If you have a lot of storage space, your attic and garage may be stuffed with old furniture, books, and other items you've held onto over the years. At first glance, it may just seem like nothing more than a pile of junk. But, if you rummage through carefully, there may be a chance that you're sitting on a few valuable collectibles just waiting to make you money. Collectibles are items that are worth far more than their original sale price and are considered alternative investments —vehicles that don't fall into any other category like stocks, bonds, cash, or real estate.
Investing in this asset class can be both rewarding and help you maximize your returns. But it helps to know some of the basics. This article looks at collectibles as an investment and helps you decide whether this emotional market is a good place to park your money. A collectible is anything that can be sold for more money than it was originally worth. These are items whose value increases over time. While they may be rare, some items are mass-produced to become collectibles—think Beanie Babies when they first hit the market.
Another trait collectibles have is that they pique the interest of collectors, like photographs and many works of art. In order to get the most money from a collectible, the owner must ensure it's in stellar condition. Trading cards, stamps, and comic books are just some of the most well-known collectibles around. Here are a few specific examples:. A young Allosaurus dinosaur found itself mired in a sink hidden beneath the underbrush. Millions of geological ages later, an amateur paleontologist helped him out—or at least what was left of his head.
Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit his tenth home run and ended the year with a. The next year, the American Tobacco Company commemorated Wagner by putting a trading card inside its cigarette packages. Less than 60 made it into stores before the world found out that Honus was vehemently against smoking. Stan Lee created a superhero who worried about paying his rent, his ailing aunt, and passing his next test at school—all in addition to saving the world.
While there is no denying the thrill of owning a juvenile Allosaurus skull, is collecting really a form of investment? So what do a fossil, a comic, and a baseball card have in common?
Most people have no qualms about calling them collectibles. But when you speak about diamonds, gold, and other precious materials, people tend to call them investments. In theory, these materials—and even stocks—could be termed collectibles because their price is based more on what people are willing to pay for them, known as their market value , rather than on their actual intrinsic value.
This is the calculated or perceived value of the good. In the practical world, precious metals and stocks all have an intrinsic value. For metals, this value is based on rarity. If you melt it, burn it, or bend it, you still have the same atomic substance in the end.
For stocks, the value is produced by the underlying brick-and-mortar company that the share represents—a company that generates earnings to justify the prices you pay for its stock. What makes collectibles different is that even a little damage can erase all of a collectible's value.
This is because a collectible's value is based on nostalgia and other emotional factors—which can be as erratic as they are powerful. Collectibles that are in pristine condition are valued higher than those that aren't.
So the value of a baseball card that's scratched or torn up is much lower than one that is still in its original condition. It's believed that nostalgia runs in year cycles. In other words, the things that are popular now will become collectibles in 20 years when people want to reconnect with their past.
This doesn't mean that you can buy the top 10 items from consumer polls, incubate them for 20 years, then sell them for a fortune.
If this were the case, everyone would be rich. So what's the takeaway? Some items this year will become collectibles if they meet two conditions: Rarity and appeal. Rarity is becoming more difficult to find as mass production methods allow companies to over fill demand without incurring an extra cost. Beanie Babies have devalued as more and more product lines are introduced. Find out more about our antique valuations online. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. Antique or collectible?
The value of age When it comes to placing value on collectibles, it can be tricky, with so many different factors contributing to how valuable a collection of items is. The importance of condition When it comes to collectibles, it can be difficult to find items in pristine condition — as most have inevitably seen some wear and tear over the years.
Art prints have their own market and can even be valuable, depending on the subject and the artist. Some prints will have a number called a printing fraction on them. The top portion of the fraction is the number of the particular print within a print run. The bottom portion is the number of how many of that particular print were printed during that print run.
The number of total prints during a print run will determine value. The fewer there are, the more valuable. Plenty of other prints are worth considerable money.
Peter Max vintage prints can also be worth thousands. Instead, they sent them to the next theater that was showing the movie. If you have a movie poster collection you want to sell, vintage material from to usually holds the most value, according to Heritage Auctions.
Popular horror and science-fiction film titles typically generate steep prices, as well as those related to Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, early Walt Disney cartoons and Alfred Hitchcock, to name a few. You can turn a variety of medals and badges out there into cash. Even some toy badges can be worth serious money. Just make sure that anything you collect is authentic because plenty of fakes exist, according to Collectors Weekly. Four of the Dr.
When considering Civil War military medals and badges, Union pieces are more popular — though Confederate pieces are more rare, according to Collectors Weekly. Also, beware that reproductions in this area are common. You can also thank the Civil War for necessitating the first income tax. And the better the condition of the game, the higher the value. Another tip is that games that were considered limited editions are also valuable and can sell for a nice sum on eBay. Turn the video games that had been lying around your house into cash.
Of course, if you have a sealed copy of any collectible game, you can anticipate getting more. The same is also true for vintage video games featuring the popular Sonic the Hedgehog. A quick search on eBay or a reputable used video game site can give you an idea of what your old video games might sell for. Sure, Legos are considered playthings. Regardless of what the name means, the brand deserves a category of its own. But if you happen to own certain Lego sets , you could rake in a load of cash.
The Lego Millennium Falcon sets can go for hundreds or more on eBay — and first-edition sets of the spaceship routinely sell for thousands. Or if you own a Lego train set, you might be in business — some vintage railroad sets can earn you a lot of cash. Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article. Please note photos are for illustrative purposes only. As a result, some of the images might not reflect the items listed in this article.
Editorial Note: This content is not provided by American Express. Read More. When that tax refund hits, you're having a good day. Sponsored Links by Zergnet. The best first-class airlines offer luxuries beyond better seats. By Trae Bodge.
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