For example, let's take a look at "ephemera".
If you want to get really technical about it, the word is Greek in origin and literally means "one day" or "about a day".
For us, the term is used to describe items that weren't meant to last or to be used more than a day or so...for examples, newspapers, postcards, magazines, personal letters. You read it, then you throw it away.
Nowadays, the term pretty much covers any item (typically paper) that wasn't meant to be around for long.
You can probably figure out that there's not a lot of collector interest in yesterday's newspaper, but what about:
- an old ticket stub to a classic World Series
- an antique post card celebrating Valentine's Day
- travel brochures
- old turn-of-the-century photos
- old stock certificates from long-gone companies
- old advertising cards.
And I think we'd all agree that these items can be highly collectible.
In other words, we all know about ephemera and how collectible it could be, but perhaps we just didn't know that there was a word that described this class of collectibles.We here at ANDES love selling ephemera. It is highly collectible and we have lots of buyers who specialize in this wonderful category.
And for our clients, it can be rather profitable as well! We have sold collections of hard-to-find magazines, World War II photos, love letter collections, even old football and baseball programs. We love to sell it.
Our buyers love to buy it.
Our clients love to make money off of it.
And if you have any question about how serious of a market ephemera is, you may want to take a look on eBay using just the word "ephemera" as your search criteria. As of this date, there are over 63,000 ephemera listings currently active!