The Top Ten Most Sought After Collectibles Part 1

I have always been fascinated with priceless items ever since I first started collecting comic books years ago. I don't actively collect anymore, but I do recall having a few relatively pricey books that sold well. However, nothing I had even remotely compared to the most expensive comic currently out there. I decided why not scour a few subjects to see what things cost the most to avid collectors and I found so much information that I have elected to make this list the first of many to feature bank-breaking collectibles. So, with that, here are 10 of many of the most sought after collector's items in the world.

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10) Football Card - 1948 Sammy Baugh Rookie - $ 1,700

From footballcollectible.com: "Talk about a rare find! Here's a 1948 Sammy Baugh Bowman Rookie Card, and it's in excellent condition! The Beckett book value on this card is $500 plus! These cards are VERY hard to find... especially at our prices!"

According to some sources I found, a few of these cards have sold either on line or at auction for $1,700 dollars. So, comparatively, $500 isn't so bad!

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9) Comic Book - Action Comics #1 - $ 195,000

From collectibles.about.com: "October 2003 (Newstream) -- A reward of up to $1 million is being offered by prominent Baltimore business executive, Stephen A. Geppi, for a near mint condition copy of the rare 1938 comic book that first introduced Superman and launched an icon of American pop culture.

The reward is in conjunction with the First Annual Las Vegas Comic-Con (www.LasVegasComicCon.com), October 31 - November 2, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center where Geppi will exhibit a copy of the fabled "Action Comics #1."

Originally sold for ten-cents each in 1938, even worn copies of Action Comics #1 today are valued at tens of thousands of dollars each. Less than 100 copies are known to exist."

I have actually, honestly, seen one of these comics up close and personal in a glass case at an antique auction in Baltimore about 20 years ago. At the time, I knew it was cool, but I had no Earthly idea what a rare treasure I was seeing.

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8) Stamp - 1856 1-cent Black on Magenta - $ 75,000

From guyana.org: "The 1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana is regarded as the rarest stamp in the world, and until recently the most expensive. It is a rectangular stamp of black ink printed on magenta paper with the corners snipped off. With the corners clipped off, the stamp actually has an octagonal shape.

In an auction held by Robert Siegel Galleries in 1970, the stamp was sold for $240,000 to Irwin Weinberg and a group of investors from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. The one-cent Black on Magenta remained in their collection for ten years when John E. du Pont of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, bought it at an auction for $935,000.

Meanwhile, the four-cent British Guiana magenta stamp, printed in the same batch in 1856, ranges in value from $7,500 to $60,000."

I've never been much of a stamp guy; I really have no idea why the fascination. That isn't to say I wouldn't jump out of my socks to accidentally stumble across one of these.

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7) Baseball Card - T206 Honus Wagner - $ 2.8 Million

From theworldsmostexpensiveblog.wordpress.com: "The Honus Wagner baseball card (T260 above) is the world’s most expensive. Known as the “Holy Grail” or Mona Lisa of baseball cards, one in mint condition recently broke a record at auction. It is extremely rare. Only about 50 or so are said to exist. The reason for the rarity: Honus Wagner (1874-1955) objected to the card produced by a tobacco company, either because he was a non-smoker or did not get paid. He took them to court and won. The company was ordered to destroy the cards. They apparently got most of them. The ones that got away will pay you more than Honus got in his entire life.

Cost: $2.8 million"

I totally had one of these cards once, it was all up in my bike spokes and... yeah, right. I used to collect football cards and my brother baseball and I can assure you either one of us would likely have murdered the other for one of these. We were never that into sharing.

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6) Car - Bugatti Veyron - $ 1.7 Million

From automotoportal.com: "The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a proven top speed of over 400 km/h (407 km/h or 253 mph). It reached full production in September 2005. The car is built by Volkswagen AG subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS and is sold under the legendary Bugatti marque. It is named after racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti firm. The Veyron features a W16 engine—16 cylinders in 4 banks of 4 cylinders."

You know, I'm not much of a car guy, but this damn thing is just plain pretty.

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5) Coin - 1933 $20 Double-Eagle Gold Coin - $ 6 Million

From forbes.com: "A $20 double eagle gold coin minted in 1933 could fetch as much as $6 million when it is brought to auction by Sotheby's and rare coin dealer Stack's July 30 in New York. This would make it easily the most expensive coin in history.

What could make a coin worth so much? Before you start rummaging through your coin jar, it is important to know that this coin is the only one of its kind in the world. Not only is it unique, it has never even been officially issued. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's stolen.

Over the years, nine of the coins were recovered and subsequently destroyed by the U.S. Secret Service. One slipped through the government's fingers and is believed to have ended up in the collection of Egypt's King Farouk, a passionate numismatist who amassed a collection of more than 8,500 gold coins. It is believed that the coin being offered by Sotheby's is the same coin."

Would it be bad if I accidentally spent one of these last week on donuts?

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4) Doll - 'The Bird Trainer' - $ 6.25 Million

From mostexpensive.net: "L’Oiseleur (The Bird Trainer), a 4-ft-tall automaton doll, comes complete with sword, flute, pair of singing birds, and embroidered Renaissance-Era clothing. The expensive doll plays the flute, playing Marche des Rois by Georges Bizet. This amazing doll does not run on electricity or any motors but spring-driven cogs and gears.

The asking price for this most expensive doll is $6,250,000, yes 6.25 million US dollars. The price has to justify the 2,340 gilt or polished-steel parts and over 15,000 hours in a Swiss workshop that it took to create this extraordinary figure."

Wow. Now that is one ugly, ugly doll.

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3) Watch - Patek Philipe 1933 Pocket Watch - $ 11,003,500

From watchescorner.blogspot.com: "The gold pocket watch, which featured 24 complications, was the result of a long-standing competition between two magnates of America's Gilded Age. New York financier Henry Graves Jr. and Ohio automobile engineer James Ward Packard vied with one another to own a timepiece with the greatest possible number of complications. (Complications are mechanical functions of the watch other than the hours, minutes and seconds.) Packard commissioned 13 complicated watches from Patek Philippe between 1900 and 1927. They included a perpetual calendar with phases and age of the moon, indication of sunrise and sunset, and a celestial chart depicting the constellations of stars in the sky over Packard's home in Ohio.

Not to be outdone, Henry Graves Jr. also commissioned a series of complicated watches from Patek Philippe, culminating in a timepiece that took three years to design and five years to produce. When completed in 1933, the watch had a different horological function for each hour of the day and included a chart of the nighttime sky over Graves' home in New York.

Graves died in 1953, and his heirs sold the watch to the Time Museum in Rockford, Ill., in 1968. When the museum closed, the watch was among 80 other pieces from the collection that were deaccessioned and sold at Sotheby's in 1999. All together, they brought $28 million. The Graves watch had a presale estimate of $3 million to $5 million, and sold for $11,003,500 to an anonymous collector." Anyone got the time?

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2) Antique Furniture - Goddard-Townsend 1760 Secretary - $ 12,100,000

From antique-antiques.com: "Chippendale antique secretary: originally made by the Goddard-Townsend family of cabinet-makers. Estimates are that no more than 7 were ever made. A very similar piece (a Nicholas Brown antique secretary) made around 1760 sold at a Christie's Auction for 12 Million and change."

My uncle loves him some antique furniture, and even that being said, I kinda doubt he'd shell out that type of scratch for this thing.

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1) Classic Car - 1954 Mercedes W 196 - $ 24 Million

From Askmen.com: "The holy grail of racing cars, it was introduced at the 1954 French Grand Prix at Reims, and went on to dominate Formula 1 racing for both the 1954 and 1955 seasons. What made the automobile so special was its revolutionary valve system, which utilized positive control without having to resort to springs.

This car was raced by legendary drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss before ending up in a museum in the 1980s. The car was sold for a couple of millions to finance renovations at the museum, and sold again in 1990 to a French industrialist for $24 million. A German businessman is currently the owner; he reportedly paid less then half the amount in the late '90s." WOW.