I used to collect Donald Ducks. Although the collecting started in childhood, continued through my teens and into adulthood, the value of the magazines was always what was on my mind. The idea was to sell them decades later. I immensely enjoyed these magazines both as objects and as stories. Living through the 80s and 90s, it seemed that nothing would stop the appreciation in value of Donald Duck magazines from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. They had to be acquired immediately, as supply seemed to be constantly dwindling and prices rising. By the 90s, a firm feeling had already set in that the acquisition train had left, prices had soared, and I could no longer afford to acquire them…
But then came the internet. People started reading fewer things outside of screens. First, informational books became problem waste, then books from book clubs, former Christmas gifts like record books and the What, Where, When series. Bookcases no longer belonged in modern interior design at all. Online magazines and their annual archives emerged. Apartment interior design became minimalist, and apartment sizes kept shrinking. Interior colors were white and clean empty surfaces; tabletops and shelves had to be free of clutter; a single carefully placed object in an empty space emphasized emptiness and a clean white surface.
The era of brightly yellow, colorful, tattered, and room-filling piles of Donald Duck magazines was definitively over. They weren’t even suitable for children’s rooms anymore. The empty space freed up by them had become even more valuable, as apartments had shrunk and living had become more expensive per square meter.
Thus, the value of my beloved collection never increased, contrary to what I thought as a little boy. Against all expectations, annual sets from the 70s, once bought at a quite expensive price, started to become available for just a few euros. Complete annual sets, whereas annual sets sometimes had to be largely collected one magazine at a time from antique shops. Missing pieces were hunted for a long time. Now, there aren’t many antique shops left either.
Collecting as an investment can thus be challenging when trying to predict the future several decades ahead. In hindsight, everything, of course, seems clear.
However, there might still be a return in value in the future, as when looking at online marketplaces (Tori) and auctions, one cannot avoid the impression that the last well-preserved collections have emerged from their hiding places and are on their way to destruction. If they don’t sell, they are destroyed; if they do sell, the new buyer might not value them as objects to be preserved. Estates dump everything into landfills. I suspect that in a decade or two, well-preserved childhood magazines might already be quite rare. Demand is unlikely to return, but the value might recover on the brink of the species’ extinction.
P.S. I haven’t collected much anymore for the reasons I’ve listed. I focus only on valuable literature. Books whose value is between €30-€200 and which have reading value for me. Of course, that also takes up space.
. Thanks to the person who posted the price index; it’s nice to follow that.
Purely my own speculation, these are collector cards released in honor of Moomin’s 80th anniversary year 
