Investment is generally seen as a good, sensible and, well, boring thing. Buying a house early on, instead of blowing your salary on rent for years, is a good idea, as the property will have increased in price (hopefully!) by the time you want to sell it. There are other more obscure things, however, that increase in price after purchase. Here’s a quick rundown of the world’s weirdest investments.
1. Vintage Wines
Image: Corum_L
It’s hard to imagine what the point of owning extremely old wine is. Anyone who has swigged a glass of last Saturday’s chardonnay and got an unpleasant slap in the taste buds will know that though wine does improve with age, there is a shelf-life for the sophisticated beverage.
Most wine collectors buy the oldest wines simply for the sake of collecting them, rather than actually trying to drink them. The world’s most expensive bottle of wine is a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, owned by Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. It is unknown how much the bottle was worth when Jefferson popped it in his wine rack, but it sold at Christie’s in 1985 for £105,000, or $160,000. At over 200 years old, the wine is completely undrinkable – the best Bordeaux’s last around 50 years – but the excitement around the auction, plus Jefferson’s fame, made the price of the wine rocket from it’s original figure.
2. Barbie Dolls
Image: TW Collins and Charles
A Barbie these days, depending on what kind of biologically-impossible female figure you would like, will set you back around $15, or £10. Back in the late 1950s when the first blonde bombshell doll was sold, the price was similar in relative terms. If, however, you happen to still own an original 1959 No.1 Barbie doll, you’re in luck; those in mint condition have been known to fetch $8,000. So dig it out and get down to the auction house.
3. Matchbox Cars
Image: Telstar Logistics>
Practically every man who grew up in the 1960s will remember Matchbox cars, the tiny tin toys that fit into your pocket and provided hours of cheap amusement. In 1966, an Opel Diplomat Matchbox car cost just 48 US cents. Now, this rare model auctions at a mind-blowing $9,000. Not a bad investment of pocket money!
4. Classic Cars
Image: Templar1307
The price leap from toy cars to classic cars isn’t all that small in some cases. The world’s most expensive vintage car is a Ferrari 250 GT, once owned by American actor James Coburn. Only 39 of these gorgeous cars were built in the mid 1960s, and back then, sold for a handsome $18,000. This particular little beauty, however, was sold recently for a staggering $11 million, partially due to the rareness of the model, and partially due to its famous former owner. Oddly enough, the man with the world’s most desirable car is British TV and radio broadcaster Chris Evans.
5. Autographs
Image: Jek in the Box
The best things in life are free, especially if they end up being worth millions. Autographs are one of those things. Autograph trading is a multi-million industry. The world’s most expensive autograph is that of master playwright William Shakespeare. Only six copies of the Bard’s signature have ever been discovered, all of which are on legal documents. Each signature is worth $5 million, and if one were to be found attached to a handwritten copy of one of his works, it would be worth at least $50 million.
6. Cigarette Cards
Image: Joan Thewlis
Cigarette cards are small illustrated cards which were placed inside cigarette packets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally created purely for advertising purposes, the phenomenon of these little cards exploded, and before long, smokers across the western world were collecting them. Even children would stand around outside tobacconists asking shoppers for their “fag cards” in order to collect and trade with their friends. Due to paper shortages during WWII, cigarette cards disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
In 1909, the American Tobacco Company released a card depicting Pittsburgh Pirates’s Honus Wagner, one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1911 Wagner demanded that ATC stopped producing his card, allegedly as he objected to children buying cigarettes. This meant that only 200 were ever produced. In 2007, a Honus Wagner card was sold for $2.8 million; in 1909, a packet of cigarettes cost 14 US cents.
7. Unused Gig Tickets
Image: Pave_M
Most music fans have a few ticket stubs in drawers or tacked to the walls for sentimental value. Some old tickets, however, can be worth a fortune. If the ticket is unused, and in mint condition, it can fetch a pretty penny, particularly if the artist concerned died shortly after the ticket was issued or never played the gig at all. A set of four unused tickets to see Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock 1969 (the year before his death) can be bought on eBay for $574.99, before auction. Unused Beatles tickets from 1966 fetch around $2,000 at auction, too.
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