collector's item

noun

an article or object of particular interest or value because of its uniqueness or scarcity.

Origin:
1930–35

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins

World English Dictionary

collector's item or collector's piece

—n
	a thing regarded as being exquisite or rare and thus worthy of the interest of one who collects such things

collector's piece or collector's piece

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Relevant Questions

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Collector's item is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

collector's item

An object of great interest, value, or rarity, as in This necklace is a collector's item. Originating in the early 1900s as collector's piece, a usage still common in Britain, the term in its present form is occasionally transferred to persons as well, as in The Beach Boys became a collector's item on the tour. [c. 1930]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences

The scarcity of this beautiful gem makes it primarily a collector's item.

Even though the company may no longer exist, the stock certificate may have

value as a collector's item.

Monetarily, it's hardly worth keeping, except as a historic collector's item

worth thousands of dollars.

The stamp also has become a valuable collector's item for philatelists and

conservationists across the country.

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Matching Quote

"If the conversation turned to the Princes of the House of France, "people with whom neither you nor I will be acquainted, and we do not want to, do we?", my grandmother would say to Swann, who perhaps had a letter from Twickenham in his pocket; she made him move to the piano and turn the pages on evenings when my grandmother's sisters sang; she had with this being, elsewhere so sought after, the naive roughness of a child who plays with a collector's item without any more care than with a less expensive one."

-Marcel Proust