Popularity

The Merchant Prince and I were talking the other day about why some types of collectibles stay popular for years and years and others quickly come and go. A good example is glass paperweights. These things have been around for hundreds of years, made in many, many countries and with many different designs. About ten years ago these were really the 'in' collectible. We were buying them from six or eight different studios and still couldn't keep up with the demand. Nine years ago another 'in' collectible became prominent and paperweights fell off in popularity. What we found strange at the time was that we had customers who came from three generations of the same family and they all collected them. Grandma had collected for forty years, daughter for twenty and grsnddaughter was just beginning a collection. When the popularity fell these three stopped buying. What stopped the forty year and the twenty year collectors? Strange. The paperweight I picture is from Caithness Glass in Perth, Scotland. Caithness was a premiere paperweight studio and I believe they're now out of business. Too bad, they created beauty.