You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Saw an article recently on the beeb about a guy who sold his collection of 4000 whisky miniatures for £30k, despite the fact he hates whisky (which may explain why he still had them).
Got me thinking, what could be collected by someone with little or no specialist knowledge, that could be expected to accumulate a fair amount of value over a 15-20 year period?
Link to article https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-59673351.amp
Cheers
Rim brake pads and rims.
Contemporary art.
Fast fords, anything rs or st badged, and keep it mint.
He would have been much better off in an S&P Tracker…
Live humans.
Houses?
Lego?
Lego houses?
4000 whisky miniatures for £30k
That's an average of £7.50 per miniature. There must've been some old / rare minis in that lot, that's not just popping 25ml of Glen Ordinary in your basket when you're doing your weekly shop.
Whisky can be a good investment - I have a mate collects full-sized bottles (and also drinks a lot of it) - but he's loaded, he knows what he's doing and has been doing it for years. Oh and he has a room dedicated to it, consider that anything you collect will take up space.
Ultimately you're speculating. If if it were possible to reliably invest with no knowledge, we'd all be doing it. Your man up there was either savvy or lucky. If I had money lying around for a collection I'd probably pay someone to buy shares or hoy it into my pension (which is broadly the same thing anyway).
Why bother with so many miniatures?
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/wish-i-had-as-much-hic-self-control/
Petrol.
Drinking water
Lego seems to be a good bet, but I wonder if a lot of people have jumped on that band wagon now and it's finished?
I know if I had bought 2 of each of the sets I have bought in the last 10 years, I could of made a profit by keeping one sealed, then sticking it on Ebay a few years later.
Board games could be a possible one, identify a future classic and keep it mint. Probably not a number 1 best seller but something a bit more niche.
Old colleague of mine buys console games from car boots. He waits until the console has become outdated enough that the games are about £1, but before there is any retro appeal. Unopened ones are the ones to get.
He stashes them for a few years and then sells them via eBay. He used to make about £500 a week from his car boot / eBay stuff.
Mind you, he had a knack for it. Went on Bargain Hunt with his mother and they totally smashed it. Not only did they win, they got the Golden Gavel - classic.
All the crypto
Fatbikes
Front mechs
Woodburners
Rim brake pads and rims
I did emphasise little or no specialist knowledge 😀
That’s an average of £7.50 per miniature. There must’ve been some old / rare minis in that lot, that’s not just popping 25ml of Glen Ordinary in your basket when you’re doing your weekly shop.
Yup, that thought had occurred to me too. It did say some lots hadn't sold, so does that mean less than 4000 for £30k? Regardless a quick peek at current prices for decent miniatures means you could be losing money, though I'm assuming that he paid a lot less in the 80s and 90s.
Anything to do with cars requires specialist knowledge for sure (as well as comparatively deep pockets). The video game/console similarly requires someone who knows what they're doing and is prepared to hoof it around carboots etc.
My thinking is a collection that could be accumulated over time by just buying stuff that's reasonably cheap and accessible but that will become rarer and more collectable over time.
Petrol
Ha! You're seemingly not wrong! Whilst garage space is currently at a premium, the missus would probably welcome me replacing a few bikes with a couple of rusty barrels full of petrol!
Houses.
What were the last few years' must-have toys? Those. Lego is done and video games are done (xb360 and PS3 stuff might go up slightly but they made bloody millions of them so probs not) unless you get lucky and find someone selling something that they haven't valued on ebay.
Houses
Don't get me started. Could/should have bought a house in that there London in 2002. Would be worth over £900,000 more than I would have paid for it. Only consolation is that the ex would probably have ended up with it. Silver linings.
Can't help feel that the property market has to - has to - correct itself at some point. It's that or bloody revolution.
However, houses = big bucks whichever way you cut it. What is needed is cheap, easily accessible and collectable by a numpty like me with relative ease.
Crypto is always an option, can't help thinking that bird may have flown though..
NFTs or watches
Covid vaccines
Land - they are not making it any more
Compassion and Kindness.
Store it in an AI
Copper
As other countries urbanise the demand for it will keep increasing - once people in China have as much copper in their houses as we have in ours it’ll pretty much have all run out.
Houses
all that’s really happening when house prices increase is the value of our money is decreasing
Gold
140mm Ultegra freeza ice-tech rotors
Icebergs. Like goldust they'll be.
I've got 6 bags of house coal I'm thinking of hoarding.
Saint 10 speed shifters and Freddos
mate of mine is buying a bottle of macallan (i think) whisky each year for his young lad. think theyre about £200 each, but he says they should be worth a fortune when he hits 18....
Crystal balls 😉
A Bored Monkey?
mate of mine is buying a bottle of macallan (i think) whisky each year for his young lad. think theyre about £200 each, but he says they should be worth a fortune when he hits 18….
Wonder where he got that idea from 😉
If it's drink look for Manager special runs that get given to staff.
I've a numbered bottle of that hidden away. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/4085/mortlach-16-year-old-flora-fauna
Also if you see it in a pub buy a dram as an opened bottle is worthless.
Next is anything that kids are using now 30 years later it's adults with disposable cash. I have hot wheels but ones that cross both interest of car fans and toy fans Old vws/fords. Some limited runs I've got some with custom paint I've have signed one by Shepard Fairey.
Good returns now are posh bags and watches the Chinese are currently turning their backs on property due to the current scandals and are heavy into posh Rolex watches.
Good graffiti art is still collecting well French artist known as Invader is on my list as love his work.
Polar bears
Crypto is always an option, can’t help thinking that bird may have flown though..
It has barely even started...
Unless you think FIAT currency is going to last forever, then Crypto in some way shape or form is going to shape the future of our storage of wealth in the future for sure.
Otherwise houses...
There will be the odd car that will 10x or more in value over the next 15-20 years, but predicting which one (or managing to buy one of the ones that we know will 10x in the first place!) is hard enough, but then storing it for 20yrs etc whilst not using it... No ta!
The best financial advice I have heard in a long time is simply to put 1-2% of your expendable income into Crypto every month... Just keep accumulating. If you've got £1k spare per month, £10-20 you won't even notice. But in 10yrs time when your investments are worth 10/100/1000x what you paid for them then they are very real and life changing. Of course, you have to be prepared for the outside possibility that the Fed gets involved, manages to outlaw it somehow or take control (like they did with Gold in the US in the 1930's) and fix the price... So don't put what you can't afford in to it, just in case. But assuming it pays off, then you'll be in the money!
26” wheels, tyres and inner tubes - when riders rediscover how nimble they are - they will return! Happy Holidays!
If only memories had monetary value.
In addition to my post above - DON’T collect high end nine speed transmission components. I anticipate that there’ll be a glut on the market when my will is executed along with cries of “why did he collect all this stuff”! Happy Holidays II!
Dry land ?.
Rim brake pads and rims.
You'll have lost the knowledge on how to 'Set them up properly'
2Unless you think FIAT currency is going to last forever,"
And why wouldn't it?
" then Crypto in some way shape or form is going to shape the future of our storage of wealth in the future for sure."
Something this volatile?
Is FIAT a currency? Wish I’d kept the Panda, still got the Ducato motorhome though so I’ll hang on. You do all know what FIAT stands for though? Nothing called FIAT lasts forever or appreciates in value!
Money?
V12 Ferraris apparently.
Canned foods, ration packs and good quality ammunition.
One thing that seems to work for cars, is ones young people want now (the stretch dream ones, not supercars) but won't be able to afford until they're 40 or 50, when they'll have long stopped making them. Can't see it working with bikes.
My mum used to collect miniature whiskys but she always drank the contents and then refilled them with cold tea - I'm guessing that didn't do a lot for the value.
Possibly the best but most boring answer is to put money in a index tracker, over time. In a pension wrapper (for the tax breaks) if that suits, depending when you need access to the money.
Many years ago girlfriend had a mk1 fiat panda 4x4, it was horrific to drive on the motorway but was a ton of fun off road
https://www.classic-trader.com/uk/cars/listing/fiat/panda/panda-4x4-1-0/1988/265110
a classic car. Always appreciate - the knack is to buy the right one and not wreck it
classic car. Always appreciate
Almost nothing "always appreciates". There was serious money to lose in classic cars in the 90s
martymac
Full Member
Fast fords, anything rs or st badged, and keep it mint.
Came here to say similar but for those with shallower pockets, I'd extend it to any 'sporty' Ford based on what you pay today for a Capri 1.3 Laser, or a bog standard "XR" of any model.
So a Ford Puma or Cougar maybe?
Agree about keeping them stock though, of course one off the reasons a factory spec XR3i is valuable is so many were Max-Powered back in the day.
No one has mentioned vinyl records?
Porn mags
No one has mentioned vinyl records?
Early 1990s was the time to do that. Highlights included HMV in Leeds selling enormous piles of 12" singles in lucky dip bags at five for £1 and pretty much anything you can imagine finding in a Charity Shop for similar prices.
20 year old "this year's fad" vinyl reissues of 40 year old classic album's are, I fear, not going to be remotely sought after and represent a poorer investment than buying tatty originals on eBay.
A well diversified stock portfolio.
Yes, the vinyl ship has long since sailed.
Some limited run, special presses of new music, or reissues of very rare albums might be worth buying now, but in general anything you buy new now won't appreciate much.
I've got about 2000 lps + 1000 7"s. Probably worth £20-30k. But I was never a collector as such, just bought what I liked, and did a lot of charity shop digging.
A lot of my stuff is worth pence. But then I have some records that are worth £100+ and at least one that is worth £1000 on a good day.
Something quirky in cars which are not currently rated, but a design classic.
Audi A2 citroen c6
With some of these as long as you drive it or hang it on your wall for instance when you do liquidate your investment you will not have to pay tax on your profit (if there is one) IANATL BTW
Dad invested in several cases of Port a few years back. Didn’t work out. Poor vintage that year, didn’t loose out but didn’t make much. We could have just drunk it if it properly tanked.
Classic cars, wine and Art can all be appreciated even if the market goes the wrong way. Something tangible.
Collectible Card Games have (accidentally) worked for me. Cards I collected (and played) and then just left in drawers from around 2000 and that at the time I probably spent about £1-1.5k on purchasing have just been sold for ~£35k. Finally (and fortunately) debt free (including student loans) and with savings for the first time since putting £75k into my house deposit in 2014.
One of the safest bets is a good guitar. Lee Anderton of Andertons says it's only cheap guitars that you can't afford - expensive ones always hold their value. Those words rattled through my head when I was handed a Fender Ultra Stratocaster (in Texas Tea) to compare a few weeks back.
£1,799 seemed like a good deal!
Buy unfashionable 2nd hand guitars now, and then they'll be fashionable in 10/20 years time.
I bought a pointy headed, 80s tastic, Larrivee Super-Strat in 1993 (very out if fashion!) for £150.
Worth £1.5-2k now (well it would be if I hadn't played the shit out of it and covered it in stickers!)
The problem with cars and wine, etc is that they need space and specialist storage conditions to get decent value at the end.
The big gains are hard to predict over 20 years. If you're happy for a stable but less than 5% annual return, UK property or US stocks would be the best bets I would think. Both are likely to continue to be driven by demand.
Almost nothing “always appreciates”. There was serious money to lose in classic cars in the 90s
Yep, I was there man. Had a car restored and could have sold for £20k in 90, 2 years later and sold it for £4,500. Even now that same car in same condition would only be worth around £20K, 30 years later.
Although before that I had a int RS2000 Custom which cost £2,800 so that would have been a good one to have now.
Proves that you have to pick the right car to store away for 30 years. If you use it rather than store it you will be restoring it again so removing any profit and restoration these days is not cheap.
a classic car. Always appreciate
Plenty of money to lose with classic cars. Especially now there are so few people who actually drive them. There used to be a 'driving a practical classic' thing not so long ago. When I drove an MG back in the early noughies as a daily driver I'd regularly see other similarly aged cars in use rather than being trailered to shows. Towards the end of the time I owned it though I was increasing becoming aware of how much it was being dwarfed by even small modern cars (I lost mine once - thought it had been stolen - it was hiding behind a fiesta) and it just didnt really feel a safe place to be anymore. On a day to day basis you just don't see any classics actually being driven any more.
It reduces the market for classics to people who have space to keep a car that they don't actually drive and that'll mean supply could outstrip demand for a lot of cars.
Old landrovers seem to appreciate no matter how rotten and ruined they are. If you've got a barn just stick any old broken landy in there and let it disintergrtate and it'll still go up in value. A pal has five that have been sitting around since the 90s - just leaving one parked when it broke and buying another old ratty one to run about it... he wants the space back but every time he gets the motivation to scrap them he discovers they;ve jumped in value again.
Baby Robins
Surely the safest bet is toys? Buy the current most popular ones, keep them boxed and mint, sell them when the current crop of 6-10 year olds have the money to indulge their nostalgia. Main prob with this is that it's such an obvious trend that a ton of other people will have already thought of it.
I collect Fundsmith and its the best thing I've ever done financially.
Harry Potter Lego sets is prob a good place to start
Good graffiti art is still collecting well French artist known as Invader is on my list as love his work.
That explains the one that's disappeared from Coldharbour Lane in the last year or so...
It's not always obvious what's going to become valuable though. I bought a Jamie Hewlett print in the early 2000's that's worth no more than I paid for it. The Banksy print that was hanging next to it and selling for the same price however....
Invader's been around for ages. Think my sister has a little mural by him (she collects graff and lives in France).
I've got a couple of signed Shepard Fairey prints (worth £100+ each) and a small Blek le rat stencil (worth maybe £400?)
Old cars often come with a lot of costs of keeping them in the condition that will make them valuable to someone else. An area which (I) has a finite number of items in circulation, (ii) has relatively low cost of upkeep, (iii) has quite a good history of being collectible, (iv) can actually have a degree of use during the period of ownership without hurting its condition is….first edition books.
Old cars often come with a lot of costs of keeping them in the condition that will make them valuable to someone else
I think we've gotten used to how well put together and corrosion resistant modern cars are. Back in the 70s and 80s a car could go from new to perforated with rust in just a few years. My dads 1973 cortina had holes in it you could stick your finger through by 1976. So it was no surprise to me that my 72 MG, despite a total back to bare metal rebuild by the previous owner and 3 ring binders of dociemtnetation and £20k or receipts (He never made his money back - I bought it for £6k) was rotting from the inside out after 5 years 🙂
These are designed in flaws - moisture traps. Even restored back to 'as new' a classic car will dismantle itself just as quickly as it would 30, 40, 50 years ago because those design flaws persist no matter how carefully and thoroughly you've renewed everything.
Old motorbikes, from the 60/70/80s, so not that old, are/were very good investments according to the FT a couple of years ago. Kids of 18 lust after a bike, and 20/30/40 years later when they have a bit of spare cash, they get one and relive their yoof. You can get quite a few in the living room too...
Is FIAT a currency? Wish I’d kept the Panda, still got the Ducato motorhome though so I’ll hang on. You do all know what FIAT stands for though? Nothing called FIAT lasts forever or appreciates in value!
Timely article in the FT....
Let’s all please stop calling dollars ‘fiat money’
Currencies are not memes that only have value because governments say they do
https://www.ft.com/content/5e5b2afb-c689-4faf-9b47-92c74fc07e66
Collectible Card Games
Never even heard of those before! Sounds like you did the right thing.
On the minor end of the scale, it’s been consistently reliable to squirrel away Victorinox Special Edition knives and multitools. Also certain handmade Italian and French bicycles
Brother collects toys. All unboxed. Started with Star Wars figures and accessories but has since moved on to He Man and Masters of the Universe.
He has hundreds of the original characters and now moved onto later ones.
As an example…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324832567228?hash=item4ba1879fbc:g:UugAAOSw1fZhBaBL
That’s the price for used opened items with the odd bit missing.
He’s also moved on to vintage Dungeons and Dragons figures. Not sure about this personally. But here’s a quick example of current prices for a boxed piece:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255281037039?hash=item3b6fef7eef:g:O8EAAOSwTwJhuxQx
He also collects WW2 medals and artefacts. Harder to come by now though. Being in the army he was out in Germany for a few years so managed to get some pretty rare stuff. Some bits can still be had from Car Boots, but it’s getting harder to find decent quality items.