Today is question day:
Have you
ever experienced a catastrophic event collecting-wise? Did you reconsider
collecting?
I was quite lucky that the Goodwin fire, which is now 96% contained after burning 28,516 acres, never got close enough to cause an evacuation to my area but I did pull parts of my collection and had them ready to go if we were given the word.
I have only had one event that wavered my will to collect. In 1997 my marriage was not doing well (this was my first wife) and my wife decided she wanted to do the most damage possible. I call it "The Purge", while I was at work one day she took as much of my collection as she could and threw it away. In all it was about 75% of my collection (about 90% of my Griffey PC) that went in to the trash that day and I didn't stop collecting but I was definitely ready to give in and call it quits. I don't think I bought even a pack until 1999 and I really ignored my Griffey collection until January 2014 when I refocused on it.
Never had anything like that happen. My 'purges' have been self inflicted. When we moved to Texas in 1967 I gave away the bulk of my cards to friends in the neighborhood. And when my kids were born and I gave up my hobby room I took a couple of those huge contractor trash bags out to the curb filled with junk wax.
ReplyDeleteFor a couple of years I collected action figures and die cast cars, when my son was around 8 we sat down and ripped open every package and I gave them to him. I figured they may be worth something but my son's enjoyment was more important. It is so interesting how people, like our children, affect our collecting habits. Giving up your hobby room had to have been huge, though for a very good reason.
DeleteI used to collect vinyl records, until my apartment was flooded during Hurricane Floyd. More than half the collection was waterlogged. We're not talking about any thousand-dollar items or anything, but I had some nice autographed records and a couple of rare mono Beatles things. I sold off what wasn't damaged and haven't bought vinyl since; nowadays my music is mp3s.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't actively collecting cards at the time; I probably did lose a couple of baseball items (certainly some baseball books), but with those exceptions my cards were safely in my parents' basement.
It is interesting to step back and realize that water can potentially destroy our entire collection. I don't know enough about collecting vinyl but what kind of value is lost when the sleeve is damaged? There is still value to record itself right, though I would assume diminished as compared to a complete sleeve and record.
DeleteBack in the early 2000's, I sold off most of my collection... but it wasn't based on a catastrophic event. I needed money for a down payment on my place. But back in high school, two of my so-called friends (they were brothers) stole a chunk of my collection and took it to the local card shop where they flipped it for quick cash. They were caught... had to go to court... were really embarrassed because word got around school... and I ended up getting a job at the LCS. The downside was my cards were held as evidence for a long time (1-2 years).
ReplyDeleteBy the way... sorry about what your ex-wife did. That's insanely cruel. Can't imagine what goes through peoples minds to make them do something like that.
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