@a_c_green
"Taking this from the other end of that perspective: what item(s) were the topic of a collecting craze back in 1924? How are those items valued now?"
Real good question: I wasn't around then; but some of my older collector friends (who have since passed away) had mentioned the original "dime novels" (FRANK READE Jr, NICK CARTER and so on), and the older "yellowback" novels (following the adventures of Buffalo Bill, Deadeye Dick, Kit Carson and other American western heroes).
I see very few of either the dime novels or the "yellowbacks" anymore; but there wasn't much interest for them after the 1980s, and only minor interest in the dime novels in the 1950s and 1960s.
Also books in the Horatio Alger series. I see them from time to time; but interest in those has died out, as well.
Radio was still in its early days in 1924; and it is likely that advertising premiums connected with products advertised on radio would have been considered collectible. These turn up every once in a while; and are still fun to examine, especially for some of the more famous radio programs and radio performers from that period, many of whom then made the transfer to movies and even early television.
Authentic American western items were very much in demand, I am told -- everything from pistols and rifles, to boots and chaps, plus leather horse gear, law officer badges, and so on -- much of which actually remains collectible even today.
And let's not forget American Civil War items -- 60 years after the end of all those battles, there were still a few veterans around, as well as their children and grandchildren -- and any authentic memorabilia would have been considered a hot collectible.
But what made most of these items "collectible" (except for perhaps the cheap radio premiums) was the original negligible value of the items themselves, and the manner in which most people from the decades preceding 1924 had considered these items as DISPOSABLE, and of little value. That, by its very nature, is the most important "stand-alone" feature of ANY "collectibles" market -- that these were items that previous generations had chosen to USE and HANDLE, rather than to be set aside as "future investments."
And that variable is what easily eliminates Beanie Babies from serious consideration as "collectibles" -- from nearly the outset, the manufacturer had promoted these items as "instant collectibles."
And too many "investors" took that term seriously, and bought multiple quantities of each Beanie as it first hit the shelves, and stored them carefully away in some sunlight-protected room -- and never let the kids play with them.
Which is one of the reasons why today's marketplace is flooded with barrels and bins filled with Beanie Babies -- going nowhere at 50 cents apiece.
