What Should I Collect?

What should I collect?  This is the number one question that many people ask me all the time at shows and I usually answer saying, "whatever makes you feel good and happy."  This is true because if you collect something just because it is worth a lot or you feel like you can make a big profit, you might not be enjoying the hobby of collecting in its best detail.  I myself started collecting about 10 years ago and ever since day one, I have never stopped.  I am always on the lookout for something unique, something amazing out there.  Actually, at one point I was like American Pickers, I would do my research around the neighborhood, find out that an old estate is going to occur and then as quickly as I could get my hands on a phone, I would call them and make an agreement with them for me to actually pick through all of their junk.  This was like a dream come true because I never knew what types of items I could have found.  One time I even found an old coin in a big storage unit and the man who was showing me the stuff was so surprised that he told me that I could keep looking.  That was when I realized, that maybe I could start educating people about picking and what to collect or not to collect.  You know, actually in reality, you can collect whatever you like.  But there are certain items that will usually never increase in value.  I will include some items that I used to think were worth collecting, but it just so happened it was a waste of time and money.  That just leads me to the next topic, which is time.  Time is really important because depending on how much time one has, one can really do their research and find what they were dreaming of for years.  As I personally know some high class collectors that go way out of their way to find what they are missing in their collections, even if it means they need to travel to different countries.  Ok, I know that you are probably falling asleep and want to hear the good stuff and do not worry because I am going to that now.  Please take these two lists that I will now create below as opinion only and it does not mean that you need to follow my thoughts about what to collect and what not to collect.

What to collect:

• Old Stamps (19th Century Preferably)
• Old Coins (19th Century to the early 1900's)
• Old Sterling Silver Smalls (Some jewelry, rings, spoons, table ware, figurines, and many others)
• Old Watches (Working One's Preferably)
• Very Old Books (They need to be in an amazing condition to be worth some good money)
• Old Comics (1930's - 1960's)
• Old Postcard (Pre 1920's)
• Old Civil War, WW I & II Soldier Letters
• Old Cars (If you have the $$$ and the space)
• Old Pottery
• Old Paintings
• Old Baseball Cards (Pre 1960's)
• That is pretty much all that I can figure out and of course there are many others

What to not collect:

• Old Coca Cola Bottles (There are just too many of them and the price will not increase so much over even 100 years)
• Vintage Stamps (There are just billions of these stamps)
• New Proof Coin Sets (I personally feel they are a waste of $ because it is better to invest that money on an old coin for the same amount of $)
• New Stamp Sheets (An exception would be if they commemorate a certain historical event)
• New Baseball Cards (Way to many made)
• Chinese Fakes (You need to be very careful as the Chinese have come up with very clever ways of making new items look antique!!!)
• New Toys (Way to many mass produced and the quality is not the same as the toys from the 1950's)
• New Comics (An exception would be if there are only 10 of these comics produced)
• This list pretty much covers what I think is just a waste of $ and time, but you decide

You can collect these types of items!!!

You do not want to be a victim of these forgeries!!!