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.

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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."

[conservaterian]

Everything on that list is junk, with the exception of early Hummels. ANYTHING advertised and sold as a “Collectible” is NOT. I have been in the antique business (mostly historical letters, Civil War items, old sports, etc.) for over 30 years. As soon as something moves into being a collectible and is no longer thrown away (baseball cards, comic books) etc. get away fast. The OLD cards and comics are valuable because most were thrown out, as soon as everyone keeps them the sales market far exceeds the demand. I bailed out of baseball cards in 1985, just in time watch the crash from a safe distance. I get calls all of the time about people who need money during this Obamaconomy and now want to sell things they thought they were saving for a rainy day like their Franklin Mint items, collector plates, Beanie Babies, Longaberger baskets, etc. etc. They get angry at me when I tell them that I don’t want to buy this junk at any price,or (if they are lucky) I’ll give them silver value for their Franklin Mint collection.

[CalTexan]

I bought a Scripto Vu Lighter at the swap meet for $1.50. It had a Jack Daniel’s logo inside.

I put it on eBay and it sold for $150.00!

[Future Snake Eater]

I collected baseball cards when I was a kid, but then so did every other kid. Maybe the craze will pick up again and I can offload some of ‘em?

[proxy_user]

If you are a picker who buys what you like dirt cheap at garage sales from people who don’t know what it is, you will do all right. The trick is to collect genuine items, and not stuff that was made for the sole purpose of being collected.

Right now you can get good buys on many types of items, such as solid-wood furniture from the 20s and 30s.

In my life as a record collector, I have found quite a bit just by looking. Anything off the beaten path, 99.999% of the people don’t know what it is or that it’s valuable.

[sodpoodle]

Too many people watching Antique Roadshow & American Pickers;)

As I understand it:
Antiques are generally over 100 years-old, rare and not mass produced with some aesthetic or historical provenance.

Collectibles are not rare, mass produced but no longer manufactured and reflect some cultural phenomenon. Value is what the buyer will pay to own it.

[The_Freemason]

Obama Chia Pets?

[The_Freemason]

I recall being in a small town in Ct. that had a small toy store. The UPS guy delivered there on Tuesdays. He had to resort to a sign on the back doors that said “NO BEANIE BABIES” when he had none. This was because a caravan of soccer moms would follow his truck around town waiting for the toy store stop at which point they would attack the store to be first to get the newest one.

[SatinDoll]

A note on Thomas Kinkade paintings and on collecting art in general: only buy what you like and feel comfortable living with daily. I say this as an art historian who has advised clients in the past and who have been satisfied with their acquisitions.

NEVER by art - paintings, prints, or sculpture - solely for its investment value. Nothing is worse, even physical torture, than having something hideous in your home that you see every day and wish you’d never bought.

If you buy Thomas Kincade, look for his earliest work. It’s his best, but eventually it is in the eye of the beholder.

Maxfield Parrish worked as an illustrator and commercial artist most of his life. He was very successful and financially secure but never treated with the respect due a fine artist by critics. (Neither was Norman Rockwell). Today his paintings, the originals, used to create stunning scenes of New England for calendars fetch hefty amounts in auctions. One just never knows what will be worth big bucks in the future.

[Fresh Wind]

Whatever happened to pogs?

[Vermont Lt]

How about gold coins?

At least stamps retain their face value.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think original Monet water lilies should be added to the list. My wife dragged me to a Monet exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Art (kinda what it sounds like). The most stunning (and not in a good way) exhibit was a large hall filled with around 80 Monet water lilies. They were all the exact same size and outline, only the coloring changed, sometimes that changed very little. They were all blurry, Monet was old and had bad eyesight by the time he drew them. The same can be said of his painting of St. Mark's Square. It's awful. Only a person of eck-skwid-eet taste can appreciate it. (As Hercule Poirot would say.)

His retirement fund was knocking out the same painting every couple months and charging some Paris collector thousands of francs for the privilege of owning it. At least Kinkade drawings look like something and have a grain of originality.

BTW, my wife and I visited the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge a few weeks ago, for the first time. (Got to see the site of the original Alice's Restaurant, wheee!) The tourist trap town was a tourist trap before Rockwell got there, but the Museum is pleasant and worth visiting. Is studio was moved from downtown to a site in the Museum. The helmet's still there, but not on the easel. Rockwell never pretended to he anything other than an illustrator, he took pride in his craft and ignored the critics and their eck-skwid-eet tastes. His work can be cloying, sentimental, treacly, self conscious and idealized. But he was an honest craftsman and a deeply observant commentator on the country and society and country he loved. It is not surprising that he and Walt Disney were good friends.

[R. Scott]

I had a shoebox full of baseball cards when I was drafted, all from the 40s – early 60s. My mother gave them away with most of my other stuff when I was in Viet Nam.

[Fresh Wind]

[conservaterian]

American Pickers is a joke. The prices they pay for rusted junk is unreal. And then they show at the end: Bought for $100, Sold for $125, Profit - $25. BULL! What about their gas, store rent, advertising, motel bills (although the two of them probably share one bed), etc. etc. If I bought everything for 100 and sold it for only 125 I would be out of business in no time. Watch Pawn Stars if you want to see a properly run business.

[PowderMonkey]

Pet rocks. I saw their “inventor” interviewed on national TV when they came out. He couldn’t stop laughing during the interview as he related how astounded he was by the phenomenom. He and his wife were landscapers with a failed business holding tons of decorative landscaping river rocks. As his dejected wife tossed the stones from hand to hand, she sardonically remarked “they’d make great pets.” Flash. Of. Genius. The rest is history.

[Puddleglum]

I think film cameras should be on the list if they’re not. But I love them.

[Joann37]

You might have something there. The term “collector” implies that these things are worth something, or will be in the future.

I spent a good part of my adult life buying crystal, knick knacks, etc. But no more. I like the look of uncluttered surfaces and am short of money now anyway!

[conservaterian]

At least stamps retain their face value. Not really. You can buy unused sheets of stamps at many stamp auctions for less than face value. I get a lot of calls about stamp collections. If someone put some decent money into them 40 or 50 years ago then they are probably worth some money now. If they built their collection from stamps cut off of envelopes or bought in 100 for 25 cents packets, they are worthless.

[Future Snake Eater]

Gee, that was nice of her.

[johnandrhonda]

Glad I kept my Ferrari Testa Rosa....worth 17 million now.