Quote Originally Posted by Powderfinger View Post
It happens a lot in most fields of collecting. Items that were once cheaply eventually come to be sought after. Well-made items tend to be expensive purchases when new. They get bought by people who look after them and even when they enter the used market, buyers realise that this is a well-made item worth preserving. Cheaply made items get used hard and put away wet. When they break, they are discarded. They command little interest in the second-hand market.
Eventually, there are lots of the expensively made items available when they reach an age to be collected. There are few of the cheaply made items left but even they are memories of people's youth or a nostalgic past. Collectors get keen on finding the cheaply made items.
In shooting, I see it with people being keen to collect Crosmans or Daisys that were always regard as inferior in the the UK to British or German guns but now attract collector interest.
In motorbikes, I take an interest in an old brand of cheap motorbike but they are harder to find in good condition than the prestige brands that have higher survival rates.
Very true. The cheaper something is, the more likely it is to be abused and thrown away, so in later years the rarer and more expensive it becomes. Nothing highlights this more in our hobby than old airgun and pellet boxes.