Dear Lee,

We are just back from Art Basel, the huge art event in Miami. We went to see the really expensive stuff we never even think of buying to try to understand what is happening at the New York auction galleries. They’re shifting to “only for the rich,” higher premiums for buyers, and making other economic decisions about what they will sell that will undoubtedly trickle down to our level as ordinary collectors. Will the big-time auction galleries’ decisions help online auctions?

At Art Basel, we heard dealers, curators, collectors and experts all worrying about the boom in modern art and high-end decorative arts. Relatively unknown artists and designers are championed by dealers or galleries, pieces are priced in the high thousands and more, and there are buyers aplenty-but they seem to be more interested in profit than art or design. And much of the lure is that old standby, “limited edition.”

How well we all remember the limited edition plates that took hold of buyers in the 1970s. Each year the plate was expected to increase in value. Soon there were limited edition figurines, bottles, ingots, bells, jewelry, medals. Sets needed to be continued each year. The entire limited edition idea collapsed in the 1980s, when collectors realized new and untested designs don’t keep going up in value without tons of promotional advertising. And there were just too many pieces to buy. So most collectors left that market and went back to collecting the antique and vintage items that matched their passions.

What will happen to the value of the $160,000 limited edition Lucite chair by a new Japanese designer that was sold at the show? Will the limited edition and quirky jewelry-box “chest of drawers” by Droog, made of small old drawers boxed and strapped together, keep its place as a design icon at thousands of dollars? And will limited edition chairs by designers Ron Arad or Marc Newson go up in price? We predict this market will fall just as it did in collectibles.

So why do we care? Because the media will claim prices are dropping, collecting is over and the art market is doomed. No one will do the research that would show that the popularity of styles in both fine and decorative arts always changes. Victorian and Mission were both scorned in the 1950s. Art pottery was found at garage sales. Tiffany lampshades sat at Salvation Army stores, unwanted.

So stick to your collection, buy the things you like and enjoy what you have. Smart collectors at every level who avoid fads like limited editions will have a successful collection.