Things We Value – Or Don’t

Ten years ago or so, I surreptitiously and probably foolishly spent $500 on a limited 3 volume book set. Sometimes I take a flier on books. This was one of the more expensive ones. Well, truthfully, probably the most expensive one. It’s a large format, limited edition of 500 copies on the history of custom automotive coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik. I took one look through the set, was impressed by the sheer volume of material, put it back in its box and put it away. At the time, I wasn’t particularly inspired to read it – three volumes is a project! Having looked at the set’s recent value, I may be even less inspired to read it now.

I don’t remember sitting on anything in my life and having it gain value while having no longing to do anything with it. I feel guilty about it. After all, cars of nearly all types and ages interest me and this covers the fascinating era of Paris custom coachbuilding. But truthfully, this thing I thought I would be interested in reading has little appeal to me. I confess it’s really not much more than a coffee table set. So, despite my guilt, I was resigned to having probably wasted $500.

Still, I felt a need to mollify my guilt, so a couple years ago I did some checking online as to its value. I expected if people were still willing to pay what it cost, that would be a win. Lo and behold, like-new copies were selling for $2,500. Yo, what!? That inspired some interest here. I dug it out and made sure I had everything, including a small souvenir medallion.

Hopefully, this wasn’t going to be one of those things like buying complete sets of major league baseball cards for my boys and telling them never to break up the set because it would be worth a lot of money one day. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before they couldn’t stand it and starting trading cards with their friends. I don’t even bother checking the value of those sets because I don’t want to start crying over spilt milk….

Bingo! My set was still complete. So, back into the closet it went.

As it’s now the holiday season and I’m perusing the internet for gifts, once again this book set pops up. So, okay, I’ll check again. It was probably an aberration – it must have dropped back to list price by now. Maybe they released another edition.

Nope. Now it’s apparently worth well over $4,000. I think I might keep it awhile longer and see what happens. Because, you know, my sense of timing with these things is horrible. So, why not? I’m assuming in a couple years it’ll come crashing down as all the people who remember this guy die off and no one else cares to remember him. That’s how I manage these things, you know. Poorly. No touch, no sense of timing – not much of anything.

This is why I’m not a collector of things. I don’t want to collect just to have stuff, like most collectors. I want the stuff to gain value. When it doesn’t after a couple years, I get impatient. I’m not one of these guys who’s going to have a basement or a garage or warehouse full of stuff that’s been sitting for a zillion years and now that I’m dead, suddenly everyone wants what’s inside. I’m just not a junk guy, and that’s what most of this stuff is to me. It’s true, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I don’t care. Garage sale hunters – not my type.

All that said, lately I’ve been kinda ‘saving’ a few things like enthusiast car magazines. I want to have complete, or nearly complete, sets because collectors like those. My family will probably find them after I’m dead – and throw them out.

Yeah, yet another fine investment….