I could use some advice from a true collector, as I’m going to make some leaps I may one day regret here.
My hypothesis is that, generally speaking, most objects that have no collectible value after N years (N>10? 20?) are unlikely to gain appreciably in N*2 year or N*4 years.
So if I’m holding on a thirty year old comic book, whose cover price is $.10 and it’s only worth $.50 now, it’s reasonable bet that this particular comic book will not turn out to be amazingly valuable in another thirty years.
If one can’t extrapolate like this, any normal person would become a hideous packrat saving nearly everything they ever touch. Some people do!
I acknowledge there will be exceptions, but is ‘playing the odds’ like this a reasonable bet? I’m not sure I want to know otherwise. It’s enabled me to clear out a lot of stuff!
Mary Hawkins comments on the above, via 43things:
While I’m thinking about it, I suspect your collecting rule only applies
to things that are “collectable”, like figurines or comic books. You can
use your rule on things that already have a market, but it doesn’t apply
to the things that no one is actively collecting. My bf collects vintage
tin robots. The early collectors got in when there wasn’t a market and
you could buy the toys as toys at yard sales for a buck a piece. Once
people started to want the toys, the prices went up, but people had to
keep the toys in their attics for 20-40 years before the market formed.
The scarcity drives the prices higher. I wonder if there have been any
statistical analysis of “antiques” and collectibles…
June 29th, 2006 at 8:23 am
I have a real problem with the concept of “collectibles”. If I’m holding onto something just because of its potential value, rather than because it’s something I love, why on earth do I have it?
A dear friend of mine has a collection of dolls her husband purchased for her because, at one time long ago, she admired one in a shop window. Now she has these fancy-dressed dolls all over her house because her husband keeps buying them for her (and now, for their daughter as well) and she just cannot get rid of them because, in his eyes, that would be like rejecting him. Such a terrible bind… now she hates looking at the dolls.
My husband also had a collection of old comic books (”Magnus Robot Fighter”) that he had held onto since he was a boy. Finally he realized that he wasn’t interested in reading them anymore, so he sold them on eBay and got about $30 for the bunch.
I highly recommend the book “Making Peace with the Things in Your Life” (can’t recall the author offhand); I borrowed it from the library but intend to purchase my own copy because it’s that good.