Television changed everything, says Harry Rubenstein, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “Now the campaigns will produce a T-shirt, a button or two, and a ‘Change’ poster, but that’s it,” Rubenstein observes dryly. “They’d rather put their money behind large messages in the media. They’ve ceded a lot of the fun stuff to others.”

Button vendors like New York–based Bold Concepts pick up the slack, with items like a popular 1996 pin on which Hillary “Rodman” Clinton sports the fiery red buzz cut of N.B.A.-star Dennis Rodman. (Its fame was fleeting: It went for as much as $75 during President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign but now pops up online for $10.) This year, company owner Mort Berkowitz says he expects to design 1,800 different buttons, a record for the firm. They’ll be sold at rallies and fundraisers, sometimes just to commemorate a candidate’s quick whistle-stop appearance.

Vendors also produce all manner of 3-D items, as in the old days. During the current campaign, Wright has added a Hillary Clinton piggy bank ($40); a Rudy Giuliani baby onesie ($20); and a Governor Bill Richardson thong (priceless) to his cache. But no one can predict whether these novelties or other contemporary grassroots entries like the St. Patrick’s Day “O’Bama” poster, countless YouTube videos, and limited-edition, artist-created T-shirts will ever obtain real value. “Buttons are what have staying power,” posits Berkowitz, who’s also an avid collector. “They’re what you think of when you think of campaign memorabilia.”

As for whether items associated with Clinton or Obama—each running a historic candidacy—will ultimately become more collectible, Berkowitz says, “the winner is always the one to have.” And the values of memorabilia related to earlier phases of the winner’s career increases. Buttons from Harry Truman’s 1922 Jackson County, Missouri, judicial run go for $100, Berkowitz notes, adding, “If Obama wins, and you come across a pin from when he was running for state senator, grab it.”

Sometimes, though, it’s the losers’ trinkets that provide sweet solace for collectors, since fewer people bother stowing them away. Buttons featuring James Cox or John Davis—who lost, respectively, to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge during the 1920s—can fetch about $75,000, according to A.P.I.C.’s Krapf.

In addition to losers, “third-party candidates are hugely popular among collectors,” says Wright. “Communist, Socialist, Prohibition, Libertarian—people love Libertarians, actually.”

Now, where did that Ron Paul button get to?