A collector's item is an object or item of any kind that has become valuable -- often unexpectedly. Over the years, a large number of incidents have resulted in certain objects related to those incidents becoming very desirable and valuable. The objects, which may have been common everyday items when they were originally produced, have since gone on to become rare and valuable, and have sometimes been sold to collectors for large sums of money.

The desirability of a collector's item separates it from the broader field of collectible items in general. For example, stamps are collectible items, and stamp collecting is a popular hobby. But certain stamps are far more valuable than others, and these rare and valuable stamps are usually described as collector's items. A collectible (or collectable) is a manufactured item designed for people to collect. ... Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects, such as covers (envelopes or packages with stamps on them). ...

Some examples of collector's items are:

• Comic books produced during the golden age of comic books
• Newspapers with headlines related to historic events, such as "Dewey Defeats Truman" (see United States presidential election, 1948 and Chicago Tribune)
• Cap'n Crunch toy whistles
• The U.S. 1955 doubled die cent
• The Inverted Jenny
• An alpha edition Black Lotus
• vintage motor vehicles
• The Mickey Mantle baseball card

Various manufacturers have occasionally attempted to deliberately create a collector's market for their products, in the hope that they will increase in value and become true collector's items (and thus make a profit for the manufacturer). A few of these attempts to create collector's items have been successful, but most "collector's items" created to artificially inflate the collector's market have ended up as worthless or near-worthless in value. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Superman, the catalyst of the Golden Age, from Superman #14, January-February 1942. ... For the victim of Mt. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... The Chicago Tribune, formerly self-styled as the Worlds Greatest Newspaper, remains one of the principal daily newspapers of the midwestern United States. ... An older Capn Crunch package Capn Crunch is a breakfast cereal manufactured by the Quaker Oats company of Chicago, Illinois, and the mascot of that cereal. ... The 1955 doubled die cent is one of the most dramatic 20th century U.S. coinage errors. ... The inverted Jenny (or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp of 1918 in which the airplane in the center of the design was accidentally printed upside-down. ... The Black Lotus The Black Lotus is a well-known card from the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. ... Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) was an American baseball player, regarded as one of the best of all time. ... Topps Baseball cards from the 50s, 60s and 70s A baseball card is a small card printed on heavy paper stock, featuring one or more baseball players. ...