Invest in IBMcollectables ? Are you nuts ?

The collecting of IBM Collectables collectables is a rewarding hobby for some, a passion for others, and there are a small number of "Hard Core Collectors" who have put a serious portion of their future in to the long term marketability of IBM Collectabables and Collectibles throught investment.

On the other hand many if not most of the collectors I come across are IBMers or descendants of IBMers who have a small personal collection of keepsakes that they augment with items that find their way here to ebay.

What makes an item an IBMcollectable?

By definition an IBMcollectable is anything Made by IBM with an IBM logo on it. There are rare exceptions, mostly items directly attributed to an IBM BigIron Systems. I will use 96 and 80 column punch cards, Magnetic tape, disk packs, and early codeing forms, as a typical examples.

Many feel that the 25 year rule is in effect here. Items less than 25 years old including the IBM Personal Computers and software, while being nice to fill out a collection, have little little real value, and will not for another 10 or more years. Early tube computers and examples of core memory are also popular with todays collectors. Items easily stored or displayed tend to be most popular.

Even items produced for the primary purpose of  being saved or collected have shown some incredible returns refuardless of age only as a result of the ebay explosion and perceived and in some cases rareties appeare and often the bidding shows it. These items are often refered to as IBMcollectibles with an "I" and not an "A" even though many of the items in this category started out as awards and sales perks and were not produced as gift shop junk as many other collectibles often are/were..

So why as collectors do we do it ?

The real fun is in finding long lost examples from the Golden Age of computing.
These Collectables include items that were never intended on being collected like Fire alarms, Clocks, Typewriters, old Computer parts, punch cards, not to mention advertisements and other paper collectables, at the moment system hardware documentation is going for a good prices .....
Rareties is the answer, there just was not that much of the old stuff saved.

During the The Big Iron Holocaust, when the smelters turned the System 360/370 and System 3  big iron computer systems back into gold. Much of this generation of computers were lost to the ovens. The logic of the day said to save all the examples of tube computing you could, they would be worth something someday. But all the modern stuff would never be worth more than the gold value it was made from. With gold at an all time high, everything went straight to the smelters after being stripped of any useful spare parts.

The few remaining examples that were rescued are often very desireable to the serious collectors and investors. There has been little question it has often been more to the wail than woe to the lucky person who decided to see it if their old junk was worth anything on ebay. Those luck few who have quietly been stockpiling IBM collectables over the years are beginning to find resistance in the marketplace while at the same time are discovering their momentos have become worth real money in most cases. If prices continue to climb I expect to activity in this sector to continue to grow as small private collections begin to shift to the long term investors..

Here is a link to PostcardBob's Ebay Store  where IBMcollectables are available from time to time. You will have to go to Google to find a link to my IBMcollectables homepage which looks at IBMcollectables from the outside looking in. Or dig to the bottom of my me Page  :)

Happy Collecting