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About one-third of households reported buying collectibles in the past year. This percentage has been about flat, when 34 percent bought the same. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a collectible as:

An object that is collected by fanciers; especially: one other than such traditionally collectible items as art, stamps, coins, and antiques.

With little guidance provided by the type of object that is considered collectible, the key to the definition of the term is that it is something anything—that a fancier brings together into one grouping or place. The focus then is on the verb or act of collecting, and not that which is collected (i.e., the noun or the thing). Even the most disenfranchised members of our society, homeless people, carry “collections” of objects around with them. In some strange way, these objects, whether they are tin cans or just cast-offs from others, connect the street person with the life they led before. It represents some normalcy and a connection with “home” in an otherwise dysfunctional lifestyle.

Universal Memorabilia Collectibles Snapshot

While the term collectible often refers to a vintage item that is not yet 100 years old and thus transformed into an antique on its centennial anniversary, there is a segment of the giftware industry that defines itself by the collectibles term and is represented by a trade association, The Gift & Collectibles Guild. Its members include companies that “design decorative objects, gifts, and limited-edition artwork and collectibles.” Ever since the Beanie Babies collecting fad subsided, it has been a rough period for this industry that manufactures and markets new, as opposed to vintage, items for collecting. Overall industry sales are down by 17 percent in the past two years, with most categories, such as figurines, collectible dolls, and plush, dropping sharply。

As the collectibles industry takes its licks, some companies are begin_ning to fold under the pressure. The Franklin Mint, one of the more prominent collectibles industry leaders in the roaring 1980s and 1990s, just laid off approximately two-thirds of its work force and closed its company stores as it restructures its business around the die-cast collecting segment. In its announcement, the company claimed: “The biggest problem we had was not getting the new collectors into the fold. The current business model is not working.” In other words, nobody wants the stuff anymore. And The Franklin Mint is not alone in these difficulties. The Bradford Group, another direct sales company based in Niles, Illinois, has also undergone layoffs in the past year. Other public companies that have traditionally focused on collectibles are steadily seeing sales slide quarter after quarter, including Boyd’s; Department 56; Enesco, home of Precious Moments; Media Arts, of Thomas Kinkade fame; and Middleton Doll Company.

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