July 2009
Collectible Investments
I have contributed a chapter on antique maps to a new book, Collectible Investments for the High Net Worth Investor, edited by Stephen Satchell.
There are also three chapters on art, two on wine, and one each on rare books, stamps, and antique cars. There is an introductory section containing chapters on the neuropsychology of collectors and on collectors and behavioral finance. Dr. Satchell defines a "collectible" as "any physical asset that has the potential to appreciate in value over time because it is rare or desired by many."
Speaking just for myself, and not for the other contributors, I do not recommend collecting for the purpose of investing. But collections are assets, and it can be illuminating to evaluate them as an economist and financial analyst would.
Although written specifically for financial advisers serving high-net-worth investors and for economists, this book contains much that should prove of interest to collectors and dealers, too. All the chapters on specific areas of collecting have been written by financial advisors or economists who are themselves knowledgeable and expert collectors. There has not hitherto been a single volume addressing rigorously the economics of investing in collectibles. There have been papers scattered among the economics journals on the financial returns to investments in art and other papers on the psychology, sociology, and literature of collecting, but that is all.
Stephen Satchell, the editor, is Reader in Financial Econometrics at the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College.
The book, published by the Academic Press in its Quantitative Finance Series, is available through Amazon.com: