This is our series: Same or Different. Something we all know from comparing sun to moon but this time it's more important & more expensive.

Often a collection is named important when expensive is meant -- it is by far not the same. And even more surprising: More often than not, one attribute excludes the other. That means a very expensive collection is the least important and a rather important collection is comparatively cheap.

How is that possible? All starts with a definition -- what is collecting about and then, what means importance in collecting? Collecting is to put together a number of items, that are connected in one or several attributes (material, design, era, producer, topic, technology, color, production-year, anything and etc) to make not only this connex visible and exploitable and comparable but also to preserve (!) the values condensed in these items / attributes and bring them over time; to bring them further beyond -- Plus Ultra. Ah!

If we agree this to be an acceptable definition of collecting then we can clarify what is an IMPORTANT collection. And obviously it is a collection that is not yet created (ie. collected) by anybody else. That means the connection of these items is not yet already shown / obvious and it consists of items that are not yet accumulated or collected AND preserved (!) by others. And so no one else, if the collector does not create this collection. And this importance is even higher, the higher the risk of decay or even worse disappearance of the items is, when they would NOT be collected, ie. preserved. Yes, and it goes with the basic economic principles that prices are lower when there is no or just low interest / demand and -- now one can easily guess in which direction all this is going -- higher when there are plenty of potential collectors, while the single collection in this latter case being the opposite of... important. Oh! And this latter described case is true, simply because the marginal buyer / collector just changes the price (marginally) but nothing else.

You know, there was a time when Vincent Van Gogh could not make a living from his paintings? Yes. And we now know, it were these early collectors of Van Goghs paintings that not only have seen the art, the culture and the standards in these paintings to be valuable and worth protecting, although their prices were low. But also they have been the most important Van Gogh-collectors of all time and all later VG-collectors stand in their shadows -- to put it in a picture. Yes, and a VG collector these days? Mh, no offense intended, but even though he put millions of Francs and multiples on the table of the prices the 1st VG-collector paid, he is rather un-important because at just slightly lower prices there are countless of other collectors just waiting to take and preserve it with best care. Surprising!?

See the other parts in this series here: #SameOrDifferent