Thoughts on “collectibles”

[44Squatch]

I've been trying to sell a couple of pet rocks for a while, no takers.

Original?
Or knock-offs?

 

[contender]

"There are folks who show their gun collections at collector shows, with no intention of selling."

^^^^THIS^^^^

 

[stonebuster]

Fads come and go. Have an original Slinky.

Bet you don't still have an original hula-hoop. As a kid working in my father's hardware store customers would still sometimes pay using silver dollars. So dad paid me with them & two dollar bills. By the time I was 16 I had quite a collection until I spent them going to the drive in theater with my first girlfreind. The look the guy gave me when I paid with two dollar bills & silver dollars was funny. Young and dumb.

 

[tazbigdog]

Bet you don't still have an original hula-hoop. As a kid working in my father's hardware store customers would still sometimes pay using silver dollars. So dad paid me with them & two dollar bills. By the time I was 16 I had quite a collection until I spent them going to the drive in theater with my first girlfreind. The look the guy gave me when I paid with two dollar bills & silver dollars was funny. Young and dumb.

Think I got rid of mine many years ago, along with yo-yos. Comics and baseball cards I regret getting rid of.

 

[bedfordboy]

I had the opportunity to buy two bottles of bourbon yesterday, one for $52 and one for $175 retail prices as set by the state-run liquor stores here in VT. The $52 bottle sells for as much as $400 online and the $175 bottle sells for a much as $2500. I won't be opening them, so I guess they are collectibles.

I had the opportunity to buy two bottles of bourbon yesterday, one for $52 and one for $175 retail prices as set by the state-run liquor stores here in VT. The $52 bottle sells for as much as $400 online and the $175 bottle sells for a much as $2500. I won't be opening them, so I guess they are collectibles.

Scored a Van Winkle Special Reserve 12yr in our state abc lottery, paid $89 sells online for $1200. It will be in my “collection” until this time next year when I retire, then it will be shared with my band of brothers. I think Bourbon like guns and rare cars, are to be used for their intended purposes, and shared with your best friends and family.

 

[WAYNO]

When I received my train set 65 years ago, I never envisioned it would be collectible, nor would I've thought the box would have any more value than for a convenient way to store my train.

My point... New "collectibles" often never are collectible past the first owner. Collectibles by accident, often are collectible forever.

Some of our departed family spent a huge amount of money, buying collectible silver editions from the likes of Franklin Mint. They were told these were collectible and would be a great investment. And they spent much more than the spot value of silver at the time. 50 years later, this stuff is valued only for silver melt. Again, they bought items that were only collectible because the advertising said it was. As a kid, I saved coins. Only as a historic novelty. Years later, these coins are worth 25 times face value or more. The collectibility was not a concern when I was ten. But now I'm glad I never used them.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Congrats on the Pappy! VT used to do a lotto for the rare booze, mostly Pappy but some other juice too. They first ran it free, then later charged $5 per bottle to enter with proceeds to charity. Winning only gave you the privilege of then paying retail for whatever you scored. I played every year but never won a thing.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Nice Trayno Wayno! I have my dad's American Flyer and I used to have my uncle's Lionel but his son, my cousin, has it now. Has the electric train collectible market softened like so many other things? I have around 8000 records and for a while, their value was in the dumpster, but vinyl is on the rebound now.

 

[WAYNO]

Nice Trayno Wayno! I have my dad's American Flyer and I used to have my uncle's Lionel but his son, my cousin, has it now. Has the electric train collectible market softened like so many other things? I have around 8000 records and for a while, their value was in the dumpster, but vinyl is on the rebound now.

Last time I looked, my American Flyer had relatively little value. Somewhere on the box it says $18.95 . 65 years of inflation makes that amount $188 today. I couldn't even sell this train for that. Same with my Wifes Chatty Cathy. And LP's and 45's ? I've got lots. Record buyers are offering 1 to 3 dollars each. Even if they were 20 times that, I still wouldn't sell them. What I envision for them, is someone close to me would love to have them.




.

 

[KIR]

I used to be a millionaire...til my mother threw out my baseball card collection from the 1950's.

 

[stonebuster]

I used to be a millionaire...til my mother threw out my baseball card collection from the 1950's.

When I was in third grade @1957 my friend next door had shoe boxes full of baseball cards. I often wonder if he kept them and cashed in later. I should've kept my '65 Mustang, '66 GTO, '68 Firebird convertable, '71 rally sport Camaro and 340 Dodge Dart w/411 gears with the Hurst. Totalled a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle and almost killed myself in my Cutlass convertable racing a hot chick in a hotter Chevelle. Happy to have survived my twenties.

 

[Yaworski]

My wife thought to retire on Beanie Babies. She had a knack for finding ones that were about to retire so she could snatch them up at regular retail before the price went up.

I kept telling her to set prices and I'd take care of putting them on Ebay. Well, that was too much work for her so they just sat in the basement.

So I no longer have a wife but I still have Beanie Babies in the basement. Somewhere around five hundred Beanie Babies.

My daughter and I took them to a flea market and managed to sell one. Didn't even pay for the table.

 

[Yaworski]

This is what I can’t figure out, why people buy them.

Like many things like this, I can see having one or two. Special characters that you like. However, my daughter has gone overboard with them buying Disney/Marvel characters but it's her money.

I will admit to having too many coffee mugs and too many Matchbox/Hotwheels BMWs.

 

[contender]

One thing about "collectable" items not mentioned so far is a simple thing.

Preservation of history.

Let's look at our wonderful firearms. The preservation of original Colts, Remingtons, S&W's, and yes,, even Rugers allows the preservation of history. Look at the Cody Museum, or the NRA museum. History.
Now,, let's look at the accompanying items. MUCH harder to find an original box or paperwork that accompanied such guns. Or heck,,, I'll even narrow it down even more. Basic catalogs. Quite often,, a question by a newer member will revolve around an older Ruger. The original catalogs can answer a lot of these questions. I know,, I've used my "collection" of catalogs to verify information on our Rugers.
Heck, I was once asked by a Ruger executive if I knew somebody who collected a specific model of Ruger. Someone who could answer questions, AND possibly provide information on that model from the very early years. He was asking for a "collector" to help him. And yes,, I was able to offer help,, because I had a lot of what he was seeking. The factory did not have any of that stuff.

So, preserving items of YOUR interest,, that may well be a part of history is another angle on "collectable" items. But, a wise person focuses upon items that are not often considered collectable when offered,, maybe quite popular at the time,, yet,, as time passes,, and things change,, they preserve these very items.

Just a different angle on collecting stuff.

 

[Yaworski]

So, preserving items of YOUR interest,, that may well be a part of history is another angle on "collectable" items. But, a wise person focuses upon items that are not often considered collectable when offered,, maybe quite popular at the time,, yet,, as time passes,, and things change,, they preserve these very items.

Just a different angle on collecting stuff.

Usually things become more "collectable" and valuable because most people see no value in the items and pitch them.

1960s baseball cards. Old GI Joes still in their boxes. Old catalogs. Stamps. Gun boxes.

Sadly, I don't have the room to keep everything that I find interesting.

 

[KIR]

Inflation not all that bad. Many years ago, I bought a silver Morgan dollar for $65. It was minted in CC. While not in the best condition, I tucked it into the safe and recently got it out as I am going to try to learn how to grade silver coins. I discovered that this CC coin now has an added value of $100.00
All the other coins I collected have gone up in value as well. All those years as a supervisor in the cashier's cage continues to pay off. People do crazy things. One day someone brought in a bank bag with $500 in silver quarters. Only wanted face value. I bought that bag and took out the best quality and older ones. The rest went to a local coin shop who bought the rest at 3X face value. It paid for the $500 check I wrote out for the bag. I still have several older quarters from that bag. There are several other stories like that where I bought some silver coins less than spot, picked out the best than sold the rest to pay for my purchases. Working in a slot mfg. company and in a half dozen casinos has been an interesting experience for this life.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

My wife thought to retire on Beanie Babies.

My son was born in 1993 and was the right age to like Beanies during the craze. He just had a few that he played with for a while but I couldn't help but get caught up in the frenzy of making money off the insane people. I bought a bunch at retail and resold them on eBay, usually about doubling my money but sometimes doing really well. The freshly retired ones and the brand new releases were usually good money. Probably made $3-4K on them overall but was sitting on a box of about 40 when the bubble burst. There was an octopus that would sometimes show up with 9 legs. I managed to find 3 of those over the couple years I was hunting Beanies, bought them for $6-7 each and sold them for around $400 each. Craziest thing I did was go to a local convention/swap and bought the American Trio for $900, came home and my wife nearly had a heart attack, I told her not to worry and I immediately listed them on eBay where they sold for $1250, but that was right at the peak and I was lucky to get out. A local shop got in one of the princess Diana bears and raffled it for charity, I bought two $5 tickets and ended up winning it, they were going for about $300 at the time and I think that one might still be in that box in a storage closet. That one might now be worth the ten bucks it cost me, not sure. The rest might be $1 apiece now. But they really don't owe me anything.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I used to be a millionaire...til my mother threw out my baseball card collection from the 1950's.

My mom gave my 1960s baseball cards that I didn't take with me when I moved out to my cousin who proceeded to sell them. I know he got $400 for the Pete Rose rookie card and also sold a couple more for $200 each give or take. I'm sure he got about $1K for the whole shoebox. I left home in 1981 and I reckon it was after dad retired in 1985 when they finally cleaned out the closet in my old room. Cousin was born in 1974 so would have been about 11 then, but I don't think he sold all the cards at once - might have taken him a year.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

When I was in third grade @1957 my friend next door had shoe boxes full of baseball cards. I often wonder if he kept them and cashed in later. I should've kept my '65 Mustang, '66 GTO, '68 Firebird convertable, '71 rally sport Camaro and 340 Dodge Dart w/411 gears with the Hurst. Totalled a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle and almost killed myself in my Cutlass convertable racing a hot chick in a hotter Chevelle. Happy to have survived my twenties.

Sounds like my teens. By 20, I had switched over to 4x4's, but I went through 10-15 cars by the time I was 20. The ones I miss, in no particular order, were a '66 Mustang 289, '66 Chevelle SS396, '66 GTO that someone put a 427 corvette engine in, '69 Mustang 351, and '67 Barracuda. And a bunch of less desirables like my first car which was a '62 Falcon and later a '69 Buick Wildcat with a 430 CID. Once a lady from work (Sears) gave me a '59 Dodge Royal with an old hemi and pushbutton trans, her grandmother left it to her and a torsion bar was broken, so she was just going to have it hauled off - but it started and drove, so I took it off her hands, and with the broken torsion bar you'd smack your head on the roof if you hit a slight bump at any speed - I traded that car straight across to a Mopar collector for the '67 Cuda.

 

[the_leper_colony]

One thing about "collectable" items not mentioned so far is a simple thing.

Preservation of history...

...So, preserving items of YOUR interest,, that may well be a part of history is another angle on "collectable" items. But, a wise person focuses upon items that are not often considered collectable when offered,, maybe quite popular at the time,, yet,, as time passes,, and things change,, they preserve these very items.

Just a different angle on collecting stuff.

Definitely true, for some folks at least! I really like unusual firearms: I own a few that are "one of a thousand", a "one of 700", and even one that has only about 50 others like it in circulation. NONE OF THEM ARE PARTICULARLY VALUABLE - just unusual, which is why I like them, and why I can also afford to own them!

As an example, I once bought a Republic Arms Patriot .45 because a 'gun control' web site stated there were only 857 of them made (which, like most things the gun ban types claim, ended up being completely wrong ;>). Neat little gun; the action was designed by Nehemiah Sirkus, and is a marvel of simplicity. Plus, the one I bought actually had a nice trigger! But it was never worth anything (think I paid $150 for it), and was never going to be worth anything; think I got my money out of it, when I sold it to an FFL during the Wu Flu. But I would have kept it, if there were really only 857 in circulation!