Golf Collectibles - Quality For Quantity For The New Collector

When it comes to purchasing golf collectibles, the collector textbook would tell you that you should always follow the rule of thumb which says, "purchase the highest quality piece that your budget will allow for". While generally good advice, the new collector, especially in the field of vintage golf clubs, will more than likely suffer from this approach.

For instance, a rookie collector may stumble across the opportunity to acquire a rare antique club, perhaps of the hickory fashion, from the early-mid 1800's. Given how difficult it is stumble across such finds, the club commands a hefty premium, which could exhaust the entire purchase budget of a brand new collector. There is no question that a club like this, like most higher end golf collectibles, would hold its value or perhaps appreciate in value.

Golf Collectibles - The One or The Many? 

The argument of quality versus quantity starts here. In all likelihood, the buyer of this single rare club could have certainly, for the same investment, acquired a large group of old golf clubs. The group of clubs might not be as old or as rare as the single club, but they certainly would be collectible nonetheless. So, under what scenario does the latter strategy make more sense. According to the experts, and I agree, it makes particular sense to the newer collector. The option of purchasing many clubs instead of just one really special club gives the collector first hand exposure to a variety of antique golf clubs. When it comes to golf collectibles, the real knowledge is in the details and the ability to touch and fell, and study a variety of clubs allows the new collector to accelerate their knowledge regarding the manufacturing, details, and stories that make one club more valuable than another. While its nice to own that one trophy piece, it limits the amount that one is able to learn about collecting vintage golf clubs.

The other advantage to the strategy of purchasing many clubs instead of just one is that your risk of a bad investment is mitigated.
With one club, you better be sure that you really know your stuff and are getting appropriate value in return for your significant investment, particulary since most new collectors tend to be much more liberal in their spending early on, anxious to get going and make a splah. With a multi-club purchase, you can make a mistake or two and not have it be considered catastrophic.

Golf Collectibles Are Not One Size Fits All

One final thought on quality versus quantity as it relates to antique golf clubs. The old addage, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" sometimes applies here. Beyond the conventional wisdom of what makes a club valuable or rare are those things that make a club special, and hence collectible to different individuals. Examples are pieces related to certain individuals, or certain geographic areas, or attributable to certain clubmakers. In all cases, you will find that golf collectibles are one of the most addictive and satisfying hobbies one can undertake, filled with intrigue and neat surprises every now and then.