Surprisingly, I've filled multiple boxes with things I simply don't want anymore. I was shocked at just how many pieces of my collection I had lost interest in. Things just three or four years ago that I would have never even considered letting go had now wound up in the 'For Sale' box. What happened in that time? Did I grow old? Had my need to cling to things diminished? As I write this article, it's occurring to me what changed.
As I developed this blog and expressed my feelings over the past few years, my need to possess items and invest emotions into them faded drastically. I want fewer and fewer things to hold on to because I simply don't see any reason for their being in my life. I repeatedly found myself asking "Why did I buy this?" as I would pick up most of the items in my collection. I'm sure I had a good reason many years ago when I acquired these items, but now owning them just doesn't make any sense.
Hording items for emotional comfort is not the answer.
It doesn't fix anything. In fact, those items just make your situation worse because you never actually confront your own emotional problems. They're a distraction from the truth. I realize that fact now... it only took me all this time to get it.
There is an upside to all of this, of course. Many of the things I've managed to collect over the years are fairly valuable on the secondary collector market. This relinquishing of items from my collection will put a nice degree of profit in my pocket. Hurrah for that!
So what have I kept?
- Merchandise relating to Uncle Scrooge, Boba Fett, Godzilla, Thanos and the Silver Surfer
- Generation 1 Transformers
- Space-themed LEGO Sets
- Imported and horror graphic novels, manga
Sure, I still have things in my collection, but I've really started to narrow it down to things I actually want -- not items I was emotionally invested in. I certainly believe this is a much healthier way to be a collector.
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