Time Is Money

How one man turned his passion for comic timepieces into a small fortune. BY Jack Feerick

THE FUNNY THING-funny, for a man who would become the preeminent expert in comic timepieces- is that Howard Brenner never had a Mickey Mouse wrist watch as a kid. "My father ran a jewelry store," he says. "So I always had an adult-style watch." But what Howard Brenner had from the start was a passion for collecting, a profitable pursuit that led him, by roundabout ways, to renown as the leading authority on comic-themed timepieces, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject.

Growing up in New York in the 1950s, Brenner caught the collecting bug early. He started with baseball cards, then moved on to comic books. It was a passion, not a business, but as the market for antiques expanded to include popculture memorabilia, Brenner saw the potential to do what most of us only dream of, namely make a living by pursuing his hobby. Even then, he was able to fund his college education by selling his comic book collection.

After college, Brenner's love affair with comic timepieces began almost by accident. "When I settled in Rochester, I had already started a business selling reel-to-reel tapes of old-time radio programs," he recalls. "I was collecting vintage radios at the time- big, woodpaneled console models. One day, I was at an antique show, money burning a hole in my pocket, on the hunt for radios."

Coming up dry, he was almost out the door when he spotted a Roy Rogers bedside clock based on the popular TV show. "I hated to go home empty-handed," he says. "So I settled on this little clock- I think it cost me $45. 1 set it on my desk and I was just mesmerized by the motion of the horse, going back and forth across the dial as the clock ticked away."

Brenner was hooked. He started hunting down other clocks and watches featuring comic strip and cartoon characters: the famous Mickey Mouse watch and timepieces featuring Popeye, Betty Boop, Howdy Doody, Bugs Bunny, and others. Through his previous collecting ventures and his business, Brenner already had contacts in the nascent pop-culture memorabilia industry, which in pre-Internet days operated by means of mail-order catalogs, newsletters, swap meets, and telephone auctions. He soon realized that he was carving out a new niche. "People would have Mickey Mouse watches as part of a larger collection of Disney memorabilia," Brenner says, "but nobody was really specializing in character-themed watches and clocks.

The key to successful collecting is to go narrow and go deep. Brenner underplays the quantity of research he put into his passion: "A lot of the work was uncovering what was available," he says. "I did a lot of looking through old catalogsSears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward- and, funnily enough, advertisements in The Saturday Evening Post. I would pick up old copies of the Post at a yard sale, and I'd be off to the races."

Within a decade, Brenner had amassed arguably the world's foremost compendium of comic timepieces. "The reason that these pieces are relatively valuable is because, when used as intended, they're watches for children," he says. "And children are hard on their belongings. The first thing a kid does is rip open the box and throw it away." Note for novices: In the collecting world, the highest value is placed on pristine goods, unopened and still in their original packaging.

With few resources but word-of-mouth tips and the help of a loose network of collectors and pickers across the country, Brenner tracked down hundreds of high-quality pieces. His collection grew to include store displays, advertisements, and promotional materials, and he became the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles.

In the mid-1980s, Brenner was asked to write a price guide for comic timepieces. In the course of writing the book, he made several research trips, including a rare excursion to the Disney archives. In the end, though, he drew almost entirely on his own collection: "I visited the headquarters of Timex and the Ingersoll factory, and looking through their archives, in most cases I had more materials than they did!"

When his work on the book was complete, so was his collection; Brenner had just about everything there was to collect. For most collectors, having defined and exhausted a niche, the next move would be to sell their stock and profit by the boom they created. Brenner, though, held on to his collection for more than a decade. "There was a rocking chair in my display room. I would go in with my newspaper, and wind some of the clocks and just listen to them tick," he says. "It was soothing at the end of the day."

With the emergence of online auction sites and the new, Internet-sawy breed of collectors, he finally sold off his collection, piece by piece, at a hefty profit. "That's my retirement fund," he says. These days, Brenner devotes himself to his family and to his various business ventures.

But he carries a constant reminder of his collecting passion on his left wrist- the smiling face of Mickey Mouse gazing up at him from the dial of his watch.

[Sidebar]

(Right) This classic Mickey Mouse watch is the last piece remaining of Brenner's definitive collection. (Top) Highlights from his former assortment include quintessential characters such as the Three Little Pigs, Captain Marvel, and Bugs Bunny.

[Sidebar]

From Pastime to Profits

Collecting has proved a profitable pastime for Howard Brenner, who offers practical tips and maxims for making collecting pay off for you.

Know the market

Collectibles are a buyer's game. Know the going rates before you set a price. Magazines and price guides can keep you informed on general pricing trends, but to ascertain the market value of a particular piece, Brenner recommends consulting online auction sites.

Don't fall for manufactured scarcity

When evaluating an investment, consider its relative rarity. "You may have some tchotchke that's produced in a limited edition of a thousand pieces," says Brenner, "but 50 years from now, 999 of those pieces are still going to be in the shrink-wrap." In short, items produced specifically for the collector's market are unlikely to appreciate in value.

Create a paper trail

A collection is a slice of history- and context is important. When possible, preserve original packaging and tags of collectibles, along with store displays, instruction manuals, even bills of sale.

Treat them gently!

This seems like a no-brainer. But Brenner says, "I was constantly amazed by people keeping old wrist watches loose in a bin or drawer somewhere. These are delicate items!" Even if you don't have the original packaging or displays, taking simple precautions- keeping your collectibles in a cool, dry space out of direct sunlight- can minimize the ravages of time and help them hold their value.

Fill the gaps

You almost never get every single scrap of a collection, but that is the holy grail. Be inventive: As Brenner notes, a scrapbook of period advertisements can alert you to any missing parts of your collection.

Collect what you love

This is perhaps the most important rule. Financial gain may come, but the key to success- and satisfaction- is to do it for love first, money second.