Future of Antiques

[Don]

I must confess, I don't know very much about antiques. Just recently my neighbor asked me if I would go pick up an old antique radio she had bought at a local antique shop. Once we got there I was just fascinated by all the merchandise the owner had in his shop. What struck me then was how well it all seemed to be made. The furniture was real wood, the porcelain hand painted and the other items were just classic Americana.

I started to wonder what my generation would have to offer in the way of antiques. I guess cars will always be collectible but nowadays everything is so disposable. Our radios are plastic, our furniture is pressed wood and nothing seems to last. Out of all the things we buy, most is imported and thrown together on an assembly line.

Even collectible things have become profit propaganda. I remember back in the early 80's I used to collect baseball cards. You could get a pack for .50 and sometimes you would get a card that was worth $1.00. That was such a thrill. I thought wow, this card will really be worth something by the time I'm 30, wrong! They kept producing the cards over and over and now they are so common that they aren't sought after. I am betting the same thing happens with many other "collectible" items. Take the state quarters for example, everyone I know has a gob of them laying around somewhere.

I just wonder if the days of the antique and collectible items are numbered. I know there will always be some things and I guess we will cherish the days of real wood furniture and hand painted porcelain all the more. 

Don

[KarenCharin0]

I have to admit one of my biggest collecting disappointments was coin collecting. I thought it was a sure bet that coins would go up in value over time because of the limited editions of them. What I didn't count on was that with all the modern equipment very old coins would be recovered and bring down the prices of more modern old coins. Who is going to pay big money for a rare coin that is just a hundred years old when you can find ancient old coins that have been recovered for very reasonable prices?

I do think it's a good investment to save older silver coins that have a large amount of silver content just because the price of silver is likely to go up over time.

Here's a great site to find out what kind of treasures people are finding today.

http://pub69.ezboard.com/bancientlosttreasures

[myron]

i like coin collection as well car collections......