What Has Turned Out To Be Your Best Collectible Investment? You're Worst?

I know we're supposed to be "above" this, and collecting for the sheer joy of acquiring something with history and value, but despite those of us who start off saying, "I don't care what I sell it for, I bought it for (fill in the blank). In reality I don't think most of us spend significant amounts of money (and that amount might fluctuate depending on the respondents level of wealth), without the thought in the back of our heads that we'll be able to sell in the future for more, or at least close to what we spent.
This said I'd like to point out that I'm 68 years old. I started collecting stamps when I was 7. In the intervening time I have collected, to various degrees; stamps, coins, baseball cards, autographs, Pokemon cards, art lithos, and watches. I have sold very few of these items so I don't have any real experience. The worst investment is easy....baseball cards from the early 80's and later. I did buy a few from the 50's and 60's and those are probably in the + column. Suprisingly (to me anyway) my best investment has no doubt been the Pokemon cards. Using completed auctions on ebay as a basis, some of those are worth 30X
what I paid in the late 90's. I'm a retired school teacher and blame/credit my former students for getting me interested in those. I've never sold a stamp, but I collect mint U.S. (used before 1890) with the bulk of the value of my collection before 1920. I know I won't get back what I spent, but assume that I'll see around 75%. Actually, my heirs will probably have to do the dirty work of selling them, and I've left detailed instructions so I won't have to deal with it.

Glassine envelopes


They've about tripled in price since I first starting buying them by the box maybe 20 years ago. I was shocked when I tried to buy a new box recently.

(I realize my answer is not in the spirit of your question, but, honestly, I think that's been my best investment. Not very liquid, though ...)

Dennison stamp hinges and FOLD-O-HINGES ..are my best buy.

Back in the 1980's Richard Drews {Stamp King} had public stamp auctions .The stuff he specialized in was high end U.S. material. His auctions was top shelf material and it pulled in the biggest names for those auctions . Since he handled a lot of consignment stuff but that came with worldwide collections. But none of his bidders were there for boxes of worldwide stuff......I was like a kid in a candy store.....only bidder or I caught the stuff on the second bid . He even gave me a break on a lot of stuff that didn't sell and he haul it back to his store ,then call me .

Best: Magic the Gathering cards. I started playing in 1993 and I've held on to my cards that whole time. Last week I sold some of my common Beta edition cards and walked away with 5 grand. They were the cards I didn't use and didn't play with. My play stock is still in tact. I never thought those cards would skyrocket; one common sold for $376. Even the lands (more common than common) sold for $4-10 apiece. A box of 60 cards cost $20 when I bought them.

Worst: probably everything else I collect LOL

Plants! Big Time!

Uh... What kind of plants?

Plants that are rare because they are hard to grow as young plants but are more robust as adult plants makes them increase greatly in value.

An very simplified example being a small plant cost $7 broken into 4 parts. 2 years later the 4 parts are worth $15 to $20 each. Climate being location, housing, care and the know how needs to be add to the equation.

Not all trial plants will work out because they are hard to grow plants but it is just part of it all. Once you get 80 + rare type plants you have a business.

Neat!

This is a tough one. I have collected a number of things since I was a kid, starting with stamps and moving on through sports cards, coins, and eventually back to stamps.

The only stuff I ever actively dealt away were sports cards where for a time it was fairly easy to trade the $1+ cards to dealers at shows for more cards. In the end, I had more than my share of boxes full of cheapies.

So in a sense, sports cards in general as my worst "investment" and best, I'd have to say my set of 2016 Scott catalogues picked up used from several sellers on Amazon.

At this point, it's up to my partner to dispose of my stamp collection when the time comes for me to shuffle off.

Dale

My mom elected to make my comic books and baseball cards the worst investments so far; she threw them out. I certainly don't blame her, although they might have been the best "investment" if they had stayed out of the landfill. At least she didn't "chuck" the stamps and coins. Later I gave her the coins.

We'll see how the stamps turn out. Hopefully, I will have recycled the best of them before my time comes.

I don't really consider it an "investment", but I put a lot of my extensive People's Republic of China collection together in the 1990s, before stamp collecting became so huge in China.

I wouldn't say it's the strongest country in my collection (the U.S. beats it out just for its deep BoB), but if I sold my stamp collection tomorrow broken down by country, China would be one of the few to sell for much more than I paid for it.

My mom threw out my comic book and classic LP collection too when I went off to university. Still sad over that... But I do give my parents credit for keeping my grandparents stamp collections intact for 30+ years to hand on to me. Well done mom and dad!

I too was victimized by a mother who tossed my mid-50s baseball card collection while I was in college. Otherwise, I would have retired long before I actually did.
KGV: I must admit, when you mentioned plants, I immediately thought "marijuana".

Just can not do cannabis as a crop at any level. But sure have the room and the power cable with easy water access and a reinforced floor in the attic to do it. lol

Autographs. I picked up a shirt box for five dollars at a local general auction and after having most of them authenticated I netted a whole lot of dinaro. Also baseball cards. Stamps are not on my list but interest me much more than autographs or BB cards.