9 Completely Worthless Collectibles

http://finance.yahoo.com ^ | October 29, 2011 | Jason Notte

[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."

[Lees Swrd]

i bought an Enfield NO3 out of a barrel at a grocery store for 15 bucks lmao true story! I wish I had the money then to have bought the whole barrel full. I never owned a 30.06 variant and dont think I would trust the bolt configuration for that round maybe they beefed it up to handle that?

I have some 303 ammo head stamped 1920 pulled a bullet to check the powder and out fell what appeared to be black match sticks they were loaded with cordite back then in stick form! My friend took a few to the range and they all went bang...

[sodpoodle]

This thread is destined to be a collector’s item;)

Would love to re-visit this topic in about 6 years - with all our values and valuables restored.

[reformedliberal]

My hope, of course.

zer0 has just been a curse on every sort of economic activity. The donk Congress, too.

I have sold off some of the common pieces over the past few years, mainly just to keep my account active and to generate some Paypal money for online purchases.

A lot of the major pieces are not even up for auction, but those long term listings, Buy It Now arrangements. I think the sellers are probably being pressured by family members to sell and are just listing to show them the condition of the market. I know if I somehow generate real disposable income, I will be buying at least one of the pieces I have long coveted.

[Future Snake Eater]

lol...I had to look that one up. Sounds like a helluva ballplayer!

[proxy_user]

I am talking about skilled guys who have complete mastery of one area of collecting. There are plenty of others who don’t know what they’re doing and work by guesswork. You have to get everything really cheap if you do that, because the pros will laugh at half your ‘finds’.

[driftless2]

I’ll start off by saying I don’t know diddly squat about their business or collectibles in general. Firstly, the History Channel is undoubtedly paying them money. Maybe that’s where they make the profit. But even without the channel paying them, if they were losing tons of money, there’s no way their business could survive for any length of time unless they were both multi-millionaires before they started the buiness.

[sheana]

hah I have a friend with plastic storage tubs full of them. At the time she told me they were her retirement. I just laughed but she is still working.

[Yorlik803]

It wasnt a SMLE#3. It was a eddystone M1917.It was the rifle of WW1, not the 1903 Springfield.
I have a SMLE#3 that was made in Canada dated 1943. The price tag was 99 dollars and it came with a pigsticker bayonet. The darn thing looks like it was never used.

[alicewonders]

I collect the little notes my kids write when they’re little that say “I love you, Daddy.”

Priceless.

I'm going through my mother's things right now (she's in a nursing home) - and she collected those things too!

I get bogged down on cleaning when I run across a drawer full of my old report cards, Mother's Day cards I made for her out of construction paper with crepe paper flowers & glitter, crayon drawings of my house and my dog, and pictures of us playing board games. I laugh and cry at the same time.

You are right - they are priceless.

[30Moves]

Yikes, that is too bad about the comics however the Occupied Japan items are worth something.

I have one comic that I can’t sell on Ebay because it is about Hitler - produced during WWII - with an anti-Hitler message - only 4 issues (many copies of each) were produced.

I have no idea how to sell it - Oh well.

[sodpoodle]

***American Pickers and Pawn Stars are both fake***

Also true for the original ‘reality’ show: Antique Roadshow. Shared a flight with an individual responsible for shipping the larger pieces to the show’s ‘locations’. All the items ‘appraised’ are pre-selected and researched for the ‘experts’. That’s not to say the items are not privately owned, but a lot of pre-show preparation goes into the final presentations.

So AR is also phony but fun and educational.

[driftless2]

My wife is a huge stamp collector, and she was told by a guy who owns a stamp shop in the Twin Cities that any stamp made after about 1949 is not worth more than face value.

[rabidralph]

When I was stationed overseas, a lot of military families had those Lladro statues in their homes. They said they’d be worth a lot of money some day. I guess they’d be great for target practice, now.

[driftless2]

And I'll add that anyone who firmly believes they have an original Stradivarius because their Aunt Ethel left them one when she died because his name was on the inside is in for a huge disappointment. It is most definitely NOT!!! a Stradivarius. I had a co-worker who insisted her aunt had one because of the Strad name on the inside. She wouldn't believe me when I told her thousands of cheap violins were manufactured with the Strad name on the inside with the express purpose of tricking gullible people.

One of those "experts" on that garage show got tricked by the Strad name. He thought he had a million dollar instrument and was crestfallen when it was appraised at being worth about $100. I laughed my posterior off when this guy looked at the fiddle thinking he'd found a real Strad. Proves that even people who buy and sell stuff for a living can be fooled.

[EternalVigilance]

:-)

[conservaterian]

I’ll start off by saying I don’t know diddly squat about their business or collectibles in general. Firstly, the History Channel is undoubtedly paying them money. Maybe that’s where they make the profit. But even without the channel paying them, if they were losing tons of money, there’s no way their business could survive for any length of time unless they were both multi-millionaires before they started the buiness.

---

They aren't showing the buys they make where they pay $50 and get $1000 for it, either on purpose or because they got lucky. When I get invited to someone's house I will be fair with them, but I need to sell what I buy for 2 or 3 times the buying price or I will soon be losing money. And if something sells for much more than what I thought, then I have gotten lucky. There have been three times when I have gone back to someone and given them more money because something sold for MUCH more than what I thought it would. Two out of those three times the people recommended me to others and I made several more good buys out of the deal. HOWEVER, when I go to a yard sale or estate sale and I see something for a quarter that I know I can get $100 for I sure don't argue with them and tell them it's worth much more than what they are selling it for, I just buy it, sell it and make my profit.

[Towed_Jumper]

“BOB ROSS PAINTINGS”

Hey Martin! I bet collecting those made you a “happy little squirrel” or “happy little tree.” /chuckle...use to love watching him paint!

[Zman516]

...and let’s not forget to ask Montel Williams about those Obama collector coins!

[conservaterian]

I have one comic that I can’t sell on Ebay because it is about Hitler - produced during WWII - with an anti-Hitler message - only 4 issues (many copies of each) were produced. I have no idea how to sell it - Oh well.

---

There is no reason you can't sell that on Ebay, I sell Hitler related items all of the time. You just can't sell it to someone from Germany.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I was an Army Brat in Yokohama in the ‘50s and early ‘60s.
Not far from our house was a Japanese book store that had a used comic book connection from somewhere. All the $.10 comics were sold for ten yen. So, we called it the “Ten Yen Store.”
At that time, ten yen was $.03 US.