Issue No. 35

COLLECTING DAILY

In partnership with Just Collecting and Paul Fraser Collectibles

Good morning collectors. It’s Wednesday, June 24. The early start today is as we switch to three days a week.

What’s hot this week: Albert Einstein

What’s not: Scrubbing rare coins

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Why you need the tastes of a child

I listened to a collectibles and antiques investment specialist this week.

He said antiques markets are cyclical, driven by rarity (a limited supply), and best suited for investment.

And collectibles markets are linear, driven by scarcity (massive demand), and best suited to speculation.

Some thoughts:

These aren’t well-defined categories, and some collectibles are antiques, or will become antiques.

This happens at the top end of the market – genuine firsts (Action Comics #1), really rare survivors (Inverted Jenny stamps), heavyweight cultural products (Star Wars).

But we’ve all seen booms in collectibles. And these are to an extent predictable.

Logan Paul was born in 1995.

Pokémon exploded in the US from 1999 after its 1998 release there.

Little Logan got into it. In 2021, little Logan was big, controversial, millionaire YouTuber Logan.

He spent $5.3 million on a 1998 Pokémon Card, that he sold earlier this year for $16.5 million to 1992-born AJ Scaramucci.

So, with future demand and scarcity in mind, collectibles speculators might want to look at the Eighth Generation of games consoles (dating back to 2012) and buy around the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, looking for rarities, special editions, and firsts and especially focusing on condition and quality.

Game series that boomed during this period include: Mario Kart 8, Grand Theft Auto V, Marvel’s Spider Man. There’s cross-over collectible appeal aplenty in those titles.

So, to speculate, accumulate around these titles as you wait for the kids whose minds were blown by them to become the well-remunerated adults crazed with nostalgia for them.

Market Intel

Selling this week

> Autographs: Albert Einstein’s signature is one of the most sought-after and a must for every serious 20th century collection. A typed letter, signed by Einstein in ink, and from an important time in his public life (1946) is attracting bids at Invaluable, but remains below an attractive £2,000 low estimate thus far. It’s certainly worth a punt if you hurry to the sale that closes today.

> Film and TV memorabilia: A major sale of horse-drawn carriages that closes online on Thursday includes notable lots with TV and film pedigrees. A town coach featured in the film Victoria has a bid of £6,000 at David Duggleby Auctions.

Sold last week

> Original Snoopy: A $15,000 top estimate was more than doubled as Heritage Auctions sold the original art for a 1959 Peanuts newspaper strip by Charles Schulz for $34,160 on Friday. A charming narrative and strong images of Snoopy in a baby’s bonnet gave the item added appeal in an animation art sale where items from The Simpsons also performed well, confirming their status as classic animation art.

Events & Exhibitions

> Escher confuses and attracts : The big MC Escher exhibition at Somerset House, London is already extending weekend opening hours to accommodate demand. If you want to see the world’s most famous mathematically inspired artworks before the September close you should book now. The Dutch engraver is a great example of an artist eschewed by the critical establishment and made popular and valuable by public acclaim.

The Deep Dive

Found a coin that might have value? Before you pick up a cloth, read:

Coin cleaning mistakes that destroy value: what never to do

That’s Interesting…

> A look at collectible British comics

A new movie based on the Rogue Trooper character from 2000 AD will put the spotlight on British comics.

Will they ever match the value of the blockbuster American titles?

Probably not, but there is value and interest aplenty in the UK’s home-grown comic scene.

Here are some titles to consider:

Condition is an extremely important factor in the value of all these comics, and to achieve good prices they must be graded and extremely well preserved. Some of these titles were big sellers; there is no reason why these and other comics can’t be found in attics, junk shops and bring-and-buy sales anywhere in the UK.

There are also buyers for British editions and distributions of US favourites. Excalibur Auctions are noted specialists in the UK comics market.

> Quirky: Around 1974 the process of making Warner Bros’ 1978 Superman movie was clicking into gear. And part of that process was signing a deal with the men who created the character. Jerry Siegel (the writer) and Joe Shuster (the artist) were given a yearly stipend of $20,000 (later raised to $30,000) for not staking their claims to the character they had created in Action Comics #1 back in 1938. Two court cases over Superman’s birth had previously left his creators in financial troubles. Shuster apparently once embarrassed DC Comics executives when his work brought him to their offices – to deliver a package. In April 2024, a single copy of Action #1 sold for $6 million.

> Anniversary this week: Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912. He is perhaps the best known British scientist of his era. His name rings down the ages because of his achievements as a pioneer in computer science, and his tragic end – he took his own life after he was convicted, essentially, for being gay. The Nazi Enigma code machines that Turing’s genius helped to crack are very desirable, often selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2025 an attic-found trove of Turing’s papers made £465,000 at auction, with a single paper selling for £208,000.

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