Collectibles are a strange thing. People buy them for aesthetic or sentimental reasons, or as an investment. The latter reason is kind of stupid, since if everyone holds on to and cherishes a mass-produced item, it never becomes rare enough for supply to go down and demand to go up. (See: Beanie Babies.) It took much, much longer for the market to crash, but that’s what’s happening now as Hummel figurines no longer suit modern tastes and their aficionados in the Greatest Generation die off. [More]
