Collectables Manual: Cash in on the Credit Crunch - By TV's Jamie Breese

Here we go. Another in a line of 'get rich quick during the recession' books, when what the author REALLY means is help me get rich quick by buying my book. Cunningly disguised as a 'Haynes Manual', as the publishing group further erodes the no-nonsense 'fix-it' reputation of their brand, this relatively entertaining, though curiously random collection of hot tips is hardly going to change your lifestyle. OK. For a start, being a tardy old curmudgeon, I feel that there's something not quite right about listening to the opinions of an 'expert' too young to remember any of the nostalgic gold contained within the book's pages. It's the same underlying feeling I get watching those 'Top 100' TV moments clip programmes where you get a 15 year old reminding you of how brilliant a 'Dad's Army' clip was. When you know, and they know, that they watched it for the first time only minutes before the interview. So just who IS this self-proclaimed expert and why should we listen to him?Well, according to his own website: Jamie Breese's experience includes TV presenting (BBC2's The Life Laundry and The Antiques Show and ITV1's This Morning and Everything Must Go!), journalism (columns in the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mail, features for BBC Homes & Antiques magazine) and consultancy (eBay's collectables spokesman).OK. Worth a look then. So what's behind the enticing cover with its promise of 'Star Wars' and 'Daleks' and old computers and records?Sadly not that much of any real interest or value. The book starts by stating the obvious. Not everything old is valuable. ( I already know that. I bought a pristine Catweazle annual only a couple of weeks ago at the school fair for 50p.)Condition is important. (Well, I'd never have guessed that...)Packaging is good. (But too late to fish around the bins for it if you, like everyone else, chucked out the packaging thirty years ago). We then get a chapter entitled: 'The Credit Crunch'. Here we get advise like: Go online and 'Sell on Ebay'. Now, I'd never have thought of that. Good to get the wisdom of an expert.(Breese suggests that Ebay has opened up a global market place for your old junk. What he doesn't mention is that the value of said junk has plummeted because what was once deemed scarce barely seems so now.)And that's pretty much it. Into the random selection of alphabetical wonders with a few  non-committal indications of prices (based on Ebay and auction wins). So we start with Action Man (damn - should have kept that original instead of burning him alive!) and we end with 'Yellow Submarine'. It's generally a trawl through sixties to nineties toys, TV & film related stuff and collectable ornaments - like those Wade things that you used to get free in crackers. The depressing news is that, unless you have something really special (like the rare C-3PO original hand and signed cast photo at £22K) you're really unlikely to make much more than pin money. It turns out that annuals from 35 years ago are only worth 50p. Oh well. Here's a list of what else is included, again according to Breese's own website.

• Toys and children's collectables: Bagpuss, Barbie, Beanie Babies, Brittans farm figures, Cabbage Patch kids, dolls, Noddy, Peter Pan, Sindy, Smurfs…
• Sports collectables: 1966 World Cup, Beckham, cricket, football, Formula 1, Olympics, rugby, tennis…
• TV and cinema collectables: Avengers, Blue Peter, Dr Who, Alfred Hitchcock, Magic Roundabout, Simpsons, Star Trek, Star Wars, Starsky & Hutch, Terminator…
• Music collectables: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Elton John, Marc Bolan, Maria Callas…
• Surprising collectables: jelly moulds, jigsaws, lava lamps, NatWest piggies, phonecards, plastic furniture, prams, Rubik's Cube…
• And much more: autographs, books, cameras, coins, comics, flying ducks, fountain pens, home computers, lighters, luggage, medals, mobile phones, newspapers, pin-ups, postcards, posters, radios, stamps, televisions…

All in all, neither the fantastic nostalgia-fest nor the get-me-rich-quick manual it promised to be, this is an ultimately unsatisfying piece that delivers nothing new in a world packed with this sort of information.I suppose the cover price is not unreasonable for a hardback book with so many colour photographs, though it's disappointing that this couldn't have more depth. It just covers too broad a range, delivering too little detail. Maybe something like  a more thoroughly researched 'TV Cult Collectables' or a 'Wade Ornament Collectables', penned by a genuine expert, would have been more satisfying.