Comments on: Do You Consider Your “Collection” An Investment?

By: hollyhk

hollyhk — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:31:27 +0000

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.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:20:12 +0000

@ 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!

By: BM

BM — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:25:02 +0000

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.

By: Kristy

Kristy — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:13:30 +0000

@ 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!

By: BM

BM — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:24:37 +0000

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.

By: mimi

mimi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:44:54 +0000

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!

By: Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

Kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:36:24 +0000

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 :)