How about NASCAR Restrictor Plates?
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.
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"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’m the daughter of a Norman Rockwell plate collector. I’ve had two garage sales in the past few years, and the most I’ve received for any of the plates was about $3.
Add to that list: Anything produced in huge multiples, anything a million other people are collecting, anything mundane or humdrum, and most of all anything called a collectible . . .
Better choices: the truly ephemeral that no one else has thought of collecting, anything connected with an obsessive fan group, anything that has a strange appeal to you and you alone and you don’t know why, anything that evokes nostalgia and will never be made again . . .
I have several boxes of (Marvel) comics from the 70’s that a friend urged me to put in plastic bags. He was a collector as an adult, while I stopped reading comics once I left 8th grade.
I still have the comics, and they’re still just in boxes, getting worn down. I take them out once every five years or so and enjoy them as what they are, nostalgic mementos. Then I put them back in the boxes and that’s it for another five years.
I’ve been told I’m ruining a fortune. I don’t care. I don’t want to turn them into investments, and now they’re too far gone to be of interest to anyone else.
My only real ‘collection’ is of film music, first albums, now CDs. Some are selling for hundreds online. I listen to the music while writing.
I guess I’ve just never been into turning my hobbies into financial games.
Speaking of comics, I always thought it was funny how people buy things labelled “Special Collector’s Issue!” One person proudly told me he’d bought copies of the comic book in which Superman was killed, and I then informed him it was one of the best-selling comic books ever, and why would that be worth lots of money? It wasn’t rare.
I’ve honestly never even heard of about half that list.
Then again, the only thing I collect is dustballs under the couch. (’tis a bachelor’s life for me!)
Hummels are useful, at least. The are great for target practice.
Looking at that list, it’s funny how some things “seem” like collector’s items to non-collectors, like the Kincaide paintings.
I’ve never understood the fans who froth at the mouth for “maquettes” or whatever they call those superhero statues. No one seems to buy them for quality reasons, it’s all about buying them because they’ll be worth money someday. Where’s the fun in that? I bought all that Star Wars junk I still have because I wanted the stuff, not because I hoped to sell it.
How about NASCAR Restrictor Plates?
Prices for these ‘collections’ amount to no more than $10 per plate on ebay. I know they spent $30 or more per plate at the time of purchase.
I think, now that I am older, that some of these advertisers should sued for fraud. Or at least some sort of disclaimer to the purchaser. Both my mom and aunt at the time thought they were investing in something of value.
I would love to get rid of the doubles, but ya’ know there is a measure of guilt to selling these dumb plates off for less than 1/3 of what was paid. I wish I could say it was sentimental, but it is guilt.
Part of the problem is the Internet. The bottom fell out of the rare book market and probably many others.
I had an aunt that had a whole house full of salt and pepper shakers....
This is true. Now "rare" collectibles, like books, are much more easier to find and get thanks to the internet. I once had a collection of rare books and movies on VHS. I sold them on eBay (the eBay site was still brand new) when they were still considered rare items. Now those same movies and books that I sold for a fortune can be had for a really small price.
People really collect that crap?
I put my son through Helicopter Pilot school by selling my late husband’s childhood model train collection. People from all over the world bought them. I also had his comic book collection from the 1940s-1950s not in pristine shape but still sold them.
I once went to an auction and bought a bag of plastic and junk items. Inside was a whole bunch of Funny Face fruit drink cups (a woman in England bought them all) and an old metal souvenir piece from the 1915 World’s Fair. I bought the bag for $2.00 - after sales - $150.00. Fun, big profit but not high dollars.
You never know what will be collectible but I know what WON”T be: things that are sold as “collectible.”
I know a couple of foolish women who invested heavily in Beanie Babies. They never mention them any more, I believe they are boxed up in their attics. I wonder what their R-value as insulation is?
People tried to tell them they were throwing their money away, but they wouldn’t listen.
I remember seeing an old price guide book published at the height of the Beanie Baby craze that had projections for what these made-in-China blobs would be worth today. Many were listed at $1,000 plus.
I don’t know if it is a problem. What happened was people found there were more copies outstanding than they had thought. In other areas the opposite was true.
Same here - worked with a woman who collected “Cabbage Patch” dolls. She and her single, adult daughter built their lives around them.
They invested a ton of money - but probably enjoyed the hobby more. Don’t know - lost touch.
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