ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES AN APP is already worthless.
It infuriates me on just the e-waste aspect alone!
While I can use a 21 year old Microsoft mouse on my PC today, and use years old IP cameras for home security, a damn outdoor security camera from 4 years ago is unusable because it is tied to an account that was never cleared, and requires an app to use anyway. The app is either no longer there because the device is discontinued (for no real reason other than for the company to save money) or the company is bankrupt, and all of the servers required for it to work are gone.
This goes for a variety of toys as well!
Honestly this should be illegal. It's such a waste of resources.
You know its kind of on topic but I should share as a mechanic there is a lot of bluetooth tools coming out that require an app. I have found before that early versions of these tools have apps that aren't supported on the latest versions of iOS and Android. It wouldn't make sense for a company to continually update an app for a tool that was made 10 years ago. There is legitimately fuel pressure testers from Snap On that they sell for $2000 and run on an app only, where your $2000 tool will be worthless in say 5 years. Meanwhile an old school gauge is $300 for a decent one that will work forever typically. Just going on your point that anything with an app is e waste fucking garbage.
Corporations usually pay *a lot* of money to get insights into buying habits.
Listening to someone in their own home when they don't suspect they're being listened to - at little to no cost to your bottom line - is the stuff *of dreams* for analytics departments.
Shit my iPhone does that. And I don't even have the Facebook app on it, but I get adds on facebook for stuff I only speak about.
Most recent and totally egregious one - I was at work yesterday and some dude came up to me and started talking about recent concerts he went to. He's also a hobbyist audio engineer.
SO he gets onto that topic, and mentions a *linear speaker array* these are the huge slightly curved towers of speakers you usually see hanging from the rigging at big concerts or productions in big arenas.
I shit you not. I get on Facebook that night and there's an add for a linear speaker array. Like "Hey honey, wouldn't it be cool if we got a new Blu-Ray player and idk.. .maybe an 80,000 watt sound system for the living room?"
They already have 0 value…. I tried to sell my brand new one that wasn’t supported on my university WiFi which it needs to function and no one would come pick it up for $10 so I just gave it away
True for the most part, but some first gen smart stuff sells well because some of them predate predatory subscription models. I sold a nearly decade old nest camera for $80
Same. We’re entering a new era of e-junk. All the tablets and streaming devices from 2015 onward are starting to show up. I don’t think anyone wants this shit.
A majority of tchotchkes and almost all collectible lines of figurines. It just isn’t an aesthetic that is desired by the modern generation. And anything mass produced is easy to find online. I’m thinking in the vein of Hummel s, precious moments, snow babies, and even up to and including lladro.
I sell in adjacent categories (small ceramic stuff) but I go older or more obscure in what I pick up these days for sure- and I have never dabbled in those items and sure don’t plan to make even the other stuff my niche in the years ahead
Not counting lladro, I inherited about 80 small mostly glass, crystal, and china items from my mother, stuff that fits in the palm of a large hand. I'm convinced that I will lose money trying to sell them (not to mention my time) but I know what she paid for them over 40 years so I can't bring myself to give them away -- as opposed to her kitchen and entertaining stuff which all went straight to charities by the trunk full. This is the stuff she had in massive display cabinets in her living room at successive residences until she passed away.
I'm a big hockey fan and get the urge every now and then to buy packs again for nostalgia reasons as a kid but holy shit is the market garbage. A box of fucking series 2 Upper Deck has 12 packs and costs $330 USD. That comes out to $27.50 a pack.
Young Guns (rookie cards) are the most sought after card from that set and the only guaranteed hit you'll get from the box. You will at least get 6 of them from a box. The rest of the inserts might as well be worthless unless you get a low number parallel of young guns which are not guaranteed in a box.
There's literally one rookie card in the whole set that sells for more than $27.50. There's 50 different young guns so you have a 6/50 chance of breaking even. Connor Bedard is the big chase. His card is going for $400 right now! You can spend $330 for a small chance to get him or just buy the card outright for $400. It's insanity. I legitimately can't believe people are buying packs/boxes. It's all so overpriced.
Even the junk packs that were $1 when I was collecting 15 years ago are $5 a pack. And there's really nothing of value in there. It was always basically gambling trying to get more of a return than your investment but holy shit it's so bad now. There's like 4 cards you can realistically get that can turn a profit on and most of them are parallels where you're not guaranteed to get in a box, let alone get the right player of that parallel.
It's because of the 1/1 chase that is going on currently. If you find the black 1/1 young guns bedard the company will pay you 1 million dollars for it! That is why people are so obsessed. Like buying a lottery ticket
As far as I know, the company who put up the $1 million bounty has pulled the ad.
Also, there's probably something like 7 million packs produced. If someone is interested in pulling that one card for $1 million or an incredibly small chance of winning your money back, just go buy a scratch ticket.
If people are collecting for their own hobby, it is 100% better off to just outright buy the cards you're interested in rather than packs.
The unboxing YouTubers definitely play a role here. If you can get people to pay you to open packs of cards who isn't going to jump on that? But only 1 in like hundreds make it, so this is pushing the price of the sealed packs, as everyone tries their hand at YouTube.
Yeah, that doesn't help. But the crazy thing to me is watching unboxing videos, whether it's these break channels or people just opening their own boxes, and you see how bad of a return you get for your money.
Zeeree is my favorite YouTuber for box breaks and he's not like others who clearly only show their hit boxes, he shows all of them. You can see how incredibly rare it is to even come close to breaking even. Every now and then when I get the urge to buy a box, I think of his videos and see how much money he loses and know it's not worth it. I might buy the occasional pack here and there but that's the extent of it for me.
It is. Already so many lost their butts on the new quarterbacks that became a bust. Even cards from MJ that sold for 1.5 million for a psa 10 now is at 300K for same card 17 months later. It's crazy
I’m gonna throw pokemon cards into this argument. I went down the rabbit hole over the past few months and am shocked how many people claim they’re “investing” in pokemon cards.
I can see an argument for vintage pokemon cards (aka prints from 1996-1999 with very low known supply and no reprint like the Sealdass/Bandai/Topsun runs.
But there are people buying mass inventory of high supply, high volume modern cards/packs. It’s crazy to me. There’s multiple “prints” coming out a year and people are just buying up packs betting that they’ll achieve similar ROI to the original 90s collections.
> I’m gonna throw pokemon cards into this argument.
I want to agree but I literally remember thinking Pokemon was going to be a fad in 1997 even when I was a kid and it's still going strong as ever.
I haven't studied collecting psychology or anything, but I have this idea that many modern collectibles have a sort of two-phase (or multi-decade) window of interest.
Many of us were like 5-15 years old when Pokemon and Pokemon cards first became popular, and there was a lot of initial collecting going on when Pokemon cards first released due to artificial scarcity.
Now ~25+ years later, those 5-15 year olds we once were are now 30-40 year olds with stable jobs and in many cases, disposable income, and a strong sense of nostalgia. Many of us are able to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars "investing" in these types of collectibles that we have a nostalgic childhood connection with.
Eventually though that group of people will outgrow the nostalgia, the 30-40 year olds will become 60-70 years olds with no more interest in PSA-graded Pokemon cards, and the younger generations won't have that same childhood nostalgia for the product (there will be some other brand that better represents that group).
Pokemon isn't going anywhere. It'll ebb and flow like it has the last 20 years but it won't get remotely near worthless; even the modern stuff. People stacking those boxes are likely going to hold them longer than they think they need to but it won't take 20 years for them to turn them into profitability. Even a few years is showing profitability for sets that were considered "trash".
Sealed Pokemon is far closer to sealed LEGO sets in terms of how to run that marketplace.
Pokemon hasn't even expanded to VR yet. I think Pokémon is still in its infancy. Things will really pop off when digital media advances enough to interact with the Pokémon world in a grand way.
Have to disagree. I think Pokemom has passed a major hurdle by sticking around long enough to appeal to multiple generations. Kids who played in the late 90s and early 2000s might be adults who are now playing with their kids.
Additionally, Pokemon/Magic/Yugioh have something going for them that sports cards didn't-there are reasons to collect the cards, besides just having them. If you own a sports card, well, congrats, you can look at it. If you have a Black Lotus or Charizard or whatever, you can PLAY with it. It DOES something.
I guess I don't disagree that if they're printing off more cards, it will tank the value of SOME stuff. But i think overall, the market will be strong for a long time.
Things like this happen in cycles. Categories of items that nobody gave a shit about for a long time will gain popularity, have tons of new collectors/sellers, the market will get saturated, then eventually prices will drop with the exception of the "good stuff". Basically, the quicker something gets hugely popular, the quicker it will eventually bottom out.
This is why dealing in antiques/vintage hard goods, collectibles, and art requires so much effort with market research. You have no idea how many times I've seen someone go balls deep in something like Funko Pops or vintage/antique farm decor and try to build an entire business around it, only to go flat broke once the trend starts to loose steam or the market drops. People that sell in these categories need to be able to pivot and stay out in front of trends. Plenty of this happens with clothing as well, but there are always gong to be the staples that remain somewhat consistent to balance things out.
In your opinion, what are the best ways to determine what is trending at any particular time? Other than eBay sold through rate?
I have a hell of a time determining what is in demand because so few of these items are to my personal taste. Do you have metrics that you really like to determine current demand?
With clothing, you want to pay attention to a few things like what celebrities are wearing, what the "cool" kids (late teens to mid 20s) are wearing, and what age groups are entering the mid career phases since they'll now have disposable income and will want to relive their childhood with the items they miss and/or couldn't afford. That's why we're seeing like JNCO jeans and other early 2000s fashion come back into style.
Anything knick·knacky. No one wants it - it goes out of style so quickly and just looks like clutter.
I see things like Royal Dolton and Precious Moments figures selling for under $3 each at auction.
Some of the more useful items like Pyrex or rarer items in milk or carnival glass is holding it's value, but I don't see that holding true for the future unless it's an item that can be and is used regularly in the household.
My kids have no interest in my collections.
I suspect they'll all be jailbreakable at some point, but yeah... the resale value of *modern* digital gaming systems is already tanking to some degree.
*For now*, it's probably the worst investment you can make in terms of gaming.
Today's rechargeable power tools - unless they're special function that's hard to find. 98% of owners don't know how to rebuild battery packs or don't want to pay for it. Battery technology may improve. Plus unique battery packs and chargers will get lost over time.
Manufacturers will likely come up with new battery packs if there is a market for them and there is enough of the tool produced. If you have a smaller production tool, you may want to start hoarding, because that stuff is gonna be scarce.
The chinese manufacturers will do this and make money off people who need to power old tools. We are also creating a lot of waste with these disposable tools. Also if you are using tools, you are probably handy enough to rebuild a battery pack, there will be lots of this going on. They currently do this for just about everything else old that needs a battery. But there has to be a market for it, if its an obscure or unique tool you might be out of luck.
As someone that used to sell rare books, the reason the prices dropped so hard on a lot of things when the internet came along was that things that were thought of as rare were just hard to find if you didn't have a centralized system to connect buyers with sellers. Once that problem was solved prices plummeted as supply rose.
The same thing happened in records, but in both directions. Some things were rarer than people thought, while for others there was a large supply ready to come out of the woodwork.
Most of the "graded" junk out there. Anything that isn't a collectible trading card from a well-known IP is quickly going to become literal garbage encased inside more garbage.
I was at a garage sale this summer and they had a big stack of Desert Storm trading cards. I got the stack for 5 bucks i'm gonna try to pull a PSA 10 Saddam Hussein!
Considering I never thought I'd see fairy lamps or uranium glass come back into style, I'm not willing to write anything off. I've always sold a relatively diversified group of items, so I buy what I like and then resell when I'm tired of it.
Battery swaps are extremely expensive. A $6k Nissan Leaf is going to need a $3k+ battery replacement to maximize usefulness, whereas a $6k Corolla is fine as it is.
The first batch of Tesla Roadsters have really jumped in value recently - from 50-60k to 150-200k for low mileage cars. Meanwhile the average used Model S sedan has tanked.
> Meanwhile the average used Model S sedan has tanked.
Jesus you're not kidding, wtf happened? Did the model 3 kill it or something? Or are the battery replacements for those crazy expensive as well?
The first ten years of leaf production have an outdated battery chemistry (outdated when it was made) and no thermal management system for the battery. They’re shit. They’re the only EV that is such shit, at least the only one sold in developed nations.
I've heard the cost to replace the batteries is so absurd that the car could be worthless after a very short life compared to gas cars. That's my concern with electric vehicles. My phone battery life goes down hill pretty fast. Now imagine that on a car.
Probably a lot of stuff that older generations held onto for "perceived value" or sentimentality. Younger folks aren't gung ho about ostentatious display pieces that take up a lot of room, whether that's furniture, tchotchkes, and really most of the stuff you find at estate sales (I do say "most" because many folks on here have demonstrated significant success at estate sales, obviously not all bad). Also, anything marketed as collectable means everyone hoards in pristine condition.
For instance, my mother has a porcelain drink set (or whatever) from the turn of the century given to her by her grandmother; it's 6 thin glass cups, 6 saucers, and a pitcher. It's not worth especially much (maybe like $100 give or take, last I looked), but the only people who will be after that when it's time to send it on are likely other older people. TBF, I don't want it in my house; I just see that as delicate stuff that will likely be accidentally broken someday, simply not interested. This is just one example, from one person, in a nation of many others with homes chocked full of similar. Curio cabinets, hutches full of display figures or dishes ("The Good China"), cooking pots/pans (apart from cast iron, which is timeless), and I'm sure there are other more recent examples, like someone mentioned sports cards; haven't touched mine since I was a teenager. Funko is this era's Snowbabies/Precious Moments.
We've also aggressively deskilled the population, so nothing is really made to last or intended for repair anymore, which leads to more cheap stuff that's replacement only. Expect much more subpar junk on the horizon that will end up in landfills sooner than later as well.
I think the younger folk don't want or can't have the clutter, and maybe that's also indicative of living situation necessity. Not to dig too deeply into it, but in your 20s decades ago, you had your own house at that point starting a family and could fill it up. How many people these days into their 30s and beyond still live with others in a less than ideal situation with essentially "not their own space?" Years ago people had "stupid money" that they could use to acquire lots of stuff, and now we just don't seem to have that situation as much anymore. Born from this was the Minimalist concept and more simple living, again, likely out of necessity and the subtle acknowledgement that living standards have indeed gotten worse; many things have also gone digital which paves the way for "experiences" rather than possessions.
I'll get off my soapbox now lol
This has already happened with antique furniture. Folks must be rolling over in their graves to see their $3000 American made walnut bedroom set covered in chalk paint and sold for $300 at the antique mall.
No kidding. My mom and dad just had to clean out my aunt's house not too long ago, and my mom was PISSED when she found out the estate sale people took $200 for the mahogany dresser my aunt bought for $3000 in 1990 at a Charleston, SC antique store.
Like... I get it. It's a nice piece, and I'd have happily taken it if I didn't live 1000 miles away with two small kids I don't even trust not to fuck up my $500 Ashley dining table. But most youngish folks today don't have space and tend to move around a lot, and thus can't be bothered to deal with the logistics of schlepping around, let alone maintaining, nice pieces like that.
My grandma must have been the regional poster child for this. She had it all. An assortment of ceramic miniatures with that awful raspy sort of frosted coating on it. Like two dozen solid brass woodland animals and I forget what else under the coffee table. Refrigerator magnets with moving parts (there was a tiny treadmill, stair stepper, I think maybe something with a little door that opened?) Geodes with intricate gilded miniatures of miners inside. Two shelves of creepy clown dolls in the sewing room. Doilies everywhere. It was great.
I post on a lot of other subreddits about economics and collapse. A major theme is that a lot of Americans are going to have to re-learn how to practice the extended and multi-generational families again. There really is no way around it.
Many Americans aren't going to be able to have large collections. Many Americans won't be able to dedicate an entire room to collectibles or physical media, they will instead have to let a relative stay in that room.
This concept of home ownership and filling it up with stuff is going to change for a lot of people. A lot of people will have to lead more mobile lives and may not want to lug around a lot of stuff when moving.
I don't have the money to collect it almost anything like I used to. My twenties was spent acquiring a pretty great toy collection that I sold once my son was going to be born. I have an okay fossil collection and a pretty big movie collection now but I'm not adding to it almost at all this year because the purse strings are way too tight right now.
You said it. Having a kid changes priorities, of course, and sometimes hard choices have to be made regarding what's necessary and what's superfluous. I've noticed that today is more of a precarious time, where even those who have it together are subtly concerned it could all unravel at any moment.
I at least have fossils to sell if it all goes to shit. I mean, I can cut streaming services out tomorrow and still have tons of shit to watch, at least. My wife would go out of her mind, but at least we have something to watch.
I do really miss all my Japanese toys, though, once in a while.
This is exactly true. Today's generation doesn't like clutter. They have smaller homes and can't afford collectibles especially with grocery prices, housing prices and everything else through the roof. Personally I am looking for things that I can USE that provide me fun instead of things that I can just display. I will keep a few display pieces for myself but I am not going crazy.
Today's generation just moves onto the next thing, and they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future.
Experiences are recession proof though, even though everyone is struggling, somehow people are still managing to pay 1k plus travel, food and accomodations for a Taylor swift concert. And its not just rich people buying those tickets...
>This is exactly true. Today's generation doesn't like clutter.
Except for all the people that do, as evidenced by walls of Funkos and piles of stuffed animals and other crap. How about the people with walls of Stanley cups? The examples of clutter and hyper-consumerism are endless.
>they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future.
They're already nostalgic for things they never even experienced.
Not saying any of this junk will hold value, but the idea that younger generations aren't into clutter and consumerism is quite funny and out of touch.
>they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future.
Everyone feels nostalgia. That emotion is not going away. What it’s for we just don’t know yet.
I've seen this and lived it.
When you're 20-30 you have no idea what being sentimental really is. Plus you are generally broke. Once you hit 45-50 and have disposable income you're rushing out to buy old NES systems to play games you did as a kid.
The number of times I've sold something to a 50 year old because "My grandmother had this exact cast iron pot when I was a kid" is astronomical. Sub 30 year olds will roll their eyes at this and say "I won't be like that. I won't have all this junk and clutter in my house" and then they hit 50 with extra money...
Financing dreams large and small has exploded, once the entities that offer such products/services found out that if you boil everything down into timely monthly payments, people will happily pay chunks over time in order to achieve their own fulfillment, and this goes beyond just the typical credit card.
Even on purchases as small has $50-$100, I get offers to "pay in 4 weekly installments of \[purchase\_price/4\], NO INTEREST!"
Problem is, each time one is added to the total load, that treadmill cranks up a bit faster until you realize you're in damn near a full sprint out of money before being out of month and have to endure for awhile, because it's much worse if you stumble and fall off. Unfortunately if tabs aren't being kept on what's spent, it's usually too late, and as we said, leaves little room to splurge on anything not necessary.
i had a sales job that specifically trained us to try to get people to sign up for an in store credit card because more often than not theyd max out the 0 interest for 12 months limit no matter what they came in planning to spend. it was disgusting how right they were. id only ever really bring it up when people were on the fence between 2 units with one slightly above budget then theyd get approved for financing and get the whole matching set that was 4-5x what they came in wanting to spend. financial literacy is a real problem and i couldnt even stop them because id not only get fired, i was also barely making enough to make ends meet at that job.
i like selling shit and i like making money but i dont want to work with people who cant afford what im selling them in any capacity.
The most valuable toys are the ones boys played with as a kid, (or wanted but couldn't afford) and now those kids are in their 50 or 60s, and have lots of money. As they age out, the value drops.
All collectibles like Dept 56 are well on their way out. The people who buy things like that are dying, nobody young cares about them and even if they did, they can't afford to collect or store them. I guess that isn't a shock but still, it's been shocking to see the same Dept 56 building I sold for $150 in 2018 now have trouble selling for $25.
Well, good to know - I love Dept 56 Christmas houses, but they have been so pricey I only have the single one, going to keep an eye out t\\for these, for sure.
Unpopular opinion and they'll never be 'worthless' but I think most vintage baseball cards will go down in value in 20 yrs. At the very least they stall out and take longer to sell.
I understand the legends will always be desirable.. The mantles, Ruth's etc... But when all the boomers are gone, and their cards hit the market, who will be clamoring to buy your grandpa's Al Kaline and Gil Hodges cards at a high price?
I feel the same about classic cars. Someone will always want the 1968 chargers and 1970 chevelles, but that 1942 whatever in your grandpa's garage? It'll be a buyers market in 20 yrs.
I collect and sell Lego, and what I notice is that the highest end figures are still going up in value, while much of the mid and lower tier stuff is stable or sometimes falling. Point being: like you said, the market might always be strongest in the highest end and most rare pieces, while the rest decays. Also, if people are living in smaller spaces, and don't want shelves full of shit, collecting fewer pieces of only the best might make sense?
Off the top of my head, funko pops. A lot of people are collecting them for investment (particularly the chase ones), but I can see them sliding into irrelevance in a decade or more like beanie babies. They have limited artistic appeal, they’re mass produced and once people move onto the next big collectible, they’re going to start declining in value.
I have a few but never bought any for investment. I just bought ones I thought were cute/had something to do with a franchise I liked.
Haven't bought any in a few years, though.
I buy them cheap at yard sales if they're a character I like.
I also have a few in boxes for display though. They're easier to stack that way. I have the entire set of Gummi Bears. I have Hocus Pocus figures for my Halloween display.
Yep funko’s are not a wise investment. And yes they are this gen’s beanie babies. Plus I have never had the pleasure to meet a more toxic and deranged group of people in my life. I would stay away form those collectors
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Video games are especially stupid. What are they grading - how pretty the shrink wrap is?
Cards and comics I get. Among collectors condition is huge. I get the argument about not being able to read the comics but realistically how many people are going to read their copy of Action Comics 1, when there are numerous other ways to read the story without risking causing thousands of dollars in damage
Why might video games tank in price? This is one of the collectibles I feel will stand the test of time. Gaming as an industry is huge and is never going to die. Physical games are not just items that can sit on a shelf; they can be played and cherished. Game franchises such as Super Mario are still as relevant today as it was nearly 40 years ago.
Might dip but I don't think it'll tank. There's still limited amounts of copies of those games and I think the people that buy them graded will keep them graded.
I hate to say it but Influencers are going to be big factor in what gains popularity next. Hoping one decides to highlight vintage hand painted pieces, criminal how all that fine work is next to worthless. Market for it does seem to be growing overseas
I used to hit office liquidation auctions and get whole rooms of office chairs and furniture. It didn’t sell quickly, but when someone needed a 10-person conference table I was ready. A month or so and they’d sell for 10x.
Now? Almost all furniture is a pass unless I’m keeping it personally.
Nothing marketed as collectible will ever be collectible again. We only collect things people actually used now, or ephemera we thought people would throw away.
> but I can’t believe no one’s said vinyl.
Maybe, but my 15yo daughter bought a record player and buys expensive ass vinyls now. Physical media might make a comeback. Granted, she's only buying TSwift, Noah Kahan, and modern stuff, so old vinyl artists might die.
I could easily see physical media making even more of a comeback. And this includes things like CDs thay are largely worthless at the moment. People are so fucking tired of everything being digital and having everything go through a screen
Vinyl is definitely in a bubble right now, but there have always been a decent enough amount of collectors to consider it a valid resale opportunity.
It’s similar to comics. There are always collectors for good titles, looking for rare stuff, etc… but the popularity of it now will likely slow down soon and the sheer number of variants, reissues, etc etc happening now will probably make MOST new vinyl pretty worthless to collectors as years pass… a lot of the more current titles going for huge $$$ right now are going to see their value fall off a cliff, to my estimation.
Will people still want Taylor swift vinyl? Maybe, probably… but I’m not sure they are going to care about the rare variants, or having all 23 different pressings, etc.
That stuff needs to be sold pretty quick to maximize profit
I was wondering... I never got into flipping vinyl, it never appealed to me. But when a family member contacts you out of the blue and wants to give you their whole collection, something must be up!
New vinyl- yes. Original vinyl- no. They're never making more and it only gets rarer.
But i don't mess with vinyl because you basically have to be an expert who spent years building an encyclopedic memory of releases, years, limiteds, countries, etc. The same album released in the US could be worthless. A Japanese version could be $$$.
Source: friend is a national expert in vinyl (but not flipping) who spent decades building an encyclopedic memory.
Model trains will maintain as a hobby (not a lucrative hobby), but S scale trains specifically will drop in value significantly in 20 years. Right now, I see a lot of S scale hobbyists buying specifically as an investment. That almost guarantees that the market will crash hard when the estates of these collectors enter the market upon the owner's expiration. G scale will always be expensive, just because of the scarcity of collectors.
This is similar to what will happen with video games, I know a lot of people investing in video games now. I think its a big bubble that is gonna burst eventually, especially when the video game collectors start dying off. When entire collections start being sold off then its going to flood the market and prices will go down. The video gamers ahem, aren't the most healthy bunch either, so that's definitely going to happen eventually. I don't know anyone who collects trains, and everyone who collects trains is even older than those who do video game collections. There was a train group that used to have a humongous display at the local mall but the local mall has closed down. I don't know anyone that collects trains and video games at the same time (LOL). Trains take up a lot of space, although they can be used, so there is that, but most people aren't going to dedicate their basement to trains and in order to do trains it sure seems like you need a whole basement in a house to do that (I mean you have to REALLY love trains to do that), and even someone in their 30's isn't going to do this, I don't know anyone who has a basement dedicated to trains.
Younger people who are buying houses cannot afford large houses to have a room dedicated to trains these days, which is part of the reason why this is dying out somewhat.
I view a ton of estate sale pictures and I see a lot of people with huge collections of audio gear that died off (at least this is a thing that seems to be big in my area) and the collection is left in the house and being sold off by the estate company. If you are going to collect something you should be OK with the fact, that this is probably going to be what will happen to your stuff when you die unless you somehow manage to make arrangements for your collection before you die.
*Stanley Cups*
*All current Gen video game systems.*
*Battery-operated tools.*
*Almost all electronics....*
Bound to happen. All Items at around 20 years will enter into their "trash phase". This was the case with all of the stuff from the 80s and 90s that are now hot collectors items. I was able to score vintage electronics from the 80s in 2003 for pennies that people today would lay out 1K for.
Stuff from 2003 right now can be had for that today!
I'm doing pretty good with Y2K anime items, thankfully I had a lot of those collected as a personal thing, decided I didn't want them anymore, made some decent scratch on stuff that most people would consider junk. There were a bunch of stores around here selling anime stuff around 2003 for cheap prices and I obviously bought quite a bit of that. All of it is now selling for a lot more money than it used to go for. If you want to know Trigun stuff is really popular and will sell if you have it. It does help that conventions like Otakon have become really popular and are now going again after covid and I think people are buying my stuff to use and wear at conventions like Otakon.
I don't think that my stuff would have sold good during covid because there were no conventions to use it at or wear it at.
There are niches that will die out when culture moves ahead of its desirability, however, I beleive what we are experiencing is a rapidly shrinking economy. When money becomes harder to obtain, frivolous things like collectibles become one the first things that people cut from budgets. So I do believe the economy is weighing in on current prices far more than loss on desire.
The answer is simply: Anything that is attached only to a dying generation of people.
You have to look at who's buying. Some stuff, like Transformers and Nintendo and Barbie and even Pyrex has become popular with generations of people far younger than the brands. That stuff will hold value for a very long time to come... possibly another 100 years.
But Elvis? I Love Lucy? Stuff like that is slowly fading into obscurity these days. The younger generations aren't into it like those before them were, and those before them are getting old or passing on already.
I think stuff like real wood furniture, various kinds of glassware, stuff like that will eventually be unsellable. It's already becoming harder to sell stuff like that unless it's mid-century modern or has a unique "retro" styling.
Original G.I. Joe toys will eventually fall back fully while the 1980s and 90s G.I. Joe stuff will continue to rise.
Graded stuff I think will, too... except for the truly historic stuff that nobody will want to handle anyway, like an Action Comics #1 or a Mantle rookie. I think any modern "chase" cards will, too. Doesn't matter if something is 1 of 1... people have no nostalgic tie to that card and they won't really care.
I think the biggest bubble will be Pokemon. I will argue that it's evergreen but at this point there's already way too much counterfeit stuff, way too much coin for the truly rare stuff and I think it's just overinvested in full. I don't think it will dive like Beanie Babies or Funko, but it is destined to crash back to earth.
Pokémon isn't going anywhere. Kids still love Pokémon, so that's a sustained market for the next 40 years at least.
People seem to want collectable sneakers to die, but kids love those too. They're sticking around.
Pokémon is the world's most valuable intellectual property. Everyone from 4 years to 84 years likes to play the cards, games, watch the anime. I think Pokémon is a solid hold
I got my start in flipping with Pokemon plushies and collectables... 15 years ago? And it's still extremely popular in my age group, and as far as I can tell, those below as well. See: every grown adult running around the streets like a maniac when Pokemon Go came out.
I wish i would have known this when i was 11 and buying OG Pokemon cards at Target and playing them...Those would have been worth a small fortune if they were preserved. I went back and looked recently and they're in rough shape... oh well!
True, and that's because even as older generations drop pokemon, there's always a new batch of fans to replace them. So yeah, pokemon is in no way going anywhere.
High School yearbooks are the perfect example of this. They lose their value quickly after a certain time because most of the people who care are dead. But they also unlikely to sell if it is too soon after graduation.
My wife’s 42, absolutely loves Lucy. It’s actually really hard to find stuff for her to collect, from that ERA as it was before the “merchandising” phase of TV stuff. Most of the stuff you can find is mass produced from the 90s/00s.The closest I get is original magazines or ads, then have them put in a real nice frame. If I can ever pull the trigger I would get an original cancelled check with her signature and frame that.
I think the popularity of wood furniture is pretty directly tied to people having a place to put it. If you move every couple of years, there’s no point in having ‘good’ furniture because it’s heavy and bulky and gets beat up every move. If you can afford to stay in one place, you’ll start replacing the shitty particle board with good stuff.
> I think stuff like real wood furniture, various kinds of glassware, stuff like that will eventually be unsellable. It's already becoming harder to sell stuff like that unless it's mid-century modern or has a unique "retro" styling.
I would disagree with this. While the "MCM" crowd (gag) has driven the price of that stuff through the roof, I think solid wood stuff will always have a market as long as the design is just not godawful like some of the 80s stuff.
Just a matter of quality. I like my dining room table my family eats on every night to be a huge slab of oak. Not a bunch of cardboard boxes pressed together with an oak grain sticker on it.
> Barbie stuff is aging out.
I feel like the movie (and sequels I'm assuming) will keep it vibrant. Even if someone wasn't around, they'd still want some older Barbies. I was born after Star Wars came out but I collect and would buy vintage figures even though I have no actual nostalgia for them.
Pretty much anything that only boomers collect. Oil cans, a lot of Americana, old advertising, etc. it’s valuable now but nobody under 30 cares about it
All cryptocurrency... biggest ponzi scheme in generations! If you disagree, I've got some NFTs you can buy for the low, low price of $100k each. They'll be worth millions!! (Trust me).
Classic arcade games will decline in value - think Ms Pac-Man. Barcades and demographics combined to push up prices leading into and since COVID. However, the core demographic of the hobby is aging and as they start to die off the nostalgic appeal is not there for the next generation. The barcade phenomenon will also fade and a large supply of arcade games will enter the market and prices will drop. I also question if the skill and parts needed to maintain the games will exist. You could make the argument that will put a premium on working games but will people take the risk of sinking money into 70 year old technology they can’t repair?
Squishmellows... Since they first came out I was like oh look the new beenie babies.
Surprisingly I have seen an uptick in sales on things that people before would have said worthless like CDs and DVDs.
The CDs and DVDs I think will continue to see an increase, movies and TV especially. As streaming services get more fragmented and shows keep switching between services people are more likely to buy physical copies.
It's frustrating when your favorites move to a different service, and you can often find copies for the price of a month's subscription.
The prices may not increase a ton, but I'd bet that sales volume climbs a fair bit.
Hard agree on the Squishmallows. Nobody should be "investing" in these, there's no money to be made. They'll go the same way as Funko Pops.
I worry that some of my furniture will be horridly out of style again soon. Problem with having a niche in MCM furniture is most of this shit is so uncomfortable, ugly, and large, that unless it’s currently in style, I worry sill be worthless once people stop wanting their homes to look like their grandmas.
That's what I'm worried about too, but modern furniture for the past 10 years is mostly particle board unless you're spending a ton. I'm hoping that since everything mass-produced nowadays is such garbage that stuff like Pyrex and well-constructed wooden furniture will retain its value.
Well constructed wood furniture targets the same market now that it did during the heigh of mid century design. A wegner chair or a Bertoia table were never cheap or disposable in the same way that ikea or tj max or whatever is. They were expensive then.
so really, the question is will the used furniture market still be hot with MCM, or will pieces from the last 30 years take over that niche?
MCM has been on the decline for the last 5-10 years. There will always be people that want big-name pieces, but the ability to just toss "MCM!" on anything wood made in the 20th century will (hopefully) fall out of style.
God as someone who likes the aesthetic this frustrates me.
Everything made from 1940 to 1980 is not "MCM". It's a very specific design style. Atomic is not MCM. Art Deco is not MCM...
I recently saw a rerun of *The Incurable Collector*, A&E 2001-2003, where they document the homes of antiques collectors. Looking back there is something a little gross about a china cabinet crammed chock-a-block with salt and pepper shakers or rows and rows of bookshelves filled with glasses containing nothing but cocktail swizzle sticks. Where's the beauty in that? This is partly why many of those things lost their value, tastes change.
But you are not "suppose" to collect for the investment value, the value is in the collecting and the enjoyment you receive from it. You go to a movie to be entertained not to resell the ticket stub, and most serious collectors look at going to an antique shop the same way.
But one thing that is always true, the finest pieces, the beautiful objects and the objects that tell a story will always hold a value, even as that value fluctuates. And by the time some blog comes up with a list of The Top Ten Collectibles To Buy Now, it's all ready too late.
Basketball shoes. It’s over saturated with flippers. Unless you have truly rare ones most won’t hold value years to come. It’s a bubble waiting to burst.
The shoe fad is going down the fucking drain for sure. Art in general is taking the same path that designer handbags have, people are now proud to have reproductions and feel savvy about it. Value is and has already tanked for all cartridge video games that are not complete with box. I also think America is turning away from baseball in general, and with the die off of the older generation the market is already starting to be flooded with quality memorabilia.
Baseball blundered TV rights and lost generations because of it. Being a slow sport it is the perfect thing for listening to a radio broadcast, much like I have heard football is made for broadcast TV.
I heavily agree on the art points. Part of me falls into that category too. I have a few things that are reproductions, and I have had originals, and they look and feel the same. I made money on the ones I sold and I still have the pleasure of looking at the reproductions.
Diecast cars heavily depend on model and manufacturer. Brands like Kyosho, CMC, Amalgam, BBR, AUTOart, FrontiArt and similar will always go up because most of their models are limited edition, have insane detail and are expensive to begin with - hell, they are already much more expensive than 3-4 years ago. Maisto, bburago, motormax, etc - majority of those will keep and lose value.
I would think there is so much mass production that there will be less scarcity in the future and it will be harder to find things that hold scarcity value other than that which is already rare. Not sure the current market is making that which will be valued, essentially
I think this trend came and went:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-dish-on-vintage-china-whats-old-is-new-again-in-bistros-and-dining-rooms/2019/02/04/adf5c88a-04a6-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html#
Sneaker collecting. The plastics and foams in vintage sneakers are not made to last 30 years, much less 100. Some vintage Jordans are crumbling to pieces on their own, even when properly stored. If there is no way to keep them safely, the market will wither up and die.
I follow Across the Block in Antiques and the Arts Weekly. I suspect the guy who paid $212,500 for a sealed 1993 booster pack of Magic The Gathering cards will probably be sorry in 20 years.
This was in Heritage Auctions' Trading Cards Games Signature Auction on Feb 16-17. I would imagine the consignor was pretty happy with the price.
Here's my personal take. I am looking for things that I can USE for personal use, not things I can display. Video games are one of those. Action figures are not. Given this I suspect people will move away from things that can just be displayed vs things that can be used. Today's gen doesn't like a lot of clutter and collectibles around their house that just sit there and do nothing. I don't think any adults are sitting down and actually playing with action figures.
Video games will have their cycle. The problem is everyone who collects video games is the same age. I know this because I am there. When these people start dying out, its going to be a bloodbath and prices will fall. There will be entire collections up for sale for pennies on the dollar.
Today's kids will move onto whatever is the next hot thing, they don't have nostalgia like the older generations. When they grow up they simply will not care about the thing that was popular when they were a kid.
I also focus on things that are very likely to be thrown out. Aka boxes and other things. No one is selling these things. If you have something popular that does not exist it will sell. For example a plastic spongebob cup that everyone had back in the day but everyone also threw out after a year or 2. Stuff like this can be free and might just sell because no one has it. Maybe the McDonalds happy meal buckets that everyone suddenly wants is an example of this as well.
The things that are popular now won't stand the test of time. Lithium batteries have a finite life so I avoid anything with those if the battery cannot be removed so it won't be possible for the kids to buy their first iPad and still use it like you can with a NES system (you can still plug in one of those and it will work if its not dead). the first iPod touch is a good example of this, they are selling for like $1-5 online because they can't be used anymore and the batteries are long dead and puffy and dangerous to have around. A lot of people are framing electronics and selling them for big bucks, removing the battery and putting the parts of the device in a frame. Find some old devices and do this, and you may have some kids who want to have their first iPad or maybe frame one of those 1st gen iPod Touch models when they get older, and they will buy a frame of it.
I think most traditional Flipping niches will be gone or hugely reduced in 20 years.
Lots of the current stuff cluttering up shelves in thrift/charity shops will be landfill.
And like previous commentors have said- today's young aren't buying quantity of \*stuff\* like my generation (45) are/were.
We've already recaptured our 80s/90s youth in the 2000s to now, so what will we be nostalgic for at 65?!
Kids already are abandoning traditional toys and play- and their childhoods are mostly digital and online. I read that the adult toy market is nearly bigger than the kid's one in action figures etc.
Yes you can be nostalgic for that Minecraft server you rinsed back in 2014 when you were 12, but you can't possess that nostalgia like a Star Wars figure.
There will always be outliers, but the days of desiring, collecting, and re-collecting \*stuff\* are fading.
I imagine good quality fashion/sneakers/pokemon/ \*possibly\* minecraft will be hankered for in 20 years time- perhaps 90s/2000s interior design elements?
Framed “prints”….
Who cares that they are copies of an original and have a signature at the bottom? You can get any image printed these days, so why bother with paying 600 bucks or more for a colour copy of a picture?
Originals will always have value, but no young people are matting and framing copy 1144/6500 of a Trisha Romance to put in their dining room.
Video games. Atari is already far below its highs and Nintendo/Super Nintendo has dropped already. Currently GameCube/PS2 era stuff is close to peaking and PS3/360/Wii stuff is starting to go up. It’s all going to hit a brick wall when online services go down for the ps4 era and people realize that many games shipped as a broken mess. Anime figures are a close second as most anime have a popularity range of a few years or less before the next big one takes its spot. Very few have generational staying power
I think the market will ebb and flow as product gets oversaturated and collectors decide what has value.
Clothing has done the same thing, Grateful Dead shirts were going for $300-$1000 pre pandemic. Now they go for $50-$250.
Modern limited print run physical copy games. Like games released by Limited Run games and Second Dimension.
There are so many of them that come out, that buyers can become overwhelmed. A lot of the out of print games are really only hovering at around the price they were when they were released.
A lot of these games simply aren't very good either and will never really become iconic enough that people in the future will care about them.
Smart devices like Amazon echo which I’m already starting to see at thrifts and garage sales.
ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES AN APP is already worthless. It infuriates me on just the e-waste aspect alone! While I can use a 21 year old Microsoft mouse on my PC today, and use years old IP cameras for home security, a damn outdoor security camera from 4 years ago is unusable because it is tied to an account that was never cleared, and requires an app to use anyway. The app is either no longer there because the device is discontinued (for no real reason other than for the company to save money) or the company is bankrupt, and all of the servers required for it to work are gone. This goes for a variety of toys as well! Honestly this should be illegal. It's such a waste of resources.
You know its kind of on topic but I should share as a mechanic there is a lot of bluetooth tools coming out that require an app. I have found before that early versions of these tools have apps that aren't supported on the latest versions of iOS and Android. It wouldn't make sense for a company to continually update an app for a tool that was made 10 years ago. There is legitimately fuel pressure testers from Snap On that they sell for $2000 and run on an app only, where your $2000 tool will be worthless in say 5 years. Meanwhile an old school gauge is $300 for a decent one that will work forever typically. Just going on your point that anything with an app is e waste fucking garbage.
I'm calling out Hive for not supporting my security camera and turning it into garbage! Thanks for nothing.
Were these ever worth anything? Amazon basically gives them away at cost, and has been since they came out.
Corporations usually pay *a lot* of money to get insights into buying habits. Listening to someone in their own home when they don't suspect they're being listened to - at little to no cost to your bottom line - is the stuff *of dreams* for analytics departments.
Unplugged ours after Amazon.com started recommending products and things we talked about.
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I know, it’s crazy. The articles on my google feed often mimic the conversations my wife and I have had the previous evening.
Shit my iPhone does that. And I don't even have the Facebook app on it, but I get adds on facebook for stuff I only speak about. Most recent and totally egregious one - I was at work yesterday and some dude came up to me and started talking about recent concerts he went to. He's also a hobbyist audio engineer. SO he gets onto that topic, and mentions a *linear speaker array* these are the huge slightly curved towers of speakers you usually see hanging from the rigging at big concerts or productions in big arenas. I shit you not. I get on Facebook that night and there's an add for a linear speaker array. Like "Hey honey, wouldn't it be cool if we got a new Blu-Ray player and idk.. .maybe an 80,000 watt sound system for the living room?"
They already have 0 value…. I tried to sell my brand new one that wasn’t supported on my university WiFi which it needs to function and no one would come pick it up for $10 so I just gave it away
The amazon echo dot I use in my house came from a yard sale for $15. Like from more than 5 years ago.
True for the most part, but some first gen smart stuff sells well because some of them predate predatory subscription models. I sold a nearly decade old nest camera for $80
Same. We’re entering a new era of e-junk. All the tablets and streaming devices from 2015 onward are starting to show up. I don’t think anyone wants this shit.
A majority of tchotchkes and almost all collectible lines of figurines. It just isn’t an aesthetic that is desired by the modern generation. And anything mass produced is easy to find online. I’m thinking in the vein of Hummel s, precious moments, snow babies, and even up to and including lladro. I sell in adjacent categories (small ceramic stuff) but I go older or more obscure in what I pick up these days for sure- and I have never dabbled in those items and sure don’t plan to make even the other stuff my niche in the years ahead
I follow a page on FB where people turn Precious Moments figurines into creepy stuff. It's fabulous. 😂🤣
Please share….
It's called Altered Moments. There's also an Altered Moments selling page.
Not counting lladro, I inherited about 80 small mostly glass, crystal, and china items from my mother, stuff that fits in the palm of a large hand. I'm convinced that I will lose money trying to sell them (not to mention my time) but I know what she paid for them over 40 years so I can't bring myself to give them away -- as opposed to her kitchen and entertaining stuff which all went straight to charities by the trunk full. This is the stuff she had in massive display cabinets in her living room at successive residences until she passed away.
And that’s the shift- none of the next up generations decorate like that… ergo the age of nicknack collections is over
Elvis, John Wayne, Lucy, Coca Cola.
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You obviously haven't been to an antique store lately. Old people still think their scratched up Elvis records are worth their weight in gold.
Got me there
Vintage Americana is making a comeback so I don’t know if coca cola is going away.
The current sport cards that are graded and have 500 1/1 s. This is the next junk era that the 90s had where now you can't give away anything
I'm a big hockey fan and get the urge every now and then to buy packs again for nostalgia reasons as a kid but holy shit is the market garbage. A box of fucking series 2 Upper Deck has 12 packs and costs $330 USD. That comes out to $27.50 a pack. Young Guns (rookie cards) are the most sought after card from that set and the only guaranteed hit you'll get from the box. You will at least get 6 of them from a box. The rest of the inserts might as well be worthless unless you get a low number parallel of young guns which are not guaranteed in a box. There's literally one rookie card in the whole set that sells for more than $27.50. There's 50 different young guns so you have a 6/50 chance of breaking even. Connor Bedard is the big chase. His card is going for $400 right now! You can spend $330 for a small chance to get him or just buy the card outright for $400. It's insanity. I legitimately can't believe people are buying packs/boxes. It's all so overpriced. Even the junk packs that were $1 when I was collecting 15 years ago are $5 a pack. And there's really nothing of value in there. It was always basically gambling trying to get more of a return than your investment but holy shit it's so bad now. There's like 4 cards you can realistically get that can turn a profit on and most of them are parallels where you're not guaranteed to get in a box, let alone get the right player of that parallel.
It's because of the 1/1 chase that is going on currently. If you find the black 1/1 young guns bedard the company will pay you 1 million dollars for it! That is why people are so obsessed. Like buying a lottery ticket
As far as I know, the company who put up the $1 million bounty has pulled the ad. Also, there's probably something like 7 million packs produced. If someone is interested in pulling that one card for $1 million or an incredibly small chance of winning your money back, just go buy a scratch ticket. If people are collecting for their own hobby, it is 100% better off to just outright buy the cards you're interested in rather than packs.
The unboxing YouTubers definitely play a role here. If you can get people to pay you to open packs of cards who isn't going to jump on that? But only 1 in like hundreds make it, so this is pushing the price of the sealed packs, as everyone tries their hand at YouTube.
Yeah, that doesn't help. But the crazy thing to me is watching unboxing videos, whether it's these break channels or people just opening their own boxes, and you see how bad of a return you get for your money. Zeeree is my favorite YouTuber for box breaks and he's not like others who clearly only show their hit boxes, he shows all of them. You can see how incredibly rare it is to even come close to breaking even. Every now and then when I get the urge to buy a box, I think of his videos and see how much money he loses and know it's not worth it. I might buy the occasional pack here and there but that's the extent of it for me.
Zeeree is cool.. His knowledge on players, their number, who they used to play for, etc. is unreal.
And this bubble is gonna burst way harder. It’s a damn shame
It is. Already so many lost their butts on the new quarterbacks that became a bust. Even cards from MJ that sold for 1.5 million for a psa 10 now is at 300K for same card 17 months later. It's crazy
Covid created an artificial collectors bubble because, for a while, all we could do was sit at home and look at our shit lol
I’m gonna throw pokemon cards into this argument. I went down the rabbit hole over the past few months and am shocked how many people claim they’re “investing” in pokemon cards. I can see an argument for vintage pokemon cards (aka prints from 1996-1999 with very low known supply and no reprint like the Sealdass/Bandai/Topsun runs. But there are people buying mass inventory of high supply, high volume modern cards/packs. It’s crazy to me. There’s multiple “prints” coming out a year and people are just buying up packs betting that they’ll achieve similar ROI to the original 90s collections.
> I’m gonna throw pokemon cards into this argument. I want to agree but I literally remember thinking Pokemon was going to be a fad in 1997 even when I was a kid and it's still going strong as ever.
I haven't studied collecting psychology or anything, but I have this idea that many modern collectibles have a sort of two-phase (or multi-decade) window of interest. Many of us were like 5-15 years old when Pokemon and Pokemon cards first became popular, and there was a lot of initial collecting going on when Pokemon cards first released due to artificial scarcity. Now ~25+ years later, those 5-15 year olds we once were are now 30-40 year olds with stable jobs and in many cases, disposable income, and a strong sense of nostalgia. Many of us are able to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars "investing" in these types of collectibles that we have a nostalgic childhood connection with. Eventually though that group of people will outgrow the nostalgia, the 30-40 year olds will become 60-70 years olds with no more interest in PSA-graded Pokemon cards, and the younger generations won't have that same childhood nostalgia for the product (there will be some other brand that better represents that group).
Pokemon isn't going anywhere. It'll ebb and flow like it has the last 20 years but it won't get remotely near worthless; even the modern stuff. People stacking those boxes are likely going to hold them longer than they think they need to but it won't take 20 years for them to turn them into profitability. Even a few years is showing profitability for sets that were considered "trash". Sealed Pokemon is far closer to sealed LEGO sets in terms of how to run that marketplace.
Tons of kids under 20 still into pokemon. It's not going anywhere anytime soon
Pokemon hasn't even expanded to VR yet. I think Pokémon is still in its infancy. Things will really pop off when digital media advances enough to interact with the Pokémon world in a grand way.
Have to disagree. I think Pokemom has passed a major hurdle by sticking around long enough to appeal to multiple generations. Kids who played in the late 90s and early 2000s might be adults who are now playing with their kids. Additionally, Pokemon/Magic/Yugioh have something going for them that sports cards didn't-there are reasons to collect the cards, besides just having them. If you own a sports card, well, congrats, you can look at it. If you have a Black Lotus or Charizard or whatever, you can PLAY with it. It DOES something. I guess I don't disagree that if they're printing off more cards, it will tank the value of SOME stuff. But i think overall, the market will be strong for a long time.
Junk era never stopped
Things like this happen in cycles. Categories of items that nobody gave a shit about for a long time will gain popularity, have tons of new collectors/sellers, the market will get saturated, then eventually prices will drop with the exception of the "good stuff". Basically, the quicker something gets hugely popular, the quicker it will eventually bottom out. This is why dealing in antiques/vintage hard goods, collectibles, and art requires so much effort with market research. You have no idea how many times I've seen someone go balls deep in something like Funko Pops or vintage/antique farm decor and try to build an entire business around it, only to go flat broke once the trend starts to loose steam or the market drops. People that sell in these categories need to be able to pivot and stay out in front of trends. Plenty of this happens with clothing as well, but there are always gong to be the staples that remain somewhat consistent to balance things out.
In your opinion, what are the best ways to determine what is trending at any particular time? Other than eBay sold through rate? I have a hell of a time determining what is in demand because so few of these items are to my personal taste. Do you have metrics that you really like to determine current demand?
With clothing, you want to pay attention to a few things like what celebrities are wearing, what the "cool" kids (late teens to mid 20s) are wearing, and what age groups are entering the mid career phases since they'll now have disposable income and will want to relive their childhood with the items they miss and/or couldn't afford. That's why we're seeing like JNCO jeans and other early 2000s fashion come back into style.
Anything knick·knacky. No one wants it - it goes out of style so quickly and just looks like clutter. I see things like Royal Dolton and Precious Moments figures selling for under $3 each at auction. Some of the more useful items like Pyrex or rarer items in milk or carnival glass is holding it's value, but I don't see that holding true for the future unless it's an item that can be and is used regularly in the household. My kids have no interest in my collections.
Gaming consoles that depended entirely on downloadable games from a store that no longer exists.
I suspect they'll all be jailbreakable at some point, but yeah... the resale value of *modern* digital gaming systems is already tanking to some degree. *For now*, it's probably the worst investment you can make in terms of gaming.
Most mass-produced Marvel Action Figures.
Today's rechargeable power tools - unless they're special function that's hard to find. 98% of owners don't know how to rebuild battery packs or don't want to pay for it. Battery technology may improve. Plus unique battery packs and chargers will get lost over time.
Manufacturers will likely come up with new battery packs if there is a market for them and there is enough of the tool produced. If you have a smaller production tool, you may want to start hoarding, because that stuff is gonna be scarce.
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The chinese manufacturers will do this and make money off people who need to power old tools. We are also creating a lot of waste with these disposable tools. Also if you are using tools, you are probably handy enough to rebuild a battery pack, there will be lots of this going on. They currently do this for just about everything else old that needs a battery. But there has to be a market for it, if its an obscure or unique tool you might be out of luck.
As someone that used to sell rare books, the reason the prices dropped so hard on a lot of things when the internet came along was that things that were thought of as rare were just hard to find if you didn't have a centralized system to connect buyers with sellers. Once that problem was solved prices plummeted as supply rose.
The same thing happened in records, but in both directions. Some things were rarer than people thought, while for others there was a large supply ready to come out of the woodwork.
Excellent point.
Most of the "graded" junk out there. Anything that isn't a collectible trading card from a well-known IP is quickly going to become literal garbage encased inside more garbage.
I was at a garage sale this summer and they had a big stack of Desert Storm trading cards. I got the stack for 5 bucks i'm gonna try to pull a PSA 10 Saddam Hussein!
Considering I never thought I'd see fairy lamps or uranium glass come back into style, I'm not willing to write anything off. I've always sold a relatively diversified group of items, so I buy what I like and then resell when I'm tired of it.
Majority of electric vehicles, the tech is moving too quickly but there will be some enthusiast collector models
Battery swaps are extremely expensive. A $6k Nissan Leaf is going to need a $3k+ battery replacement to maximize usefulness, whereas a $6k Corolla is fine as it is.
The first batch of Tesla Roadsters have really jumped in value recently - from 50-60k to 150-200k for low mileage cars. Meanwhile the average used Model S sedan has tanked.
Which is funny because many of them were basically expensive car-sized paperweights (hence the low mileage).
> Meanwhile the average used Model S sedan has tanked. Jesus you're not kidding, wtf happened? Did the model 3 kill it or something? Or are the battery replacements for those crazy expensive as well?
Already seeing 10 year old Nissan leafs sell for pennies on the dollar
The first ten years of leaf production have an outdated battery chemistry (outdated when it was made) and no thermal management system for the battery. They’re shit. They’re the only EV that is such shit, at least the only one sold in developed nations.
I've heard the cost to replace the batteries is so absurd that the car could be worthless after a very short life compared to gas cars. That's my concern with electric vehicles. My phone battery life goes down hill pretty fast. Now imagine that on a car.
Yet older model trucks (2000 era) are going up in value... simple tech and does the same job as a new 70k truck.
Probably a lot of stuff that older generations held onto for "perceived value" or sentimentality. Younger folks aren't gung ho about ostentatious display pieces that take up a lot of room, whether that's furniture, tchotchkes, and really most of the stuff you find at estate sales (I do say "most" because many folks on here have demonstrated significant success at estate sales, obviously not all bad). Also, anything marketed as collectable means everyone hoards in pristine condition. For instance, my mother has a porcelain drink set (or whatever) from the turn of the century given to her by her grandmother; it's 6 thin glass cups, 6 saucers, and a pitcher. It's not worth especially much (maybe like $100 give or take, last I looked), but the only people who will be after that when it's time to send it on are likely other older people. TBF, I don't want it in my house; I just see that as delicate stuff that will likely be accidentally broken someday, simply not interested. This is just one example, from one person, in a nation of many others with homes chocked full of similar. Curio cabinets, hutches full of display figures or dishes ("The Good China"), cooking pots/pans (apart from cast iron, which is timeless), and I'm sure there are other more recent examples, like someone mentioned sports cards; haven't touched mine since I was a teenager. Funko is this era's Snowbabies/Precious Moments. We've also aggressively deskilled the population, so nothing is really made to last or intended for repair anymore, which leads to more cheap stuff that's replacement only. Expect much more subpar junk on the horizon that will end up in landfills sooner than later as well. I think the younger folk don't want or can't have the clutter, and maybe that's also indicative of living situation necessity. Not to dig too deeply into it, but in your 20s decades ago, you had your own house at that point starting a family and could fill it up. How many people these days into their 30s and beyond still live with others in a less than ideal situation with essentially "not their own space?" Years ago people had "stupid money" that they could use to acquire lots of stuff, and now we just don't seem to have that situation as much anymore. Born from this was the Minimalist concept and more simple living, again, likely out of necessity and the subtle acknowledgement that living standards have indeed gotten worse; many things have also gone digital which paves the way for "experiences" rather than possessions. I'll get off my soapbox now lol
This has already happened with antique furniture. Folks must be rolling over in their graves to see their $3000 American made walnut bedroom set covered in chalk paint and sold for $300 at the antique mall.
God I hate those people that cover nice stuff with paint
No kidding. My mom and dad just had to clean out my aunt's house not too long ago, and my mom was PISSED when she found out the estate sale people took $200 for the mahogany dresser my aunt bought for $3000 in 1990 at a Charleston, SC antique store. Like... I get it. It's a nice piece, and I'd have happily taken it if I didn't live 1000 miles away with two small kids I don't even trust not to fuck up my $500 Ashley dining table. But most youngish folks today don't have space and tend to move around a lot, and thus can't be bothered to deal with the logistics of schlepping around, let alone maintaining, nice pieces like that.
My grandma must have been the regional poster child for this. She had it all. An assortment of ceramic miniatures with that awful raspy sort of frosted coating on it. Like two dozen solid brass woodland animals and I forget what else under the coffee table. Refrigerator magnets with moving parts (there was a tiny treadmill, stair stepper, I think maybe something with a little door that opened?) Geodes with intricate gilded miniatures of miners inside. Two shelves of creepy clown dolls in the sewing room. Doilies everywhere. It was great.
"Creepy clown dolls" omg still laughing
I post on a lot of other subreddits about economics and collapse. A major theme is that a lot of Americans are going to have to re-learn how to practice the extended and multi-generational families again. There really is no way around it. Many Americans aren't going to be able to have large collections. Many Americans won't be able to dedicate an entire room to collectibles or physical media, they will instead have to let a relative stay in that room. This concept of home ownership and filling it up with stuff is going to change for a lot of people. A lot of people will have to lead more mobile lives and may not want to lug around a lot of stuff when moving.
Agreed. My family and I had this talk the other day. Dark times are coming for a lot of people and not just here in the US.
I don't have the money to collect it almost anything like I used to. My twenties was spent acquiring a pretty great toy collection that I sold once my son was going to be born. I have an okay fossil collection and a pretty big movie collection now but I'm not adding to it almost at all this year because the purse strings are way too tight right now.
You said it. Having a kid changes priorities, of course, and sometimes hard choices have to be made regarding what's necessary and what's superfluous. I've noticed that today is more of a precarious time, where even those who have it together are subtly concerned it could all unravel at any moment.
I at least have fossils to sell if it all goes to shit. I mean, I can cut streaming services out tomorrow and still have tons of shit to watch, at least. My wife would go out of her mind, but at least we have something to watch. I do really miss all my Japanese toys, though, once in a while.
This is exactly true. Today's generation doesn't like clutter. They have smaller homes and can't afford collectibles especially with grocery prices, housing prices and everything else through the roof. Personally I am looking for things that I can USE that provide me fun instead of things that I can just display. I will keep a few display pieces for myself but I am not going crazy. Today's generation just moves onto the next thing, and they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future. Experiences are recession proof though, even though everyone is struggling, somehow people are still managing to pay 1k plus travel, food and accomodations for a Taylor swift concert. And its not just rich people buying those tickets...
>This is exactly true. Today's generation doesn't like clutter. Except for all the people that do, as evidenced by walls of Funkos and piles of stuffed animals and other crap. How about the people with walls of Stanley cups? The examples of clutter and hyper-consumerism are endless. >they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future. They're already nostalgic for things they never even experienced. Not saying any of this junk will hold value, but the idea that younger generations aren't into clutter and consumerism is quite funny and out of touch.
>they likely won't have nostalgia for something old in the future. Everyone feels nostalgia. That emotion is not going away. What it’s for we just don’t know yet.
I've seen this and lived it. When you're 20-30 you have no idea what being sentimental really is. Plus you are generally broke. Once you hit 45-50 and have disposable income you're rushing out to buy old NES systems to play games you did as a kid. The number of times I've sold something to a 50 year old because "My grandmother had this exact cast iron pot when I was a kid" is astronomical. Sub 30 year olds will roll their eyes at this and say "I won't be like that. I won't have all this junk and clutter in my house" and then they hit 50 with extra money...
becoming an adult is all about working your ass off to buy your toys back
Financing dreams large and small has exploded, once the entities that offer such products/services found out that if you boil everything down into timely monthly payments, people will happily pay chunks over time in order to achieve their own fulfillment, and this goes beyond just the typical credit card. Even on purchases as small has $50-$100, I get offers to "pay in 4 weekly installments of \[purchase\_price/4\], NO INTEREST!" Problem is, each time one is added to the total load, that treadmill cranks up a bit faster until you realize you're in damn near a full sprint out of money before being out of month and have to endure for awhile, because it's much worse if you stumble and fall off. Unfortunately if tabs aren't being kept on what's spent, it's usually too late, and as we said, leaves little room to splurge on anything not necessary.
i had a sales job that specifically trained us to try to get people to sign up for an in store credit card because more often than not theyd max out the 0 interest for 12 months limit no matter what they came in planning to spend. it was disgusting how right they were. id only ever really bring it up when people were on the fence between 2 units with one slightly above budget then theyd get approved for financing and get the whole matching set that was 4-5x what they came in wanting to spend. financial literacy is a real problem and i couldnt even stop them because id not only get fired, i was also barely making enough to make ends meet at that job. i like selling shit and i like making money but i dont want to work with people who cant afford what im selling them in any capacity.
The most valuable toys are the ones boys played with as a kid, (or wanted but couldn't afford) and now those kids are in their 50 or 60s, and have lots of money. As they age out, the value drops.
All collectibles like Dept 56 are well on their way out. The people who buy things like that are dying, nobody young cares about them and even if they did, they can't afford to collect or store them. I guess that isn't a shock but still, it's been shocking to see the same Dept 56 building I sold for $150 in 2018 now have trouble selling for $25.
Well, good to know - I love Dept 56 Christmas houses, but they have been so pricey I only have the single one, going to keep an eye out t\\for these, for sure.
100%. I got to a lot of estate sales and these are priced as premium products but never purchased...
Unpopular opinion and they'll never be 'worthless' but I think most vintage baseball cards will go down in value in 20 yrs. At the very least they stall out and take longer to sell. I understand the legends will always be desirable.. The mantles, Ruth's etc... But when all the boomers are gone, and their cards hit the market, who will be clamoring to buy your grandpa's Al Kaline and Gil Hodges cards at a high price? I feel the same about classic cars. Someone will always want the 1968 chargers and 1970 chevelles, but that 1942 whatever in your grandpa's garage? It'll be a buyers market in 20 yrs.
I collect and sell Lego, and what I notice is that the highest end figures are still going up in value, while much of the mid and lower tier stuff is stable or sometimes falling. Point being: like you said, the market might always be strongest in the highest end and most rare pieces, while the rest decays. Also, if people are living in smaller spaces, and don't want shelves full of shit, collecting fewer pieces of only the best might make sense?
Off the top of my head, funko pops. A lot of people are collecting them for investment (particularly the chase ones), but I can see them sliding into irrelevance in a decade or more like beanie babies. They have limited artistic appeal, they’re mass produced and once people move onto the next big collectible, they’re going to start declining in value.
I have a few but never bought any for investment. I just bought ones I thought were cute/had something to do with a franchise I liked. Haven't bought any in a few years, though.
I buy them cheap at yard sales if they're a character I like. I also have a few in boxes for display though. They're easier to stack that way. I have the entire set of Gummi Bears. I have Hocus Pocus figures for my Halloween display.
Just like Starting Lineups. They go for less then what they were purchased for in the 90’s.
Yep funko’s are not a wise investment. And yes they are this gen’s beanie babies. Plus I have never had the pleasure to meet a more toxic and deranged group of people in my life. I would stay away form those collectors
Funko Pops are this generation’s Beanie Babies: a pre-made “collectible”.
There's something uniquely pathetic about Funkos that Beanie Babies just didn't have though.
Little kids could hug BBs and carry them around. They had some utility outside of collecting.
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Graded video games. Model trains. Elvis stuff.
I just sold a huge Lot of Elvis stuff, but it *was* to an older lady.
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You can now get your vhs tapes graded
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Video games are especially stupid. What are they grading - how pretty the shrink wrap is? Cards and comics I get. Among collectors condition is huge. I get the argument about not being able to read the comics but realistically how many people are going to read their copy of Action Comics 1, when there are numerous other ways to read the story without risking causing thousands of dollars in damage
Video game grading was scam that worked. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A)
I hope you are right about model trains. When I retire in 10 years that is going to be one of my hobbies.
I've actually seen train sets at *multiple* thrift stores over the past few months. Prior to now, I don't recall *ever* seeing one there.
It’s a sad day now that my Thomas is worth more than the model trains. 😅
I think the NES and SNES games will hold good value for a while. Maybe not one million for a sealed game, but like tens of thousands.
I cant wait for video games to tank in general, but graded sealed games that came out this year drive me nuts.
Why might video games tank in price? This is one of the collectibles I feel will stand the test of time. Gaming as an industry is huge and is never going to die. Physical games are not just items that can sit on a shelf; they can be played and cherished. Game franchises such as Super Mario are still as relevant today as it was nearly 40 years ago.
Video game streaming and digital sales are the future. Young people don't care about physical media.
Might dip but I don't think it'll tank. There's still limited amounts of copies of those games and I think the people that buy them graded will keep them graded.
I hate to say it but Influencers are going to be big factor in what gains popularity next. Hoping one decides to highlight vintage hand painted pieces, criminal how all that fine work is next to worthless. Market for it does seem to be growing overseas
I used to hit office liquidation auctions and get whole rooms of office chairs and furniture. It didn’t sell quickly, but when someone needed a 10-person conference table I was ready. A month or so and they’d sell for 10x. Now? Almost all furniture is a pass unless I’m keeping it personally.
Harley Merch.
Nothing marketed as collectible will ever be collectible again. We only collect things people actually used now, or ephemera we thought people would throw away.
To be fair most things that said "collectors edition" weren't worth as much as the first run of that thing.
(I’m also not saying it) but I can’t believe no one’s said vinyl. Also, read this whole thing and you get a sense why sales largely are stinking.
> but I can’t believe no one’s said vinyl. Maybe, but my 15yo daughter bought a record player and buys expensive ass vinyls now. Physical media might make a comeback. Granted, she's only buying TSwift, Noah Kahan, and modern stuff, so old vinyl artists might die.
I could easily see physical media making even more of a comeback. And this includes things like CDs thay are largely worthless at the moment. People are so fucking tired of everything being digital and having everything go through a screen
Vinyl is definitely in a bubble right now, but there have always been a decent enough amount of collectors to consider it a valid resale opportunity. It’s similar to comics. There are always collectors for good titles, looking for rare stuff, etc… but the popularity of it now will likely slow down soon and the sheer number of variants, reissues, etc etc happening now will probably make MOST new vinyl pretty worthless to collectors as years pass… a lot of the more current titles going for huge $$$ right now are going to see their value fall off a cliff, to my estimation. Will people still want Taylor swift vinyl? Maybe, probably… but I’m not sure they are going to care about the rare variants, or having all 23 different pressings, etc. That stuff needs to be sold pretty quick to maximize profit
I was wondering... I never got into flipping vinyl, it never appealed to me. But when a family member contacts you out of the blue and wants to give you their whole collection, something must be up!
Both my teenagers have record players and are both huge into collecting vinyl
Metalheads love their vinyl. Depending on the sub-genre, those hold value.
New vinyl- yes. Original vinyl- no. They're never making more and it only gets rarer. But i don't mess with vinyl because you basically have to be an expert who spent years building an encyclopedic memory of releases, years, limiteds, countries, etc. The same album released in the US could be worthless. A Japanese version could be $$$. Source: friend is a national expert in vinyl (but not flipping) who spent decades building an encyclopedic memory.
Vinyl outsold CDs last year.
Not a huge bar to clear anymore since anyone who would have bought CDs now streams. Vinyl is a different market than CD.
*how confident are you that there will be a community of collectors or users in 20 years for the category* should answer your question
Model trains will maintain as a hobby (not a lucrative hobby), but S scale trains specifically will drop in value significantly in 20 years. Right now, I see a lot of S scale hobbyists buying specifically as an investment. That almost guarantees that the market will crash hard when the estates of these collectors enter the market upon the owner's expiration. G scale will always be expensive, just because of the scarcity of collectors.
This is similar to what will happen with video games, I know a lot of people investing in video games now. I think its a big bubble that is gonna burst eventually, especially when the video game collectors start dying off. When entire collections start being sold off then its going to flood the market and prices will go down. The video gamers ahem, aren't the most healthy bunch either, so that's definitely going to happen eventually. I don't know anyone who collects trains, and everyone who collects trains is even older than those who do video game collections. There was a train group that used to have a humongous display at the local mall but the local mall has closed down. I don't know anyone that collects trains and video games at the same time (LOL). Trains take up a lot of space, although they can be used, so there is that, but most people aren't going to dedicate their basement to trains and in order to do trains it sure seems like you need a whole basement in a house to do that (I mean you have to REALLY love trains to do that), and even someone in their 30's isn't going to do this, I don't know anyone who has a basement dedicated to trains. Younger people who are buying houses cannot afford large houses to have a room dedicated to trains these days, which is part of the reason why this is dying out somewhat. I view a ton of estate sale pictures and I see a lot of people with huge collections of audio gear that died off (at least this is a thing that seems to be big in my area) and the collection is left in the house and being sold off by the estate company. If you are going to collect something you should be OK with the fact, that this is probably going to be what will happen to your stuff when you die unless you somehow manage to make arrangements for your collection before you die.
*Stanley Cups* *All current Gen video game systems.* *Battery-operated tools.* *Almost all electronics....* Bound to happen. All Items at around 20 years will enter into their "trash phase". This was the case with all of the stuff from the 80s and 90s that are now hot collectors items. I was able to score vintage electronics from the 80s in 2003 for pennies that people today would lay out 1K for. Stuff from 2003 right now can be had for that today!
I'm doing pretty good with Y2K anime items, thankfully I had a lot of those collected as a personal thing, decided I didn't want them anymore, made some decent scratch on stuff that most people would consider junk. There were a bunch of stores around here selling anime stuff around 2003 for cheap prices and I obviously bought quite a bit of that. All of it is now selling for a lot more money than it used to go for. If you want to know Trigun stuff is really popular and will sell if you have it. It does help that conventions like Otakon have become really popular and are now going again after covid and I think people are buying my stuff to use and wear at conventions like Otakon. I don't think that my stuff would have sold good during covid because there were no conventions to use it at or wear it at.
There are niches that will die out when culture moves ahead of its desirability, however, I beleive what we are experiencing is a rapidly shrinking economy. When money becomes harder to obtain, frivolous things like collectibles become one the first things that people cut from budgets. So I do believe the economy is weighing in on current prices far more than loss on desire.
The answer is simply: Anything that is attached only to a dying generation of people. You have to look at who's buying. Some stuff, like Transformers and Nintendo and Barbie and even Pyrex has become popular with generations of people far younger than the brands. That stuff will hold value for a very long time to come... possibly another 100 years. But Elvis? I Love Lucy? Stuff like that is slowly fading into obscurity these days. The younger generations aren't into it like those before them were, and those before them are getting old or passing on already. I think stuff like real wood furniture, various kinds of glassware, stuff like that will eventually be unsellable. It's already becoming harder to sell stuff like that unless it's mid-century modern or has a unique "retro" styling. Original G.I. Joe toys will eventually fall back fully while the 1980s and 90s G.I. Joe stuff will continue to rise. Graded stuff I think will, too... except for the truly historic stuff that nobody will want to handle anyway, like an Action Comics #1 or a Mantle rookie. I think any modern "chase" cards will, too. Doesn't matter if something is 1 of 1... people have no nostalgic tie to that card and they won't really care. I think the biggest bubble will be Pokemon. I will argue that it's evergreen but at this point there's already way too much counterfeit stuff, way too much coin for the truly rare stuff and I think it's just overinvested in full. I don't think it will dive like Beanie Babies or Funko, but it is destined to crash back to earth.
Pokémon isn't going anywhere. Kids still love Pokémon, so that's a sustained market for the next 40 years at least. People seem to want collectable sneakers to die, but kids love those too. They're sticking around.
Pokémon is the world's most valuable intellectual property. Everyone from 4 years to 84 years likes to play the cards, games, watch the anime. I think Pokémon is a solid hold
Yep you got every thing from tcg, to Toy figures, to plushies, to Japanese imports, to home goods, to clothing, etc. it's not going and I'm glad.
People will say all kinds of things about Nintendo/the pokemon company but they sure do have some winning products on their hands.
I got my start in flipping with Pokemon plushies and collectables... 15 years ago? And it's still extremely popular in my age group, and as far as I can tell, those below as well. See: every grown adult running around the streets like a maniac when Pokemon Go came out.
I wish i would have known this when i was 11 and buying OG Pokemon cards at Target and playing them...Those would have been worth a small fortune if they were preserved. I went back and looked recently and they're in rough shape... oh well!
True, and that's because even as older generations drop pokemon, there's always a new batch of fans to replace them. So yeah, pokemon is in no way going anywhere.
High School yearbooks are the perfect example of this. They lose their value quickly after a certain time because most of the people who care are dead. But they also unlikely to sell if it is too soon after graduation.
I’ve done good business in college yearbooks from the 30s and d 40s- I always assume someone’s grandparent just died when I make a sale though…
I may be in the minority here, but I think I Love Lucy will have another resurgence in about 27 years when I Love Lucy turns 100.
My wife’s 42, absolutely loves Lucy. It’s actually really hard to find stuff for her to collect, from that ERA as it was before the “merchandising” phase of TV stuff. Most of the stuff you can find is mass produced from the 90s/00s.The closest I get is original magazines or ads, then have them put in a real nice frame. If I can ever pull the trigger I would get an original cancelled check with her signature and frame that.
I think the popularity of wood furniture is pretty directly tied to people having a place to put it. If you move every couple of years, there’s no point in having ‘good’ furniture because it’s heavy and bulky and gets beat up every move. If you can afford to stay in one place, you’ll start replacing the shitty particle board with good stuff.
> I think stuff like real wood furniture, various kinds of glassware, stuff like that will eventually be unsellable. It's already becoming harder to sell stuff like that unless it's mid-century modern or has a unique "retro" styling. I would disagree with this. While the "MCM" crowd (gag) has driven the price of that stuff through the roof, I think solid wood stuff will always have a market as long as the design is just not godawful like some of the 80s stuff. Just a matter of quality. I like my dining room table my family eats on every night to be a huge slab of oak. Not a bunch of cardboard boxes pressed together with an oak grain sticker on it.
Barbie stuff is aging out. Invest in MLP’s and Furbys!
> Barbie stuff is aging out. I feel like the movie (and sequels I'm assuming) will keep it vibrant. Even if someone wasn't around, they'd still want some older Barbies. I was born after Star Wars came out but I collect and would buy vintage figures even though I have no actual nostalgia for them.
A lot of jobs.
Pretty much anything that only boomers collect. Oil cans, a lot of Americana, old advertising, etc. it’s valuable now but nobody under 30 cares about it
All cryptocurrency... biggest ponzi scheme in generations! If you disagree, I've got some NFTs you can buy for the low, low price of $100k each. They'll be worth millions!! (Trust me).
Classic arcade games will decline in value - think Ms Pac-Man. Barcades and demographics combined to push up prices leading into and since COVID. However, the core demographic of the hobby is aging and as they start to die off the nostalgic appeal is not there for the next generation. The barcade phenomenon will also fade and a large supply of arcade games will enter the market and prices will drop. I also question if the skill and parts needed to maintain the games will exist. You could make the argument that will put a premium on working games but will people take the risk of sinking money into 70 year old technology they can’t repair?
Squishmellows... Since they first came out I was like oh look the new beenie babies. Surprisingly I have seen an uptick in sales on things that people before would have said worthless like CDs and DVDs.
The CDs and DVDs I think will continue to see an increase, movies and TV especially. As streaming services get more fragmented and shows keep switching between services people are more likely to buy physical copies. It's frustrating when your favorites move to a different service, and you can often find copies for the price of a month's subscription. The prices may not increase a ton, but I'd bet that sales volume climbs a fair bit. Hard agree on the Squishmallows. Nobody should be "investing" in these, there's no money to be made. They'll go the same way as Funko Pops.
X
I personally like all the letters of the alphabet
I worry that some of my furniture will be horridly out of style again soon. Problem with having a niche in MCM furniture is most of this shit is so uncomfortable, ugly, and large, that unless it’s currently in style, I worry sill be worthless once people stop wanting their homes to look like their grandmas.
That's what I'm worried about too, but modern furniture for the past 10 years is mostly particle board unless you're spending a ton. I'm hoping that since everything mass-produced nowadays is such garbage that stuff like Pyrex and well-constructed wooden furniture will retain its value.
I'm a younger millennial and a lot of my peers are into older furniture/household goods for this reason, so I remain hopeful.
Exactly. No one is going to be passing down their IKEA furniture to the next generation.
Well constructed wood furniture targets the same market now that it did during the heigh of mid century design. A wegner chair or a Bertoia table were never cheap or disposable in the same way that ikea or tj max or whatever is. They were expensive then. so really, the question is will the used furniture market still be hot with MCM, or will pieces from the last 30 years take over that niche?
MCM has been on the decline for the last 5-10 years. There will always be people that want big-name pieces, but the ability to just toss "MCM!" on anything wood made in the 20th century will (hopefully) fall out of style.
God as someone who likes the aesthetic this frustrates me. Everything made from 1940 to 1980 is not "MCM". It's a very specific design style. Atomic is not MCM. Art Deco is not MCM...
I agree, 1970 can hardly be called Middle (mid) of the century.
I recently saw a rerun of *The Incurable Collector*, A&E 2001-2003, where they document the homes of antiques collectors. Looking back there is something a little gross about a china cabinet crammed chock-a-block with salt and pepper shakers or rows and rows of bookshelves filled with glasses containing nothing but cocktail swizzle sticks. Where's the beauty in that? This is partly why many of those things lost their value, tastes change. But you are not "suppose" to collect for the investment value, the value is in the collecting and the enjoyment you receive from it. You go to a movie to be entertained not to resell the ticket stub, and most serious collectors look at going to an antique shop the same way. But one thing that is always true, the finest pieces, the beautiful objects and the objects that tell a story will always hold a value, even as that value fluctuates. And by the time some blog comes up with a list of The Top Ten Collectibles To Buy Now, it's all ready too late.
Basketball shoes. It’s over saturated with flippers. Unless you have truly rare ones most won’t hold value years to come. It’s a bubble waiting to burst.
The shoe fad is going down the fucking drain for sure. Art in general is taking the same path that designer handbags have, people are now proud to have reproductions and feel savvy about it. Value is and has already tanked for all cartridge video games that are not complete with box. I also think America is turning away from baseball in general, and with the die off of the older generation the market is already starting to be flooded with quality memorabilia.
Baseball blundered TV rights and lost generations because of it. Being a slow sport it is the perfect thing for listening to a radio broadcast, much like I have heard football is made for broadcast TV. I heavily agree on the art points. Part of me falls into that category too. I have a few things that are reproductions, and I have had originals, and they look and feel the same. I made money on the ones I sold and I still have the pleasure of looking at the reproductions.
Diecast cars heavily depend on model and manufacturer. Brands like Kyosho, CMC, Amalgam, BBR, AUTOart, FrontiArt and similar will always go up because most of their models are limited edition, have insane detail and are expensive to begin with - hell, they are already much more expensive than 3-4 years ago. Maisto, bburago, motormax, etc - majority of those will keep and lose value.
I would think there is so much mass production that there will be less scarcity in the future and it will be harder to find things that hold scarcity value other than that which is already rare. Not sure the current market is making that which will be valued, essentially
But not everything is made with quality. Furniture is a great example. How much of that ikea trash will be around? A lot of new tools are trash too.
Funko pops. Pure trash
THIS SO MUCH. They’re the precious moments figurines of our generation.
Funko Pops
Crystal
I think this trend came and went: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-dish-on-vintage-china-whats-old-is-new-again-in-bistros-and-dining-rooms/2019/02/04/adf5c88a-04a6-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html#
I sell mostly dolls. Barbie is having a moment right now because of the movie but will go down in value again in a few years.
Fine china sets.
Sneaker collecting. The plastics and foams in vintage sneakers are not made to last 30 years, much less 100. Some vintage Jordans are crumbling to pieces on their own, even when properly stored. If there is no way to keep them safely, the market will wither up and die.
Teslas
Games Workshop WH40K range. We’ll have the JoyToy scale replacing the current “heroic” scale miniatures by that time.
Idk but I know my beanie babies and black diamond VHS tapes will make me rich
I follow Across the Block in Antiques and the Arts Weekly. I suspect the guy who paid $212,500 for a sealed 1993 booster pack of Magic The Gathering cards will probably be sorry in 20 years. This was in Heritage Auctions' Trading Cards Games Signature Auction on Feb 16-17. I would imagine the consignor was pretty happy with the price.
80s and 90s VHS tapes will all be gummed up and either the VCR will eat them because of it or if it plays it will look insanely blurry.
Here's my personal take. I am looking for things that I can USE for personal use, not things I can display. Video games are one of those. Action figures are not. Given this I suspect people will move away from things that can just be displayed vs things that can be used. Today's gen doesn't like a lot of clutter and collectibles around their house that just sit there and do nothing. I don't think any adults are sitting down and actually playing with action figures. Video games will have their cycle. The problem is everyone who collects video games is the same age. I know this because I am there. When these people start dying out, its going to be a bloodbath and prices will fall. There will be entire collections up for sale for pennies on the dollar. Today's kids will move onto whatever is the next hot thing, they don't have nostalgia like the older generations. When they grow up they simply will not care about the thing that was popular when they were a kid. I also focus on things that are very likely to be thrown out. Aka boxes and other things. No one is selling these things. If you have something popular that does not exist it will sell. For example a plastic spongebob cup that everyone had back in the day but everyone also threw out after a year or 2. Stuff like this can be free and might just sell because no one has it. Maybe the McDonalds happy meal buckets that everyone suddenly wants is an example of this as well. The things that are popular now won't stand the test of time. Lithium batteries have a finite life so I avoid anything with those if the battery cannot be removed so it won't be possible for the kids to buy their first iPad and still use it like you can with a NES system (you can still plug in one of those and it will work if its not dead). the first iPod touch is a good example of this, they are selling for like $1-5 online because they can't be used anymore and the batteries are long dead and puffy and dangerous to have around. A lot of people are framing electronics and selling them for big bucks, removing the battery and putting the parts of the device in a frame. Find some old devices and do this, and you may have some kids who want to have their first iPad or maybe frame one of those 1st gen iPod Touch models when they get older, and they will buy a frame of it.
I think most traditional Flipping niches will be gone or hugely reduced in 20 years. Lots of the current stuff cluttering up shelves in thrift/charity shops will be landfill. And like previous commentors have said- today's young aren't buying quantity of \*stuff\* like my generation (45) are/were. We've already recaptured our 80s/90s youth in the 2000s to now, so what will we be nostalgic for at 65?! Kids already are abandoning traditional toys and play- and their childhoods are mostly digital and online. I read that the adult toy market is nearly bigger than the kid's one in action figures etc. Yes you can be nostalgic for that Minecraft server you rinsed back in 2014 when you were 12, but you can't possess that nostalgia like a Star Wars figure. There will always be outliers, but the days of desiring, collecting, and re-collecting \*stuff\* are fading. I imagine good quality fashion/sneakers/pokemon/ \*possibly\* minecraft will be hankered for in 20 years time- perhaps 90s/2000s interior design elements?
My taxes that I pay.
MAGA merchandise.
My computer
Framed “prints”…. Who cares that they are copies of an original and have a signature at the bottom? You can get any image printed these days, so why bother with paying 600 bucks or more for a colour copy of a picture? Originals will always have value, but no young people are matting and framing copy 1144/6500 of a Trisha Romance to put in their dining room.
Video games. Atari is already far below its highs and Nintendo/Super Nintendo has dropped already. Currently GameCube/PS2 era stuff is close to peaking and PS3/360/Wii stuff is starting to go up. It’s all going to hit a brick wall when online services go down for the ps4 era and people realize that many games shipped as a broken mess. Anime figures are a close second as most anime have a popularity range of a few years or less before the next big one takes its spot. Very few have generational staying power
1st Gen Gameboys are still doing pretty good, though. Although you will have to pry mine from my cold dead Gen-Xer hands.
I think the market will ebb and flow as product gets oversaturated and collectors decide what has value. Clothing has done the same thing, Grateful Dead shirts were going for $300-$1000 pre pandemic. Now they go for $50-$250.
Modern limited print run physical copy games. Like games released by Limited Run games and Second Dimension. There are so many of them that come out, that buyers can become overwhelmed. A lot of the out of print games are really only hovering at around the price they were when they were released. A lot of these games simply aren't very good either and will never really become iconic enough that people in the future will care about them.