I'm not breaking any news in saying that you're not going to live forever. Maybe it's something you don't think about that much. Maybe it's something that you think about a lot.My question is, do you think about it in terms of your card collection?
I do.
What will happen to my cards after, you know, the tombstone reads "Here lies the smartest man in the universe: he collected Dodger cards"?
Do you think about that? Some people say they'll pass their collection down to their children. That's great. It's probably the best option. But what if your children aren't interested in cards? My daughter isn't.
Perhaps you wait for grandchildren and hope they like the hobby. Or maybe you sell them. That's always a thought in my head. Whatever I'd get in exchange for my cards would be a paltry amount, but at least it would be more than what I had before I sold them.
(To those of you who think, "why would you sell such treasured memories?" I ask this: when you're on your death bed, are you really going to demand to see your 1981 Ron Oester card one more time? And if you are, then you're more hard-core than I thought you were).
But that's all I've got: wait for grandchildren or cash in my cards for a few random dollars. I could donate them somewhere, I suppose. Or maybe I'll make them into one of those pieces of furniture that I saw on the blogs awhile ago.
I don't know. Anyone else got any bright ideas?
Comments
First for me is to whittle down the madness. I had to come up with a list of keepers and traders/sellers. Keepers are all sets, anything before 1986, all wax (I'm sure I'll let my kids open them), all HOFers, all Padres, and maybe all All Star Selected players. That ought to reduce the collection to around 50,000.
From there, IF my kids like baseball cards, odd year sets to my son and even year sets to my girl, with the doubles of said sets going to the other kid.
If no kids or grandchildren collect, they will be sold near the end to a collector and I guess I'll use that money to buy a custom made coffin made out of 75 Topps. No joke.
If I have nobody to give the cards to, my wife will probably try to sell them on eBay or something. Maybe she'll become a Craigslist idiot. :)
I have only a daughter and don't expect her to care about baseball cards. I do, however, collect any cards talking about Jon Lester's no-hitter from last year because that's the day she was born. I plan to give them to her at some point in the future.
What do folks think of the market itself dropping away? As the Boomer generation passes away, is there enough X and Y to pick up the economic "slack?"
My plan is to build as many full sets as possible for JD to keep or hand down to his kids. Or who knows, maybe when I retire in 30-35 years there might actually be some value to my 2009 topps. Take the money and head for the tropics!
I'm assuming that my collection won't be complete (I don't have every card ever made) so I hope that my son is interested.
If that fateful day happens when he is still young enough, nothing would make me happier than for some of the cards to end up in his spokes.
Most of my cards I could care less about where they go. But, my autographed cards are a different story. I wouldn't mind going through those one last time while on my death bed, especially if I end up lasting for awhile. After that, hopefully, I would have a family member (or a friend's kid)that collects autographs or I would try my hardest to get the National Baseball Hall of Fame to accept them. I have no idea how realistic that is, though.
Interesting topic.