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Collectibles are a tough market because you can't predict what will continue to be valuable in the future (i.e. art, sculpture, watches) vs what is ephemeral (i

Collectibles are a tough market because you can't predict what will continue to be valuable in the future (i.e. art, sculpture, watches) vs what is ephemeral (i.e. Pogs, Yu-Gi-Oh cards). I genuinely don't know: were people trading sneakers in the 80s? Or is this a recent (read: temporary) phenomenon?

maaaats 7y ago
From the article: > The fervor for sneakers has been fueled by “sneakerheads” and others who regard the shoes as investment assets. Like beanie babies, perhaps? Or is there anything driving the value here other than potentially future value? (Not that different from stocks, some may argue, but..) Edit: Based on votes this strung a cord on some people..
benj111 7y ago
I would predict toys become collectible roughly 20-30 years after their heyday. Ie when the kids have grown up and want to relive their childhood. So that would make pogs due imminently. Mistakes (on coins and stamps) is a reliable indicator, actually my dad has a blue thunderbird 2. Most tvs were black and white, so they didn't know what the colour was, or didn't think it mattered. Then you have the famous flops. That ET Atari cart is probably quite valuable, same for the Sinclair C1.
- whermans 7y ago
  The Atari ET cart is an oddity: it was a huge flop, but vast amounts of carts were produced before that was apparent, so you can still get a good one for under $20.
jahlove 7y ago
The Air Jordans 1 (1985) were the beginning of collectible sneaker movement. It probably wasn't until sites like eBay became popular that the market really opened up.
- fvrghl 7y ago
  This is not true. The original AJ1s did not sell well and were often discounted. They were cheap and used by skateboarders because of that. The Virgil AJ1s have the red plastic tag attached to them as a reference to that era (the red plastic tag is how retailers would denote a "sale" item).
  - pigeons 7y ago
    I never could find them on sale and never could afford them. If they didn't sell well, why were there so many "knock offs" available (which I did have, and did wear on my skateboard) at k-mart and the like with no logo and the black "swoosh" more of a hockey-stick shape".
    - fvrghl 7y ago
      I've definitely heard both sides of this, so I'm not sure. A lot of the history of the release has been retconned by Nike to improve its legacy
      - romeoEtJoliet 7y ago
        I think it actually goes both ways. They might have been initially incredibly popular and subsequently Nike flooded the market with the sneaker to the point that it ended up on clearance shelves (https://solecollector.com/news/2017/04/air-jordan-1-og-sales-numbers https://solecollector.com/news/2017/04/air-jordan-1-og-sales...). The article also mentions that Nike targeted ~3-4 million pairs of the sneaker, which is relatively high for a hyped sneaker. For a modern comparison, this article (https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/news/heres-stock-numbers-off-white-x-nike-blazer-black/ https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/news/heres-stock-numbers-off-w...) claims only ~48k pairs of last year's hyped Off-White x Nike Blazer Mid ‘Black’ sneaker were released.
nemothekid 7y ago
Personally, sneakerheads were a thing in the late 90s, and the "fad" started for me in the 2000s with the rise of web 1.0. I remember the Nike "Tiffany" SB Dunks, which dropped in 2005, being the most talked about sneaker back then and still retails for $1,000+ on StockX.

maaaats 7y ago

From the article: > The fervor for sneakers has been fueled by “sneakerheads” and others who regard the shoes as investment assets. Like beanie babies, perhaps? Or is there anything driving the value here other than potentially future value? (Not that different from stocks, some may argue, but..) Edit: Based on votes this strung a cord on some people..

benj111 7y ago

I would predict toys become collectible roughly 20-30 years after their heyday. Ie when the kids have grown up and want to relive their childhood. So that would make pogs due imminently. Mistakes (on coins and stamps) is a reliable indicator, actually my dad has a blue thunderbird 2. Most tvs were black and white, so they didn't know what the colour was, or didn't think it mattered. Then you have the famous flops. That ET Atari cart is probably quite valuable, same for the Sinclair C1.

whermans 7y ago
The Atari ET cart is an oddity: it was a huge flop, but vast amounts of carts were produced before that was apparent, so you can still get a good one for under $20.

jahlove 7y ago

The Air Jordans 1 (1985) were the beginning of collectible sneaker movement. It probably wasn't until sites like eBay became popular that the market really opened up.

fvrghl 7y ago
This is not true. The original AJ1s did not sell well and were often discounted. They were cheap and used by skateboarders because of that. The Virgil AJ1s have the red plastic tag attached to them as a reference to that era (the red plastic tag is how retailers would denote a "sale" item).
- pigeons 7y ago
  I never could find them on sale and never could afford them. If they didn't sell well, why were there so many "knock offs" available (which I did have, and did wear on my skateboard) at k-mart and the like with no logo and the black "swoosh" more of a hockey-stick shape".
  - fvrghl 7y ago
    I've definitely heard both sides of this, so I'm not sure. A lot of the history of the release has been retconned by Nike to improve its legacy
    - romeoEtJoliet 7y ago
      I think it actually goes both ways. They might have been initially incredibly popular and subsequently Nike flooded the market with the sneaker to the point that it ended up on clearance shelves (https://solecollector.com/news/2017/04/air-jordan-1-og-sales-numbers https://solecollector.com/news/2017/04/air-jordan-1-og-sales...). The article also mentions that Nike targeted ~3-4 million pairs of the sneaker, which is relatively high for a hyped sneaker. For a modern comparison, this article (https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/news/heres-stock-numbers-off-white-x-nike-blazer-black/ https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/news/heres-stock-numbers-off-w...) claims only ~48k pairs of last year's hyped Off-White x Nike Blazer Mid ‘Black’ sneaker were released.

nemothekid 7y ago

Personally, sneakerheads were a thing in the late 90s, and the "fad" started for me in the 2000s with the rise of web 1.0. I remember the Nike "Tiffany" SB Dunks, which dropped in 2005, being the most talked about sneaker back then and still retails for $1,000+ on StockX.