The Death-Effect on Collectible Prices

Short Description
The Sports Memorabilia Market. There exists a large market for collectibles related to the sports industry including items such as …

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Content
The “Death-Effect” on Collectible Prices
Victor A. Matheson*
Williams College
and
Robert A. Baade**
Lake Forest College
-DRAFT-
May, 2003
JEL Classifications: D12 (Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis); L83 (Sports, Gambling,
Recreation, Tourism)
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*Comments are welcome. Author’s address: Department of Economics, Fernald House, Williams
College, Williamstown, MA 01267. E-mail address: Victor.A.Matheson@williams.edu Web site
address: http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~vmatheso
**Author’s address: Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College, 555 N. Sheridan,
Lake Forest, IL 60045. E-mail address: baade@lfc.edu1
The “Death-Effect” on Collectible Prices
ABSTRACT:
It has been widely observed that the price of celebrity memorabilia rises around the time of that
person’s death. Previous authors attribute this “death-effect” primarily to expectations on the part of
collectors concerning the future supply of collectibles about the public figure as in the case of a durable
goods monopolist. Our observations of the sports memorabilia market suggest that the increase in
prices is instead due to a “nostalgia effect” as a result of the media attention that surrounds the death of
a prominent public figure….