A Few Top Tips For Collecting Memorabilia
Collecting for me probably began before I even realised. As the son of a newsagent and tobacconist, I had an open book to start. Matchbox cars were relatively cheap, and even cheaper when you didn’t have to actually pay for them yourself.
So every time new models came out, which was pretty regularly, yours truly acquired one from either of the amazing display racks we had in the shop. Sadly, to navigate around the Matchbox display and get behind the counter to access the living accommodation upstairs, I also had to head past the open tins of Roses, pick n mix and all the other sweet and fattening comestibles that the local shop had back then. As a result, by the time I was eight years old I weighed approximately 18 stones, had sugar diabetes, teeth that resembled sugar puffs and a collection of cars that Chris Evans would have been envious of.
Due to Mum having a philosophy that you played with 2 toys at a time, all were kept in their original boxes or stored in those wonderful official travel cases that the manufacturer, Lesney, used to produce back in the day. Then came Hot Wheels from the States, and I blew another fuse, along with Corgi, Dinky, Husky - I was addicted - just couldn’t get enough.
As I grew, tastes and interests changed. I still loved cars, but the real ones not the small ones in boxes. Football became the real drug, dragged along by father and brother, who is twenty years older. From a young age I was taken to every home game and, as brother also ran the Supporters Club coach travel to away games, most of those fixtures too. A programme always came back from each one. I kept them dry, didn’t fold them, and each year bought a new binder to put them in order and keep them pristine. This left my family needing a house roughly the size of Buckingham Palace for the programmes to be stored in with reinforced ceilings to hold the weight!
Early teens brought vinyl records and an eclectic love of music. The first credible album I bought was All Mod Cons by The Jam, and I vividly recall as a 12-year-old venturing into the dark cave of noise in the town centre that was known as Virgin Records - this wasn’t the 1980’s flash and stylish Branson baby, this was when it was still real. Every time I went in, everybody looked as though they wanted to kill me and the noise was ear splitting. I took it up to the counter, and the punk who served me actually laughed in my face, and turned to his mates to see what piece of rubbish I had saved hard and long to buy. Another education was Violet May’s records, also in the center of town. It was an Aladdin’s Cave of vinyl records piled high - she was the Auntie Wainright of the local music scene despite being about 103, and knew where everything was - her pound bin was legendary and some of the now rare records I bought back then became the cornerstone of my musical journey which I am still on. I still seek out those I lost or was daft enough to sell in times of fiscal turbulence or childbirth.
In fact, I realise that history is, in a sense, repeating itself - let me explain.
All the toy cars I lovingly kept and cared for are long gone. Mum gave most of them away and, unbelievably chucked the rest away as I was “too old” for them.
For the football programmes - read the cars for the most part. Although at one point when the business was gone, we moved to an old school terrace house, and the bulk of the programmes were stored out of the way in a cellar. After sustaining damage from the local mouse population, a flood finally took the rest out and reduced them to porridge.
The vinyl? - well, we have all been there. Beatles and Stones eventually came a grudging second to mortgage and Mothercare in the grand scheme of things and there they went. The thing is that, as I have got older, I collect:
- Toy cars
- Football ephemera (including programmes)
- Own a 1966 Morris Minor car (And have owned countless fast Fords, Minis, Vintage cars etc)
- Have amassed a vinyl record collection that tops 4000 and rising.
You see, once a collector, always a collector. Toy cars become real cars, programmes become medals and caps and the records the ones that you sold or couldn’t afford back in the day. We are all addicts I suppose!
The question is, what would be my five tips to starting out on the road to divorce and excessive storage shelf assembly? A tough one, but here goes…
1) Love what you buy - sounds obvious, but connection fuels passion and there is no better buzz than tracking down, bidding for and hopefully securing that missing gem from your excel sheet.
2) Keep an eye on the marketplace - there are auctions going off all the time and countless sale catalogues to keep up with. Saleroom is an amazing tool for any collector across the board, and for a modest subscription each month you can plug into the auction world, see past sale prices, register to bid etc - it’s the ultimate collector tool at your fingertips.
3) Know your limits - its really easy to get sucked into a bidding war as the adrenaline rises, especially if there a couple of you chasing the same piece. Items that you sometimes wouldn’t credit when doing a valuation can become the exception in terms of what we expect it to make if it's the missing piece of a couple of jigsaws, so decide what you are comfortable with and stick to it.
4) Be aware of charges - the fall of the hammer price for the buyer doesn’t end there, with other add ons such as buyers fees, VAT and so on - make sure you know what the final balance will be on top of your bid.
5) Take care when bidding - a lot of sales are conducted online these days, although we certainly get out on the road as the recent sales in Glasgow and at Silverstone show. But make sure you register to bid with the Auction house in good time for the sale, have a good internet connection (or clear telephone line if you register to bid in that way) and also that no pets and children are in the vicinity to actually press a key at the crucial moment - I kid you not, we have come across it countless times!
6) Have an awareness of the market - do your homework on what items have been realising to help you set you limits, and finally, but most importantly: Be aware of fakes. We go to extraordinary lengths to make sure the items we offer for sale are the real McCoy so our clients can bid with the upmost confidence. Provenance and accuracy is key – check descriptions, do your own homework and, if in doubt, ask for a condition report or speak to the valuer concerned to out your mind at rest.
Get out there and enjoy collecting. Never expect in instantly to make a profit - sometimes it happens, but collecting is much more. Enjoy what you buy first and foremost.
Right, I’m off to polish the Morris Minor, catalogue the vinyl again and dust the Dinky Toys when I have moved the football programmes out of the way to find the Morris. I've then got to phone my wife and beg her to come home.
Happy collecting!