Posted on 10/30/2011 3:10:05 AM PDT by lowbridge
If you stare at the Thomas Kinkade painting on your wall each day thinking "There's my retirement fund," prepare to pour skim lattes until you're 90.
Collecting as a hobby can be a fun, worthwhile and potentially lucrative way to pass time. Amassing collectibles as investments, however, can be a disappointing endeavor yielding nothing but piles of devalued tchotchkes for the next of kin to sort through.
The founder of comic book industry bible Wizard, Gareb Shamus, said a year ago that the best advice a collector could heed was to buy what they liked and do their homework. Then again, he's also a Spider-Man collector who paid $1,700 for an issue with a cover drawn by artist Todd MacFarlane featuring the villain Sandman. The book's value jumped to between $30,000 and $40,000 when the Sandman appeared in the latest Spider-Man film.
-snip
"Collectibles" investors, however, are beholden to a very subjective, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY - News)-driven market in which their precious knick-knack can be worth $800 or less than $50. While sites such as Kovels.com offer some guidance, "collectibles" and the companies that make them are slaves to demand and market forces — and the realization that their mass-produced product is only worth as much as a buyer will pay for it.
"I tell people that keeping collectibles is like storing money under your mattress," says Lou Kahn, head of the Bakerstowne Collectibles appraisal and consignment service in West Hempstead, N.Y. "You're going to have the same amount of money next year, but it's going to be worth a lot less."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I agree. American Pickers never made sense to me either. The show has to be heavily edited. Their biggest find was getting selected for the show.
The same WTF goes for Trick My _____. I watched a show recently where the glass was replaced in the doors. But the rust on the inside of the doors was ignored. None of the drive train was replaced. Want to really thrill the owner of the truck? Replace/rebuild the engine, clutch, transmission and tandems. Otherwise, you’re just putting lipstick on the pig.
Cats have nothing on a newfie. He leaves a trail of fur at every step, even in winter. He should have been named Pigpen.
Excellent investment.
... and the eagle and shield were replaced by the Hammer and Sickle.
Sounds to me like you really got a nice memory of your grand-daddy. You remember that he kept it on his desk... I am sure it is priceless to you!
I made a ton of money on those Obama comics. My local shop accidentally received the variant cover instead of the regular, so they had almost 100 copies. I ended up selling about 30 on E-Bay for $75+.
Something that gets me really angry are the commercials on TV advertising copies of the US buffalo gold coins. They're betting on the ignorance of people who hear about the way gold prices have skyrocketed, yet the coins, plated in genuine gold, are relatively inexpensive. I have a cousin who's schizophrenic who told me about this, and how he was going to buy some of those coins to invest in gold! I talked him out of it, explaining that the coins were plated in 14mg of pure gold mean that he would have to buy 2000 of the coins in order to get the 28grams of gold that would be 1 oz (OK, so I fudged, but I wasn't about to try to explain to him the difference between troy and av oz). Thankfully, I was able to talk him out of it. But I wonder how many people were taken in by this scam.
Mark
Hussein squats in our WH and everything goes bust. When people don't have money, collections become worthless. IF the economy every turns around, prices might go back up.
I love it when capitalists put one over on morons... :-)
Most of the records I buy now come from auctions or flea markets, so a portable player doesn’t help much. I rely on things like the label design, group/artist names, song titles, appearance of the wax, matrix numbers, and the like. That way I can weed out a lot of the bad ones.
Stopped going to record shows years ago as my interests changed.
But, yes, the portable player is an essential tool.
The whole thing started for me because I really liked the music, and prices were still very reasonable. I was able to routinely buy records at shows for a few dollars each which are now worth hundreds. Unless you get lucky, you won’t find buys like that at record shows any more. It used to be fun, but once the supply dried up and prices really started to soar, the fun went out of it, and it became a money chase. It stopped being a hobby.
I tried to unload some from 40 years ago-—practically worthless. If you have pristine blocks from pre-1950, you might be okay.
I have sent out packages with ten or fifteen stamps on them. My mailman just laughs.
I figure that because I am causing scarcity, someone else’s will go up later.
Mark
I wonder how many of them would like their money back? ;-)
You can get the complete run of National Geographics now on dvd rom. Less than $50 on ebay. Takes up a whole lot less space and weight.
A friend's mother used to call them "ghost turds".
Yep it would have been in that time period I hid them 56,57 maybe 1960. I was a Jazz Fan listening to my Dads 78 RPM records plastic on metal plates oh an some Amos and Andy records sure wish I had kept those!!!
Well, it depends what they are. In the 78 category, jazz, hillbilly, and blues records from the late 20s and into the 30s can be quite valuable, but the "big band" records of the 30's are practically worthless, as are most classical 78s. You mentioned Caruso. In general, they are nearly worthless for the simple reason that he was very popular, and many were sold. But with any prolific artist, there are obscurities and rarities that do bring some decent money. Rock and roll 78s are also quite collectible as they are generally rarer than the 45 equivalents.
The phonographs might be worth something, they're definitely worth some research, especially if they have outside horns. They can be worth hundreds or thousands. The ones that look like little suitcases are not valuable (but not worthless either).
It wouldn't hurt to invest in a general record price guide book for the LPs (e.g. the one by Jerry Osborne). Price guides tend to give inflated values, but they will at least give you an idea of what's rare and what isn't.
It's definitely worth your while to do some research before thinking about dumping them.
Old Military arms are cool. I have several and they are a pieces of History. I have a M1917 Enfield with red bands painted on the forestock.Could never figure out what it meant.
Then while doing research the Red meant it was 30.06. The british had a lot of them in 303. When WW2 started and the Brits needed arms, the USA sent the 30.06 Enfields. They painted the bands to prevent confusion.They also sent the Enfields to China. So my rifle could have been around.
Way cool
Add to that Madame Alexander Dolls that were bought in the 1980s. At that time, you had to stand in long lines to purchase a doll, if they had any left, and they were a hot commodity. I bought plenty of the dolls assuming they would at least maintain their value, if not go up in value. Well, I now have about 50 or more dolls taking up space in my closet that I can’t sell no matter what I do or how little I offer them for. In their heydey, I could have fetched a couple of thousand dollars for them. But now I’ll be lucky if I can get a couple of hundred for them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.