Some thoughts on old media and worthless collectables

20th-century media and the tools to make/transmit/play old media are sometimes seen as quaint antique collectables. An example is 1970s metal type that might have been used for posters or Burger King ads fifty years ago. I saw the collection online, priced at $75.

There were no takers.

The reality is millions of people owned records, radios, typewriters, pianos, and magazines 70 years ago. Every small city had a movie theater with multiple projectors. Newspapers, government offices, and print shops owned thousands of mechanical presses and an untold number of pieces of metal type. 

Even if only 10% of these physical media and associated devices have survived to the present day, very little of it can be considered to have monetary value that other people will pay for. In fact, most of these items are worthless collectables, despite what Antiques Roadshow (UK or US) might have us believe. 

There are exceptions, with rare or special items that became famous later on  -- think the first Superman comic, a typewriter owned by Ernest Hemingway, or Ray Charles' first piano. Sometimes there are fads, and people scoop up things like old Polaroid cameras or reel-to-reel audio recorders. The fads don't last, because sustained demand isn't there. 

The best outcome for a tray of 1970s metal type that has no sentimental value? Find someone who will take it off your hands for free, or sell it for scrap.