Dear Lee,

A painting sells for millions of dollars. One of the first computers auctions for $365,000, and a collection of baseball cards brings millions. How were those collectors so lucky?

I should tell you the best investment we made was our advertising collection. The prices are up. The prices for our antique furniture, porcelains and art pottery are way down. We bought what we liked, lived with it, and felt antiques were a bargain. We needed chairs and tables and there is a resale value to ours. If we had purchased reproductions, today they would have very little value.

Here are five treasure-seeking tips:

Luck. Many “finds” of 2014-15 were stolen and recovered, owned by men or women connected to the original company, or owned by the families who had the foresight to hold on to them for generations.

Nostalgia. People buy things that remind them of childhood. But don’t go back too far. A sixty-year old today yearns for the pedal car that was too expensive in his youth or the Coca-Cola sign she saw as a teenager in the corner drug store. Too old does not sell as nostalgia; too new is too available.

Rarity. Don’t collect what everyone else is saving. Beanie Babies, limited edition plates, Longaberger limited edition baskets, and corner blocks of postage stamps are examples of newly manufactured items that were hyped as investments and are almost worthless today.

Timing. Study history, popular movies, television and books. Buy ahead of important dates. The introduction of Star Wars, Superman, or the years of World War II are all events that will continue to interest collectors and rarities will go up in price

Quality. Buy the best you can afford. Condition is more important today than rarity, age or even nostalgia. If you reupholster a chair, keep a piece of the old fabric and the horsehair stuffing. Keep the original box from a toy or the dust jacket on a book. Don’t paint or refinish anything including furniture, iron doorstops, banks, carousel horses and wooden tools. Rules about refinishing have changed since the 1980s when looking like new was the goal. Now an old poor finish is better than a new modern look if you want to keep the antique’s value.

Good luck!