Making money from Collectables and Antiques

If you are looking for a hobby that over a period of time can also make you some money then starting a collection is a great idea.

You may be surprised how many collectables turn out to be good investments. Things like stamps, coins, toys, comics, magazines and household items which were initially bought cheaply have turned out to be worth money as interest in them increases.

Ideally collect something you are interested in or have a vague knowledge about as you will be more likely to know what items could become more desirable in the future, and if the collectable came with any packaging it is always a good idea to keep it as well, i.e. toys in their original box are always worth far far more because everyone always throws the packaging away.
Car boot sales are great places to start looking for collectables because people selling at car boot sales often just want rid of the clutter, or may not know the true value of something they are selling.

After that try a charity shop, sometimes they can be a goldmine but often not as all the good stuff is snapped up quickly, if you don’t find anything the first time you visit a charity shop then go back again, remember there are no set times that people drop stuff off at charity shops so they can be worth checking regularly. Or if you want to take it to the next level volunteer to work for a couple of hours a week at a charity shop and you will get first dibs on what comes as well as doing something worthwhile for the community!

Another place to have a look at are classified adverts, often people are looking to get rid of stuff so are not to bothered about the price they sell at, try Gumtree or your local classified board at the supermarket and the classifieds ads in the newspaper.

Finally collectables only become more valuable because interest in them increases and also when they become rarer, so you need to think out of the box a bit, perishable things and fragile things, could potentially become worth something, things that they continue to make but change the design could also become worth something one day because people want to complete their collection – like bottles of Coca Cola from different years or McDonalds Packaging.

So what do I think could be a collectable of the future – Well I collect limited edition Becks beer bottles. Each year, Beck’s sponsor the Beck’s Futures Contemporary Art Exhibition and release a limited edition bottle of which there is usually only around 2000 per show made. Prices in these ‘free’ bottles have soared in recent years, I have seen them go for upwards of £100 per bottle on Ebay, I would say that about 1/3 of them are also drunk or broken, so they are definitely worth hanging onto!