5 ms·

I don't remember where I first heard this, but it's good advice: don't collect as an investment, collect because you really enjoy the objects. I collect rare bo

I don't remember where I first heard this, but it's good advice: don't collect as an investment, collect because you really enjoy the objects. I collect rare books, but never because I think they'll go up in value (although they probably will). I just like having them around. Socially, infamous corpo-swag is really even better - what a conversation starter! But I personally wouldn't want that sort of stuff in my shared spaces. Interesting or not, its still just corpo-swag.

dmazin 5y ago
Cool! Do you focus on any subjects? Also, have you seen The Booksellers? It took me a while to realize I was collecting books. Before, the way I thought of it was "I would never walk past an out-of-print book about computing history! I might never come across it again!" But now I am a bit more focused on the collection aspect, for example, there are now specific titles and authors that I seek out.
- javajosh 5y ago
  I have a good collection of old science books. One of my favorites is called "The Perfect Woman", publish in 1896, and it is a manual for women. It's precisely as horrifying and unintentionally hilarious as you would expect. But mostly I collect early editions of my favorite stories, or occasionally limited editions like from Subterranean Press. And no, I have not seen The Booksellers. I got into this because as a kid I'd buy a lot of books from our neighborhood used book dealer, mostly cheap science fiction paperbacks. I've tried ebooks a couple of times, and I just don't like them. I wish I did because it's highly convenient. But I just really prefer paper. For one thing you can give away your book when you're finished with it, or loan it to a friend, neither of which you can do with an ebook.
brandall10 5y ago
I could imagine having a little ‘altar’ of failed company swag on a shelf in your office could be fun and motivating in a way.
dehrmann 5y ago
> don't collect as an investment I've seen a lot of Pawn Stars in the past six months. They never say this, but you can put it together. Most things that people collect trade in low volumes, so pricing is hard, and the bid/ask spread kills you. If you decide to sell, you'll either get 70% of the value if you sell it fast, or maybe 100% if you're ready to wait two years. If you want to liquidate everything, it might depress the market. There's also a discount when you have it as a collection because someone could part it out, but that's even more time. That, and the drive to collect is building the collection, so there's less utility in getting an instant collection.
volkl48 5y ago
While I totally agree about not collecting as an investment, "because you really enjoy the objects as a person who likes this stuff" is probably not actually a terrible metric for future desirability of an item in a niche area of collecting. Other fans/collectors likely feel the same. Of course, it doesn't tell you if that niche will die out and no one will want anything, although I suspect rare books are less at risk of that. As a collector of memorabilia for a band that's been around a while: The items I was drawn to, either because I just loved the look or because they were from a show/tour/album I particularly found special, have often turned out to be the ones that have appreciated much more in value than the average thing of that level of rarity for the band.

dmazin 5y ago

Cool! Do you focus on any subjects? Also, have you seen The Booksellers? It took me a while to realize I was collecting books. Before, the way I thought of it was "I would never walk past an out-of-print book about computing history! I might never come across it again!" But now I am a bit more focused on the collection aspect, for example, there are now specific titles and authors that I seek out.

javajosh 5y ago
I have a good collection of old science books. One of my favorites is called "The Perfect Woman", publish in 1896, and it is a manual for women. It's precisely as horrifying and unintentionally hilarious as you would expect. But mostly I collect early editions of my favorite stories, or occasionally limited editions like from Subterranean Press. And no, I have not seen The Booksellers. I got into this because as a kid I'd buy a lot of books from our neighborhood used book dealer, mostly cheap science fiction paperbacks. I've tried ebooks a couple of times, and I just don't like them. I wish I did because it's highly convenient. But I just really prefer paper. For one thing you can give away your book when you're finished with it, or loan it to a friend, neither of which you can do with an ebook.

brandall10 5y ago

I could imagine having a little ‘altar’ of failed company swag on a shelf in your office could be fun and motivating in a way.

dehrmann 5y ago

> don't collect as an investment I've seen a lot of Pawn Stars in the past six months. They never say this, but you can put it together. Most things that people collect trade in low volumes, so pricing is hard, and the bid/ask spread kills you. If you decide to sell, you'll either get 70% of the value if you sell it fast, or maybe 100% if you're ready to wait two years. If you want to liquidate everything, it might depress the market. There's also a discount when you have it as a collection because someone could part it out, but that's even more time. That, and the drive to collect is building the collection, so there's less utility in getting an instant collection.

volkl48 5y ago

While I totally agree about not collecting as an investment, "because you really enjoy the objects as a person who likes this stuff" is probably not actually a terrible metric for future desirability of an item in a niche area of collecting. Other fans/collectors likely feel the same. Of course, it doesn't tell you if that niche will die out and no one will want anything, although I suspect rare books are less at risk of that. As a collector of memorabilia for a band that's been around a while: The items I was drawn to, either because I just loved the look or because they were from a show/tour/album I particularly found special, have often turned out to be the ones that have appreciated much more in value than the average thing of that level of rarity for the band.