The Whos, Whats, Whens, Whys And Hows Of Spending Your Collectible Dollars Wisely

My smart 20 something neighbor complained to me today that the collectibles market is a scam.  It seems that her carefully compiled collection of Beanies Babies, which she though would pay for her college tuition, won’t even pay for a semester’s books at her Ivy League grad school. 

While the conclusion that collectibles are a scam is an exaggeration, my young neighbor she raises a good point.  We can all remember the bubbles that have burst, the fads that have fizzled.  Remember Jim Beam bottles?  Collector plates?  Beanie Babies?  I can recall customers sprinting into shops in 1996 to plunk down $600 on the latest Beanie.  What are those Beanies worth now?  This illustrates that anyone involved in buying collectibles should do their best to spend their collectible dollars wisely.  

How do you educate yourself to spend wisely?  Start by asking a few basic questions about your prospective acquisition:

• Who made this item?  Was your item handmade by an artist or mass produced by a large corporation?  If the item was made by an artist, does that artist have a strong following outside of the collectibles world (possibly as a fine artist or a celebrity)?  What methods were used to produce and finish the product?  In what country was it made?  In the Harmony Kingdom collector’s world, many collectors will pay more for items made in England than for those made in China, every though the production methods are very similar.
• What is it made of?  Most collectibles do not have much intrinsic value, meaning the actual value of the materials used.  Value is created by scarcity, desirability, appearance and other factors that fuel collector demand.  Does your item contain any materials of intrinsic value (i.e. – precious metals, precious stones), that may have a strong market value independent of the collectibility of the piece?  If not, just remember that your collectible could be worth little if the demand for that item disappears.
• When was it made?  Age affects value, as does timing.  Was this a first issue, a later re-issue, or a collector’s reproduction? Vintage items are fantastic, but new items can have a lot of collector value too.  Just make sure that you know where your item falls on the production timeline, if applicable.
• Why was it made? Was your item made as a collectible?  Often, but not always, that can be the kiss of death for the future value of the item.   When 100,000 people buy the same collectible and too many of those people try to sell it at once, the price of that item will plummet.  Sometimes, however, timed or limited release items can have substantially secondary market value.  Similarly, items made as toys or ordinary items may become hot collectibles just because no one thought to collect them.
• How does it look?   “Condition, condition, condition” is to collectibles as “location, location, location” is to real estate.  Obviously, mint condition items like new old stock (unsold old merchandise in new condition) are wonderful to buy.  But collectors will also tolerate some imperfections, perhaps to fill a hole in their collection or because of the scarcity of that particular item.  Just have sure that the price that you pay correlates to the item’s condition.

Antique Picking Reading List

Looking for something entertaining to read about searching for antiques and collectibles?  Here are a few of my favorite reads in this area.  I've included fiction and non-fiction (but no reference books or how-to books).

• Cadillac Jack by Larry McMurtry (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove).   The protagonist is an antique picker who drives around the country in a big pearl colored Cadillac buying and selling antiques.  The descriptions of the small town auctions and flea markets he attends ring true.  This book also captures the On The Road aspect of antique picking.  Plus, it contains the classic line:  "'Anything can be anywhere...'"
  
  
• Loot:The Battle Over The Stolen Treasures Of The Ancient World by Sharon Waxman.  Thought provoking book about the battle for return of looted treasures from the Ancient World.
  
  
• The Lost Chalice:The Epic Hunt For A Priceless Masterpiece by Vernon Silver.  Fascinating tale of the history of the Euphronias krater, an ancient Etruscan artifact whose discovery and sale caused scandal in the antiquities world.
  
  
• Old Masters, New World :America's Raid On Europe's Great Pictures, 1880-World War I by Cynthia Saltzman.  Non fiction book written by a journalist about late Victorian American industrialists purchasing masterpiece paintings out of Europe's great collections.  Many of those paintings have made their ways into important American museum collections.
  
  
• Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Michael Gross.  This is a tell all non-fiction work about New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.   Gross traces the Museum's history from its beginnings in the Victorian era, through the looting scandals of the late 20th century, to present.
   
• The Swerve: How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.  This is a non-fiction work describing how the discovery of an ancient Roman manuscript On The Nature Of Things by Lucretius, changed the course of human thought.  The description of the medieval book hunters and the hunt for classical manuscripts is engrossing for antique scouts today.
  
  
• White Oleander by Janet Fitch.  Oprah Winfrey selected this book for her popular book club.  It is a coming of age story about a teenage girl bounced around through several households in Los Angeles.  One of the households is run by a woman who requires her young charges to buy and sell used items at swap meets and flea markets.  It contains surprisingly true to life descriptions of the Los Angeles swap meet scene.

ASD Wholesale Buying Show Las Vegas 2012

ASD Gift and Toy Show August 2012

Just back from the August ASD trade show in Las Vegas.  ASD is a great venue for buying new dolls and bears.  The show combines a closeout/opportunity buy component, and a gift show component.  It was about 115 degrees in Las Vegas, but the variety and quality of the merchandise made it well worth braving the heat.

View from the sales floor

View down the Strip from the 55th floor of the Trump Hotel

Here are some of the new items that we ordered at the show.  We'll have most of the items in stock around mid-September, in plenty of time for the holiday season.

Webkinz Cookie Hamster Interactive Code

Webkinz Spooky Hamster Seasonal Item

Gus Fink Stitch Kitten Outsider Art

Disney Tinkerbell by Jun Planning

Pullip Tiger Lily Doll (Peter Pan) by Jun Planning for Disney

Ty Girlz Totally Trish -- Purple Hair

Gund Teach Me Abby Cadabby

Madame Alexander put out an 8" Tiger Lily doll, no. 469, as part of a Peter Pan series in the Storyland Collection in 1992.  We can't think of another Disney Tiger Lily doll, although there may have been other over the years.  Tiger Lily is not a common character doll by any means.

Garage Sale Gold: Cartoon And Character Dolls Of The '80s and '90s

Many experienced estate sale junkies and doll collectors dismiss dolls and toys from the 1980s and 1990s, particularly the mass produced character kind.  I've received many a side long glance, and have heard comments like "who would buy that?" and "what junk!"

Well, even though '80s and '90s items may have been inexpensive when new and even though they are only 20 to 30 years old, some of the items have intense collector interest and substantial value.  Here are some examples:

• A rare Masters of the Universe Tytus manufactured by Mattel Italy in 1987 sold for $4,500 on EBay on July 4, 2012.
• A 1983 Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home with furniture but not complete, in used condition, sold for $950 on EBay on July 28, 2012.
• A Mattel My Child Genevieve doll (kind of like a Cabbage Patch) sold from 1987 sold for $696.50 on EBay on June 28, 2012.
• Speaking of Cabbage Patch Dolls, a 1987 CPK Iddy Budds doll sold for $231.37 on July 21, 2012.
• On August 2, 2012, a 1991 Krang’s Android Body Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure sold for $262.50.
• On Amazon, Knickerbocker's 6" Annie doll from 1982 goes for $99 in new condition.
• Also on Amazon, the Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie doll from the Nutcracker, dating to the late '90s, goes for $69.

If you collect dolls (oops, I mean dolls and action figures) for fun, profit, or to capture a moment in time through an iconic object, do not ignore items from this era.  Here are some photos of some of our recent finds in this category:

Disney Exclusive Dolls

Do you collect Disney Store and Disney Parks dolls?  We've recently purchased some new old stock inventory from a local source.  According to the seller, her mom had a shop that contained this Disney merchandise.  There are some unusual items, Park Exclusives, items made for Disney England, etc. 

All of the dolls are Disney Princesses, we have some sets including the coordinating Prince.  There are some wedding sets, some pieces with furniture items, and other dolls with extra outfits or accessories.  I will continue to add photos to this post.