MANAGING YOUR MONEY : THE RIGHT PATH : Collectibles Don’t Have to Cost a Mint : Experts suggest two areas to consider: memorabilia from the Old West and from the entertainment industry.
These are go-go times indeed in the world of Impressionist art. A Van Gogh fetched $82.5 million at auction in May. A Renoir went for $78 million. All of which might leave average collectors with the distinct impression that this isn’t the art form for them.
So what’s left to accumulate that’s, you know, affordable?
How about the mundane and once shunned relics of the Wild West and Hollywood?
Western memorabilia “is very hot,” said Greg Martin, a consultant to the San Francisco auction house of Butterfield & Butterfield. “There isn’t anything that isn’t hot.”
To be sure, one year’s fad can be as dead as the Nehru jacket in a matter of months. And collectors should be cautious about putting money into items offering no immediate cash return at a time when interest rates could shoot up. But for those casting about for something fun and interesting to collect that might also afford them a big future payback, experts in the field say these are two categories to consider.
Consider the run-up in riding equipment. Martin, a collector of Western gear for the last 35 years, said saddles that five years ago went for $40 or $50 are now fetching $1,500. Among the items Martin has lassoed for his collection is a set of conquistador stirrups worth, he figures, about $15,000.
Whoa, now, pardner. Isn’t that getting a little pricey?
Not according to William Manns, a Millwood, N.Y., collector of carousel figures who recently started snapping up cowboy items. “The boom hasn’t started yet,” Manns said.
Linda Kohn, owner of High Noon Western Collectibles in Los Angeles, agreed that buyers still have the upper hand.
“There are enough items in a reasonable price range . . . and I still think today that it’s all undervalued,” she said. “Spurs are more plentiful than anything else.” A nice pair, she said, can be had for anywhere from $400 up to $5,000, which snares something really special in engraved sterling silver. As recently as two years ago, she said, nothing sold for more than $2,500.
Saddles by Ed Bohlin, the legendary Hollywood saddlemaker to the stars, are selling for $8,000 and up. Especially hot are articles used by cowboy stars such as William S. Hart and Tom Mix.
Kohn has been buying up horsehair bridles, made by prisoners in the 1880s. Six years ago, she was paying $1,200, but she recently sold one to a Connecticut shop owner for $8,500.
Kohn also sold a pair of woolly chaps to an Arizona gallery a year and a half ago for $600. Today, they’d draw $1,200, she said. And while a collector is waiting for the price to rise, she noted, chaps make a terrific wall hanging.
Although collectors of Western memorabilia tend to be those who grew up around horses and ranches, Kohn figures that the fascination will quickly spread. Dealers from as far away as Germany have contacted her.
Cowboy gear “evokes memories of childhood, our heritage and the history of our country,” she said. “It’s our folk art.”
Another area still in its infancy is Hollywood props and costumes from both TV and movies, some collectors say.
“Quirky, cultish shows have amazing appeal; you can literally name your price,” said James G. Comisar, a television comedy writer in Los Angeles who owns Mork’s egg from the defunct “Mork and Mindy” series, as well as Robin and Batman costumes and one of two staffs that Charlton Heston carried as Moses in “The Ten Commandments.” (Heston owns the other.)
Comisar, who has collected more than 100 substantial pieces worth a total of more than $1 million, said hot items can get bid up quickly. Last year, a matte painting from “The Wizard of Oz” depicting the Emerald City sold for $44,000, “a bargain,” according to Comisar.
Pieces from “Oz,” Comisar said, are without doubt the most sought after (a pair of ruby slippers sold two years ago for $165,000), with “Casablanca,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Citizen Kane” and “Gone With the Wind” not far behind.
Constantly on the prowl, Comisar typically spends 20 to 30 hours a week on his collecting passion. He advertises and sends out mass mailings and spends thousands of dollars to restore, maintain, display and insure his collection. He does not dispute the suggestion that there might be a Hollywood memorabilia museum in his future.
“I want to get these pieces together to rescue them,” he said. For novice collectors, Comisar offers this advice: “Buy as substantial a piece as you can afford, with as much documentation as possible, and get something that you enjoy, since you could end up having to live with it forever.”
Barry Vilkin, president of Camden House Auctioneers in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, began holding separate auctions of movie and entertainment memorabilia last year. “People didn’t have a place to go,” he said. “The phone started ringing off the hook.”
His fourth auction, held in October, grossed $600,000, down from $825,000 at a sale earlier this year, indicating that the unsettled economic times might be dampening collectors’ spirits.
“But some prices went through the roof,” he said. “Some people are buying from the heart; others are looking at this as investment-grade memorabilia.” Studios, which in years past neglected or discarded props and costumes, are starting to buy them back with a vengeance.
Most of the elegant costumes from Hollywood’s golden age “have not survived,” said Bill Thomas, a Los Angeles costume collector and aficionado. And fraudulent copies abound, so Thomas and others urge buyers to work through reputable dealers.
Vintage costumes worn by Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Judy Garland and other stars of yore are starting to be “taken seriously as an art form,” Thomas said. For that matter, so are the get-ups worn by he-man Arnold Schwarzenegger. A costume from his film “Running Man” recently brought $2,500.
But that’s nothing compared to what Thomas believes the future holds for any of the authentic ruby slippers, which he suspects will eventually surpass $1 million.
And if that happens, we’ll know we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
