Quote Originally Posted by SpaceGhost2K-XBA View Post
Wall of text, I know.

Here's some of the things I've collected:

Star Wars figures. I got Vader in Feb 1998 for $1.99 and it took me until 1986, but I managed to put together a collection of every figure that had been released to the mass market. The last five I actually had to contact Kenner and they sold them to me and shipped them from the warehouse because no retailers were carrying them anymore. I bought five figures for four dollars each, and got the Luke Stormtrooper (x2 I opened one), the last Ewok, and two other figures I forget that go for a lot of money now because very few of them ever made it to a store. I sold the whole lot around 2002 for about $1500. That was more than the retail value of the collection, but mostly because of a small number of figures that were worth a lot.

I only decided to sell them because I needed the money, and because they had started releasing new figures again in 1995. That collection was getting big, fast, so I decided to part with the vintage collection. Now instead of the 150 vintage figures I had, I have 1,200 figures, and I'd consider myself lucky if I could get $1,500 for ALL of those together. Plus I have ships coming out my f'n ears.

Videos and CDs: I worked for a music and video distributor for 5 1/2 years and had a crazy amount of CDs and movies. I was a buyer on the video side, then the music side. I got them free every week from the vendors, (by the 30 ct box sometimes for CDs). For two years, I paid for my gas to and from work clear across town by taking CDs to the local used store and selling them for gas money. As for movies - anyone want some VHS tapes? I've thrown enough of them away to insulate a house.

Star Trek figures. When SW figures were between the vintage and new eras, Star Trek figures were the only game in town. I have a damn-near complete collection of about 175 figures that aren't worth even a dollar a piece anymore.

Gashapon/Trading Figures. Japanese figures. Usually cute or sexy girls. I won six DOAX figures in a website contest and had no idea there was such a thing. Now I've got over 400. I know someone in LA who will buy the collection, but then my gameroom would be a lot less fun to look at.

Video Games. Not that crazy, actually. Maybe 50 Xbox 360 games, some mroe at my kids' house, less than 250 between Xbox, 360, Gamecube, PS1, and PS2.

Dala Horses. An icon of Sweden, but I have a Greek one, a Japanese one, a Brazillian version. Maybe ten altogether.

Faceplates. You know.

Game shirts. Not a collection as much as a wardrobe. I've dumped a lot of them.

Oh, and other figures. I have like four boxes of assorted figures. DC, Marvel, anime, tv show. I have a Mork from Ork, three original TRON figures, a Twiki from Buck Rogers, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Sigmund the Sea Monster, Bob and Doug McKenzie, Space Ghost, and on and on.

Maybe they were different hobbies. Maybe they were different variations of the same hobby. Maybe its a laser-focused version of hoarding. But I never did any of that stuff from the point of view of "return on investment." I did it for fun.

Oh, and I totally forgot about my collection of forums posts, that I keep scattered all over the internet. Add that to the addictions that haven't shown a return on investment, either.
goin back in time to start off the post? lol. nice. After reading your mini novel lol I can see your points, however in this post you talk about failed investments. Would you like to have the money back from the investments that tanked on you? I can't speak for you, but I'm almost positive you would, as would anyone. As far as my Deadmau5 avatar head, you're right I didn't buy it for an investment, however digital content for your avatar is not a tangible product like faceplates, figures, and everything you talked about so you can't really compare the two considering you have one digital product that you cant touch, hold, or use and on the other side of the coin you have tangible products that you can hold in your hand, play with, listen to, etc.

back when I was a young'in and my father was still alive, his friend in kenner hooked him up with a mammoth load of vintage star wars products which he in turn gave to me, and because of that I could afford a nice college education to Oxford if I tried to cash in and sell my vintage collection and my Star Wars prototypes from kenner. My father also helped me put together a huge collection of vintage he-man and g.i. joe figures. As far as rare games go, I am an avid collector, but not because of their limited status of ###/150, but because I know that my inital investment WILL turn a profit. This is where I think our points of view break off as I look at items that can return a profit.

In the end this boils down to the economic principle of supply vs. demand. if the demand for these faceplates are high, and there are not a lot of these to go around, then the price goes up, however, when ppl determine that they are just plastic plates that have the sole function of just sitting on an xbox (last time I checked you can't really play with a faceplate, unlike rare games, toys, etc.), then the demand will be going down and so will the prices, and this starts the downfall of the faceplate market. Faceplates are def. a specialty market, and why? Because not many ppl out there are collecting them, so like you originally posted about how these 10 or so collectors that stopped collecting, that shows that faceplates are a "specialty market" and not "mass market". Items such as your vintage star wars figures, and rare games offer the consumer more dimensions of oppertunity other than just sitting there looking at them, unlike faceplates. When the dust settles and you take a non-biased look at the faceplate market and the decline in demand, you will see that the market for faceplates is very small to begin with, and in the end will not provide a sound fiscal investment.

Let's say you invest 2,000 on faceplates, what else could you do with 2,000? Could you make months of bill payments? Yes. Could you purchase items that could net you a profit? Yes. Could you throw it out a window on the highway? Yes. The point I'm trying to make here is simple. If you plan on spending $500 for a faceplate that will become worthless as the years march on, then you are essentially throwing your money away. Granted sellers don't mind b/c the cash goes to them, but now you've spent $500 on a one dimensional specialty item that will not return your investment, let alone make you a profit.

In today's economy if you can afford to just burn money, then congrats you are at a place in your life where you can afford to just p*** money away. lol you should talk to Kam b/c I talked his ear off about investments. You always have to think long term before you start dumping your hard earned cash into a market that may not make it.