Quote:
Originally Posted by Republicaninmass
Portuguese cork, isn't all cork from Portugal? I have quite a few items imported from far off China!
I cant see it being a piece of art, and using the name of an old badeball related company just doesn't sit well with me. Probably better than Banty Red, which is just a completely made up company to sell baseball cards, but it doesn't tick any boxes of reasons, or items I collect. I cant see them holding any value, which is a secondary reason I collect. Then again a card can have 30 different 1/1 parallels and people will buy them up.
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Actually cork grows in a number of different places but the best cork is from Portugal. I looked at samples from three different countries before deciding on Portuguese cork. The North African cork seemed to crumble too easily for my taste; I worried that over time it would become too brittle. French cork, at least the samples that I examined, had an odd hue.
As for the name "Helmar", it is perfect for my purposes. There are those that would complain no matter which name had been chosen, even if this seems beyond silly to me.
Importantly, Helmar does not even try to appeal to everyone because that would mean trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. We'd have to lower the quality and ignore the discernment that we've become known for. I'll take collectors that are knowledgeable about art and history every time. We love everyone but it is interesting that our customers skew to occupations such as authors, attorneys, business owners, professors, doctors, etc.
Lastly, no one can know the future value of any collectible. I do know that when I am done we will have a body of work that will be comprehensive, of high quality, intrinsically interesting, and all the while enjoying relative scarcity. The body of work will also have the advantages of being unique for its time--we march to our own drummer. Do those that invest against the group-think do best in the end? You bet. The best part, though, is that collecting Helmar is a fun pastime. God bless. Charles