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.
the saleable value of crappy old 80s bmxes over the last year demonstrates the "something from the childhood of the generation with disposable income" approach
ebay search raleigh burner.
Almost nothing “always appreciates”. There was serious money to lose in classic cars in the 90s
Its noticeable that the graphic posted with that comment ends in 1999! The GTO in the inset photo belongs to Nick Mason, who paid £40,000 for it around forty years ago. A similar GTO with a roughly comparable race history, but without the number plate 250GTO, and without it having been owned by Nick, went at auction in America, the first public sale in years, sold for $72,000,000.
The thing to remember about similar vehicles is that there will never be any more made. Ferrari made 39 GTO’s in the 1960’s. There have been some ‘continuity’ models made of famous marques, where it was intended to build a certain number of vehicles, but production ended prematurely, often with parts already made. Bentley have built continuity models of the ‘Blower’ Bentley, with every part an exact replica made from 3D scans, and selling for an eye-watering price!
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:-
I’ve got a few, including some rather nice dragons; nowadays they’re made from plastic, or at least Games Workshop figures are, there are still small run figures made by small companies that are metal, but I think most are plastic, and limited runs can be easily done in plastic with a 3D printer.
Almost any car at the moment🤣
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My father bought a nice one a few years ago, 1993 XJS Convertable, really good nick, in the hope that it would be fun and 'not lose too much'. That has gone up nicely over the last five or six years, kind of predictable
I've got an 8yr Transit which has rocketed in value in the last two years, no one saw that coming!
Just plain old luck sometimes.
I haven't read the full thread so this may have been covered...corgi die-cast models and specifically the limited editions which are usually about 1000 and each one is numbered.
Now made in China but lots of stuff is; as an example, Royal Albert dinner sets - good old English heritage name but that's as far as it goes.
Maybe a bit moon on a stick, but fast
Petrol cars are collectors dreams at the moment.
I mate of mine has a three year old 911 turbo. Worth a lot more now than what he paid for it, and prices are only rising. Given the move to electric, a 100k investment in a good v12 will probably quadruple in 10 years, if kept mint.
A big engined petrol convertible. Pretty, well made with a spine tingling soundtrack. For high days and holidays. If it’s a model that was lusted over when new, even better.
Problem with cars is that in 20 years time it is likely petrol supplies will be very limited and usage restricted.
Cars will be electric and autonomous.
Mrs S bought a mint pink Paisley Japanese Telecaster for £800 three years ago.
Now worth about £1300, but only if you can find the right buyer. Not that many people collect Japanese Fenders.
I've recently been offered £1800 for a 2019 Japanese Limited Collection Strat.
Only 25 outside Japan and 9 in the UK. Paid £1350 for it.
Nitrocellulose finish, so should age nicely.
Providing I don't wear the frets out it should appreciate a little more, but will never be crazy money.
Have a few hundred old Commando comics in mint condition, including some very early ones.
Probably going to auction next year, I expect a decent profit on those.
Also some old Hornby train stuff, including a set that was only produced for a very short time and less than 100 units made.
Sadly, it's from the 80's, probably the least collectable period.
Still, should be worth enough for me to buy a Gibson, which again, will only ever go up in value.
Car promotional literature/catalogues/colour charts for desirable marques could be free now, but collectable in the future. I sold a few Jensen Interceptor brochures a few years ago for crazy prices.
A glass company I visit always has one of these parked inside in one of the showroom conservatories.
I asked why it never gets ridden and was told the boss bought it as an investment.
