Where Do You Fit?

[softball66]

People collect items for various reasons. It is interesting to discover and examine your motivation and that of others. Here's a "food for reflection" that I borrowed from a Kovell's email:

Some collectors are "decorators" who buy to fill the house. Some are "historians" who buy to research and record. Some are "complete set buyers" who want every collector plate. And some are "accumulators" who buy what appeals to them. But the collections must be sold or given away one day. In the last few months, we have seen a collection of two million butterflies and moths valued at about $41 million donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History. A collection of more than 500 cow figurines, paintings and other cow-related objects was sold at auction. One item, a cabinet filled with 300 toy cows, sold for almost $6,000. Three huge mechanical bank sales were held in 2009, and six separate auctions are needed to sell the toy collection of Donald Kaufman. The first two sales brought $7.1 million. Don't forget your collections are financial assets.

[murphusa]

I do a lot of work doing appraisals for attorneys both for estates and divorces. The collections out there are unbelievable. Everyone knows the guys and gals who have been around at the shows etc over the years, but the ones who were buying in the private market and the unknown auction buyers outnumber us 10 fold.

In the past year and a half, Hunts has auctioned off one mans collection. Five 15x15 storage units full of stuff from a collection that started back in the 50's