Collectibles – an enjoyable way to lose money

I HAVE a recollection of some 18th-century Frenchman once writing: “Collectors are like a man who eats oysters – he chooses the best at first but ends up eating them all.”

Collectors will recognise this tendency. I confess I count myself in this camp, though I am having counselling to resist the urges.

For me it started with buying a first edition of Raymond Chandler’s 1953 classic, The Long Goodbye. Next it became a full set of American first editions. Then others.