While trying to avoid the heat, I watched a reality show that featured an online auction company that sold all manner of collectibles. While their primary business was in sports memorabilia, they were in the process of expanding into pop culture, automobiles, and anything else they could auction off on the Internet.
Watching these enormous sums paid for nostalgia, I began wondering about the psychology of collectors.
So, I took to the Internet and some old textbooks. This is what I found out. There are basically two types of collectors. Those who do it for investment and those who do it as a hobby, for fun.
Investment collectors collect to signal wealth, as a hedge against inflation, and as a portfolio diversifier. They collect high end items, such as modern art, classic cars, furniture, jewelry, rare books, wine, fine art, and coins. But they are just as likely to collect any very rare item such as comic books, stamps, vinyl records, trading cards, and action figures.
But most collectors are hobby collectors, and there are a lot of them. It is estimated that 30% to 40% of the population in America collect something. The range of collectibles is so vast that it is easy to find something to collect. Most collectors become experts in their field and have an impressive depth of knowledge for what they collect.
The value of collectibles fluctuates, just watch Antiques Roadshow to hear about how some collectibles’ prices have changed over short periods of time.
While anything can be collected, the most common collectibles are sports memorabilia, trading cards, action figures, comic books, historical artifacts, dolls, toys and games, cars, coins, art, music and movie memorabilia, vinyl records, handbags, clothing, antiques, vintage electronics, costume jewelry, posters, and this is a small list. Many people start their own collections, for example porcelain figures, silverware, spoons…whatever they want.
There was a time when I was involved in collecting. My daughter was of age during the Beanie Babies craze. You remember Beanie Babies, those cute little animals stuffed with plastic beads so that they could be posed.
My daughter and her friends played endlessly with Beanie Babies, and they all remember my famous Beanie Baby pancakes. After a sleepover, each morning they would choose their favorite Beanie Baby. I would attempt to make pancakes in the shape of the chosen Beanie Baby. I can’t say that the shape was perfect but what was perfect was they were allowed to decorate them with a variety of candies and fruits. My pancake shapes were less important than the mountains of sweets that topped them.
While it was fun to watch our children playing with the Beanie Babies, the chase was just as exciting. TY, the maker of Beanie Babies, was wise enough not to use big box stores. It sold its merchandise through mom-and-pop stores including independent toy stores, gift shops, and pharmacies. We would regularly visit the stores and notify each other when a new shipment of Beanie Babies came in. If we had that Beanie Baby, we would grab it for a friend.
In the meantime, our children played indiscriminately with the Beanie Babies rendering them worthless. It didn’t matter, we still chased them.
While we were collecting them for our children, others were collecting them as in “investment,” only to find the value cratered in 1999 to 2000. Beanie Babies collecting is now limited to a small group of collectors.
Hoarding and collecting have sometimes been confused. Psychologists have a pretty simple differentiation. A collector is someone who is focused on a particular product and aims to study and collect that product. Collectors are willing to trade and sell items in their collection. A hoarder is an indiscriminate collector who has great difficulty getting rid of objects.
One of the broadest collection categories is sports memorabilia. It can include jerseys, flags, balls, equipment, photographs, signatures, trading cards, trophies, and rings. And these items can fetch a very high price. In 2022, a collector paid $7.25 million for a fabled Honus Wagner baseball trading card. (The reason that it is so valuable is because it is so rare. As the story goes, the cards were included in a tobacco purchase and Wagner had his card removed because he didn’t want to support tobacco.)
I was close friends with a couple who were passionate about antique American tools. They even created a business of writing books and appraising antique tools. They were formidable experts in American wood planes. Their entire basement was a museum of their collection of early tools. They could tell me where they bought each particular tool, and they especially loved yard sale finds. But after she became a widow, she decided to sell most of the collection. And that is what happens to many collections because a big part of collecting is the thrill of the chase.
Collections can become too large to display and as we age many opt to sell their collections as part of downsizing. Some may retain a few items that give them special joy.
Sometimes people ask me what to do after they have inherited their parents’ collections. And it depends. If they want to continue to collect those items, then it makes sense to maintain the collection as a link to their past and their loved ones. But if they don’t participate in that collection and they have no wish to display it, I recommend that they keep one or two of the most prized items and sell off or donate the remainder.
Beanie Baby collecting was my only stint in collectibles. But after researching this, it is clear to me that collecting is an enjoyable hobby, it is fun and something that a couple can take pride in together. But it is equally important to let your heirs know what you would like them to do with the collection. The last thing that we want is for something that brought us joy to become a burden for our children.
Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.
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