Buyers Guide to Political Memorabilia

 Within the current political framework, political memorabilia is becoming a very topical area of interest among collectors. Political memorabilia can be of different kinds and types, and in the following a guide to help to identify which memorabilia can be worthwhile to collect.

Why do collectors buy political memorabilia?

There are three different reasons for collectors to buy political memorabilia:

Investment;

Political support for a specific party or cause;

Historical interest and a passion for collection separated from any specific political rationale. Through the collection of political memorabilia, people keeps a record the events of a particular moment in history.

John Isaby, of the United Kingdom, started his collection in 1990. He is very selective in what he collects, but his collection includes election leaflets and propaganda from various parties. His most valuable item of memorabilia is a William Hague baseball cap, of the type worn by the then-party leader during a publicity stunt on a theme park log flume ride.

Mark Evans, a director of American Political Items Collectors, started collecting as a young boy during the Kennedy campaign. He advises that there are good and bad investments, and the scarcity of the item is an important factor to consider - products marketed everywhere are not a good investment. 

Types of political memorabilia

There are different types of political memorabilia, and their value depends on the scarcity, uniqueness and popularity of the politician associated with the memorabilia. The list of memorabilia is very long (hats, puppets, prints, ceramics, mugs, buttons, banners, posters, leaflets, letters, etc.), so therefore in the following list we will identify only few of the most popular examples:

Auctions

Value of political memorabilia

These are some of the key elements to consider in pricing political memorabilia, including:

Rarity

Uniqueness

Popularity

Demand

Age

Significance

Provenance

Condition

Authenticity