There was a time not so long ago when it seemed like sales of collectables were responsible for propping the gift shop market up.
Gift-giving customers on the hunt for a keepsake or figurine would make their local independent gift shop their first port of call, while the repeat business that a popular collection was guaranteed to bring would be worth its weight in gold to the retailer. Membership to collectors’ clubs soared, with some boasting upwards of 70,000 individuals.
But times change and so, too, has the significance of the traditional collectables market in the British giftware sector today.
Earlier this year, Yorkshire giftware retailer Neaversons, which had gone deeper into the collectables market in recent times, shut its doors after operating for more than 140 years, while down south in Dorset, The China Shop, a collectables and ceramics independent, brought the curtain down on 23 years of trading having failed to find a buyer willing to take on the business. Both cases illustrate just how tough the market has become in recent times.
“There used to be glass and china shops who sold nothing but collectables,” says Sue Grant, marketing manager at Widdop Bingham. “They are becoming fewer and fewer now and are having to diversify into much bigger areas because that on its own is no longer a business. Gone are the days when a glass cabinet with your collectables in would entice people into the shop and persuade them to hand over however much you were charging for your collectable lines.”
The same dynamics have been felt at the supplier end too. Andy Kingston, boss of Somerset-based Fiesta Collectables, concedes that the latter part of his firm’s name no longer reflects the main focus of its business. These days it is a much broader home décor and giftware supplier, he says.
“We used to do all the [collectable] fairies, but we packed them in when we found the market was dying. I suppose it was six or seven years ago when we started coming away from it. We distribute for other people — collections that they do — and that is the way forward that we have gone.”
Tom Sykes, general manager of giftware wholesaler Xystos, suggests the market has suffered from over-saturation and this in turn has led to consumer apathy.
“The collectables market has changed significantly over the past decade and continues to be in transition,” he says. “Once there was a huge appetite for small limited editions, with a clutch of respected companies producing high quality products that offered value and ‘collectability’. Then, every Tom, Dick and Harry jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that their inferior ranges were ‘collectables’. I believe this had the effect of devaluing the real brands that existed in the marketplace and, as a result, some customers lost some confidence in what had hitherto been a staple of the gift industry.”
Although the market has claimed some notable scalps, Xystos is not one of them. In fact, it could be considered one of the more astute wholesalers, presiding over brands that have so far stood the test of the time.
The PenDelfin brand still boasts thousands of hardcore collectors and is now approaching its 60th anniversary, while the Piggin’ brand remains one of the most durable and popular names in the market.
The strongest collectable line in terms of revenue, though, is the long-established fantasy dragon brand Myth & Magic. “It has a loyal and very large customer base. The limited editions sell out and the collectors love the magazine that supports the brand,” says Sykes.
Over at Arora Design, which oversees five collectables ranges, including More Than Words and Pets With Personality, chairman Andy Waters agrees that the ease of getting product manufactured in the Far East has taken its toll on the market.
He says: “At one time there was an over-supply into the industry and because manufacturing was so easy to get hold of, people would import product that they would then claim to be a collectable. A collectable is only a collectable because it is limited either by its number or by its accessibility to a customer. If you just import X number of thousand and try to call it a collectable, it isn’t — but that’s what a lot of importers did.”
One name synonymous with the collectables market is giftware giant Enesco. Amongst other things, it produces Lilliput Lane, a series of miniature real-life buildings that is now three decades old, and Border Fine Arts, a range of nostalgic sculptures known for their extraordinary attention to detail.
“The true collectables market has been declining for several years but we are finding that over the last two years we have reached a plateau,” says Ken Johnson, managing director of Enesco UK. “Any growth is due to specific designs having particular appeal. Both the poor economy and changing social trends have affected sales of collectables. The majority of collectors are getting older; their collections have grown to the extent that some are having difficulties with space. And collectors are being more selective in their purchases.”
Indeed, few would argue that the collectables market has been exposed to a series of factors that have ultimately slowed its ascent. The advent of eBay — which has made it easier to access collectables — is said by some to have reduced the exclusivity of the market, while an aging population and a lack of appetite for ‘collecting’ among the video game-obsessed new generation has also had an impact.
“The people with disposable income now are not of the generation of collecting dirt traps,” remarks Kingston at Fiesta Collectables. “Before you used to have collectable shops, they don’t exist anymore now in any number. The market has changed — in the home things have got to have a use.”
