Do You Consider Your “Collection” An Investment?
A lot of people collect things. It dates back to our childhood when parents were unsure of what to get us, so they started giving us the same thing every year dressed up a little different. Growing up I had a teddy bear collection you wouldn’t believe…still have a few of my favorites, though I don’t collect those anymore. But, if you think about a collection in terms of money, that’s a lot of money. And then you have to wonder, is that collection an investment of some sort, i.e. will it be worth money someday? I’d like to think that collections that have some value – whether intrinsic or extrinsic – are always worth the money, but many others may feel very differently about it.
The credit union I work for is a local credit union and we’re big into supporting the community. Since I live in Austin, we focus a lot on local bands and artists. We have a standing arrangement with several artists that allows them to display their work in our lobby. Some of it I love, some of it not so much. I’m by no means an art connoisseur so I have no idea what an acceptable price range is for a piece of art. However, my personal feeling is that it’s too expensive for my tastes. I came close to buying a painting once, though. I love four-leaf clovers and one artist had this beautiful oil painting with strategic glue drops to make it look like a patch of clovers with dew on them. It was a delightful painting that made me smile until I saw the price tag…$565. I didn’t like it that much.
But, there are those who love art enough to spend that kind of money on a painting. And, art collectors the world round have discovered that there is money to be had in having certain paintings – though admittedly, an artist is very rarely appreciated for their talent and genius within their own lifetime. Still, as collections go, art can be lucrative.
Then I consider my own collection – DVDs – and think that people must think I’m insane for spending the amount of money I do on them. Let’s think about just how much I’ve spent on them over the years. I have approximately 425 DVDs at last count. Now, some of them I didn’t pay for because I used to manage a Blockbuster and would occasionally get free DVDs, some of them I’ve only paid $5, some $14, some at $25, and some of the older TV box sets, $50. I do have all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 in the collector’s box set, which was about $250, but I didn’t actually buy that, it was a gift from my parents. I was quite surprised I got that because my dad doesn’t like the money my mom spends on the same collection.
Anyway, as a low average, I’ll say that I’ve spent about $15 per DVD. That $15 over 425 DVDs works out to be $6,375 that I’ve spent on DVDs over the years. In all honesty, it’s more then that because I’m just using a low average, but you get the idea. However, eventually this medium will become obsolete and I’ll have to start over with whatever new technology replaces it, so this particular collection will not be worth anything financially speaking. For me the value is more intrinsic. I love movies. I love the stories and characters and just being able to escape reality for a couple of hours. But, more then that, they are an investment in my future. I’ve told you guys before that I want to be a screenwriter. Well, to be good at it there are two basic things you have to do…read scripts and watch movies. One of the things I do is read the script while I watch the movie to see the differences. I try to get in the author’s mind and figure out why they chose to write it one way, then I look at it from the studio’s point of view to figure out why it went to film a different way.
Could I do the same thing without owning so many movies? Sure. But this does make it easier and more convenient since most of the scripts I read are movies that I own. I don’t have to worry about waiting on Netflix to deliver them to my door, I just put it in right when I’m in the mood to work on it. Plus, like I said, I love movies anyway. Having the freedom to watch what I want, when I want is awesome. And, I do watch every movie I own repeatedly.
If you compare my collection to that of an art collector or comic book collector, I’m not spending nearly as much. But, the difference is that both of the aforementioned collections have a monetary value and may be classified as an investment, particularly the longer you hold them. Regardless, we all have things that mean something to us, but may not make much sense to other people.
Do you collect anything? If so, how much do you devote to that collection and do you do it because it‘s an investment, or do you have more personal reasons for collecting? If you’re not a collector, what are your thoughts on those who do collect things?
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I collect a few things.
I started collecting baseball cards when I was a kid (I’m 34 now). Over the years, the prices of packs has skyrocketed, and now I just buy a few things here and there, mostly on the internet. Rarely I might think in terms of investment potentional, but not often.
I have hundreds of books. Most are mass market paperbacks – meaning that they are worth less now than when I bought them. I do have a very nice Riverside Shakespeare book, but that was actually a textbook. The books are there more my convenience – you never know when I’ll want to re-read something. Heck, I probably have 50 unread books, waiting for my interest to bounce to that particular author or subject. I hate having the desire to read a certain type of book and not having one available.
I have a couple hundred CDs, including maybe 40 from Alabama (I’m a huge fan – > http://www.observingcasually.com/tales-from-ancient-internet-history/ ). I also have some Alabama drum sticks (nicely used), guitar picks, etc, but would never dream of selling them.
I have a couple dozen DVDs, but nothing close to what you have. Some fulls seasons of The Simpsons, Monk, and The Office.
A fried of mine is a talented artist. I had her paint two paintings for me. I have one and I gave the other to my parents for a Christmas gift one year. My friend wouldn’t take money for them … so I gave her a gift card to Michaels. Everyone was happy – and it didn’t cost me $500 :)
Considering I collect the dumbest things on the planet — spoons — I don’t consider them an asset of any sort. I just think they’re neat. I also collect wheat pennies, but these won’t really be worth anything big anytime soon — I just like to find them!
This article just reminded me about my stamp collection that was passed to me from my uncles when I was a kid. I had stamps of countries that do not exist anymore or had their names changed. I wonder how much those stamps are worth now.
@ Kosmo – Wow what a collection you have. I briefly considered trying to collect the X-Men comic books since I’m a fan and after researching what they’d cost me, I changed my mind. One guy was selling the first X-Men comic for $1500. So, I bought the entire collection over the last 40 years on DVD-Rom for less then $40. I have to read them via PDF, but I’m ok with that…hehehe. I really like the arrangement with your artist friend. I have an artist friend who has offered to make me a painting and I’ve felt super guilty about it, but a gift card to Micheal’s might be a good solution!
@ mimi – I don’t think anything that interests you is dumb. If you like them and find a sense of artistry in them, then spoons can be the coolest thing on the planet! If it makes you feel better, my mom collects faces of historic people – fictional and real – and has an entire wall devoted to them. It’s kind of creepy to walk in that room because it’s like a thousand eyes just staring at you! lol…
@ BM – Wow, stamps for countries you didn’t even know existed, that must be a pretty thorough collection indeed! I’m not sure how much stamps are going for, but I bet there’s a collector out there eager to see what you’ve got on hand. At any rate, I think it’s neat that it’s been passed down from your uncles. It’ll make a nice gift to give to your kids someday to keep the tradition alive!
Kristy…My stamp collection was something that I had completely forgotten about until I saw this article. I placed a call to my brother immediately to dig out the collection, It is somewhere in his attic, I left it there a long long time ago. At first my inclination was to find out how much such stamps were worth and then try to sell it, but then I realized that would not be fair to my grandfather, who collected them first, passed it down to my uncles and eventually to me & my brother. These are really old stamps and I will have to find a way to better preserve these instead of dumping them in attic.
@ BM – I’m glad you decided not to sell them. While they’re probably worth some money, I don’t think it would have been your grandfather’s intention that you sell them as they’ve been passed down to you and your brother. Besides, it’s a hobby you can spend some time with your kids on. I’m told photo albums are good places to store stamps. Thanks for sharing your story!
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I collect toys and dolls from a mid-90s anime series. Some of them are really expensive – like $300 for some toys, or over $100 for a doll. Everything I have is worth more than I paid for it, because I snipe auctions off of eBay and refuse to pay whatever the going rate on an item actually is, unless it is extremely rare and I’m not likely to ever find it any cheaper.
So I sometimes think of buying an item as an investment, since I’ll get usually get something at least $50 less than what it should be and I can sell it easily if I’m in a pinch. But generally, I just collect because I like to. I like looking at all this crap, searching for deals and talking to other collectors. If my collection lost 90% of its value tomorrow, I wouldn’t be too torn up – I’d just use it as an opportunity to go buy some of the rarer items that are out of my reach now!
I think the only way you can really make a collection for investment purposes work is if you already love what you’re collecting. This is what most people do, but there are a few areas (like beanie babies) where people bought things without really understanding them and with no great love for the collection itself.