An introduction to collecting car brochures - Part 2: Your theme
By: Annette Brown | Posted: 16th January 2006
Part 2: Your theme
Before starting your brochure collection, in my view it is best to have a very clear idea about what you want to achieve.
The reason for collecting is not important, but knowing the reason is. Are you interested in a particular period in history, a particular car, type of car or brochures from a particular country, for example?
Once you have decided what the purpose of your collection is, write it down or print it out and keep it with all the items you collect.
Why should you do this, you may ask? The reason is that this will keep you focussed on what you are trying to achieve and stop you going off at tangents or pursuing avenues that are fruitless.
With the advent of the Internet, it is so easy to see an item on eBay or a website such as mine and buy on a whim. This will detract from your overall collection as there will be no theme to it and therefore it will be worth less both as a source of reference and value wise.
Also, there are very few people who do not have a budget and every "off topic" brochure you buy will reduce the amount of money you could spend on building and completing your collection.
If you adopt this approach, very soon you will find yourself becoming expert at valuing and sourcing the brochures that interest you. This will help you avoid paying more than necessary for that "so-called" rare brochure and allow you to spot undervalued bargains. With a subject as broad as brochure collecting, it is impossible to be an expert on the whole market and probably even on, for example, all Ford brochures. If you will excuse the pun, Focus!
By using this method you will also build a network of dealers or friends with a common interest who will become invaluable in helping you fill gaps in your collection by way of swaps or trade…a benefit that cannot be underestimated and as someone once said, "it is not what you know, but who you know".
The scattergun approach is simply a waste of effort. Do not do it!
Next week I will be discussing what to look for when buying brochures and critically, what to avoid!
About the Author
Occupation: I run my own internet automobilia business.
Having developed a business from my hobby of brochure collecting, I wanted to pass the information I have taken years to obtain onto the worldwide web. If anyone would like information or help in developing an automobilia collection, by all means e-mail me.
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_24197_31.html
Back to the original article
Tags: budget, amount of money, benefit, avenues, swaps, brochure, ebay, gaps, ford, bargains, whim, advent of the internet, pun, tangents, car type