How do you not let yourself collect something?

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Beachkid23

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Oct 26, 2013
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I have a hard time with this sometimes too but I force myself to sell everything. I find that if I let myself keep one thing it's easier for me to justify keeping everything.
 

It is hard sometimes.

I've been reselling for years, so I look at everything as junk, LOL.

I do still have a hard time parting with decent tools. I buy tool boxes and estate lots, and piece out the stuff, but when I run across tools that I don't have, I just can't part with them. Most of these tools were bought cheap, and the resale value is not high. It is hard to justify taking a beautiful wrench to a flea market where I might be lucky to get $3 for it. And honestly, I've been stupid with keeping some tools, like C-clamps. I probably own 50 high quality clamps, in every size you can imagine. I've picked these up over the years for almost nothing. Williams, Armstrong, Craftsman for less than $1 each in most cases, but who needs 50 C-clamps??

High quality postwar Lionel trains is my other weakness. I've been very, very good about flipping those (and not keeping them), but I just got an engine that I dearly hate to part with. If I can't clear a $75 profit on it, it will sit in my small collection until I do.
 

I have started collecting nice new paperweights. They are cheap at garage sales and don't sell for much online. Hard to sell, low profits, and I like them. That's how I collect.
 

I am bad about wanting to keep things, but the more I do this, the easier it is. I have a few things that I collect, and if I find something that I want for my collection, I'll keep it, but the rest goes. I may upgrade something of mine and keep the one I found and sell my old one. Having the things I do collect makes it a bit easier though... I know I can keep stuff for those collections, but everything else is just resell. I keep old marbles, or some of them. I also keep tools and high quality knives.
 

It's detecting that probably made it easy for me because I have a pretty decent collection from digging, and continue to add to it every year.

Many years ago I was collecting a bit of what I was buying but knew it was a bad thing because I found myself going for items that were more my interest than what would be the best profit. The thing that got me away was running short on a renovation project I was doing, so I sold off the little collection I had and never looked back. Now pushing a decade later (maybe 8 years) it was a great decision because now the only questions I have with an item is how to sell, and for how much. I'm interested in many things, and do know the stuff I would hang on to if I collected, but at the end of the day my buying is for cash, my digging is to collect. For me it's the perfect balance and feels like I have the best of both worlds. At this point there's very little if anything I would ever keep for myself, with the only exceptions possibly being a couple local items i have in mind, but will probably never come across anyway... so it's safe to say I buy and sell it all.


It just makes so much more sense to put the money into something worth while that serves a purpose than staying emotionally attached to have some neat stuff to LOOK at. Heck at this point I'm quite happy to sell some awesome old stuff to buy clothing, jewelry, or whatever else... it just makes more sense to me than hanging on. Now my detecting finds, that's a whole other story. :)
 

Beachkid23 said:
I find myself wanting to keep a lot of the stuff I find. Coins the most. I want to buy the house we rent but for some reason I can't make myself sell what I collect. I could probably have a really nice savings account and down payment if I sold off most the stuff I have saved! I don't want to be a horder, but I need some advice here! Thanks.
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First, I am NOT telling you what to do, but will offer this as another way to look at your situation.

We are at historically low levels of mortgage interest rates. I am not a wizard with a crystal ball, but history shows that interest rates do go up eventually.

Let's say you could get a mortgage for less than 5%, but interest rates will jump to 8% in three years.

If you are looking at a $120,000 house with a 30 year fixed:

Total interest paid @ 5%: $110,906
Total interest paid @ 8%: $196,986

As you know, the above figures are for interest only and do not include the principle of the house.

Additional savings might be incurred if you were putting the rent payments towards the mortgage during the above time frame.

If someone called you up and offered to give you $10,000 as a down payment, you might consider still selling some of your collectibles. Play around with the free online calculators and see how much interest you might save on a 30 year mortgage when you have an additional $2,000 to put down on a mortgage.

It is mind boggling, I tell ya.

Again, I'm not a financial adviser, and I am not telling you what to do. I dearly love some of the junk I have, but you have the rest of your life to collect it all back again if you sell it now. I am just offering a different way of looking at things.
 

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I really like collecting but have at times had to sell off some of my stuff to pay bills. I just take good pictures to keep a record of my finds and let them go. It's hard to do but sometimes it's for the greater good.
 

It's good to know I am not the only one who has this problem!

I decided long ago to focus a collection on coins, mainly Morgan Dollars. I was doing really good with selling everything else up until I ran across a huge lot of vintage diecast toys, then without knowing I started shifting my collection that way. A while later I bought a bunch of old Case knives and thought they would be cool to collect. It wasn't until a few months later that I finally woke up and realized that by trying to collect so many things I wasn't really collecting anything!

I have since sold everything else and went back to the original collection of coins. It is hard to sell off stuff that you appreciate, but I found that if I do not let myself get emotionally attached to a piece then it is much easier to sell.

I have a young family and when I look at the selling as it is ultimately helping my kids then it is also easier to sell. IMHO you should sell now because your family is more important and later in life you will hopefully be in a position to start being able to keep things.
 

I still have all of my treasures including the clad except for grabbing pocket change. Not a choice. I am just lazy and the silver and gold prices falling has me waiting. My house is littered with all my finds. At least I ain't saving pure junk like lead and alum and such. You have to establish what's junk and save the rest or sell. Quick inpullsive sales IMPO cost you unless you have a good refinery like I have locally in ARA.

If I had a wife???, she'd be kinda pissed by now. martin
 

Bottom line, when you go. You do not take the items with you. They are cool to have, but there are bigger things in the game of life.
 

For me, it is the thrill of the hunt and the ability to take something mispriced and realize more value for it. The quicker the sale the happy I feel. I also learn more from each sale, gain or loss. I was at the TS yesterday and got a Handcuff belt buckle from the Great American Buckle Co. for $3. These sell on the bay around $10 or better, that is fun in this for me. HH
 

palidin20603 said:
For me, it is the thrill of the hunt and the ability to take something mispriced and realize more value for it. The quicker the sale the happy I feel. I also learn more from each sale, gain or loss. I was at the TS yesterday and got a Handcuff belt buckle from the Great American Buckle Co. for $3. These sell on the bay around $10 or better, that is fun in this for me. HH
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I agree. The thrill is the hunt and the find.
 

It is the thrill of the hunt.

People think I'm crazy because I run around to garage and estate sales, and frankly, if I spent that time at my real profession I would make a lot more money. But this is my hobby. Some of my buddies spend hours and hundreds of dollars on golf. I spend those hours doing what I enjoy and make money!

And I'm becoming a hoarder. That's got to change, because people are really beginning to think I'm insane. With insanity comes great responsibility, though.

Best advice I've received: You can hold more grains of sand in your open hands than with a clenched fist.
 

Just watch hoarding buried alive and it will motivate you to sell lol
 

Easy: Just let it happen. :laughing7:

<- Admitted collector here. I keep about half the stuff I buy. For me, it ISNT a business, it is a treasure hunt and I make sure I remember that every single time I go out.
Come on, I know there are more of you.
 

I have built and trashed numerous collections over the years, and I guarantee you any collection can be replaced. May not exactly be the same, but it can get really close. Go for the house. Keep some trinkets for yourself and make a NEW collection.
 

Something else that helps is to look at the item and ask yourself, "two years from now, am I going to look back and wish I hadn't ever sold this __________? Or, will I even remember having it at all?". When I ask myself that, it's almost always available for sale immediately after.
 

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