Collectors are different from speculators or investors. Collectors want something for personal reasons, whatever they are.

Speculators are just trying to buy low and sell high. Investing has overlap with speculating, but it's generally more long term.

I think this is important to understand when considering buying collectables. You have to know the different types of people you're bidding against, whether it's an out of print magic the gathering card or a painting.

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monero-xmr 3 days ago | parent [-]

Here's a rembrandt for sale: https://www.masterworksfineart.com/artists/rembrandt/etching...

No idea the price, but I would much prefer this to a Charizard pokemon card!

	▲	smokel 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		When buying etchings, beware of fakes. Since Rembrandt is very popular, people have found ways to make additional prints, by using the same copper plates in or after his lifetime. The Rembrandt House in Amsterdam sells new prints that are made with copies of the original plates. They do add a big sign on the paper, but they are genuine prints, and look very pretty indeed. But the original works are made by the master himself and once you get into etching you get to see very minor nuances in the print that you may grow to like. One thing to look for is whether the paper is original, but even here people use old paper from his period, for instance by ripping the first empty page from an old book. Another interesting thing is that Rembrandt often reworked his plates, so there are multiple "states" of his etchings. If you ever find a non-final state of some print, you can be fairly sure that he or a student of his printed it. Which adds to the value :)
	▲	randmeerkat 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This is such a beautiful piece. How did you learn about it? How does one get further into this world?