My collection is fairly small compared to the collections of others. But I realised with a little shock that I have about 80 puzzles. Obviously many of you have well in the hundreds so I've quite a way to go yet.

What I'm wondering is how to know the value of a collection. This was prompted by a student of mine who saw around 10 of them and said "You could feed a 3rd world coutnry with the money you spent on them".

So is there some way to know? Does it depend on age of puzzle, condition, etc? Or what it would cost to replace? Or the cost you bought them all for?

I'd say it's the sums of the value of each puzzle's current sale price. How much is your collection worth ?

Normal I don't recommend a student to collect puzzles. You know, as for collection, you'll buy more & more, you'll spend more & more. So I think it'll be better to be a puzzle collector until you have your own financial ability

I'm not a student. I'm a teacher. That's why I wrote: "This was prompted by a student of mine".


Now that I agree with! When I got my rubik's cube a year or two ago, I had literally no idea that the world of twisty puzzles (the community and the puzzles) even existed.

Oh God! Please forgive me~I'm misunderstanding you......seems my English still got to improve......

So as you already have your financial ability......Welcome to the world of collecting puzzles! Which kind of puzzles do you like to collect? Re-assembing? rubik's cube type? twistypuzzle type? moving hole/balls? And even Burr?

I would say your collection is worth what you value it at. That's not helpful I know. But it's the best we can do isn't it?

Many of my puzzles could never be replaced ever. I have one on my desk right now that I am terrified of loosing...It's the only one left.

And the one Klara sent me....and the gifts from Frank....and a mini golden cube I have from Tony......

I quit with the trying to work out a value and I stopped keeping track of what I spent....It's depressing.

I don't think that the value of a puzzle collection can never truly be measured as it depends on so many things.

Obviously things such as puzzle condition and current rarity will affect the value of the puzzles involved, but then also more vague aspects such as current economic climate and what other items are currently being auctioned at the same time as you are selling yours.

I'd say that it would be impossible to accurately work out the value of many puzzles, and the original price is not necessarily a good guide either. Here's an example;

The Bar Of Chocolate puzzle which was made by Japanese puzzle designer Akio Kamei in 2006 originally retailed for no more than a couple of hundred dollars. At auction just recently it went for $3588.

Also, I got the chance to solve the Bar Of Chocolate puzzle recently, and as a puzzle it is absolutely terrible. I would go so far as to say that it really isn't a puzzle at all. So how good it is as a puzzle can't factor into it much either.

A puzzle (and anything else) is only worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it.

But all things considered most of us are collectors, so value doesn't really matter so much as we're not going to be selling many of them anyway.

Do ebay searches for current and completed listings. Do regular searches for items still available new and reduce those prices by a third or so. If you have rare items like Dogics then the value can vary from week to week depending on demand etc.
Remember value is different to how much you can get for them. Postage, PayPal and ebay fees will significantly reduce values in real terms.

It's how you value your puzzle will give its value.
I'm a college student and I'm in a 3rd world country. I'm aware of what is happening but I just can't stop in collecting puzzles.

I totally agree with Oli and Rox. It doesn't matter to know the real value of your collection, at least for me, because I have no intentions of selling any of my puzzles. I do keep track of all the puzzles in my collection in a spreadsheet, like the names, the date I got them and the value I paid for them, but only as a curiosity. I know the total value must be higher than what I've spent, because I got many puzzles in lots and also some rarities, but any guess would be just an estimate.

Stick it on eBay, then you'll know exactly what it's worth!

Thanks for the replies everyone,


Let me be clear that it's not an ego thing, so I can say "My collection is worth ..."

Partly it's so that I know whether I should be insuring it as a separate thing.


Absolutely right. It's not so I can offer it for sale.

I guess it sounds like mainly it's what I would be willing to spend to replace it all. Which to me, is a fair bit.

Call your insurance agent to see. It turns out mine is covered under my regular policy and mine are probably worth close to - if not more than 5 figures. I just make sure to have pictures of everything (even if they are in groups) or reciepts (from paypal or whatever).

-d

Hey darryl

Can i ask, with your value being close to 5 figures, is that your estimate of what it would cost you to re-purchase them, or what the insurance company says, or some other way? And where can I see some pictures of your collection?

This is _my_ estimate. The insurance company was okay with it. Basically when getting home insurance, you tell them what you think all of your belongings in the house cost and they base your rate on that. I think I told them my puzzle collection is worth about $10,000 or so and they gave me a policy that would cover the collection plus more in case it expands. If it gets to be much more, I would probably need more data to back it up. Honestly though, for an insurance company, an extra $10,000 is nothing compared to the cost of replacing a house or a major injury. As long as I can show it's not fraudulant, they would cover the costs to replace the collection. I have plenty of posts here, I'm a member of the IPP, so there's lots of evidence that I wouldn't be making this up.

I will get a picture of them as soon I get the room they are in organized. It will probably take quite a few pictures. I would say less than a third are twisty puzzles though. By volume, I probably have one of the largest collections in the world. But that's because of the 2 ft Rubik's cube that's shown in my avatar with one of the cats peeking in it.

-d