Actually this is the best opposing argument in this thread, and you truly do have a few points. I only started recollecting jordans in 2010 when they started to bring back my faves silhouettes after A 3+ year break. IDK what you would call a large collection though. Most of Niketalk prolly has a larger collection of Js than I do since I don't care to only wear jordans. They are a lot of kicks out there that I like.
But what about SB dunks, that have never reretroed a colorway in the 12ish years they have been around?
Excuse the "wall of text"
I don't have a large SB dunk collection. But, I wear all my dunks.
You want to know the sneakers I truly have the hardest time rocking? Vintage AF1s. Two-piece, orange and grey box DS AF1s are the types of things that are truly rare. Orange canvas highs... now, if my pair wasn't already used when I got them, that would be a tough wear. Why? Because that is true rarity and truly close to irreplaceable. But, you have to just rip off the Band Aid and - wait for it - just do it!
The things that give me pause are the things that I need more than money to replace. I have pairs that I've hunted for years. Pairs that I've only seen a handful of for sale in 15+ years. That's tempting to just hold on to.
The funny thing is, when I wear something that's truly rare (not limited, but actually rare), most of today's sneakerheads don't even give me a second look because it's not something that's "hot.". Then I wear some run of the mill retro Jordan from like 3 years ago, and I got teeny bopper sneakerheads coming up to me on the train like I'm giving out fake IDs or something. Meanwhile, I could go to FC or hop on ebay and buy 20 pairs of that same shoe today if I wanted to.
...I don't know, I just have issues with the priorities of most of the new generation of sneakerheads.
Here's the secret though, for anybody worried about the "value" of their sneakers. None of these recent JB retros will be valuable... mostly likely ever! Forever ever? Forever ever!
You know why?
Well, for something to become truly valuable, you need 2 things to happen. There needs to a cut off in production of the item, and most of those originally produced items need to be destroyed. Well, the former is out with most JB retros because they are constantly re-retroed, so there's unlikely to be scarcity of whatever J you want to use as an example. Then, the latter won't really happen because you have so many people collecting instead of beating their shoes. So, you have constantly replenishing supply and people preserving the shoes.
The "Nike Air" retros at least have that as a distinguishing characteristic, so they are like a subset of retros. So, in that case, you have cut off production. No more Nike Air Js. You had some hoarding, but you also had a lot of people beating them. 1994 IIIs hit $29.99 in plenty of spots. People weren't preserving $30 shoes. So, there you have enough rarity to actually create value. Those dynamics will not be replicated again.
The younger generation thinking they're going to get rich off hoarding Js, will come to the same realization my generation did when we found out that each and every one of our friends also had a two inch stack of Barry Bonds, Tony Gwynn, Don Mattingly, and Mark McGwire rookie cards. They're ubiquitous. They're just baseball cards...
