I spent a better part of last weekend doing some much needed clearing up of my room. I did this for a few reasons. A-My room had gotten really cluttered. B-I wanted to swap out stuff I had in my closet for future blogs for stuff I had already shown. C-I wanted to see what I had. What should have taken a few hours had taken a couple of days and it was shocking and frustrating.
I had boxes and bags on my dresser, chair, desk and other places in my room, so I packed all of the stuff and opened my closet door to put all my stuff away. When I opened my closet, I realized I had a problem that you would think you could only find in cartoons or comedies. My closet was already filled with boxes upon boxes of sports cards, unopened and opened figures, as well as boxes for most of my bobbleheads. That is when I realized I was in big trouble.
I had just about run out of room and I was stuck holding the bag, literally.
What started out as collecting what I liked had turned into an episode of Hoarders, starring The Sexy Geek. It was an unplanned and most unwanted appearance. I had to figure out what had happened and how I could stop this slippery slope I was on before I was left blubbering over an intervention by friends and family because I was sneaking in a moldy issue of Amazing Spider-Man #500 and a Mego Robin with a broken leg...wait I have one already. Oh God, Help me! (drops to my knees, crying hysterical as I hold Robin in my arms, whispering to him that everything would be O.K)
Alright, seriously, I know how I got here and it's a pretty simple explanation. What started as my collecting stuff I actually loved grew into my picking up something of anything I remotely liked. I have my sports collection which consists of anything Yankees, Jets, Knicks, Islanders and Devils as well as a few player collections. In my sports collections, I have cards (a lot of cards), autographs, bobbleheads, figures, pins, yearbooks, programs and other stuff I can't remember. My pop culture collection consists of Batman, Spider-Man, The Beatles, The Monkees, Luke Skywalker/Star Wars and Back To The Future.
Now, the problem is not only do I have a large collection of stuff that I like, but I have managed to start side collections of stuff I that while I like, don't have the attachments that I have to my favorites. For instance, I love KISS, but did I really need to buy a huge Love Gun Mister? It's never even been out of the box. Granted, the box is wrecked, which is why I got it for half off at Spencer's, but I honestly didn't need it nor have I used it. Plus, I really don't go out of my way for KISS stuff anymore. I have a side Iron Man collection. I was never a huge Iron Man fan when I read the comics. I fell in love with the character after I watched the movies and then started reading the books. I'm a huge WWE fan and I never even started a collection save for a few Roddy Piper and Steve Austin figures. Imagine how messed up I would be if I had?
Because I really cannot afford a storage room, I have some boxes and rubber maid bins that have toys, video tapes, autographs, books and other items. I also have my T.V., DVD's, Blu Ray's, clothes and other things. As you can imagine, room is very limited in my area. I'm lucky I have room to move around right now, but if I keep adding stuff I may not.
What I am going to have to do is step back and take a bit of a break from collecting. Reestablish my collecting goals and focus on that. Anything else, I may either put away, trade or sell. I would have to figure out just what I would be willing to part with. That will not be easy. I always did not want to be the collector you all saw on Collector Intervention that would have a hard time letting go of a piece, but the more I think about what I may or may not part with, I can now understand why they always had a problem with letting go. But I also realize I need to take control before the collection takes control of me.
If I decide to let anything go, I will throw it out to you guys to see if there would be anything anyone wanted. I would rather anything I have would go to a good home and a collector who would appreciate it before I give it to Goodwill or turn to eBay. It sucks that I let things get out of control, but at least I was able to catch the problem before it was too late and that is always a good thing.
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