Featured Worthless Collectables

My oldest sister had a thing for Longaberger baskets.
When she died, her husband found closets full of unopened boxes of them.
Her family estimates that she had about $40,000 worth of them (thats retail price).

 

Ono...

 

Hey!!!! >>>
"Japanese 2600th Anniversary
This is a very special plate!

1940 was the 2600th anniversary of the enthronement of Jinmu Tenno at the Kashihara-no-Miya palace. Japan planned elaborate celebrations, and among the various events was the issue of this plate. The issue was a joint effort between the Japanese Tourist Board and Japanese Railways, and was manufactured by Noritake. In international terms, the event escaped notice, and I can only presume that everything was planned in the years before the storm clouds of war finally burst on the world in 1939.

The quality of the plate is amazing for its time, showing a sprig of cherry blossom and Mount Fuji. The simplicity and elegance of the design look much later than 1940.

The reverse is marked with the occasion of the issue, and the names of the sponsors, as well as Noritake's own marks. Unusually for wall plates, the holes to thread a hanging string are at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock."
~
None on eBidet.
Found it for 45 Euros on 'Thorgrims Treasures'.
One sold on Worthpoint but I don't know the sale price.
Addoway.com $36.

 

There are many people who collect Coke or Disney extensively.

There are few of those people who want to pay for what they collect.

 

I knew a guy in Vegas whose house was full of amazing Disney items and well displayed too.
I have friend has much Coke stuff, some I've found for her, who has a pizza shop and would like to display some there but she has Pepsi products and they won't allow it.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone!

A recent auction I attended had several tables full of boxed sets of baseball cards from the late 80's to the early 90's. From my understanding, enormous quantities of baseball cards were dumped on the market at this time by card companies creating a supply that far exceeded demand even during the late 1980's when sports card collecting was booming. Today these cards with a few exceptions are essentially worthless. The auctioneer ended up selling the cards by the table for $5 choice and told the crowd that this was the last time he was going to accept consignments of sports cards from this era since there obviously was no market for them.

 

One day that auction will have several tables of Ipods, Ipads & Iphones.....& I think the result will be the same !

 

Never got caught up in collecting things made to be collectible. I do look out for such things I can make some money on. Last year I attended an auction from a woman's estate that had thousands of collector plates. Everything went for pennies on the dollar. Some people were snapping up the Norman Rockwell plates. I hope they were for themselves. I bought the 12 Beauties of the Red Mansion series and the Imperial carnival glass 12 days of Christmas plates.

This is not mine but made similar money on my Beauties set .....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Imperial-Ji...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Seems the carnival glass plates are not faring as well as they were last year. Think I sold mine for $175.00. They might do better closer to Christmas.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Imperial...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

This is where being well informed helps tremendously. I heard mention of the beauties series on the old group and checked out the 12 days set on a hunch. I have made good money on buying Longaberger and Christopher Radko for pennies on the dollar. Most recently the Dept. 56 Halloween votives did very well for me. I think the Bonnie Barrett figure that I currently have listed does as well.

It is kind of a shame that things such as this can bring in some decent money while truly rare and fine antiques don't sell or sell for a lot less. I think it says something about the sheep mentality of people. They want what others want or what they are told they should want. It is as if they really don't trust their own level of taste.

 

Reminds me...my mom has a collection of annual Hummel plates ..she used to talk about them ..saying "remember..those plates are very valuable"...
Doubt she knows they a worth a few bucks each....

 

Don't even get me started on Royal Doulton figurines ! I JUST saw one for $35 that my mother paid $300 for !!! Only two out of her collection of about 20 still have any real value,the bottom has dropped out on the rest. I haven't told her that,but I strongly discourage her when she sees another one .

 

When I started going to auctions (about ten years ago) Hummel figurines were another thing that was big. There was a small group of Hummel collectors that would scour the newspaper auction listings and would attend all the auctions that had them. I vividly remember an auction where it took two full hours to get through the Hummel collection (probably 175 of them). Now they are selling for $10-$25 each, a huge decline from what they were selling for pre-2005.

eBay and the internet seem to have played major roles in destroying the allusion that these collectables were ever rare and thus has suppressed prices. Why travel to an auction or antique shop and overpay when you can go on eBay and have your choice of a dozen or so exactly the same pieces at low prices?

 

I know...along with those plates....there is a box of figurines...some very old..when I finally get to her house...to clean out...I probably will keep one or two figurines ..just because I should ...and sell or donate the rest..

 

My mother loved bears. She started with Boyd's, which fortunately weren't terribly expensive. But then she was attracted by some "ad" to new Stieff "Collectible" ones- paid something like $400 for the 100th Anniversary bear and a similar amount for a Teddy Roosevelt bear (a bear dressed like TR.) I was appalled when I found out. When we moved her into assisted living, TR went with her but the other was part of what was auctioned off. The idiot auctioneer simply did not understand what it was and did not hype it up. He only got $65 for it. And that was only because I was hyperventilating over what she had wasted money on and a fellow standing near me heard and bid it up. The others were all donated to Goodwill.

It could have been worse.

 

Rhiwfield, is KingofThings suggesting we start collecting those as an investment?

Greg, when you say Avon red, do you mean the Cape Cod pieces. I've noticed a lot of those lately in antique shops. Never thought they would be popular. The only Avon pieces I buy now are the cars made in Brazil for what I think was a giveaway at a sales convention. They're not bottles. My favorites are the Cord and the Auburn. Also Burago? Put them in one of the antique cases as an attention getter for a male reluctantly following his wife around. I price them at $50 to $60 and they last a month or two.
I'm also happily noticing more sales on some items that have been there over a year. A Cambridge Decanter, A, believe it or not, almost complete set of Dirigold that was only anchoring the bottom shelf no one could see anyway. Someone actually saw it.

For anyone who has real business going on eBay, with a lot help, they can make a decent profit on those Precious Moment pieces. I sold a few of those that somehow made their way into my house. And you prompted me to check. Currently on eBay
over 26,000 sold, 12,500 over $10., 5,000 over $25 and 1,553 over $50.00.

Gotta run, CYL

 

My mom collected silver napkin rings (mostly silverplate), open salts, and butter pat plates among other finer antiques. Unfortunately, these have not fared much better than the made to be collectible stuff. Fortunately, she never paid much for any of her collection. Family took most of what she collected but what we sold probably went at a slight loss. I think I still have a box of the open salts somewhere that I was never able to sell.

 

My aunt had a collection of American Brilliant cut glass ..which I now have and added to over the years.....it is sad what the pieces would fetch now...(some of the better pieces I have once had values in $300-600+ each range)

Verybrad...maybe we could find a buyer who wants to set a fancy table..with your silver and my cutglass

 

Sold by the US Mint for $29.95 a roll plus inflated shipping

They are worth ten dollars a roll.

 

My father collected stamps all his life. He was so disappointed to learn that they were not worth what he thought they would be long term. Now he sometimes uses some of the more recent stamps on envo's when he sends me a letter via snail mail.
At least they have a second life or purpose, but I know he was sad to learn after decades of collecting them that they weren't worth much.
:-(

One of the first things I started collecting were the Vitrock canisters with colored rings on the front for sugar, flour, salt, pepper. I got them with the blue rings to match my kitchen. I paid good money for them back then and now it is safe to say they would be hard to sell. But I also remember that I was overjoyed to collect the full set piece by piece back then so they have good memories for me, if nothing else.

 

I agree with Brad wholeheartedly!!

I never dismiss any type of collectible item without first checking it out to see if there is any type of market for the item.

When I first started doing ebay seriously I purchased a shelf lot of miscellaneous Christmas items at a local auction. One of the items on the shelf was a 1979 Hallmark ornament. It was Santa driving a train locomotive without its original box. I was going to give it to my youngest son who was born in 1979 right up until I did a search on ebay for the ornament. Turns out it was number 1 of the series & I sold it on ebay for $90 because I knew he would never appreciate it that much. LOL

I have also sold numerous Red Mansion plates. I actually had so many there for a while I decided to just not delete the listings or the photos from Auctiva so that they would be an easy relist if I came across any more, but I haven't seen any in quite a while now.

Peggy

 

The number one rule of Collectibles is: they aren't. I tend to buy things that weren't meant to survive, because that's the stuff that goes up. Old sterling jewelry bought around melt weight is a good idea too. Israeli eilat stone jewelry is good too; it's collected and the stone only came from one played out mine. It hasn't gone up much...yet, but probably will eventually.

I agree on the stamps; my late father collected too. The stuff from the 80s on, let's just say I haven't had to pay first class letter postage in quite a while. I did buy something from Avon this morning, but they're Elizabeth Taylor for Avon earrings, not marked, and really pretty. That line sells; you can't give away most Avon jewelry. As for the bottles, the less said the better. I recently bought some Goebel Mickey and Minnie figures, big ones, for $20. They retailed for close to $300. It's about all they were worth too. Sold them to a friend for what I paid, because she's a Disney freak.