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A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
regarded as being of value or interest to a
collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An
antique
An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...
is a collectable that is old. A curio is a small, usually fascinating or unusual item sought by collectors. A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.
[Danziger, Pamela (July 1, 1069)]
''Why People Buy Things They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior''
Kaplan Publishing.
The business of collectables
Created to be collected
A "manufactured" collectable (often referred to as a contemporary collectable) is an item made specifically for people to collect. Examples of items commonly sold as collectables include
plates,
figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...
s,
bells,
graphics
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...
,
steins, and
doll
A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...
s. Some companies that produce manufactured collectables are members of The Gift and Collectibles Guild.
''
Special edition
The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
s'', ''limited editions'' and variants on these terms fall under the category of manufactured collectables and are used as a marketing incentive for various types of product. They were originally applied to products related to the arts—such as books, prints or recorded music and films—but are now used for cars, fine wine and many other collectables. A special edition typically includes extra material of some kind. A limited edition is restricted in the number of copies produced, although the number may be arbitrarily high.
Collectables in commerce
Manufacturers and retailers have used collectables in a number of ways to increase sales. One use is in the form of licensed collectables based on
intellectual properties
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
, such as images, characters and logos from literature, music, movies, radio, television, and video games. A large subsection of
licensing
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
includes advertising, brandname, and character collectibles. Another use of collectables in retail is in the form of
prize
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements. s (items of nominal value packaged with or included in the price of a retail product at no additional cost) and
premium
Premium may refer to:
Marketing
* Premium (marketing), a promotional item that can be received for a small fee when redeeming proofs of purchase that come with or on retail products
* Premium segment, high-price brands or services in marketing, ...
s (items that can be "purchased" by redeeming coupons,
boxtop
A boxtop, in the context of being a proof of purchase, is understood to be the upper portion of a product box, detached, and mailed as part of a claim for a radio premium or other advertising offer. During the 1930s through 1960s, cereal boxtops ...
s, or
proofs of purchase from the product along with a small fee to cover shipping and handling). Also, collectables have played an important role in tourism, in the form of
souvenirs
A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...
.
[Museum of the Personal: the souvenir and nostalgia, Chapter 4 — What is a souvenir?](_blank)
Another important field of collecting that is also big business is memorabilia, which includes collectables related to a person, organization, event or media, including T-shirts, posters, and numerous other collectables marketed to fans; but also includes
ephemera
Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...
from historical, media, or entertainment events, items that were meant to be thrown away but were saved by fans and accumulated by collectors. Collectibles have become a huge market globally coupled with the astonishing rise in application of Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) which are now used as a medium for digital collectibles sales. The collectibles market size in 2020 was estimated at $372 billion
Collectibles Market Report. Further, the market holds huge opportunity with a Total Addressable Market (TAM) of around $440 Billion in 2020. Digital collectibles may become a reliable revenue stream for creators as
NFTs
The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by ''The Hollywood Repor ...
evolve and spread.
Collectables as investments
Collectables are items of limited supply that are sought for a variety of reasons including a possible increase in value. In a financial sense, collectables can be viewed as a hedge against inflation. Over time, their value can also increase as they become more rare due to loss, damage or destruction. One drawback to investing in collectables is the potential lack of liquidity, particularly for very obscure items. There is also a risk for fraud.
TheFreeDictionary.com: Financial Dictionary: Collectables
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The 1960s through the early 1990s were major years for the manufacturing of contemporary collectables. While some individuals purchased contemporary collectables to enjoy and use, many purchased them as investments. Speculative markets developed for many of these pieces. Because so many people bought for investment purposes, duplicates are common. And although many collectables were labeled as "limited editions", the actual number of items produced was very large. Consequently, there is very little demand for many (but not all) items produced during this time period, and their market values are often low.
Digital collecting
Digital collecting takes place in the blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
, and it got popular at the end of 2020 with the NFT craze of 2020-2021. Collectors can buy, trade and exchange digital items (NFTs) usually associated with images or artworks. These items are usually bought using cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
, although many marketplaces have made it possible to purchase NFTs using standard credit cards as well. Just like in physical collecting, items can hold value due to different reasons, but they are not necessarily monetarily valuable, rare, uncommon or aesthetically pleasing. The Curio Cards
Curio Cards are collectible digital artworks located on the Ethereum blockchain. Created in 2017, Curio Cards are commonly viewed as the first digital art collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain. In October 2021, a complete collection of Curio C ...
, the Rare Pepe
A rare Pepe or RarePepe is a variation on the "Pepe the Frog" internet meme, itself based on a character created by Matt Furie. The related Rare Pepe crypto project, created by various artists worldwide between 2016 and 2018, was based on the afo ...
or the CryptoPunks
''CryptoPunks'' is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was launched in June 2017 by the Larva Labs studio, a two-person team consisting of Canadian software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. The ex ...
are amongst the first cases of digital collectibles. Digital collecting also applies to digital artworks.
History
The urge to collect unusual and fascinating objects is primeval and not limited to humans (bowerbird
Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate.
The family ...
, pack rat
A pack rat or packrat, also called a woodrat or trade rat, are any species in the North and Central American rodent genus ''Neotoma''. Pack rats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears, and large, black eyes. Pack rats are notice ...
).
The Renaissance Cabinet of Curiosities was an antecedent both of modern museums and modern collecting.
The earliest manufactured collectables were included as incentives with other products, such as cigarette card
Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco industry, tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and nicotine marketing, advertise cigarette brands.
Between 1875 and the 1940s, cigarette companies often included collectible ca ...
s in packs of cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
s. Popular items developed a secondary market
The secondary market, also called the aftermarket and follow on public offering, is the financial market in which previously issued financial instruments such as stock, bonds, options, and futures are bought and sold. The initial sale of the s ...
and sometimes became the subject of "collectable crazes". Eventually many collectable items came to be sold separately, instead of being used as marketing tools to increase the appeal of other products.
To encourage collecting, manufacturers often create an entire series of a given collectable, with each item differentiated in some fashion. Examples include sports card
A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...
s depicting individual players, or different designs of Beanie Babies
Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, mo ...
. Enthusiasts will often try to assemble a complete set of the available variations.
Collector editions are another way of supporting collectables. They typically are produced in limited amount and contain additional content that can be valuable for a collector. This practice is mostly popular in video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s.
Early versions of a product, manufactured in smaller quantities before its popularity as a collectable developed, sometimes command exorbitant premiums on the secondary market. Doll
A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...
s and other toy
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...
s made during an adult collector's childhood can command such premiums. Unless extremely rare or made as a one-of-a-kind in a mature market, collectables rarely prove to be a spectacular investment.
References
External links
Collecting: A Rationale
Collectibles Market Analysis
{{Authority control
Collecting