What collectable items and investments would make a good alternative to a retirement pension?

Little toy coffins made from precious metals.

Gold bars.

Kruggerands.

Firearms.

Go back in the “Way Back” machine and buy a couple thousand shares of Apple in May 2003.

I would be very careful putting too much stock in collectibles. Often, when you come to sell, you find that the buyers are not there.

We just sold some of my mother’s jewelry at a high-end auction. They brought pretty good prices but the auction house did, as one would expect, take its cut.

Do your research carefully first.

Property might be an idea, or companies that invest in property

Invest in collectibles only if you are very knowledgeable about the item. They have no intrinsic value of their own. So you have to know what people will value, and the only way you can make a good guess about that is if you know them very well and you know human desire very well. In other words, it would need to be your life.