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I come from a family of collectors, motivated both by personal joy and sometimes potential dollar signs. No one on this side of my family is wealthy, quite a fe

I come from a family of collectors, motivated both by personal joy and sometimes potential dollar signs. No one on this side of my family is wealthy, quite a few struggle to make ends meet. To our credit, none of us spend more than trivial sums for any such collecting[1]. It is possible to make money collecting, but it’s very time sensitive and an active hustle. You pretty much only want to do it if also get joy from the collecting itself. Which is the thing. Collectibles are a terrible financial investment. They can be an excellent personal life enriching investment. If you have a good healthy attitude towards it acknowledging it’ll probably yield low financial gain, and high positive emotional response… go nuts. Just don’t let it usurp your long term plans. 1: Except me. Anyone want to buy a really nice acoustic guitar that could use a more attentive home? I have a laughable number of them which I never play! I’m not in need for cash but it’d be nice to reclaim some space, and any proceeds would go to helping out my fam with much tighter budgets.

andygcook 5y ago
What region are you located in?
- eyelidlessness 5y ago
  Seattle
dntrkv 5y ago
> You pretty much only want to do it if also get joy from the collecting itself I think this is key. In my experience, the best (and usually most valuable) collections are by those that are very passionate in whatever niche it is. These people usually don’t set out to make money but to acquire pieces that they really want. In my case, I collect vinyl because I love having physical copies of my favorite music. But I also enjoy seeking out rare albums and getting them for a good price, not because I want to resell them, but because I just don’t want to pay more than I can and I’m in no hurry. The interesting thing to me is how much time it takes to develop your taste in these niche topics. It’s not something that you can even accelerate. You just dig deeper and deeper over many years until you find yourself listening to some bizarre album on repeat and then decide you have get the vinyl.

andygcook 5y ago

What region are you located in?

eyelidlessness 5y ago
Seattle

dntrkv 5y ago

> You pretty much only want to do it if also get joy from the collecting itself I think this is key. In my experience, the best (and usually most valuable) collections are by those that are very passionate in whatever niche it is. These people usually don’t set out to make money but to acquire pieces that they really want. In my case, I collect vinyl because I love having physical copies of my favorite music. But I also enjoy seeking out rare albums and getting them for a good price, not because I want to resell them, but because I just don’t want to pay more than I can and I’m in no hurry. The interesting thing to me is how much time it takes to develop your taste in these niche topics. It’s not something that you can even accelerate. You just dig deeper and deeper over many years until you find yourself listening to some bizarre album on repeat and then decide you have get the vinyl.