Gold in the attic: Furniture, coins and Ninja Turtles?
— -- Have you looked at your 401(k) statement lately? Checked out the CD rates at your local bank? Shopped for a bond? No?
If you haven't looked at your financial statements lately, well, it's no wonder. Stocks have all the appeal of a box of smelt.
That explains why collectibles have been hot. When people get disillusioned with financial assets, they gravitate toward things they can hold in both hands. Before the stock market tanked in 2008, big collectors just thought they were spending money, says Greg Rohan, president of Heritage Auctions in Dallas. "Now, they think they've done a really good job at diversification."
Because of economic hard times, the collectibles market has split in two: The very high-end, top-quality collectibles and, well, everything else. "In the middle market, whenever you think it has reached its bottom, price-wise, it drops again," says Harry Rinker, host of Whatcha Got, a syndicated radio show on collectibles.
The biggest interest in low-end collectibles has been in items that can be reused for decorating. "Young people take the stuff home to decorate in '50s, '60s, '70s style," Rinker says. One example: Heywood Wakefield furniture, manufactured by the company of the same name.
The sturdy furniture, typically maple or birch, has classic 1950s and 1960s lines: The company's furniture was exhibited at the 1964 World's Fair. "It's not priceless furniture, but this style happens to be collectible," says Chris Parody, owner of Strictlyheywake.com, a dealer of the furniture in Hagerstown, Md. (The company ceased making wooden furniture in 1979, but South Beach Furniture acquired rights to the name.)
And, Rinker says, you can generally assume that toys from 30 years or so ago will become popular collectibles. "Now, toys from the 1970s and even the 1980s are getting hot," Rinker says. "We're entering an age of Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles."
If the collectibles market for ordinary people is warm, the high end is smoking. Among the hottest recent sellers:
•Comic books. Heritage recently sold a Detective Comics No. 27, featuring the December 1939 debut of Batman, for $1,075,000. "That brought other comics out of the woodwork," Rohan says. In May, Heritage sold an original splash page from page 10 of The Dark Knight No. 3 from 1986 for $448,125. (A splash page is a full-page drawing.)
•Movie posters. People who have home theaters and want to decorate have turned to original old movie posters. A poster for The Bride of Frankenstein sold for $334,600 in November 2007.
•Space memorabilia. With the end of the U.S. manned space program, any astronaut-related items have become popular, Rohan says. "They're not making any more of it," he says.
•Sculptures and other three-dimensional collectibles. Duck decoys, shop figures and small sculptures are another popular area. If you're an art collector, you can take one of these and put it in an interior area — it serves as a bridge between other areas of collecting," says Nancy Druckman, director of American Folk Art at Sotheby's.
One example: carousel animals. "They're very collectible and have an America feel," Druckman says. Duck decoys? "They're unbelievably beautiful pieces of vernacular sculpture," she says.
