(MONEY Magazine) – Like to own a copy of the exuberant porcelain sculpture that Reagan gave Gorbachev at the summit last December? You can. Boehm Studio in Trenton, N.J., maker of the silver-and-gold-bedizened globe with doves heading skyward, is marketing 400 reduced-size replicas starting this month. The price: $8,500 -- about what you'd pay for a small car. Aside from aesthetic satisfaction, buyers can also thrill to what might be called the Great Limited Edition Gamble: as Boehm's own promotional literature says, ''Will the porcelain I am collecting be worth more in years to come -- or will it be worth less?'' Good question, and not only for these pricey baubles. During the inflationary late 1970s, it seemed there was only one direction a porcelain dove could fly -- up. Speculators plunged into the market of these instant collectibles, snapping up not only Boehm's well-known flowers and birds but also Gorham's Norman Rockwell plates, Hummel's toddlers, and Precious Moments' wide-eyed waifs, hoping they would rapidly appreciate. Greed struck the producers too: some ''limited editions'' ran 30,000 items or more. When the bibelot bubble burst, many of these collectibles wound up collecting dust. In short, speculating in collectibles is always risky, and experts offer this advice: Buy quality. Makers like Boehm, Cybis, Meissen in Germany and Connoisseur in England are among a handful of fine manufacturers whose creations tend to stand up. Boehm's 1968 Common Tern, for instance, originally priced at $1,400 each in an edition of 500, now fetches more than $6,000, if you can find one. Avoid large editions. Precious Moments' coy bisque figures with religious themes are highly affordable -- generally $7 to $25 -- but may already exist in the millions, making their resale value dubious. (To be fair, there can also be losers in small editions: Boehm's 1981 Oriental Poppy didn't do well despite the fact that only 325 of them were issued at $1,100; they are now worth $1,200.) Stick to enduring themes and figures. ''There are dozens of hooks, like Norman Rockwell or Christmas, that appeal to a lot of people,'' observes Diane Carnevale, executive director of the Collectors' Information Bureau, a trade organization. Don't count your bisque chicks before they hatch. Limited editions are no more liquid an asset than any other collectible. ''Most of the heavily advertised ones have no secondary market at all,'' warns one expert who has links to a major marketer and asked not to be named. And the values listed in the catalogues are generally retail -- that is, 20% to 35% more than the price you would get by selling the item to a dealer. $ Of course, you could always peddle it at auction or to another collector -- but that may require travel. So heed the old saw not to buy sculptures you don't like, since you may end up living with them. As Peter Dwyer of Collector Editions says, ''Collecting these things isn't about saving to send the kids to college.''