# Is collecting "stuff" going away? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953 "2017-06-02T19:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/41 "2017-06-04T00:13:25Z")
> [@igor\_frankensteen](#): > > By the way, I didn’t see anyone mention that show on TV, American Pickers. That whole show, and the business those guys are in, exists because there ARE tons of collectors everywhere. Yes and no. There are TONS LESS collectors of those thing today than there were 20 or so years ago. The top 10% of antiques/collectibles, the TRULY RARE SHIT, is still rare enough and there are enough collectors that it still brings very good prices. The more mundane/common collectible are suffering from fewer collectors for items which aren’t truly rare. Average collectible are probably fetching half of what they were 20 years ago. This will not change. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/42 "2017-06-04T00:16:15Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Here in the UK space is expensive. It costs a lot to keep a collection simply in floor space alone. I have a tiny 2 bedroom flat, around 600 square feet. Where am I going to put a collection? As I said above, Americans are going in the same direction. Most people even if they can afford a bigger place, want to downsize because alot of extra space gets wasted. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/43 "2017-06-04T00:17:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Beyond the fading manias for collecting things invented by shyster marketers as “collectibles”, there’s another process at work. It’s the same process that’s undermining heirlooms. > > Stuff used to be rare. Stuff didn’t change much year to year. Folks didn’t have much money so old stuff tended to stay around. People treasured getting grandma’s old frying pan. Partly because it was grandma’s, but more because it meant they didn’t need to shell out money buying one of their own. > > Fast forward to today: Most people are drowning in stuff. 100% of the stuff your parents own is stuff you won’t need if/when they want to dispose of it. Most stuff now is disposable (1998 desktop PC), not eternal (1998 (or 1938) cast iron frying pan). > > Part of the allure of collecting is having the whole set. Time Life books was a 1950s-1970s phenomenon like that. Once you subscribed they’d send another book every month or so. Which you were free to return at no obligation or keep & pay for. Once you owned 3 or 4, the pressure to ensure you owned the complete set with no missing pieces became overwhelming. Lots of people bought 50 unwanted books after wanting only the first three due to this well-understood quirk of human nature. > > When the www first came out, how many people wanted to read the whole thing and collect a vast array of bookmarks? I still have quite a collection of (presumably dead) bookmarks from the early days. I never use 'em; instead I Google up a fresh link to whatever topic. > > Bottom line: the urge to collect is a psychological reaction to scarcity. In an era of functionally infinite supplies of e-goods and of many tangible goods too, the scarcity drive is simply absent from a lot of people’s daily life. > > The Depression era people for whom collecting everything from old rubber bands to glassware was natural are dying off. And so is collecting. > > The poor folks today may have the urge to hoard, but they don’t have the money to waste it on frivolities. > > Said another way, the great collecting boom, both of real stuff and of phony “collectibles”, was when the cadre scarred by the Depression of their youth turned into the upwardly mobile middle class of the booming 1950s & 1960s. They had an inbuilt desire to hoard and the spare money to waste on indulging their desire. > > Some of their kids (people now 45-65) picked up on the habit at least a little bit. Very few of the next generation have. Excellent points. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/44 "2017-06-04T00:23:41Z")
It used to be that you could make a few dollars going to antique auctions in Pennsylvania and reselling items in Connecticut for a substantial profit. Local rarity was a thing. Then the internet happened and everything became one click away. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/45 "2017-06-04T00:44:46Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > 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? Sent pm ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/46 "2017-06-04T01:10:26Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > It used to be that you could make a few dollars going to antique auctions in Pennsylvania and reselling items in Connecticut for a substantial profit. Local rarity was a thing. > > Then the internet happened and everything became one click away. Not only that, but everyone became convinced their old shit is a valuable, rare antique. Bayonets, for example, were manufactured in their millions and because most places don’t require licences or anything to own one, there’s still millions of them floating around in very good shape - yet people somehow think a WWII vintage bayonet is worth as much as the rifle it’s designed to be attached to. It also means the days of gettting real bargains are sliding away - they still happen, but it’s a lot less common when you can look up everything including average prices, rarity, history etc on your phone in the store/at the auction/while talking to the owner. ---
**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:** [June 4, 2017, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/47 "2017-06-04T04:11:24Z")
When I was growing up all the ladies I knew had something they collected, and my mother told me I ought to find something to collect, so that people would know what to give me for my birthday, etc. She collected Hummels, my aunt collected miniature teacups, another aunt collected fans (the decorative Japanese kind), another aunt collected those godawful Teardrop Eyes ceramic thingies. So, since my mother told me to, I didn’t. Pretty much, if anybody is going through some kind of stress thing about what to get me for something, just send me a card, although in practice for this very reason I hardly ever tell people my birthday. If they ask, I say I’m a Leo. When my mother died, another aunt asked me if I wanted the Hummels and before I could think about it I heard myself saying “God, no!” and then I collected myself and asked her if she’d like them. (She was the one with the Teardrop Eyes, so, no taste at all.) ETA: Having thought about it, I collect Hermes scarves. Not that I have a lot, but I don’t throw them away, and if you have one you’d like to get rid of, let me know. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/48 "2017-06-04T04:43:03Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > 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 don’t know what kind of a return that is on a $16. investment in 1962, but I was very happy with the offer. It wasn’t 1962. If you had a complete set of 16, it couldn’t have been later than 1960 as in 1961, the AL expanded adding the Angels and the new Senators (now the Texas angers the old Senators moved to Minnesota). In 1962, the NL added the Mets and the Houston Colt 45s (now the Astros). ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/49 "2017-06-04T05:34:17Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > … > > I got obsessed with collecting Laser Discs in the early 1990’s. Had at least 400. Spent thousands of dollars. > > Yes I was FURIOUS when the format became obsolete. I will never again buy a movie. Ever. Hint: If you want the original release of the Star Wars Trilogy, LD is the only format still usable. There are Warner Bros cartoons released on LD which will never again be released (TGAOLT Vol 3 actually has a side labelled “Politically Incorrect”. I now have Han shooting first on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/50 "2017-06-05T17:04:27Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > Some of the Magic: The Gathering cards made in 1993 are worth thousands of dollars today. They were designed from the beginning to inspire people to make collections of them (in addition to being used to play a game.) > > Nearly all collectibles are not like that, but your claim is not absolutely true. Yeah, Magic did buck the general trend, but mostly because the game part of it was _absolutely phenomenal_ and has increased in popularity so much that the original small print runs are very rare compared to the current player base. And there were lots of other attempts that are completely worthless now. This contrasts to most things designed as “collectibles” in that there’s something to _do_ with magic cards aside from collect them. Things that are just collectible tend to die because, well, they aren’t useful for anything. Part of the issue is that there are only a few ways that a mass-produced product can end up valuable. The first way is how old baseball cards and comic books and antiques became valuable: they wore out, and no one worried too much about preserving them because the perceived value was low for a long time. So by the time people wanted them, there weren’t many left. That’s definitely not going to happen to anything marketed as collectible. The second is that the future market for it is way larger than the present market. This is how Magic succeeded. Almost everyone kept their first-run Magic cards, but there are more people playing Magic today than there were individual cards printed in the first two printings of Magic. There literally aren’t enough of the early cards for every player to own even one. The final part is a sort of artificial scarcity (which Magic exploited as well) where you make only a few of certain things, so that early adopters can easily get the less-rare items, but have to pony up more to get the rarer ones. Beanie Babies did this too. But this doesn’t really accomplish much, because the higher value of the rare items is priced in at the beginning. It still depends on the future market being much larger than the current market to appreciate in value. And if there’s no reason to have the item other than to have it, where are these hordes of people who want to own a thing just to have it going to come from? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953/51 "2017-06-05T22:37:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Beyond the fading manias for collecting things invented by shyster marketers as “collectibles”, there’s another process at work. It’s the same process that’s undermining heirlooms. > > Stuff used to be rare. Stuff didn’t change much year to year. Folks didn’t have much money so old stuff tended to stay around. People treasured getting grandma’s old frying pan. Partly because it was grandma’s, but more because it meant they didn’t need to shell out money buying one of their own. > > Fast forward to today: Most people are drowning in stuff. 100% of the stuff your parents own is stuff you won’t need if/when they want to dispose of it. Most stuff now is disposable (1998 desktop PC), not eternal (1998 (or 1938) cast iron frying pan). > > Part of the allure of collecting is having the whole set. Time Life books was a 1950s-1970s phenomenon like that. Once you subscribed they’d send another book every month or so. Which you were free to return at no obligation or keep & pay for. Once you owned 3 or 4, the pressure to ensure you owned the complete set with no missing pieces became overwhelming. Lots of people bought 50 unwanted books after wanting only the first three due to this well-understood quirk of human nature. > > When the www first came out, how many people wanted to read the whole thing and collect a vast array of bookmarks? I still have quite a collection of (presumably dead) bookmarks from the early days. I never use 'em; instead I Google up a fresh link to whatever topic. > > Bottom line: the urge to collect is a psychological reaction to scarcity. In an era of functionally infinite supplies of e-goods and of many tangible goods too, the scarcity drive is simply absent from a lot of people’s daily life. > > The Depression era people for whom collecting everything from old rubber bands to glassware was natural are dying off. And so is collecting. > > The poor folks today may have the urge to hoard, but they don’t have the money to waste it on frivolities. > > Said another way, the great collecting boom, both of real stuff and of phony “collectibles”, was when the cadre scarred by the Depression of their youth turned into the upwardly mobile middle class of the booming 1950s & 1960s. They had an inbuilt desire to hoard and the spare money to waste on indulging their desire. > > Some of their kids (people now 45-65) picked up on the habit at least a little bit. Very few of the next generation have. That’s my family to a tee. My hoarding mom pulled my dad into it to a much lesser degree (they’re both early 70s and their parents were affected by the Depression, both grew up poor-ish); they’ve filled a 2500 sq/ft home and 3 car garage w/ things that simply MUST be valuable; their thinking is when they see value in something then everyone will see the same or greater value in the items. Their home is disgusting and a fire trap. My brother has similar ideas about value and what is collectible and sadly, so does the girlfriend w/ whom he shares children (he makes model cars, she collects anything Disney plus they’re poor and afraid to throw anything away) so I expect they’ll be squeezed out of their house one day as well. Personally speaking, I have a ton of stuff and am messy by nature, but I don’t believe anything I own has much value nor is collectible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-collecting-stuff-going-away/787953.md?page=2)