You never know what you'll find until you go looking.
That's true if you are looking at flea markets, hunting the garage sale classifieds for breweriana or looking through eBay listings or a listings site like beerclassifieds.com. You might find an old beer coaster selling for $5 (by some newbie) that is actually worth a lot more. Or you may find that one collectable item that fills out your beer antiques collection perfectly.
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Beer cans: the premiere collectable. It may surprise some that the most highly valued collectable in the history of this site is the "lowly" beer can. Beer cans may be looked down upon by beer lovers and microbrewery fanatics who prefer their beer bottled but vintage beer cans, especially conetop beer cans sell at very high prices. We routinely sell classic conetops in the range of $500 to $800 and they list for several thousands for extremely rare cans.
Neon signs and other bar signs are some of the coolest collectables there are in the world of beer and these are really underrated. Many of us are dazzled by the age of products but there are many neon beer signs made within the last two decades that are important memorabilia, uniquely appealing and just downright fun. I still remember a neon sign I saw that had beer bottles in a (simulated) bucket of ice and the whole thing lit up. It made me thirsty for a beer, for one thing, and it was dazzling, for another. Beer bar signs are the kind of cool collectables that are simply unknown until you actually see it.
You don't have to be a drinker to love the way beer has been advertised and promoted over the years. While advertising has changed a lot over the years, many things have stayed the same. For example, beautiful women have always been used to advertise and market beer. Beers have always tried to get their brand name in front of people with a mixture of blatancy, humor and urgency. Beer has always been sold for its coldness even though this is based entirely on a person's own refrigeration.
You have to love the possibility of eBay listings presenting a video demonstrating products like that or interactivity so you can see a collectable neon light's different appearances through interacting with the app or page.
That said, some things certainly have changed. You say collectibles, I say collectables.
You may notice that I spell this page collectables not beer collectibles. That's the proper spelling, though either is acceptable.