2024 was an exciting year for collectors, who were able to watch records tumbling across the board.
You can see our month-by-month guide here.
But what to expect in 2025?
A good way to make yourself look stupid is to try to predict the future.
And I don’t think any business throws up surprises like collecting.
That’s one of the reasons we love it.
But let’s take some educated guesses at what the year ahead might hold.
Babe Ruth was big news this year, he probably will be for decades to come. Click to buy this photo.
Up, up and away!
The most valuable ever item of sports memorabilia was sold this year.
Babe Ruth’s Called Shot Jersey is a one-off, but we’ve seen other big prices paid at the top of the market.
And that’s the easiest prediction to make for 2025.
Records will continue to fall and the top end of the market will continue to boom.
Football will attract new money from the Middle East, with a Saudi world cup adding to that region’s obsession with the sport.
And, basketball will carry on attracting more and more big cash for jerseys, shoes, and cards.
Time for alternatives?
Trump stirs strong emotions and is likely to bring change - and big prices.
We try our best not to talk about politics.
However: we leave 2024 with Joe Biden as US President, and we will start February next year with Donald Trump as POTUS.
What does that mean for collectors?
It elevates Trump as a figure to be collected, that’s for sure.
Will it make the world less unstable?
Its this potential instability that makes collectibles so attractive not just as a passion, but as an alternative investment.
We can also be pretty sure that a Trump presidency will mean more cash for the very rich.
And, that’s also likely to drive money into luxury and collecting markets, and drive the top end of the sector up even more.
Elon Musk will use his connections to the presidency to push for his great project - space travel. There's a great future in space nostalgia.
Will a new space race spark interest in the last one? It's a good bet.
Time marches on
Predictions make fools of us all.
However, one safe prediction is that time will continue to move on.
And that moves the collecting market.
Where are you expecting to find future value?
Big entertainers whose audience got into them when young and are now reaching the age where they have money?
That usually works.
We’ve seen it with Star Wars.
We’ve seen it with Punk - a Sex Pistols single set a vinyl record in 2024.
Kurt Cobain’s often more valuable than John Lennon now.
Is it time for the reality show bands like One Direction and Girls Aloud to start to have their moment in the collecting sunlight? They certainly have the fans, who should now be becoming more prosperous.
The same processes apply in an area like tech.
This year, we've seen the market moving from early Apple computers to iPhones.
There’s no reason why it will stop there.
Games too are increasingly becoming artefacts.
How will collectors operate in a completely digital world?
They’ll find a way no doubt, but it’s also the case that the shift to digital media has been accompanied by special productions and limited editions aimed at those who want something to hold in their hands when they spend money.
Attention is good for sellers
The end of World War II is one of the most notable anniversaries of 2025.
What is going to happen next year?
I mean the fixed events that media execs are making plans for now.
Because attention drives value.
There’s a presidential inauguration on January 20th. That’s a great time to sell related items.
A women’s Euros football tournament in July will shine a light on that sport, that seems likely to grow in popularity, quality and reach - and collectibility.
There’s a first Esports Olympics.
You should also look at 25th, 50th, and 100th anniversaries (and beyond) if you’re looking for good sales values.
The Beatles remain a constant for collectors, and the focus of the nostalgia industry will likely turn to 1965 - Help!, Rubber Soul - this year.
1965 saw The Beatles in their imperial world domination phase.
Beyond the Fabs, 1965 was a standout year for British beat groups, who started to really forge their own identities and sounds, and for a nascent US scene too - The Who, the Kinks, The Beach Boys, The Byrds.
Bob Dylan also has a big anniversary year. He went electric, most iconically, on July 25 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival. They booed. Not any more, and you can expect a lot of retrospectives around this epochal event.
In 1925 Charlie Chaplin put out the Gold Rush. In fact, the whole movie industry was enjoying a gold rush. Ben Hur was a notable hit. Lon Chaney was shocking in Phantom of the Opera.
And, we were slap in the middle of the Jazz Age. Louis Armstrong was just starting to appear under the billing of The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player (though he hated it).
Jazz is undergoing a contemporary revival. Shopping in its past looks like a smart buy to me.
And of course, the 80th anniversary of the many momentous events that added up to the end of World War II will put a focus on D-Day, the atomic bombs, VE Day, VJ Day...
Big sales
There are already some interesting sales set up for early 2025.
Jeff Beck’s guitar collection on January 22 in London will be one for connoisseurs.
Sotheby’s selection of great American literary drinkers in mid-January should be fun.
There’s more to come from the L E Bruun collection of Scandinavian coins.
There are lots of big car sales.
Wristwatch markets go up and down but the rarest, best quality references will always sell for big money. Particularly if a star once wore them.
More of the same
We’ve dipped our toes into the prediction business.
But you shouldn’t take this too seriously.
Because that’s the nature of collecting - it’s a trade in passions and that means volatility is built in.
As ever, my favourite advice is always to be true to yourself and buy what you love.
Learn about what you buy and you'll be paid back as you pick up the best quality items.
That will always work.
