If you tried to buy any of the new A$2 Bluey collectable coins online when they went up for sale earlier this month, you probably saw the same message thousands of others did:

Our Online Shop is temporarily unavailable due to high demand.

The single most valuable product released that day — a 99.9% silver coin, featuring the Heeler family – quickly sold out. It’s since been listed for resale online for as much as six times its original $115 price.

As a researcher who’s tracked rises and falls in the price of silver, the huge price premium on those rarer silver coins got me wondering: how much extra are people paying for the Bluey brand itself, versus the coin’s silver content?

The answer? Quite a lot.

Online ballots to buy Bluey coins

The latest sales frenzy for the latest Bluey coins was entirely predictable. The Royal Australian Mint and Australia Post have run the same playbook before, with sold out coin sales in September 2024 and October last year.

The online ballot – run by the Mint through online platform EQL – allocates limited edition coins to a lucky few, then Australia Post handles the public release.

Australia Post’s website crashed within minutes of this year’s launch.

Happy collectors who managed to buy one of the latest silver coins before they sold out have since shared their photos online.

Silver content vs the Bluey premium

There are now dozens of Bluey-themed coins from the Royal Australian Mint released over the past two years, including:

• $2 “till coins” you can randomly get as change at some post offices
• coin sets in tubes or collector folders
• coloured aluminium-bronze coins
• and three limited edition, 99.9% silver coins: 2,650 Bluey dollarbucks in 2024, 10,000 Christmas bauble coins in 2025 and 12,000 Heeler family coins in 2026.

For most of these, their “value” is whatever buyers are willing to pay for a limited edition Bluey product, with no obvious price floor.

But for the coins made of silver, it’s a different story.

Huge prices for the rarest Bluey coins

For the coins made of 99.9% silver, based on their weight we can neatly split their price into two price factors: what you’re paying for the silver content, versus what I call the “Bluey premium”. That’s the markup you’re paying for a limited edition Bluey collectable.

The price of silver has risen almost threefold since the first Bluey silver coins went on sale, from around US$29 per ounce in September 2024, to around US$75 an ounce this month.

But that silver price rise accounts for only a fraction of the increase in Bluey silver coins over time.

You can also see how much the Bluey premium has grown for the rarest, most valuable silver coin: the first “dollarbuck” from 2024.

It’s since been resold for $1100 – more than 11 times its original $99 price.

Online prices for the silver coins vary. Current eBay listings for that same 2024 silver dollarbuck now sit above $1,500. That high price is likely to be largely down to how few of the coins were issued.

What to be wary of with ‘emotional’ assets

Bluey coins belong to what financial economists call “emotional” or “alternative” assets, alongside art, stamps, fine wine, sneakers, luxury handbags and Pokémon cards.

This is an asset class that has surged since the pandemic, driven by online marketplaces, retail trading apps and a generation comfortable mixing nostalgia with portfolio thinking.

Will those high prices last? Academic research in this area is surprisingly thin, partly because transactions on rare assets are only sporadic and prices can vary so much. This makes it hard to say whether investing in these sorts of goods will work out to be a good deal.

Past research has shown the real returns on stamps, art and wine over the period from 1900 to 2012 came in at around 2–4% a year – well below investing in shares. But some collectables have fared better, with one 2020 study concluding investing in Lego had offered better annual returns than stocks or bonds.

So the long-term payoff for buying collectables is mixed.

Protect your own dollarbucks

That doesn’t mean collectables like Bluey silver coins are a bad buy. Since launching less than two years ago, they have appreciated in value more than might have been expected.

And if you managed to snap one up at its original price, as a piece of Australian cultural history your kids might appreciate inheriting, they make a genuinely lovely keepsake.

The trouble starts when buyers pay $500 or $1000-plus on eBay, expecting prices to keep climbing. That’s where most researchers would say buyer beware.

If you are considering long-term resale value, it’s best not to let your kids play with these coins. In the collectables market, unopened packaging is a big part of the resale value.

An unexpected global phenomenon

Australia’s most famous TV export was jointly commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Britain’s BBC Studios. For two years running, it’s been the most streamed TV show in the United States.

Current ABC managing director Hugh Marks recently said it was a $300 million mistake to hand over the overseas streaming and merchandise rights to the BBC, which continues to reap a fortune from them.

But not even Bluey’s creator Joe Brumm foresaw the show becoming a global juggernaut, saying in 2024:

We didn’t know if we’d even finish the first episode. It was quite possibly going to land me in debt or in jail. Whenever I’m getting a bit immune to Bluey’s success, I put myself back there and I’m like: ‘Man, you did it.’

Jason Tian, Senior Lecturer, Finance School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Australia’s community radio sector contributes an estimated A$153.1 million to the country’s struggling music industries each year.

Our new research findings show community radio airs an estimated 390,960 hours of Australian music each year. This is more than double commercial radio’s 160,000 hours.

And for every $1 invested in the community radio sector, up to $5.55 is returned to the music industries – a direct financial benefit to musicians, record companies, live venues, agents, songwriters and other industry stakeholders.

The community radio sector as a whole boasts 450 not-for-profit stations across the country that hold “community radio” licences, and we assessed stations that were identified as music intensive. These included well-known stations such as 3RRR in Melbourne, FBi in Sydney, and the popular youth station 6RTR-FM in Perth.

These findings come as one of the nation’s oldest community stations, Sydney’s 2SER, faces closure. One of its university partners, Macquarie University, has indicated it will withdraw funding over the next few months.

Supporting artists

Our research was based on financial and interview data from ten case study stations, coupled with a net value analysis of the 292 community radio stations identified as being “music-intensive”.

We also added some questions into the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia’s National Listener Survey, to survey about 9,900 Australians over the age of 15. This sample, which was representative of the general population, suggests every year about five million Australians tune in to community radio each week (about 25% of the population over 15).

In recent years, the music industry has experienced fundamental changes around music consumption. Consumers are moving away from purchasing music to streaming it through apps such as Spotify. These platforms return relatively little to artists and recording companies.

And while more Australians than ever are attending live music, they are increasingly spending their money on expensive international touring acts, rather than local venues and artists.

Previous research by Creative Australia has honed in on this problem and the complex dynamics that underpin it. According to the agency’s report on music discovery and engagement, two-thirds of survey participants indicated they would seek out more Australian music if they could. At the same time, North American and British artists dominated participants’ favourite artists and songs.

But our research found community radio stations offer a gateway to Australian music. Based on listener data, we found about 1.6 million Australians (or about 30% of weekly community radio listeners) said they had discovered a local or emerging artist by listening to community radio.

One million Australians (19% of weekly listeners) said they had recommended a local Australian musician to a friend or shared their music online after discovering them on community radio. And a further one million (19%) said community radio was the only broadcaster that played the Australian music they wanted to listen to.

In addition, airplay on community radio produces direct consumer action. Every year, about 1.3 million (24%) Australians either purchase a ticket to a gig or buy artist music or merchandise after hearing it on community radio.

And 1.5 (28%) million said they looked up an artist on Spotify or another digital music platform after hearing them on community radio.

‘Lifeblood of the scene’

Indigenous community radio is also punching above its weight in its contributions to local music, comprising one-third of the top 39 “most intensive” Australian music stations.

These community radio stations are licensed to predominantly serve Indigenous audiences. However they often attract a wider audience to their specialist music programming.

They are run by Indigenous organisations and/or boards, and usually play more First Nations music than other stations. Some examples include Triple A Murri Country in Brisbane, 3KND in Melbourne, Koori Radio in Sydney, CAAMA in Alice Springs and Noongar Radio in Perth.

Community radio music stations play an important role in unearthing, encouraging and promoting Australian artists. And this means it can be part of the solution in ensuring local artists are heard, valued and supported in an era of digital streaming and global live touring acts.

Hip hop artist L-Fresh the Lion (Sukhdeep Singh Bhogal) was one of eight artists we interviewed for the project. Bhogal said community radio was

the lifeblood of the scene in the sense that for many artists, it’s a stepping stone, but not just a stepping stone, it’s consistent, it’s there. And it’s always accessible and full of people so passionate about music that I’d struggle to see a music scene without a strong community radio ecosystem, because it does hold the rest of the industry up.

Investing in passion

Community radio stations do a lot more than simply play music. For listeners, they provide informed, curated music content connected to their local communities.

For artists, they create space for new talent and music, by providing airplay, on-air interviews, promotions, and helping coordinating gigs at partner venues.

Australia’s music industries have lost some ground in recent years. But our research suggests more investment in community radio, along with enhanced digital listening options, could help recover some of this.

Shane Homan, Associate Professor, English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University; Heather Margot Anderson, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Econometrics, Monash University, and Susan Forde, Professor, Media and Journalism, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.