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What we are building, and what we are learning
Notes from the people making Metzee, and from the sellers on it.
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Learning to buy lots
Bid on what you can see. The discipline is the entire skill.
Starting a collection, whatever you collect
A focus beats a pile. That is the whole of it, and it is harder than it sounds.
Starting a handicraft collection
Buy from makers you can ask. The conversation is most of what you are learning.
Starting an art collection
Buy what you want to look at. Attribution is the expensive way to learn you were wrong.
Starting a saree collection
Pick one weave and buy several. The hand of the fabric is the lesson, and it cannot be read.
Starting a cinema memorabilia collection
Lobby cards and stills before posters. Smaller, cheaper, and they teach you the paper.
Starting a cricket memorabilia collection
Programmes, tickets and scorecards first. Signatures are the expensive part of the education.
Starting a sports memorabilia collection
Begin with programmes and tickets. They are cheap, dateable, and nobody has to take your word for them.
Starting a mineral collection
Buy labelled specimens. An unlabelled mineral loses most of its value the day you forget.
Starting an antique collection
Buy small objects, handle many, and never refinish anything.
Starting a bag collection
Learn leather on unbranded pieces. Brand prices without provenance are the expensive lesson.
Starting a jewellery or watch collection
Start with silver and honest unhallmarked pieces. Stones are where beginners lose money.
Starting a book collection
Collect a subject, an author or a publisher. Not "first editions" in the abstract.
Starting a manga collection
One series, in order, in one edition. Mixed editions are the mistake you cannot undo cheaply.
Starting a toy and collectible collection
Pick one line. Decide early whether you are a boxed collector or a loose one.
Starting a video game collection
Pick one console and buy complete. Loose is cheaper and never becomes complete.
Starting a sports card collection
Pick a player or a set. The parallel is where the money and the confusion both live.
Starting a record collection
Buy records you want to hear. The pressing matters later; the playing matters now.
Starting a comic collection
Buy a run you want to read. Keys in poor grade at key prices are the trap.
Starting a coin collection
Pick one series and try to complete it. Age is not the thing you are collecting.
Starting a trading card collection
Buy one set in commons until you can see centring without thinking about it.
Starting a sneaker collection
Buy pairs you will wear, in your size, until you can read a sole at a glance.
Getting the size right when buying toys and collectibles
A scale is a ratio, not a height. Ask for the figure measured and the box measured.
Getting the size right when buying electronics
A screen size is a diagonal. Almost every sizing mistake here starts by forgetting that.
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