The collectability paradox

One question I am often asked is why I buy collectable models only to destroy their originality by repainting or converting them, as surely that is a waste of a rare and valuable collectors' item and I'm losing a large sum of my hard-earned money in the process. I approach my collecting with a healthy dose of realism so I justify it purely as an interest that makes me happy and not one that makes me money, and it is taking a common mass-produced model and creating something personal and unique from it that gives me most pleasure. Sadly for those who believe the hype, logic dictates it is very rarely the case that something advertised as a 'collectors' item' will ever actually become collectable, and buying these models as an investment is extremely unlikely to pay off.

It's a 'collectable model' so it must be worth a fortune, right? Sadly it's unlikely to even make the £9.95 on the price tag.
By Cstevencampbell (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

You've probably all seen the stories of vintage Dinky and Matchbox toy cars selling for three or four-figure sums and thought there is good money to be made in this collecting hobby. If you buy the right things, maybe there is, but the value in these old toys comes precisely from the fact they are toys that, although they were produced in huge numbers, were aimed at children and bought to be played with, used, abused and eventually thrown away, so few now survive. Even then, in the majority of cases it is only those rare examples in good condition and complete with the original packaging that are worth big money, and played-with ones can still be picked up cheaply. Compare the life of a toy with that of a typical 'collectors' model' that is more likely to spend its entire existence remaining forever mint in a display cabinet, in some cases never even being removed from its box, so it will last indefinitely and never become rare. Yes, some may have limited production runs, but chances are high that even if only 500 were made, all 500 probably still exist as they were all sold to collectors.

As an example of something genuinely sought-after, consider the collectability of McDonalds Happy Meal toys. You may wonder why anyone would want to collect such things, but some of these can change hands for hundreds of pounds and the sole reason they are so collectable is that they were never intended to be. They were made purely as cheap playthings and given to children with the meals, so many must have been left behind in the restaurant, thrown in the bin or quickly destroyed by being played with and only a very small proportion of the many thousands made have survived in good condition. Although Happy Meal toys hold no interest to me personally I can fully understand the enthusiasm of fully-grown adults to collect them and the excitement of finding a rare piece.

On the other hand, the prime example of the false-collectable phenomenon is the old Lledo 'Models of Days Gone' range. These were made by the millions and marketed right from the start to adults as collectors' pieces and not toys, so very few will ever have been played with and the vast majority still exist in good condition, having been kept in display cases since they were new. Apart from a handful of limited-production and limited-availability variants, these are now all but worthless as the market is saturated and they have very little appeal. They are a regular sight in junk shops and on market stalls and car boot sale tables, sometimes at ridiculous prices as the sellers have been taken in by the collectability hype and hope to find a gullible buyer who believes the same, but even at a pound or two they still struggle to sell.

Just a cheap toy? No, it sold for almost £500!

This whole 'collectable' myth seems to have started in the boom years of the late eighties when early Dinky Toys suddenly shot up in value and started selling for huge sums at auction. In those heady days when investing in antiques and collectables was the 'in thing', everyone else quickly jumped on the bandwagon and started to believe any old toy or model was a thing of great value, fuelled by the media and programmes such as Antiques Roadshow. With the real rarities out of reach (or simply not really knowing what they were doing), many decided to invest in contemporary 'collectable' models hoping one day they would go the same way  but missing the point that toys became valuable precisely because they weren't intended to be collected by adults in this way, and companies such as Lledo and Corgi keenly exploited this new market. 

There is inevitably much disappointment when one of these collectors has spent so much time and money building up such a collection, only to be told it is worth a pittance and would struggle even to recoup what it cost. In my youth I used to collect Lledo models and still have a large number of them sitting in a box gathering dust and taking up space. I'm under no illusion that they're basically worthless and I won't get back what I spent on them, and I don't really know what to do with them as the tiny sum they would make wouldn't justify the effort of selling them. I hate to see things thrown away, so donation to a charity shop is probably the best option, but even then the shop may find them hard to sell as they are so undesirable and they will quite likely end up in landfill. That would be a shame, but that's what happens when the market gets flooded with so-called 'collectables' that end up being anything but.

Some would say I 'ruined' a 'collectors' item' to make this.

To me personally, the value of my models is a moot point anyway as I rarely sell anything and when the time eventually comes (not for many years yet hopefully!) I have made provision in my will for their disposal to a worthy cause. In any case, it's almost impossible to put a price on conversions and repaints, as to the collector demanding originality they are worthless, but to somebody who appreciates the work put into creating a unique piece or specifically wants a model of a particular vehicle they may be priceless, so all that can be said is that they're worth what someone is prepared to pay and the market will decide. The satisfaction comes not from believing they'll make me money, but from having a collection of unusual and interesting models that can be shared with an appreciative audience, and thinking up and successfully completing conversion projects that often bear little resemblance to the models they started out as and help to develop my modelmaking skills.

My advice is if you want to invest, buy toys and not collectors' models, keep them in mint boxed condition and in a few decades when they've become rare hopefully they will be worth more than you paid for them. If you want to collect models, do so for the pure enjoyment of collecting and because you like the models, but don't expect to make any money out of them and consider any profit a bonus. I guess those who go down the latter route could really be thankful to people like me, as our modifications are reducing the number of models existing in original condition and thus making the remaining examples potentially more valuable for them! With a few rare exceptions, it seems the more collectable something is advertised as, the less collectable it turns out to be, so please don't be taken in by the hype...