Community Chat

[hopi]

---

@PamfromCT wrote:

This is all so true and so sad.  While we are still enjoying most of what we collected, the time is getting closer when we will have to get rid of stuff.  No one wants it anymore.  I think it is also due to the fact the pace of life grows ever faster with our kids, so they need things streamlined and not saddled down with piles of stuff.  If something doesn't go in the dishwasher, forget it.  And from what I have read, this is just the way it is.  I do, however, want the things that have been in my family and passed down, to remain in the family.  And how do I do that?  

---

@PamfromCT

I totally understand your sentiments and wish things could be the way we want but as our children have taught us if they don't want it when your gone it will be gone.  Great artifacts from history and the past have been destroyed and are still being destroyed so all we can't worry about things.  Collectibles will one day be in vogue again just like fringe and big hair. 

[Blahblahvampemer]

---

@hopi wrote:

9/11 happened and many luxuries fell by the way side. You are supposed to collect to enjoy and not use it as an investment. 401k's fail, the stock market fails and it's all paper. Your collectibles should hold fond memories of a time gone by and a beauty that you enjoyed.  Younger people still have a long way to go.  They are to busy on youtube, internet, streaming, videos and living for the moment.  We will see that works out for them. Hopefully it's not older people watching and making the Kardashians's rich and not people over 40 - hope they have more sense.

---

No, eBay and overproduction happened.  Companies produced more to "keep up with demand" while eBay made it far easier to find pieces that were once elusive.  It also didn't help that quality decreased.

Young people are making less and spending more on electronics and entertainment.  Since many of them are also in debt while living at home with a parent or two, they don't have the space for collecting stuff.  What they do amass will easily be disposed of later on.  The IKEA mentality.

I've been a dealer for decades and watched it all happen.  It's sad as young people now don't know about quality, and they refuse to buy handmade anything.  If it can't be made cheaply in China, the majority don't seem to care.

[GRACIE]

I believe you buy what you like when it comes to collectibles. I did not collect dolls for an investments. I bought what I like. The dolls cost me anywhere from $500.00 to $200.00. I only collected  African /American or black dolls. In other words , there were no dolls that look like me. Because when I was growing up, they did not make nice A/A dolls. I have in my collection from 25 years only 10 dolls ( 4 toddlers the size of real kids, two preemies and 4( 3 to 8 inches ,Hedi Otts dolls) When people  see my collection  they are amazed of the weight and realization.. The dolls that are mass produce today like Asthon Drake are of a poor quality, I would not pay 99 cents for them.. Doll artist like Himshedt and Zaph Designer artist  dolls are almost a thing of the past.I bought what I like. Dolls to me are three dimensional works of art. I also  other 3 dimensional art; masks, etc.

[ValuSkr]

The problem with "collectibles" of the '70's and '80's is that they were marketed as collectibles.  They were mass-produced and people bought them and kept them in mint condition.  Inevitably, they never became rare and collectible.  On the other hand, things that were never marketed as collectible have become valuable.  For example, Matchbox toy cars from the early days - late '50's and '60's - in mint condition and with original box can be worth quite a bit, well over $100.  People didn't collect them; rather kids bought them and played with them, discarded the packaging, and the cars' paint became chipped.  So it's hard to find mint condition cars from that era.

[Puzzle Piece]

I don't know if it's sad or not, but young people who are 'upscale' and educated don't want anything to do with collecting.  Especially knick knacks.  It's more or less a horse and buggy thing.  If a certain item has a historical value and some great worth - it's kept to be sold for it's worth. 

I will be stuck with a Snow Babies collection my MIL left me and I will definitely be donating them to charity.  Other things as well. 

If and item has sentimental value that's different as it's not collecting.

[CatsyCline]

---

@ValuSkr wrote:

The problem with "collectibles" of the '70's and '80's is that they were marketed as collectibles.  They were mass-produced and people bought them and kept them in mint condition.  Inevitably, they never became rare and collectible.  On the other hand, things that were never marketed as collectible have become valuable.  For example, Matchbox toy cars from the early days - late '50's and '60's - in mint condition and with original box can be worth quite a bit, well over $100.  People didn't collect them; rather kids bought them and played with them, discarded the packaging, and the cars' paint became chipped.  So it's hard to find mint condition cars from that era.

---

i loved the matchbox cars. my sister had a BP gas station for matchbox cars and i had a horse trailer with horses.

we spent hours playing. we made a village on the card table, using chalk to draw the street layouts. all of the cars got chipped down to the base metal. we painted them with my mothers nail polish

 we only got one channel on the TV so we used our imaginations to play

[CelticCrafter]

I know someone that still collects Matchbox cars that are being produced today and action figures.

He thinks they are an investment and will be worth a lot of $ for his kids.

All he is leaving them is a headache when it comes time for them to decide what to do with them.

He has hundreds of them.

[Burnsite]

I have a small collection of post WW 2 dolls.  Blahblah is right:  Ebay made dolls cheaper, but I benefited from that and got just a few dolls for personal reasons (helping me recover early memories) shortly after my father died in 2000.  He had been sick with Alzheimer's for 20+ years and it was hard to remember the good times before my mother died and he got so ill.

I didn't buy mint in box--I wanted gently played with dolls (that I had played with, and not gently or they would have survived).  They did bring back incredibly happy memories.

So I never took up doll collecting for a profit, but even the used dolls I think I can sell for what I paid circa 2000-2004.  I have already sold a few, but most I have bonded with: a tiny tears in pretty good shape, with her weird bubble pipe and one or two garments, a raggedy ann in raggedy shape, but exactly the same doll that I liked best as a kindergarten kid (the Georgenes had about 42 face designs, but I have "my" doll, and almost in the dress my doll had (same fabric, slightly different trim).  A
"Toodles" doll the size of a real toddler for which my mother sewed an extensive wardrobe.  But my favorites are the painted lash Ginny dolls I never even played with--I had a neighbor two years older who did and I envied her! 

Ginny's clothes until around 1955 were made in Medford MA (from patterns and fabrics supplied by Vogue) by Medford ladies with sewing skills.  They are beautifully made.  I bought a lot of the outfits and expect I will be able to sell them for what I paid at least.  Even though I don't like the idea of a mint doll (I like them played with)--so I always washed doll clothes when I bought them.

One weird bargain I have is a Patti Playpal.  I didn't play with dolls after about age 6 because I had a baby sister I adored and considered her my living doll.  But I have a friend who told me that when her parents divorced c. 1960, all she could think of was getting a Patti Playpal.  I actually got it for her, but have to restore it before I give it to her.  Back in the days of doll shows and meetings, I could have found advice easily, but it is not so easy now.

However, the decline in doll prices had already started when I began to collect.  I think I'll get my money back if I ever have time to put them on Ebay.  And for the memories they brought back, they were worth it no matter what.

Anything else I've ever collected has been stuff for the kitchen that I use all the time:  retro gadgets that still work, plates, glasses, etc.

ETA:  Oh, and I have 3 or 4 Fenton pieces I purchased because I really liked. . .was it Bill Fenton?  The patriarch of the family?  I use them all the time, so I don't really think of them as collectibles.  In New England when I was a kid, everyone collected Fenton vases, the little ones.  They would display them in their windows.

I esp like the carnival glass patterns they bought and reproduced in the 1990s.

[RainCityWoman]

The value of a collectible is only as good as the one person who wants it. Most of the time with collectibles, people are looking for bargains. Last year I wanted to get rid of all my Department 56 Dickens vVillage porcelain buildings and figures. I had a lot of money into them and sold them for about 1/3 what they were worth. I told myself that I was getting rid of something I no longer used and that someone else would be thrilled with them. The collectibles I have kept over the years make me smile, bring back memories, or are artistic additions to my home. I have some preciousantique items of my grandmother's that I know are worth a lot, but I wouldn't get rid of them for the world. They are a part of me. Little by little I am trying to downsize, but sometimes it's hard to let go. I think the next thing to go may be my extensive collection of Arthurian literature, but who knows. 

[aprilskies]

---

@RainCityWoman wrote:

The value of a collectible is only as good as the one person who wants it. Most of the time with collectibles, people are looking for bargains. Last year I wanted to get rid of all my Department 56 Dickens vVillage porcelain buildings and figures. I had a lot of money into them and sold them for about 1/3 what they were worth. I told myself that I was getting rid of something I no longer used and that someone else would be thrilled with them. The collectibles I have kept over the years make me smile, bring back memories, or are artistic additions to my home. I have some preciousantique items of my grandmother's that I know are worth a lot, but I wouldn't get rid of them for the world. They are a part of me. Little by little I am trying to downsize, but sometimes it's hard to let go. I think the next thing to go may be my extensive collection of Arthurian literature, but who knows. 

--------------

I agree about the worth of collectibles. Can I ask how you sold them? Craigslist, eBay? I have given some of the houses away but would like to get rid of the rest. I would take a third of what paid at this point. 

---