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What is a collectors Item?

Growing up I was told all the time how a certain item would be a collectors item. That comic or baseball card. That toy in the cereal box. Even the daily newspapers saying who won the presidency or the local professional sports team winning the Championship could be a collectors item. If the collection is because you like collecting items than wonderful, but if you think you’re saving a rare, hard to find item that will surely go up in value then think again.

When I was little and collected baseball cards I would make list of what they were all worth. I would think to myself how amazing it was I had hundreds, if not thousands, worth of dollars worth of cards. Then someone told me that just because some magazine says my cards were worth a quarter or even a dollar that their true worth is only what someone would pay for them. With things like Ebay I see this more now than ever. If something is worth a hundred dollars and I can buy it on Ebay for $25 than is the value of it $100 or is it $25?. If I turned around and re-listed the same exact on item on Ebay would I sell it for the $100 I think it’s worth or is someone going to pay me around the $25 I paid for the item myself?

I look back and see baseball cards were like stocks. People would speculate on an athletes career and would want his rookie cards at crazy prices. Players that have never played in a professional game would have cards more valuable than some hall of famers rookie cards. Then we would buy packs of cards. You would hope to get a star or a special limited edition insert card. These days random packs contain autographs or even a piece of a players game used bat, glove or uniform. The packs can go for well over $10 a pack for the chance at getting a card that could be worth money some day. Buying packs of baseball cards are now like lottery tickets for children

Now those same baseball cards I collected used to be kept in a giant bag. The corners were bent and cards were in rough shape. Growing up now I realize those damaged cards were hardly a collectors item. To me they were the world, but they would never hold any true value. In order for so many collectable items to actually be worth something later on, they need to be unopened or protected. Cards or comics need to be immediately put into plastic protectors. Corners have to be flawless and in most cases cards and comics need to even be professionally graded now to be worth something.

The same thing goes for collecting toys. They can’t be played with and they have to be left unopened in the original boxes they came with. If they were played with then they at least need to be packaged back up so years later they might be worth something. Of course all original equipment must be kept together. Any action figures like Transformers, Star Wars or Gi Joes need all those little weapons that go along with the figure.

For every great collectors item, that may be worth something 20 years down the road, there are tons of items that will be practically worthless. I am sure there is some grownup that has lots of Inhumanoid toys or another failed toy lineup that never got played with, in hopes one day it too would be a collectors item. I am sure there are plenty of people who fell for some special limited edition coin, dollar bill or stamp from some foreign country. I am sure there are plenty of people with collectors plates , figurines, dolls or bears sitting an in attic or basement taking up space. I have even seen people who have rented storage units out to hold all the boxes of items they own. I wonder if the value of the items and how much they appreciate comes close to the amount the storage centers charge.

I am definitely not against having a collection and still have lots of my old baseball cards and comics and even some toys boxed up. I don’t save them for a hope of a giant payoff in the future. I save them because I enjoy collecting things. I also have a lot of shot glasses from places I visited. I even have a bag of old beanie babies I thought might be worth something years ago. Now I just think my daughter will enjoy playing with them in a few years. I don’t care if a few corners are bent on my cards or comics. I don’t care if some of my Transformers or G I Joes are out of the box and missing some pieces. I don't care if my daughter takes the tags of the Beanie Bears as long as she enjoys playing with them.

I save my collections because I hope some day I can pass them down to my children and they take pleasure in them. Hopefully they too will start their own collection of whatever they enjoy and they might pass it on as well. Then maybe, hopefully, my grandchildren and great grandchildren will take pleasure in the items that gave me pleasure all those years earlier as they get passed down.