collector's items that tanked in value
 

The Integra R thread made me wonder about expensive collectors' items that have performed poorly over time. My grandfather got burned by the diamond craze of the late 1900s.

Others? I'm sure there are plenty but other than depreciation as interests change, I wonder if they share some not-so-obvious commonalities.

Beanie Babies

Bitcoins

almost any stock I bought

Anything that’s more short term fad in nature. As opposed to items which have long term usability/durability AND high appeal.

Sometimes I feel like Tabby....a few key strokes, and I can move a stock...bigly!

.22lr....'bout damn time :)

1500 shares of Enron....free! I guarantee you won't lose any more than I did ;)

Tulips

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beanie-baby-fever-in-1999_us_58af7d12e4b060480e0661fe

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530473774.jpg

Baseball cards aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Well a Babe Ruth rookie card is still 300-500K so not so sure about that...

Current players for sure though...

Arcade games, pinball, juke boxes peaked and are well below the top.

A vintage vinyl record jukebox? Around $12K, still too much for me.

NASCAR Die cast, most die cast. I guess. I am guilty of having some nice Porsche and imsa stuff.

All but very few old cards have retained value. There was a card crash and as far as I can tell it hasn’t recovered. Except for the few very rare exceptions.

I lost everything in the comic book crash of 93.

As a general rule anything marketed as “collectible” isn’t. I have a friend who has spent (not “invested” although she’ll swear otherwise) thousands of dollars in Disney “collectible” crap. It’s absurd. Most is still in the original boxes / packaging ‘cause you know... “collectors” will value it more :rolleyes:

All junk IMHO. But I guess whatever makes ya happy... For some I guess it’s a “collectible edition” of Hercules on VHS. For me, not so much.

Cabbage patch dolls and little trinkets from the Olympics in LA. My sister and her husband spent a lot on that stuff and I don't think it ever got back to the original price.

Really? That would be a great story to read if you're serious and willing to write about it!

Compared to other luxury brand Swiss watches Panerais have tanked recently. :rolleyes:

Im more amazed when the stuff actually holds its value. Remember Tamagotchi? They still go for good money the original ones

Really? Still at about 4x where it was last year. Sure it’s down from the all time high, but it’s still up from last year.

I should have made it green.

In 1993, someone paid $185,000 for a brand-new red Ferrari 348 Spider at an auction in Beverly Hills to celebrate the launch of the new model. Yes, it was for charity, but still $185k... According to a random internet calculator, that's about $318k in today's money. Nobody is paying anywhere near $318k for a 348 Spider in today's market.

Lots of antique furniture is worth substantially less than it once was

Also 930s. at least from thier crazy peaks

Yes furniture is down. Has been moving down for decades...big, bulky and costly to move.

Lots of decorative arts are down. Including low end art (under 5k).

Spoons are the exception. Some things plateau or decline while others rise. The trend has been strong.

Billie Beer

Most of the brass era and B quality collector cars of the Twenties and thirties have fallen off in a big way from their peak.
Not so much the very best like Bugatii or the coach built French art cars etc.

Cheers Richard

Not holding their value :(

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530520082.jpg

Hot Wheels........

A guy paid $3MM for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball. Then, Barry Bonds hit 73 a couple years later.

Probably wishes he had bought comic books or cabbage patch dolls instead.

Classic model trains of the 1950 / 1960. Lionel / American Flyer
Prices way down except for the exceptional pieces. Probably 50%
Not the 401K everyone hoped for.

Documented phenomenon. As each generation times out, the collectables of that era lose collectability.

Billy Beer.

Trump Vodka? ;)

If there was ever a thread that needed input from Wayne....it's this one :)

Our nieces boyfriend has a bookcase from floor to ceiling full of Jordan sneakers. He thinks that when their kid (2 years old this weekend) will be ready for collage they'll be worth a ton of money. I've tried to reason with him. Sell them now that their worth some money. Nope, he thinks that in 20 years or so they'll still be worth what they are, or more.
I hope I'm wrong, but..............

Most of my LA Olympics trinkets are from the '32 games.... set of Gold Silver and Bronze medals, the silver plate used to stamp the actual invitations (bent into a candy dish), the US flag raised for the winners, etc

Do have a few trinkets from '84 - complete collection of the country and a double collection of the sports pins, one of the torches carried, just a few things :D

Lots more spread out through the entire family (another set of '32 medals, more pins from '84, etc), not a bit of it cost us a single cent. Grandma was secretary to the GM for the '32 games and helped coordinate the volunteer effort for the '84 games.

Vintage electric train sets. They were extremely collectable and raising in price yearly until abut 5 years ago. The baby boomers who wanted them as kids or wanted to share the one they had with their grandchildren started dying off and the younger generation has no desire to have a heavy metal electric train that takes up a whole room to set up right.

I also agree on early 20th Century cars, and probably for the same reason. When I was a kid a Model T was collectible. Now its barely worth the cost of storage. Each year it seems that another generation of older cars falls from being collectible to the "just old" category and a newer generation of cars that were popular when this year's crop of 45-60 year old men were in high school becomes the new collector car class.

I graduated from high school in 1983. It's not a complete coincidence that I have a 1984 911. I grew up dreaming about SCs and Carreras and the Carrera was the newest and most expensive Porsche I could afford when I was able to afford one. I suspect that's the sort of thinking that drives a lot of collecting.

I had a virtually brand new pair of Air Jordans back in '87 when I trashed my knee good a few times....NBA dreams dashed forever :). They got stowed boxed away for a couple of decades. Saw a TV doc on how sought after they were....figured some kid might like to have them. Dug 'em out....the leather uppers still looked almost new, but other parts desintegrated. Does he have a plan B ;)?

I feel sorry for those who buy a new car thinking it'll be a sought after collector car in a decade or so. That's a crazy game to play. On the flipside, buyers can pick up low miles examples of cars they thought they wanted when new, but didn't pull the trigger, usually for 5-10 thou less than sticker. Here's an example...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323320545307?rmvSB=true