![]() With folks talking downsizing, fantasizing about tiny houses, and being told to collect memories instead of things, having a bunch of "stuff" isn't appealing to a large segment of the population these days. There are literally hundreds of different collector plates from the '70s and '80s selling online for $1 to $15 now, and you can readily find them for bargain prices at estate sales. Like many other items sold purely as decorative collectibles, unless you're fortunate to hold a rare example or an extremely popular series with a marketable theme, most sell for far less than when they were new. Folks who sunk their savings into them haven't fared as well if they were hoping to leave something valuable to their grandchildren. Those who bought a few when they were new because they liked the theme for decorative purposes probably got good use out of them in their homes. Since the 1970s, millions of these types of plates have been sold. You can say the same thing about Bradford Exchange collector plates and other similar brands. A few of these figurines have held their own or increased in price over time, but many of them are selling in the $1 to $10 price range today. Buy them hoping they will increase in value and you're probably in for a big dose of disappointment. If you buy one or two because they're cute or you want to give a gift that conveys a special meaning, great. Since then a multitude of different designs featuring caricatures of children with tear-drop shaped eyes has been marketed to collectors. ![]() There were just too many sold to provide a return on the investment.īradford Exchange Collector Plate With Original PackagingĪny time items are sold as collectibles, limited editions or otherwise, that should be a signal that they probably won't rise in value much over time.Īs one example, Precious Moments figurines were introduced in the 1970s and instantly had a collectible following. The folks who purchased them to display won out in this case, because saving them new in the box hoping for a rise in value has not paid off. Many of these dolls sold for hundreds when they were new, but you can find these beauties today for a fraction of the original cost. Spurred by the demand for vintage Barbie dolls and their accessories in the 1980s, a plethora of new dolls were made to appeal to collectors and they were gorgeous. But the majority of these cute little critters are worth less than $5 each now, if you can get someone to take them off your hands.īarbie dolls made purely for the collectible market have suffered a similar fate. Do a completed item search on eBay and you'll find that several of the harder-to-find Beanie Babies still sell in the thousands today, while a few more sell in the hundreds. When the fad was over, the demand bubble burst with a huge bang. They were sold over several years in mass quantities. ![]() That's a huge number of $5 toys flooding the market, and that's at just one point in time. In his book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble, author Zac Bissonnette notes that Ty, the company that marketed these toys, reported that annual sales had surpassed $1.4 billion in 1998. Compound that with the fact that they were purchased as collectibles to begin with, rather than toys to be played with, and you have a recipe for a stagnant or declining financial future. One of the main things to keep in mind when you're evaluating collectible toys is that thousands, if not millions, of these items were made when they were new.
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