Stop Smoking and Profit from Ashtrays!
Posted by Tim Tradey
The trick to making money can often mean buying items before they become popular - while they are cheap - and selling them again later on once demand increases and prices have risen accordingly. However, despite sounding like a simple challenge, it's been rare in my experience with collectables to identify what looks like an obvious opportunity to buy up items at their very cheapest now to hopefully make a profit within a reasonable time frame. In my opinion the recently introduced smoking ban has created just such an opportunity.
Tobacciana - smoking related collectables - is already a well established field for collecting but I see a bright future for one particular area of the hobby. For generations breweries have produced branded items to promote themselves in pubs, clubs, hotels and other licensed premises. Among these items was the humble oversized pub ashtray but their production and use was all but killed off instantly by the smoking ban.
This means there are now millions of attaractive, antique or modern, unusual, large, interesting pub ashtrays in existence and they are all virtually redundant. A quick check on eBay for pub ashtrays usually reveals many of these redundant ashtrays in all sizes and shapes bearing those old familiar slogans about a Double Diamond doing wonders or a Mackeson being good for you. Car boot sales and even asking pub landlords if they have any old ashtrays available can also produce bargains for shrewd collectors. The really good news is pub ashtrays can be acquired very cheaply at the moment because the public has yet to catch on in significant numbers to their future potential as decorative collectables.
Think chamber pots! Once upon a time almost everyone used a chamber pot before the WC moved indoors. Thesedays chamber pots are virtually redundant from their original purpose yet the finer, more decorative examples can command very high prices and you see them put to all kinds of alternative uses. I'm convinced a similar future lies ahead for the humble pub ashtray.
Nicely designed pub ashtrays in good condition are very affordable now - even when displaying smaller brewery names or promoting one off events - and could prove a great investment in years to come. So, whether you're looking for a little punt to make a few pounds or want to start a collection that could one day prove a valuable family asset, why not consider the idea?
14.10.2011. 02:13
