Memorabilia as an investment

[molenick]

Originally Posted by aelefson

In the early 2000s, I decided to collect memorabilia with an eye towards future value but mostly because I prefer memorabilia to cards. Over the past twenty years I have built a collection filled with lemon peel balls, ring bats, tin types, and other early equipment and ephemera. I am very happy with my collection but for investment purposes, I definitely chose poorly. I skipped buying relatively cheap Goudey Ruths and T206 Cobbs (I thought 500 for each was too much as they are so common!) and instead spent the same money on memorabilia. In general, the memorabilia I collected has stayed the same price in the past twenty years and some items have lost value while cards have skyrocketed.

I still think memorabilia is very undervalued but I no longer believe it will get anywhere close to cards like I once did. I assumed most people collecting cards would want actual historical pieces like early bats, balls, and ephemera but that is not the case. I am disappointed in that but am still happy with the collection I have put together.

Alan

I agree with this. I don't collect equipment but I do collect tintypes, cdvs, cabinets, and books.

Except for the rarest of books, these have not only been a bad investment but take up a lot of space. Putnam team histories and biographies, Messner biographies, Barnes MVP series, etc. cost the same or less as they did 25 years ago. I do enjoy seeing them on the shelf, but they were not a good investment. And most other books even less so (again, except for some 19th century or early 20th century rarities). On the other hand, I never really thought of these as an investment, I just like books.

Generic cdvs, tintypes, and cabinets (where there is a a nice image but the player(s) are unknown) have also been pretty stagnant with prices being essentially flat for many years. But this is another area where I just buy them because I enjoy early photographic images, not for future value.

When the time comes for my heirs to decide what to with my stuff, they will have an easier time with the cards. Just decide on an auction house and consign them. Most of the recent books could probably be donated and the others would need to be grouped into lots. The photographic items are at least sellable, but they would need to find the right AH to decide the best way to do this.