Long-time readers will have probably already heard this story before, but for the rest of you, sit back and prepare yourself for a truly somber story about one boy’s collection and how he came to lose it…
When I was nine years old, I had a pretty decent collection of Star Wars action figures. Having a brother who was just two years older, meant we pretty much shared all our toys, so my Star Wars collection was his Star Wars collection too. It was a hot summer day in Kansas, and we were riding our bikes on the way back from the pool. The ice cream man passed us, ringing his bell, with a swarm of kids in tow. We pedaled even faster, to get home and try to pry a few quarters from our mom, for a sno-cone.
Mom wasn’t home, so no sno-cones for us. That’s when my brother had the brilliant idea of selling stuff to make money. Of course, the closest items at hand were our Star Wars toys. We threw them in a box and headed to the curb. Using a big red crayon, I scrawled “For Sale: Star Wars Toys” on the side of the box. I swear, it didn’t take more than three minutes for a car to pull up to the curb. A lady got out of her car wanting to see the toys, and we showed her the goods. She asked, “how much?” Of course neither my brother nor I had any clue how much the figures cost in the store, let alone how much we should sell them for, so we asked her what she was willing to pay. She offered a quarter per figure. We sold the entire box in under five minutes.
We just gave away almost 40 of our beloved action figures for under ten bucks.
At the time it seemed like a kingly sum. We ate son-cones every day for a week, but over time, the bitterness of that transaction took hold, and it has only festered for the last 30-plus years. I doubt my brother has any recollection of that day whatsoever, but to this day, I can’t look at a Kenner Star Wars action figure without that bitter memory floating in from the recesses of my memory banks.
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I’m not the only one with a collecting regret. Check out these doozies:
D.I. Treasures, Nerd Cantina, Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks, Monster Cafe, Diary of a Dorkette, Nerd Out With Me, G.I. Jigsaw, Space for Rent, Geek Chunks, Pop Rewind, and more!
Wow, the regret I wrote about pales in comparison. Although I too have a Star Wars related regret but even it doesn’t stand up to yours!
Ouch.
Ouch.. that stings. The ultimate in sellers remorse. I can imagine at the time it was a brilliant idea, but once your tongue dulled from a weeks worth of sno-cones – reality set in.
Ouch! I can see how that would sting a bit!
There is only one appropriate response to this…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Ha!
I’ll never let my daughter sell any of her toys. I remember selling a bunch of great toys at our family’s garage sale only to regret it years later. Big Trak, Starbird, Shogun Warriors….sigh.
ouch, ouch, and double ouch.
I can wonder the pain you feel, Brian, so this entry almost made cry 🙁
Oops!! Engrish attack!!!
The correct comment is: “I can imagine the pain you feel, Brian, so this entry almost made cry”
The shame!!! D:
I lost my entire childhood collection when we moved back to Canada from Europe and the crate from my room was lost. I had all those great 70s toys. Twelve inch GI JOES and superhero Mego figures. When I lost all of those I couldn’t possible replace them with such tiny star wars figures. 3 3/4 inches was just not enough figure for me. So I passed on them too and never looked back. Then I saw the Doctor Strange figure from the Amazing Spiderman line and I was off to the races again as a collector. But as much as I love the films…no star wars figures.
I hope my Star Wars posts don’t get you down. 😉 A big thing for me is getting back what was once lost. It helps dull the pain, but you seem to be one you gets back up on the horse. You definitely should make an attempt and dabble in a little Star Wars every now and again.
I actually have a good number of vintage figures and a few vehicles, but I don’t actively seek them out. If they find their way into my collection through a box lot purchase or something, I’ll hold onto them.
Man, I had some good times with those things. sigh.
Brian, ok I have to ask…. Where in Kansas??
It was Ft. Leavenworth (I’m an army brat). Why, was that your mom driving down the street Grey?!?! 😉
Now that was funny…….. Sigh….no it wasn’t.
Wow. This almost brought me to tears. As soon as I saw “Ice cream man” I knew where this was going. I used to think that my parents selling my stuff was bad. No, selling your own stuff is even worse.
Yeah, I have no one to blame but my brother. 😉
Long time, first time…
I feel your pain. I lost almost all of my Star Wars collection (plus a few other bits & pieces of different lines) a number of years ago when I was unable to keep up the payment on my storage space & everything was auctioned off. I should’ve gotten what I could out of there beforehand, but I didn’t &, alas, I’ve been working to try to replace my collection. Almost there!
This is the reason I hate shows like Storage Wars…
Oh man, that hurts!
Painful, for sure : (
But how about this, at around 12 yrs of age I basically went on a shooting spree with my friends BB gun. One awesome toy after another, was summarily executed in my friends backyard.
I’m talking about Shogun Warriors (aka Jumbo Machinders), Japanese Godzilla Vinyl toys, G1 Transformers and so on, and… these toys were in excellent condition, argh!
To this day, I still feel sick about it when I recall the massacre.