Dear Lee,

Technology is changing the world and “stuff” is disappearing. In the past, collectors wanted buggy whips, iron apple peelers, and cranberry scoops. Also, samplers and quilts as examples of women’s work, folk art examples of creativity, and aged-out technology like ticker tape machines or slide rules. We are watching the demise of the Edison light bulb and the wristwatch that is wound. Collectors are historians and art critics, buying stuff that encourages past memories. So a recent article listing things that are disappearing made me wonder what we should collect now, before it’s gone, hard to find, and expensive.

1) United States Postal Service. Post offices are closing—less demand due to email and lack of money. So postcards, letters, stamps, postmarks, postal scales, uniforms, badges, and photos or realistic paintings of the postman and post office might lead to high-priced sales later. Will “postofficiana” be a category as popular as petroliana is today? A 1909 2¢ Hudson-Fulton first day cover sold in 2011 for $2,700. When a new commemorative stamp is issued there is often a specially designed envelope using the stamp that is postmarked in the city of the event (see Collector’s Gallery).

2) Newspapers. Antique newspapers are disintegrating as the paper succumbs to the elements and self-destructs. More digital newspapers are being sold today and fewer printed copies are published. Soon all “papers” will be digital. Will old newspapers be a wanted collectible in 50 years? Or will the problems of condition encourage use of digital methods of storing news. The 1948 presidential election “Dewey Beats Truman” newspaper sold last month for $822. About 150,000 copies of the paper were published in 1948 before the final results made Truman president. Most are gone.

3) Books. We are already using our phones and iPads to buy and read books. Will the printed paper book be past history? Large books with colored pictures like Audubon’s bird books, first editions, and comic books will probably still be collected. And as collectors know today, the right rare 10¢ comic book can sell for over a million dollars. A 1938 copy of Action Comics #1, the comic book that introduced Superman, sold in 2014 for $3.2 million.

4) Phones. The landline phone is disappearing and collectors are already buying old “candlestick” phones, 1960s purses with plug-in phones, princess phones and other old phones with special features and cords. Will the phone with a tail (cord) became an object d’art to be displayed on a coffee table in a modern home? An 1898 candlestick telephone by Wilhelm Telephone Manufacturing Co., sold recently for $9,000.