn.
Re Comics
After the polybagged holofoil chrome 90’s, the market took a serious hit. I expect that someday, things will return to normal. That the majority of people buying comics will be doing so for enjoyment- if the industry survives the next twenty years.
Re Beanie Babies
Anybody have the first bat? The black one? I collect bats.
Re The Franklin Mint
Sheesh. This goes for the Bradford Exchange too.
I have a tin of Spamalot spam. It just seemed to me that most people would laugh at the label then eat and dispose of it. My gut told me that tin would be worth money one day (even if that day is decades away). I have learned to listen to my gut on these things.
My friend’s mother kept every cork she could get her hands on and told us they would be worth a lot of money someday. I still have no idea what she was talking about.
As stated previously, you weren’t the only one who did that. That’s why so many 1987 Topps are still around and why nobody wants them.
Overproduction of cards in the late 80’s and 90’s are the reason why they’re barely worth the cost of the cardboard they’re printed on today. What really killed the hobby (at least for me) was the rare insert card fad in the 90’s. Collectors would just buy packs for the inserts and throw away the rest–even the superstar and rookie cards. It was too much like gambling and just wasn’t as fun anymore.
(Incidentally, I have a collection of about 40,000+ cards. I have a fair number of notable cards from the 50’s and 60’s but most are from the 70’s and 80’s. I stopped collecting years ago and am contemplating selling the whole thing if I get a good offer.)
I’ve got dibs on this one.
Then let me amend that to “Anything at all produced with the expressed purpose of being a collectible, and sold as such in Parade Magazine.”
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 would imagine rising home ownership in the US is a part of the story. 60 years ago people were more likely to rent an apartment and throw out stuff when they moved. Today it’s much easier for people to keep stuff in their home basement for decades.
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?
What I love is seeing beat-up old Charlton comics (Charlton was the cheapest low-rent comic book publisher ever) that Grandma tells us “books for $8”. What book would that be, Grandma? The Crazy Grandma Comic Book Price Guide? That’s right, “Devil Kids Starring Hot Stuff” # 37 is worth thirty dollars, sure it is, you read all about it in that article in the free weekly about how all those old comics in your attic are worth big bucks. Well, they are worth about a dollar each if they’re particularly stupid and I happen to be in a stupid comic buyin’ mood that day, Grandma.
I never said they were worth nothing, just that their value doesn’t match that of older cards.
And, really, Beckett? That’s wishful thinking. To see what cards are really selling for, look at eBay. The 1967 Brooks Robinson – a card that was selling for $800 in its heyday – it can be had for $77 right now. Even the Buy it Now crowd isn’t going over $300.
Meanwhile, a 2000 Pedro Martinez can be bid on for under a buck. His rookie card is going for less than $20. When he gets into the Hall of Fame, the rookie card might go up to $50, then start dropping back, just like the older cards.
If you buy the cards in packs and keep them, you may make something selling them, but if you buy them on eBay or – worse – pay Beckett’s prices, you’re throwing your money away.