Let It Go
I collect comics.
I collect toys.
Or rather... collected. When Marvel owned Toy Biz and was producing 30 or 40 action figures of their characters a year I bought them. All. I have been reading, and hording, comics since I was 12. Basically if it was published by Marvel between 1984 and 1998 I bought it. The result is that I have 25 long boxes of comics, and about 500 action figures in my childhood bedroom. For those of you that don't collect comics and so have no frame of reference a long box holds about 300-350 comics. I'll let you do the math.
One of the reasons I am in SC right now is to deal with that stuff. You see, my mom is selling the house, so it all has to go. I spent a great deal of time sorting, removing the toys that I obviously no longer needed or wanted. After an hour's worth of work I had sorted it into three piles: The stuff that my mom could throw into the yard sale she was having, the stuff that I wanted to find a way to store, and the stuff that I was taking back to NYC. (That was a REALLY small pile BTW.) I stared at it for about an hour, fondly remembering that great Rogue figure based on the Joe Mad costume (that she wore for about 3 issues... sigh) and trying to figure out who the heck some of them were (X-Men 2099? Mutant X? Where did this guy come from?!) But eventually it came to me... I don't need them. I WANT them. But I don't need them. In order to properly display these things I need to either gain a huge apartment (or a house in the suburbs) or to lose Kid Flash. I don't think that either is going to happen any time soon. So I decided to let them go. I knew going in the that comics were leaving my life, but somehow I figured that the toys would be staying. I'm going to see if I can sell them along with the comics, but if not... I'll send them to Goodwill.
Besides... I already pulled out the ones that I want.
I collect toys.
Or rather... collected. When Marvel owned Toy Biz and was producing 30 or 40 action figures of their characters a year I bought them. All. I have been reading, and hording, comics since I was 12. Basically if it was published by Marvel between 1984 and 1998 I bought it. The result is that I have 25 long boxes of comics, and about 500 action figures in my childhood bedroom. For those of you that don't collect comics and so have no frame of reference a long box holds about 300-350 comics. I'll let you do the math.
One of the reasons I am in SC right now is to deal with that stuff. You see, my mom is selling the house, so it all has to go. I spent a great deal of time sorting, removing the toys that I obviously no longer needed or wanted. After an hour's worth of work I had sorted it into three piles: The stuff that my mom could throw into the yard sale she was having, the stuff that I wanted to find a way to store, and the stuff that I was taking back to NYC. (That was a REALLY small pile BTW.) I stared at it for about an hour, fondly remembering that great Rogue figure based on the Joe Mad costume (that she wore for about 3 issues... sigh) and trying to figure out who the heck some of them were (X-Men 2099? Mutant X? Where did this guy come from?!) But eventually it came to me... I don't need them. I WANT them. But I don't need them. In order to properly display these things I need to either gain a huge apartment (or a house in the suburbs) or to lose Kid Flash. I don't think that either is going to happen any time soon. So I decided to let them go. I knew going in the that comics were leaving my life, but somehow I figured that the toys would be staying. I'm going to see if I can sell them along with the comics, but if not... I'll send them to Goodwill.
Besides... I already pulled out the ones that I want.
All I can say is wow. Not a "yippy" wow. Just a wow. I know how much those items meant to you.
You are now more of an adult than anyone I know.
Your blog is going to give me courage. I have to do the same thing next week. My mother is selling the house and I must wade through my things. Somethings are going to be tough. I will think of your courage when I have to get rid of the hard stuff. miss you!
Two things:
1) when I moved out, my mother made me take everything that belongs to me and made me give back the front door key.
She said, "you're gone, why do I need your stuff?"
2) I'm at the point where I want to get rid of the comics, I only have about 15 short boxes, but it think it may be time.
I got rid of everything else I wanted to get rid of, but for some reason I'm holding on to the comics, I figure I just need to bring them to Midtown, I'm sure I don't have anything worth anything but a couple hundred is a couple hundred.