Collectibles That Aren’t
It happens pretty often. A customer walks in to an Easysale store. “Can you tell me how much my collection is worth?,” they ask, setting a box filled with treasured items on the counter.
The answer is that, of course, we can help them determine whether the items they think are collectible and valuable really are – or whether they’ve fallen prey to “Antiques Roadshow syndrome”. That’s the belief that everything is collectible. While that may be true, many of the boxes that find their way into our stores aren’t exactly filled the treasure troves their owners were expecting.
As David Goldstein, vice president of marketing at Easysale, explains it, “The basic guideline I give people is this: if, when you bought the items, they were marketed as collectibles, they probably aren’t. True collectibles are valuable because they were not recognized as worth anything at the time they were widely available. Therefore, most people didn’t keep them. That creates scarcity later on, which creates value once enough people are seeking the item.”
The classic example? Beanie Babies. First-generation Beanies are actually incredibly valuable, because they are incredibly rare. Although 37 different animals were made that first year, and they have a distinctive “hang tag” that’s different from those that came later, Easysale has purchased tens of thousands of Beanies without ever finding a single first-generation toy.
Second- and third-generation Beanies are nearly as valuable. But it was in the fourth year of Ty’s production that Beanies became a craze. Everyone bought them, and Ty ramped up production and flooded the market. Fourth- and subsequent-generation Beanies are called ‘commons’, and (with a very few exceptions) have no collector value.
Similarly, Franklin Mint and Danbury Mint items that are marketed for their collectible value (“buy the whole set, because when they’re gone, the molds will be destroyed’) usually end up being worth less than the buyer paid. “But, there are a few items from these issuers that do have value,” Goldstein adds, although they don’t really appreciate much.
Baseball cards are another primary example of items that are probably not collectible – although there are significant exceptions. “Why is Mickey Mantle’s rookie card so valuable? Because when he was a rookie – and remember that the cards are issued at the start of the season — nobody yet knew that he was destined to be a superstar. If you happened to get and keep that card, you were either unnaturally prescient or very lucky. His later cards are worth much less, because everyone flocked to get them once he was famous.”
How do you know if your collectibles are valuable? Ask the experts at the Easysale locations in Addison, Arlington, Dallas, Plano or Southlake.
They’ll give you a pre-sale auction estimate, at your home or in any store, and will take care of all the details from photography, listing and answering questions from potential buyers through packing and shipping. For more information, see the How it Works section of the Easysale website.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlehet/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
Email
Leave a Comment