What kind of collector are you?
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Passionate collector, specialist, investor or hunter, every collector has his own motivations. Below, we draw up 4 typical collector profiles in which you may find yourself!
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The passionate collector
This type of collector is a bit of a jack of all trades. He will not be focused on a particular collecting theme and will operate by cœur stroke » on a wider field.
The enthusiast is not interested in the resale price of his objects and would rather take his collection to his grave than to part with it.
He will also be willing to take part in the development of the local association.
He makes his purchases on Ebay, Leboncoin or special Facebook groups, and wants to get his items at the best price.
Invoices and certificates of authenticity are not necessarily his priority. He does, however, need to manage his collection effectively so as not to be overwhelmed by the mass of objects he has accumulated.
The specialist
This type of collector focuses on one or more very specific fields, to the point of becoming the reference on his or her favourite themes. His knowledge is generally vast, and no one else can match him. The expert will, for example, be specialised in the coinage of Constantine I, the emperor who ruled from 310 to 337 AD. In comparison, the enthusiast will be more interested in the whole of Roman coinage, or even the whole of the coins of antiquity today.
Specialists in the field
The specialist likes to share his expertise with other collectors. On the other hand, he has a holy horror of others exploiting his work without his permission or subjects treated in an approximate manner.
The purchases of the artist are made by the artist himself.
The expert's purchases will be much rarer, his collection more restricted, but he will not pull out his wallet to acquire an object that appears in the sale for the first time. The rarity of the object purchased will be privileged over its state of preservation, which will only be the icing on the cake.
The demanding retailer will favour online shopping as he will have to browse through thousands of objects to find them.
They will be able to find the information they are looking for.
The investor
This type of collector always keeps the notion of price and resale in mind when buying an object. Although he has a good knowledge of certain topics, he is not a collector.
While he will not have the level of expertise of the expert, he will always be able to value an object at the right price in order to know if it will enrich his collection.
The investor's collection is of moderate size, often consisting of exceptional items that he will be able to resell easily if needed. (Compared to the dealer's collection, which may have difficulty finding the right customer.
to learn the rarity of its objects).
The investor will prefer to buy from large, well established houses and will shun the classifieds sites. The latter will require guarantees and certificates when buying. Provenances are a real plus when reselling. For this type of collector, traceability and data security are major issues.
The "hunter" collector
The achievement of the hunter lies not in the possession of an object but in its acquisition. He is an opportunist, and will know how to be in the right place at the right time so as not to miss out on the bargain of the moment.
The hunter must have a good sense of humour and a good sense of humour.
The hunter must have a sufficiently broad culture of his collecting themes so as not to miss the right shot when it comes along.
Without being an investor, the hunter will have the actual price of an item in mind because the fulfillment will not be total when purchasing without this “bargain” component.
In fact, for a hunter, buying an item at the right price is not satisfactory because it is everyone’s wear. Above all, he wants to acquire objects which, because of their rarity or beauty, would not normally be available to him.
The hunter is a person who is not interested in buying an object at the right price.
The hunter is organised. He knows all the databases, and has at hand the different quotation clocks, the aim being to be able to identify and gain as quickly as possible. One hunter often hides another… Any decision that is not taken at the time is generally regretted, the coveted object having joined another collection during that time.
At the same time, a new collection is created.
Once the object has been found, brought back home and perfectly identified, it will lose much of its interest. But the story of its fabulous cover will be told for years to come at every collectors' gathering!
And you? What type of collector are you?
