Years ago it seemed like many people collected things. I knew people who collected plates, snow globes, action figures, books, tools, figurines, antiques, etc… You would go into their homes and find whole walls and giant display cabinets filled with their collections. It was also assumed they were an investment.
But now I find more people are selling off those collections. The prices of antiques are going down. It seems that more people are into downsizing and getting rid of “clutter” and often that means those old collections. That’s why many collectible items are now going down in value. Their was a great article out recently about how many elderly people are finding out their cherished collections of things like dishes are just not as treasured by their kids so now they are trying to sell them and not getting many takers.
So what do you all think? Are people less into collecting now? Is it difficult to get rid of those old collections?
I consider myself a collector of Star Trek memorabilia as well as some other stuff. I do this because it makes me happy. I don’t consider it an investment although I have some autographs that may be worth something, but probably not.
its not that people arent still collecting stuff for themselves … its that people who was collecting stuff for future profit has drastically fallen
I mean my aunt gets things from the hamiliton collection ect and about 4 or 5 other places that are owned by the same people and the advertising for such trinkets has changed over the years
It used to be how collectable they were and how they should be worth more than what you paid for them in the coming years Now they sell it as highly collectable limited quality art
More along the lines of "you have it and they don’t " type of thing
The thing is that the things that make certain collectables valuable is their rarity, which is primarily due to the fact that no one was collecting them at the time. If people had been aware that collecting comic books would eventually become a thing, there would be thousands of mint copies of action comics number one out there on the market.
This is why collecting things with the idea that they will increase in value is a losing game.
Primarily, I think internet archiving has made personal possession of an item a bit less valuable. Some of the stuff I have is because I thought, “they don’t make these any more… I’ve got some of the last examples.” But now you can google and see (and learn about) all of this crap.
Anecdotally, I’ve quit collecting stuff. I wasn’t much of a collector in the first place but it’s gotten sorta, “nothing really matters”. Over the years I’ve shown my cool shit to various folks but no one really gives a crap. It’s like **silenus **said… personal satisfaction is all you’re going to get. And I don’t get much value from those types of things any longer. In fact, now when I look at them I think, “that’s one more box of shit the boys are going to wonder why I kept (as they throw it away)”.
So, since no one gives a shit, it’s historically available elsewhere, and I’m tired of storing/moving it, I don’t see the real reason to “keep” anything for nostalgic reasons any longer. Most recently I’m debating on trashing some old boy scout, camping, and AT (appalachian trail) books. They’re just taking up space and, while I love to sit and reminisce, they rarely see the light of day. I’d try to give the stuff away but no one wants it. :o
My grandmother collected Hummels, and, when she died, my sister wanted the collection - huzzah!! My mother used to collect certain glassware, but she’s been giving it away (sadly, I’m stuck with some of it and my daughter doesn’t want it.)
My nephew was sure he had a fortune in Beanie Babies - he had catalogs and he’d tell us what they were worth. We explained over and over that they were only worth what someone was willing to give him. I’m pretty sure he ended up giving them all to Goodwill. In fact, I have a big bag of them that I’ll be taking to a thrift store - so much for my daughter’s collection.
The closest we have to a collection are a bunch of signed, numbered prints by an artist we really like. Some of them may have appreciated in value, but I’m pretty sure our daughter will be happy to have them after we’re gone.
Back in the 70s, I read that a good collector investment would be Sesame Street magazines. Adult buyers would be nostalgic, and the magazines were made to be mutilated. I just looked on Ebay, and any issue from the 70s can be bought for five bucks.
And there are still people collecting what they like and either deluding themselves that the value will increase or making the claim as an excuse, to back off friends and relatives. Heck, some hoarders use that excuse.
Given that the cover price in the 70s was 60 cents, if you look at it strictly from an ROI perspective that’s actually not bad. (To be fair even at a 700% profit the $4 you’d earn is hardly worth the effort of listing and mailing it.)
My son and his wife have a basement full of Star Wars and Marvel movie crap. There must be $10-$20K worth of shit down there. But they don’t do it as an investment. Someday, all that shit will own them, of course.
It isn’t that simple. You have to look at 4 decades worth of storage costs as well. That will include lots of lost inventory for various reasons. You would need to have a warehouse full of something like that to make any money off of them and you still wouldn’t because the law of supply and demand would render each copy close to valueless. That is the catch.
That said, I am glad people collect and hoard weird things. I wanted an original copy of a specific issue of a Life magazine from 1948 for family reasons. It took me about 5 minutes to find one in very good condition for $20 from a specialty dealer. If someone wants to catalog, store and ship an old magazine that I want for less than $3 a decade, that seems like a really excellent deal to me.
If I tried to find that issue in the pre-web era, I probably wouldn’t have ever found one but no I can just order as many as I want. That is the problem with the value of most so-called collectives these days. Sellers and buyers are easy to match and it is easy to see what any given item has recently sold for.
Baseball cards, comic books, and action figures were all considered ‘kid stuff’ at one time. A kid would accumulate a lot of them, and use them a bunch. There wasn’t much of a collector’s market, so there was no reason to preserve them and a lot got worn out or thrown out. Then nostalgia and changing interests set in, and people started to want complete sets. And rare individual cards or issues in good condition or action figures in packaging became extremely valuable. Then people saw that, and got the idea of wanting to profit from the next ‘Action Comics #1’, and you see the pattern today where comics and cards go into mylar protective sheathes immediately, and people buy action figures but never even unpack them. The thing is, when most comics sold go into Mylar straight away, and mothers know not to just pitch a baseball card album, they’re not that rare anymore, so they’re generally not worth a whole lot.
The idea of collecting as an investment wasn’t ever really sound - if you were the only one to do it then it would be great, but if everyone preserves stuff no one makes big money. But it had really big traction in the 80s and early 90s, the shine only wore off as we moved into the 21st century.
Any stamp dealer will sell you sheets of 1940’s 3-cent stamps for two cents a piece. Millions of people saved them, thinking they would go up in value. They didn’t. I have hundreds of them, and I can now mail a 47-cent letter with 16 stamps I paid 32 cents for. They’re still valid for postage. I let somebody else worry about protecting them for 70 yeaes.
In the early 60’s when I was about 9 years old, Major League Baseball came out with bobble heads for all 16 teams (8 American League and 8 National League). I collected them all. (They were only $1.00 each.) I had 2 shelves in my room, one for the American League and one for the National League and I would position them to reflect where each team was in the standings.
These were the real deal paper mache ones from Lego in Japan. Dear old Mom carefully packed them away when my interests went in other directions. When her and Dad were finally selling their house, she asked me if I still wanted them.
I kept them for awhile, but when I saw an ad that said someone was looking for them locally, I sold them for $1000.
I don’t know what kind of a return that is on a $16. investment in 1962, but I was very happy with the offer.
My impression is people are collecting just as much but more quality than quantity, fewer fads (like Boydd’s Bears), and doing most of the actual collecting online. Things are not being displayed as much but they are still there.
And while this isn’t the Marketplace -------- anyone want a massive collection of Soviet Military pins?
