Another great area to look into, if you have the knowledge is sports memorabilia. I have picked up items that I have been wanting to complete my collection for 15 years at 20% of what they have been at for a decade. Like any investment it pays to know what you want, makes sense, and keep emotionally distant while evaluating it and bidding/negotiating price. In the past week I have picked up autographed team baseballs of my favorite city for $78 and $90. These balls have regularly gone for $500 and $1000. Like you mentioned, for those who have the cash and knowledge now is a great time to invest in what you know.

Dear Mike:

Thanks for the nice letter and a great idea. I wish I had the knowledge you do, because I know that stamps, trading cards, autographed balls (basketballs, baseballs, golf balls, and probably even soccer balls, although I’m so old I will never really think of soccer as a sport Americans take part in!), comic books, and even toys and dolls ARE items with scarcity, historical, and “condition” value, and the older they get (very short in terms of furniture or china) the more they appreciate. I was amazed at what an autographed photo of Ben Hogan fetched a few years ago, my son-in-law’s Christmas present.

Naturally, I like that you’re with me on using current conditions to complete your collections–which will be worth more, then! When complete, that is.

Here’s a thought…if times get worse and franchises start to disappear, won’t items which are relatively common now become more valuable than they would otherwise? One of the problems is keeping people from throwing “that old junk” out for the first twenty years. Another is deliberate flooding of the market, as in constant changes in US stamps and the silly quarter collections. Any time the government can get us not to redeem those on the assumption they will be more valuable eventually…

I really like your idea, and I’m so delighted that you were keeping an eye on the world around you. We have to feel sorry for those turning loose of their treasures, but not sorry enough to refuse to buy something wonderful at twenty cents on the decreasing dollar. I suppose you’re already checking Craig’s List and e-Bay?

I also like that you’ve got me thinking…what about if we pick up anything unusual that doesn’t “cost es-spensive,” as my tiny daughter said long ago, we run across? I found some autographed sheet music a while back, and at a dollar a song it seemed like a good idea to buy all three the antique store had. Library sales sometimes yield treasures. I bought one of my favorite books in hardbound for a dollar, and would have thought no more about it if I hadn’t wanted to give someone else a copy. I went on Amazon.com and discovered they only had two, like mine, and they were $250! No, mine isn’t for sale. I read it about every three years.

Happy hunting!

Linda

DEAR CANADA NORTH:

Thanks for the great advice. I am blessed with a couple of mechanics who live on the place, and we don’t go for the new genre of cars with so many computerized electronics that they can’t be worked on at home. Among other reasons, we consider EMP. Mostly, the guys’ idea of fun is tinkering with cars. You should have heard last night’s discussion on synchronizing triple Weber car-bew-ret-ors.

We were exceptionally lucky this week and came across a 1966 Mark X! Fabulous exterior and motor, no rust, but the interior is a disaster. I’m going to remove and refinish the dash and door trim myself, but she’ll need a small fortune in professional reupholstery beyond my modest skills of fabricating a taut tonneau cover. She has right-hand drive and is a manual!!! Complete with RAC badge and a STARTER button!

We also picked up an ’85 XJ6, a little external rust, but marvelous interior and the motor in good shape. It won’t take much to have the little white one (tags and inspection about to expire, but at least she was registrable last year) in good enough shape to be my “every day” car for a while. (I go anywhere as seldom as possible because everything I love is here on the ranch.) Only 128,000 miles. The Ten only has 46,000! Right-hand drive, MANUAL transmission, be still, our hearts! She’s what Americans call “British Racing Green.” No AC, of course, which means we won’t be able to drive her more than three months out of the year other than a few nights. Unless my darling Charles comes up with a way to put an AC unit in the boot! Sacrilege or common sense?

Hey, other readers, there is more to life than the stock market and fearing the government that fears your guns! Canada North and I are twin souls bonding, here, and happy as can be.

Canada, got any idea on what to do with my ’96 which got bumped over something (NO, I did not do it) and has it in her head she’s been cat-napped or been in an accident? She’s shut down her fuel pump and refuses stubbornly to let it be re-set. Second, due to a serious mishap, all the keys to an ’87 (perhaps as beautiful a Jag as ever made) are lost irretrievably. The local “master locksmith” came in and announced cockily, “I’ve never seen a car I can’t cut a key for.” He has now! Short of replacing the entire ignition system, any ideas?

Golly, it feels good to take a break from the woes of finance, politics, and corruption.

BIG hug to a fellow Jag-u-ar lover, Linda

I USED THAT ONE BECAUSE I WILL NEVER GET OVER CHUCKLING OVER JFK’S MISTAKE IN BERLIN.

There’s a lot in your article that I agree with. THANK YOU. They can throw out the old books on how to play the market…this is one market that just refuses to be played. The thinking caps have to come off and new ways have to be implemented. That’s one reason I get so mad when I try to watch CNBC, they just keep trying to do things the old way and never get it when the old way doesn’t work. I live in CT, and I heard that Larry Kudlow was thinking of running for Congress. I was keeping an eye on that, because if he did, I would have moved mountains to keep him out of Washington.

When you were talking about equipment later in the article, it reminded me of my father. He survived the Great Depression, and he always was an advocate of making do, never buying anything new unless he absolutely had to. “USE IT UP, WEAR IT OUT, MAKE IT DO, OR DO WITHOUT,” THE OLD ADVICE WENT. He died on his farm in Kentucky a few years back with the same tractor he had farmed with all his life, a tractor that was built in 1940. He repaIred it himsef in the barn, preaching what i used to call his “Sunday Sermons” after church as he was trying to weld something back onto it yet again. Thanks for beinging that memory back to me. WHAT A HEART-WARMING STORY! MY FATHER USED TO SAY, “FIX IT BEFORE IT BREAKS AND RUINS SOMETHING ELSE!’ HE, TOO, DID HIS OWN WELDING, CARPENTRY, PLUMBING, ELECTRICAL WORK, YOU NAME IT.

I have a lot from my parents. They taught me to be frugal. They taught me how to grow and can my own food. They left me heirlooms of many things, gold and silver, that I can either use for money while I’m alive or pass on to my kids after I’m gone. WHAT I LEARNED FROM MINE ARE THAT (1) YOUR LIFE WAS A WASTE IF YOU DON’T PASS SOMETHING ON, AND (2) MONEY HAS THREE PURPOSES, IN THIS ORDER. FIRST, LONG-TERM SECURITY. SECOND, CURRENT LIVING EXPENSES. THIRD, IF THERE IS ANYTHING LEFT OVER AT THAT POINT YOU MAY SPEND IT JOYOUSLY!

The choices you make decide the life you will have. My parents told me that a long time ago before they turned me loose onto the world.

Everything in life is a choice – just make an informed decision and choose well.

WHAT A TERRIFIC LETTER, ICH BIN! I ENJOYED EVERY LAST WISE BIT OF IT, AND I HOPE YOU WILL WRITE AGAIN.

LBT

When you were talking about equipment later in the article, it reminded me of my father. He survived the Great Depression, and he always was an advocate of making do, never buying anything new unless he absolutely had to. He died on his farm in Kentucky a few years back with the same tractor he had farmed with all his life, a tractor that was built in 1940. He repared it himsef in the barn, preaching what i used to call his “Sunday Sermons” after church as he was trying to weld something back onto it yet again. Thanks for beinging that memory back to me.

I have a lot from my parents. They taught me to be frugal. They taught me how to grow and can my own food. They left me heirlooms of many things, gold and silver, that I can either use for money while I’m alive or pass on to my kids after I’m gone.

The choices you make decide the life you will have. My parents told me that a long time ago before they turned me loose onto the world.

Everything in life is a choice – just make an informed decision and choose well.