Everyone has made some good points about our hobby and I would just like to throw in my two cents' worth, if it makes any sense.
I buy to add to my collection, not to sell. I got into it simply out of interest, and as time went on I have acquired what I consider to be a considerable number of badges, but I can always do with more! Few have been given to me, apart from when I started out in the mid-Sixties (then my interest waned until c.2001). For the most part I have paid what I consider to be modest prices at shows, dealers and the odd antique shop now and again. Like most members, I have picked up a few bargains here and there, paid prices which were I to sell them I could make a profit on them. There are a number of badges I would love to have but are out of my price range. Whether it is because they are rare, and consequently expensive, or at overly-inflated prices, I will probably either never buy them, or do so at the expense of others. In some cases it may be hard to justify the expense. There is always those nagging questions: Can I afford not to? What if I never see one of those again? Depending on our financial circumstances, we all have to set limits: We can only buy what we can afford, and at what seems reasonable prices.
As with any collectables, the market ebbs and flows, depending on what is in style or available at the time. If the market becomes flooded with an item, prices tend to sag, so what you might have paid for it earlier, is less now, but it can rise again. Paintings are a classic example, with many variables, such as certain artists being more in vogue and 'collectable' than others. Monetary value, like our respective currencies, is always variable. Other forms of value, which have been discussed here and in previous posts, will likely remain the same.
When many of us started collecting, prices were peanuts; in some cases, nothing at all - you couldn't give them away. And that's probably what's bothering some of us older collectors. We're harking back to what it was 'worth' then. All that has changed now that everyone wants to collect something, and everything now has a value, whether it is really worth that or not. What caused this? Blame it on the 'Antiques Roadshow' and other such programmes if you want, or the resurgence of interest in military history with various anniversaries coming up (or past), and the disappearance of all the old vets. The fact is, that if dealers are not able to move their stuff it's probably either because they're asking too much, it's not top quality, or the market cannot sustain it. If they want to see any return on their stock they may have to lower their prices, or sit on it until the market improves.
OK, that's off my chest.
David
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