Hacker News Reader

Comment by bliss | Hacker News Reader

I surprised myself by figuratively sitting at the edge of my seat reading this tale. The thing that interests me more though than the tale itself if the buyers. I'm not a collector. I can understand the shady dealings and the clandestine meetings to make cash selling these things, but I would love to read about the mind of the buyer of these things, that I consider junk. If I came across something in the attic that was judged by someone to be worth cash, then I'd happily part as long as it contained no sentimental value of course but I honestly can't understand how value works. I view it as a failing on my part, I'd honestly love to get into the head of collector types. Maybe I'm just too habitually frugal.

View on HN

I think it may be on the same spectrum that hoarding is on. When someone collects something from their childhood, nostalgia is a potent factor. Often the thing they're collecting is something pleasant from their childhood/youth (be it X-men comics, or baseball cards, or girly mags.)

Once there's a large group of "needful" collectors, the other collections (the kind that want to make money) show up. If an item becomes "hot" with needful collectors, the speculators will buy it up, creating scarcity and driving prices even higher.

This works out pretty good, until a disruption happens in the market. Sometimes the market gets flooded with low-value merch (how many X-titles were there?) Sometimes a couple of movie bombs ruin the property (exhibit number 1: "The Fantastic Four.")

You see this disruption in the "real world" too. When was the last time you saw a "used CD store?"

But for the "needful" collectors, the value is in having the thing. And the more the thing costs, the more value people place in having it.

>I'd honestly love to get into the head of collector types.

As a previous Pez collector back in the 7th grade, or "Pezhead" (back in the 90s using my paper route money) who yes, attended several Pez conventions at the time, I can attest that the draw was in-part connecting with other people around a shared interest -- the community.

Although some of the email on the big Pez email list at the time [1] was buying and selling, a lot of it was joking around, organizing meet-ups, sharing stories about a great "find" at a garage sale etc...

For me, the ability to connect via email with people from around the globe talking about a subject like Pez was what stuck with me. Although my Pez collecting ended, that unifying aspect of the internet continued to inspire me through my formative years and continues to this day.

That said, here is an indie documentary about "Pezheads" if you are interested in hearing more about crazy collectors: http://pezheadsthemovie.com/

[1] http://www.pezlist.com/ The Original Pezheads Email List, online since 1995

Here's a short (and quite sad) documentary about a family of Beanie Baby collectors -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDsyj5eLmo

People do some crazy things. It's hard to imagine spending $100k on beanie babies or pez dispensers. In the 80s it was comics. In the 90s it was beanie babies and pez. I'm not sure what it is now in a few years, after the crash, we'll be hearing stories.

It was real estate most recently.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com