Story and Photography by Kent Miller

It's the good, the fad and the old dependables. They each were the collectible item to have. The collectible item you must have.

Hula hoops, pet rocks and mood rings had their days. But as popular as they were, no one had a collection of those fad items. One, or at the most two, of each was enough.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Pokémon cards, Beanie Babies, Pogs, Batman cards and scores of other once scalding-hot, collect and/or trade items.

"People invest in cards but they pick the wrong time," said Curt Miller, owner for 11 years of Sportcard Fantasy's in Santa Maria.

"When I opened the store in 1994, Pogs were the hot, new thing. We got into them. We were fortunate enough to get in at the right time.

"By the end of the year, they were done."

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Pogs - quarter-size cardboard disks with a picture on one side - have gone from being "valuable forever" to being mush in a landfill.

"Everybody jumps on hot items, like Beanie Babies and then they fall," Miller said. "You have got to know what you are doing to turn it into a good investment."

Pogs and Beanie Babies are not the only fads that faded.

There is even a cyberspace Bad Fads Museum. In addition to collectibles, it includes fashions (remember bellbottoms, bouffant, conk and Farrah Fawcett hairdos, Nehru jackets, leisure and zoot suits, go-go boots and platform shoes), activities (including trampoline jumping, 3-D movies, miniature golf, drive-in theaters and boomerangs) and events (such as panty raids, streaking, flagpole sitting and disco).

Under collectibles are 40 of the faddest of the fad. Listings include Beanie Babies and Pogs, and Baby on Board signs, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Frisbees, Furbies, Matchbox cars, Pacman, Pez, Rubik's Cube, Sea Monkeys, Silly Putty, Slinky, Smile buttons, Smurfs, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Balls, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Virtual Pets and Yo-Yos.

Click on any of the 40 listings and you'll go to a page devoted to the fad.

Clicking on Cabbage Patch Dolls brings the information that you did not buy one of the pudgy-faced, stumpy-armed dolls. They were adopted - including an "official" birth certificate. First year adoption fees paid were $60 million and quickly grew to more than $600 million in 1985 - the biggest fad of the 1980s.

Barbie dolls pre-date Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch Dolls, going back to the early 1960s.

Even at 40-something, Barbie is the most popular doll in the history of the United States, with more than 100 million sold around the world.

Barbie also gave birth to several popular friends and the largest toy company in the world, Mattel.

The secret to success is Barbie's accessories, especially her wardrobe. In 1965, sale of Barbie merchandise reached nearly $100 million.

"It would seem that Mattel's Barbie merchandising opportunities are endless and Barbie continues to be one of the best-selling dolls and in fact toys, year in and year out," according to Bad Fads.

"She is also, perhaps, the most successful fashion icon in history."

Good as gold

When it comes to dependable demand year-after-year, nothing can top precious metals and precious stones.

Who wouldn't like to collect gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, rubies or sapphires?

After all, this fad has been going on for thousands of years and shows no signs of going out of style.

For the less-than-expert collector, bullion - especially in coin form - offers advantages over precious stones. The value of a one-ounce gold coin is much easier to determine than it would be for an amateur to determine the value of a diamond.

"Pennies have all faded out," said Ronald Funk, owner of Gold Coast Coin & Stamp Shop in San Luis Obispo for 42 years. "I remember years ago, people used to collect pennies and nickels.

"Very few people collect coins anymore. They just want to collect for the bullion value, to beat inflation.

"Everything today is gold, silver and platinum - Krugerrands, Chinese Pandas, bullion coins."

Gold coins from 1933 and before are valuable, Funk said.

"A $3 gold piece starts at $500," he said. "It's not how much gold is in them, but the rarity."

People don't want bullion bars, Funk said.

"They want coins with somebody's face on them. They want a face and a date ... a picture on them," he said.

"Bars are discounted, subject to sales tax. With legal tender coins, there's no sales tax in California if you spend $1,000 or more on them.

"Silver dollars are real popular right now. They can go for $7.50 to $7,500 - depending on date, mint mark and condition."

While coins have retained their popularity, the same can't be said for another once very popular hobby.

"Stamps died about 15 years ago," Funk said. "It used to be an interesting thing to do, but the Postal Service ruined that.

"They raised prices and sold in larger plate blocks - four to six to half a sheet. That ruined stamp collecting."

Old dependables

Some items - while not as good as gold - have staying power.

Baseball cards have been around for roughly 100 years, with some old, rare cards worth thousands of dollars.

All sports have cards, said Sportcard Fantasy's Miller.

The first post-World War II baseball cards came out in 1948, with the Topps cards showing up in 1951, he said.

"Those are what kids collected," Miller said. "Nobody then ever foresaw they would be worth money. They threw them away, so those that still exist in decent shape are worth money."

Popularity is season-by-season, he said.

"Baseball has been hot; football is the hottest now," Miller said. "With football, it's primarily the rookies: Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger.

"You also have guys like Carson Palmer (2002 Heisman Trophy winner from USC), who was a rookie last year but didn't play. His cards cooled off. But now that he is playing, his cards are hot again.

"Sports cards have been around for years. They go through cycles. True collectors stay with it. Others jump on and off the bandwagon.

"Some people collect for the money. A true collector collects for nostalgia."

Cards, plaques and posters for such baseball players as Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Vladimar Guerrero are hot items, he said.

"On retirement, people feel (a player's) collectibles will go up," Miller said. "But actually, it's the reverse - until they get close to the Hall of Fame. Then after that, the spotlight is off and their fame goes down."

Comic books

It's a new age of comic books with the marketing links to such things as movies, cartoons, video games, DVDs, statues and T-shirts, said Michael Krob, an employee at Tales To Astonish in Santa Maria.

"The things that are the most popular ... are things attached to movies: Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman, even though it's (the latest Batman movie) not out yet," Krob said.

"With the movies, we are seeing kids as young as 5 or 6 coming back into comics."

Comic book collectors vary in age from children to senior citizens and include males and females, he said.

"There's a much bigger market for re-sales today than ever," Krob said. "eBay is making the difference. It used to be only a local market and prices fluctuated from area to area. Now there is a steadier market.

"People are getting into it for speculation. That applies to anything collectible nowadays.

"Collectors will buy two copies. One they read and one they never open. It goes immediately into the (plastic protective) sleeve to keep it in mint condition.

"Others will buy one copy, read it and then put it into a sleeve."

Comics will age and need to be preserved to maintain value, he said. They are graded on a sliding scale depending on what type of condition they are in, Krob said.

The used comic-book market is getting a boost through movies, he said. The older books often have a history of a villain featured in a movie.

* Staff writer Kent Miller can be reached at 739-2221 or by e-mail at kentmiller@pulitzer.net.

Sept. 26, 2004