I came across an interesting article published on CNN.com this morning. Check it out at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/26/invest.violins/ . It addresses why people invest in the most expensive violins. The same rules apply and the same return on investment applies to nice violins, not just the nicest violins. When you consider most German made violins were sold for a dollar at the turn of the century it corroberates the point made here.

Also, I have a book here from the 70's that valuates violins at that time. Apparently, just after that violins took a huge jump in value. The few violins I could find that matched those in the collection had jumped in value by hundreds of percentage points. Those worth hundreds at that time were now worth thousands by 2004.

If the price of commodities goes up, collectibles are usually just behind them in appreciating in value.