In searching for a topic for today's column, I decided to ask my friend Chet (er, Chat) for his/her/its opinion on the five most sought-after collectible categories of today. Not surprisingly, a response was shortly forthcoming. However, since the answer was mushy, I narrowed it down to categories of interest to men — I'll do women's categories next week — and got a respectable answer. Chet's top five, in no particular order, were classic cars, coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia and watches. Let's take each in turn.
First of all, collecting classic cars has a few critical prerequisites; e.g. lots of space and lots of money. You can buy them at auction, visit one of several vintage car dealers here in Palm Springs or keep an eye peeled on affinity
groups online. The pluses are that your purchase has utility (i.e., you can drive it), gives you something to do (i.e., you can fix it) and bestows upon you a certain cachet as a car enthusiast. The minuses are its high operating expenses (gas, insurance, storage and third-party service), uncertain reliability and potential difficulty in resale. On the whole, car collecting seems not for the timid.
In contract, coin collecting requires, well, not very much. You can reach into your pants pocket to start a collection, and a few drawers or cabinets at home will likely hold whatever you're inclined to buy. There are no operating expenses and a million available avenues you can pursue. With a little luck, good judgement or both, you might even realize some appreciation down the road. For those reasons among others, about one in three Americans have an interest in coins, with hardcore collectors totaling somewhere between five and 10 million folks.
Another highly popular category according to my buddy Chet is sports collectibles. Virtually all sports have an auxiliary of collectors, and there's something to be said for staring at an autograph of Babe Ruth and considering the fact that the Bambino once spent two seconds of his life focused on that particular item. Size and value run the gamut in this space, from championship rings on the small side to gigantic trophies big enough to swim in. If there's a caveat to this area, it's authenticity. Quite often I think certificates of authenticity should come with certificates of authenticity.
Next is trading cards, and this one I just don't understand. There is simply no intrinsic value to a small piece of cardboard, no matter how old and rare it is. All the same, I suppose there is a "needle in the haystack" satisfaction to turning up a rare card after spending all afternoon wading through a pile of ostensibly "unsearched" cards. How many piles of unsearched cards are really unsearched, I'd like to know. As for someone paying $16 million for a 1998 Pokémon card, as recently happened, that is simply beyond my comprehension. But that's just me, OK?
Finally, watches. This space has been on a run of late for a variety of somewhat opaque reasons. Brands are everything in this category when you consider that an $80,000 Patek Philippe doesn't tell time any better than a $8 Timex. On the other hand, if the Patek makes you feel 10,000 times better when you wear it, I suppose it's worth the investment. Watch values can fluctuate considerably, especially at the high end, so it takes some careful study to emerge financially intact from this space. As with several of the collectible categories above, this arena has been plagued of late with counterfeits and fakes, making this a somewhat more treacherous pastime than in years past. I'm sure Chet would agree that in all these areas, knowledge is power.
Mike Rivkin is the former proprietor of Antique Galleries of Palm Springs. His new venture will open later this fall. Contact him at scmcorp@sbcglobal.net.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: What are men collecting these days?
