One of the most fascinating things about the business of collectibles is the way in which items are assigned value in relation to other items that may seem nearly identical to outsiders. For instance, I once watched a man pull into a Kentucky liquor store parking lot and set up about a dozen bottles of bourbon on his unlatched pick-up tailgate. A few minutes later, another man cradling a single bottle under each arm met him there. After a few moments of chit-chat, they swapped collections.
It's like trading Pokemon cards, marbles or Beanie Babies. To the right buyer, one 1999 Pokemon Japanese Pocket Monsters Venusaur card could be worth two 1999 Pokemon Japanese Pocket Monsters Blastoise cards. A special edition Princess Diana Beanie Baby could be traded for a 1993 lot of five Beanie Babies — a pink bear, a panda, a koala, a duck in a hat and a goose in a baby blue ribbon.
