Wall Street Journal Article; 15 Collectibles That Are Completely Worthless

Ironmanfan

you'll have to read the article yourself to see if 1988 Donruss cards made the list.

all kidding aside, a pretty interesting piece:

!5 Collectibles That Are Completely Worthless

IMF

Dpeck100

Princess Diana


When I came across the slide that references Beanie Babies I wondered if their research was accurate. It isn't.

They state these could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

80sOPC

Sorry but that is one very poorly written piece, the writer is an idiot.

He assumes that you can search for say 'Thomas Kinkade Paintings' and compare them apples to apples including reprints. I have no idea what a Kinkade is but there are some that sell for a few K and some that sell for a few hundred.

Just like there are Wagners that sell for a few bucks and Wagners that sell for a few million. Would anyone try and claim that Honus Wagners (or Mantles, or Gretzky's) are worthless because there are examples that sell for pennies?

80sOPC

The Hot Wheels one is the best. His logic is that since new Hot Wheels sell for 5 bucks, then all Hot Wheels are worthless. The writer could even take 2 minutes to pull Ebay sold items:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=beanie+babies&_sop=16&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xhot+wheels.TRS0&_nkw=hot+wheels&_sacat=0

Dpeck100

Hot Wheels $1,700+


Hess Truck $2,600

bishop

Guess I still need to hold onto the Voltron, Care Bears and My Little Ponies that the kids left behind

LarkinCollector

I don't understand the methodology for describing something worthless. Comparing highest asking price on eBay to lowest on Amazon for a generic search phrase makes absolutely no sense.

totallyradd

My uncle had bought a ton of Beanie Babies for my cousin before they became crazy collectible. When the craze did hit eBay was just starting up, and my cousin ended up having like 8 of the 10 most valuable ones. My uncle sold all of em that weekend and her college tuition was basically paid for by the time she was 10

PS: I am so, SO tired of slideshow webpages. I understand why they are set up that way to sell ad space, but seriously annoying to everybody else.

Nathaniel1960

Not exactly Charles Dow or Edward Jones.....

Andrew Meola joined TheStreet in January 2014 from The Hudson Valley Reporter, where he worked as the sports editor for Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties. He previously worked at The Daily Voice, where he covered local news and sports in Westchester County. He is a proud graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School and is an avid New York sports fan and pop culture consumer. He once worked at a Steak-n-Shake for six hours.

DM23HOF

Damn. I was so hoping they were gonna call the Frederick Foto Ruth out for being worthless, inciting an owner panic sell-off, at which point I would swoop in.

DM23HOF

<< <i>I don't understand the methodology for describing something worthless. Comparing highest asking price on eBay to lowest on Amazon for a generic search phrase makes absolutely no sense. >>



+1. What passes for journalism of any kind on the Internet (or print or TV, for that matter) these days (especially The New York Post and Daily News) is often shocking.

Constantine

God that is a horribly written and illogical piece. The highest ebay price and lowest amazon price makes no sense to me.

bounce

when exactly were CDs considered "collectible"?

reading that piece of, err, article cost me 6 minutes that i'll never get back.

bounce

<< <i>Princess Diana


When I came across the slide that references Beanie Babies I wondered if their research was accurate. It isn't.

They state these could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. >>



they probably could, if you had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them

gemint

Yep, just another example of what a sad state journalism has become these days. Almost equally as bad are the fans who write contribution articles for on-line websites. Aside from poor grammar, their thought processes are a joke. I won't womp on the writer of this story any more than has already been done because that would be burning a horse that had already been beaten dead. I'll just leave it at this...

baz518

Pretty sure Jim Cramer is co-founder of The Street...that explains a lot.

SumoMenkoMan

I feel like the title should be "Investments that are completely worthless." Collectibles to me should be indicative of the fun one has collecting, not of the rise or fall of their perceived value. It's an interesting piece and I categorize this piece good for a blog, but does lack solid research for a more serious article.

WhiteTornado

I'll pile on and say it was a very poorly written article. I wonder if that guy writes for The Washington Post. They've been turning out some real hack jobs lately.

I could agree that some of what he said is true, in that a lot of modern, mass-produced figurines, plates, etc, are only worth a fraction of the original purchase prices. But, to say all Hotwheels are worthless is bogus, as has been pointed out here. I know there are some marbles, especially pre-1950, that are supposed to be worth a fair amount ($40-50 and up).

MrNearMint

<< <i>I could agree that some of what he said is true, in that a lot of modern, mass-produced figurines, plates, etc, are only worth a fraction of the original purchase prices. >>





+1


I take what the writer wrote with a grain of salt...A VERY LARGE GRAIN. I'm not an expert on any of the items he listed but I'd bet most of them probably are worthless and I know there are exceptions. Sounds like he just did lazy research by comparing lowest to highest in a very, very general sense.

Estil

I also said this at the Nintendo Age forum regarding this very issue.

I already thought from the beginning the whole idea of Beanies paying off your mortgage/college was a joke. If you want to invest, you invest in things like stocks and bonds and such. Hobbies like collecting retro games, trading cards (my other hobby) should be treated as just that, a hobby. I mean, if later down the road you happen to strike gold, great. I remember back around mid 90s or so suggesting that one day some of those old NES/SNES games might become collector's items and the owner/clerk thought I was losing my mind. In my college days I was able to get the MegaMan Legends trilogy for just $50 new from Capcom's website (I still have those games; not for sale, sorry!), and a little later a dormmate graciously bought me a spare copy of Tron Bonne (the prequel game) a little later (for around $15ish) so I could have something to play at UK (I always take whatever cards/games I bought back home during the next holiday/break)...since I didn't need two of the same game, I gave the extra copy to my neighbor. Imagine if I had the foresight to stock up on new Tron Bonne and Legends 2 games and kept them new until a few years ago when it was time to cash in!! Or if back in the earlier instance I had the foresight to pick up cheap MegaMan X3, Earthbound, Harvest Moon, and so on.

The moral of this story boys and girls, I collect retro games and cards because I like the challenge of the hunt and working towards a goal...for retro games if I can't get a complete set of NES games then I'll at least get all the blue chip games I can...maybe I'll first set a goal for 250 NES and 100 SNES and go from there; one step at a time. As for baseball/football cards I'd love to finish my 1976-79 Topps sets (need a few key PSA 7's/8's for each), finish my 90s insert set collection (I was a teen right at the height of the mid 90s insertmania so you know, the memories/nostalgic thing), and of course there a few items of UK memorabilia I'd love to have, like the Cats Pause yearbooks from the 80s/90s.

kingnascar

Whew, glad I sold my ceramic statue things when the market was hot

galaxy27

I'm not sure how Andrew Meola managed to skip out of TheStreet's baseline brain function test this year for its writers. Had he graced everyone with his presence that day, I submit that the neurological and cognitive assessment would still be ongoing.

I loved numero uno. I probably know a little too much about Hummels, as my mother happens to own hundreds of them. If they're worthless, then I need to stop buying toilet paper at Walmart and start using my cardboard collection.


Link

Estil

Perhaps the fundamental theorem of collectibles is this:

If people expected them to "be worth something someday", then too many will save them and (in the famous words of Alan Jackson) sometimes someday just never comes. OTOH, the reason baseball cards from the 50s/60s (especially in highest grades) have been so valuable (especially pre-Internet) is precisely because so many moms threw away the cards (or if they were saved, weren't all that taken care of, you know rubber bands and worn corners and so on) and hardly anyone in those days knew to save them. Perhaps that's also why many toys from the 80s (especially in original packaging) are worth some good coin is because maybe again, not many people thought they'd be worth saving. See how much an original G1 Optimus Prime or Megatron (especially in original packaging) can go for and you'll see what I mean.

CollectorAtWork

I read the article. I think it's fine. The article is not for serious collectors of any of these items. It's for the average Joe, who may be thinking, hey, let me go auction off my matchbox cars from when I was a kid, and this will pay for my kid's college tuition! Or let me start hoarding Happy Meal toys to save for my retirement! It's bringing a sense of reality to those types.

RedRomad275

I don't think that this article is a reflection of the current state of journalism. I think it reflects a poorly written article as it seems no real research was done other than EBay and Amazon. I don't know who this article would appeal to as if you are a collector you know it's BS and if your not a collector then you probably won't read the article.

Red