Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 03, 2024

She shows some intelligence

Anyone calculated the percentage change that the toy you buy today is going to be worth much in the future?

The sad fact is that mint-condition toys just don’t become collectibles anymore.

Only works if you get the right toy and the right version of that toy.

I get a kick out of these “if you have this toy you can retire” articles, because the reason that you can retire is because so few of those versions of those toys were made, so the probability that you have one is very small.

Hope she understands supply and demand. Wonder if it still applies that the second issue of comic books are often worth more than the first because fewer copies are printed.

If this were the 1980’s or 90’s i’d believe her, but I am not as convinced toys now will hold their value. I guess we’ll see

Did we learn nothing from Toy Story?

The toys won’t be so valuable if you can’t find a buyer that agrees to the price.

Collectibles are crap. I have a house full of my parents’ stuff that I can’t get rid of unless I rent a dumpster.

My brother in law always was rewarded after piano lessons in that he could pick out two Matchbook cars at the toy store. He never "played’’ with them and always kept them in the original boxes. Fifty years later he has a profitable hobby buying and selling them….but he’s still a nerd. If you can’t smash up a toy car or truck, what fun is it!?

Rule# 1: If it says “collectable” on the packaging or description, then it isn’t.

Rule# 2: DEMAND drives value for the most part, not age or rarity. People have to want it badly enough.

I remember in the 1970s when all the hot rod builders wanted 1957 Chevys to fix up due to their tail fin styling but ignored the similar 1955 and 1956 models. Age or #of cars available to buy had nothing to do with it.

That’s why I can buy a scarce “1953 Topps #190 Dixie Walker” in great condition for $4.95, but a newer “1968 Topps #177 Nolan Ryan (Mets Rookie Stars)” or a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan can be worth several hundred thousand dollars.

Thinking about that bag of Beanie Babies that I couldn’t get rid of – collectible indeed – collecting dust!

cute

your stuff is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it.

Problem is likely 75% of the kids who received the toys are thinking the same thing.

In the 90s my wife traveled in giftware. We went to a big expo at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart – 7 floors of showrooms where manufacturers and jobbers displayed their wares to buyers from retail outlets. Most showrooms had maybe 3 or 4 people browsing around. Ty had them lined up 10 deep at three queues where they were just taking orders, orders, orders for Beanie Babies.

I’m off to a good retirement: BitCoin and NFT’s.

Lots of products have either ‘aged’ out or just fallen from the interest level of moderns. Friend has a dozen setting of Waterford Crystal, all authentic, hand blown Irish product. Cost about a $100/piece. Best offer recently was $.50/stem. That kind of merchandise just fell out of the main stream 40 years ago. Looks like IKEA thinking has become mainstream.

dead doll disease…

Very few kids think toward PAYING for college. Toys are for now fun, not later. If they save the boxes, then they might be planning a brighter future.

Collectibles are a real hit or miss industry but the cost is for any one, or even a couple in series, is not that great in the early years.

A friend had 100+ ‘collectible’ plates from her mom that had been moved around the county, mom was long gone. We set up a throwing gallery in her garage, got a bunch of friends together and smashed them. Then smugged the space with sage to cast out the evil spirits. Very therapeutic. Unfortunatly mom though this would all be worth something….

Danae is actually accurate in a positive sort of way. Many toys from behind the 60’s , if undamaged and even in original packaging can bring some hefty cha-ching.

Years ago, I started collecting Chris Sanders (of Lilo & Stitch fame) statuettes. Most priced at around $30. I have quite a few now downstairs around the wet-bar and I recently asked my grandson to research if they were worth anything. Apparently, I’m rich now as the lowest price for one is $300 and the highest for another is $635 and like I said, I have several. When he asked me if I’m going to sell them, I said “No, you are when you go to college.”

I still have 7000 comic books

Recently a box of unopened hockey cards from 1980 was auctioned for $3.7 million.

I remember when I worked for Mattel. So many people saved the porcelain Barbie dolls (NIB, of course) that were limited issue each year. That was their retirement plan. I didn’t stay at Mattel too long but I always wondered how that worked out.

They make these “Collectables” now by the millions, rendering any future value worthless.The only math that works here is: Scarcity + Time X desirability squared with “There’s people still alive that want them” Elvis memorabilia had value, then the demographic that collected it died off, flooding the market and driving prices down, along with waning desirability, maybe in 50 years it will become valuable as so much will have gone to the landfill by then.

Collectables are the obscure toys that no one bought when they were new, and as a result have become rare.

said almost everyone who collected Beanie Babies

Finally, a comic strip I can relate to! I AM the Packrat!

That is a puzzlement.

Beanie Babies’ only remaining value is in dog chew toys.

The "collectables’ market is outlandish. eBay is swamped with useless & unwanted stuff with sellers demanding stupid prices

Mr. Machine. Great Garloo. Fighting Lady. Ideal Astro Base. The Digicomp I. Just examples of toys I had as a kid which now sell for many times their original price on eBay, if you can find them. I wish I had had the foresight of Danae.

I have OCD, and kept all the accessories, boxes, etc. from things I got when I was a kid and made a nice bit of cash on the ones I kept out of my family’s hands. The problem with collectibles is that not everything increases in value, and what’s valuable today could be ice cold tomorrow. I knew a guy who invested in dolls of the Spice Girls…

I plan to reincarnate myself as Monet and sell a lot of paintings. The prices for those are still really high

She’s collecting pre-packaged landfill.

I have one of the original printings of the US Constitution. Mint condition. Yours for only $10,000. If you order today, I’ll throw in an original of the Declaration of Independence for free!

Here is perhaps the most uncollectible toy ever invented:

Many decades ago my grandfather gave me a toy his father made for him. It is a piece of hardwood just over a foot long and half-an-inch square. From about the middle to the three-quarter point fifteen notches were either filed or sawed into one of the long edges, At the far end, past the notches, a very small nail was tapped into the exact centre of the wood leaving about one-quarter inch protruding. Riding loosely on that nail is a thin piece of sheet metal three-quarters of an inch wide by two inches long. My grandfather also gave me a four inch nail, 5/32 inch diameter with a smooth round finish but I found a quarter inch diameter tool shaft works better.

The point of the toy was to slide the nail back and forth over the notches so that the vibrations would make the “propeller” spin while also sounding like an aircraft engine. I suspect that it was a popular thing to play with in the between-war period when aircraft were still new and exciting but I have never seen or even heard of another.

By the way, there is a secret to using the toy. If you don’t know it you can saw away with the nail until the cows come home and never get the propeller to spin.

Things like collectibles don’t work anymore. Baseball cards became collectibles because they started out as a little novelty that came with cigarette packs. But once something is manufactured from the beginning as a collectable, it will never be a collectable.

My mom back in the 60’s was big into Franklin Mint collectables. Pewter spoons, precious moments. plates. she had it all .. When she passed away in 2006. I went online to see what we could get for all these “valuable” highly sought items and I found that 99% was valued at less than what my mom paid for it in the 60’s ,70’s and 80’s

There are boom and bust cycles. People took a bath on Billy Beer and Beanie Babies. I suspect Taylor Swift merch may depreciate.

An old head on young shoulders – not a pretty sight …

We geeks buy two of everything. One to play with and one to set aside for investment. And saving the empty box as Antiques Roadshow has proven the box can be more important than the toy.

I’ve recommended to clients as we empty their family homes for sale to give away through Buy Nothing FB groups and organizations that set up people/families who have nothing. Those dish and glassware sets, and decent condition furniture will not go to waste.

Once an object is declared a collectible, the market is flooded with them and their value falls to junk bond status.

I have a few “Collectables” lying around the house.

Last time I checked, most of them are worth about 3 or 4 dollars more than I paid for them.

Remember the Beabie-baby bubble?

Can we put Donald Trump back in HIS original box and see how much Russia will pay for him?

The point of a collectible is that is rare or very hard to find, or that there are very few out there in usable/useful condition. That’s what gives them high value to collectors. Sorry, Danae.