Oh, Pat. You've hit on a very sensitive topic with me. Over the past 7 years, since moving from a condominium to this house, I've realised a life-long commitment to collecting. I've still got my first Barbie from 1962, and I've a variety of other toys from childhood: Troll dolls, Rat Finks and assorted gumball machine trinkets. I've also got art supplies from when I was 6 years old. Art supplies, crafty items and office supplies always find a home with me. And my husband takes every pen that is ever supplied to him at meetings held in hotels. I plead with him to leave the pens, but to no avail...
I evolved from little, easily boxed items to antiques at the age of 11. My first antique was/is a baptismal font I bought at a furniture store in Boaz, AL. My dad always complained that I should get rid of all my antiques and stuff and travel. Was he mad? When all the kids were burning Beatle albums, I kept mine. And when all the girls were selling their Barbies because they were too old to play with dolls anymore, I kept mine. Wrapped 'em up in paper towels and stuck 'em all in a toy trunk till I retrieved them in 1992. I don't regret that I've kept all my treasures and I'm sorriest that I got rid of any. I feel almost a calling to collect because I think of myself as a kind of historian. The biggest problem I face is unfortunately, many things I buy take on a personality and therefore I cannot easily part with them. It's like loss that I have to prepare myself for. Though I have been actively selling lots of bric-a-brac and clothing lately.
My doll consumption over the past 2 years has radically diminished. It's actually a relief NOT buying dolls simply because I, too, bought so many that I've nowhere to display many of the ones I've bought. I see lots I would love to buy, but I won't till I can pare down the ones I've got now. But coming to grips with not buying dolls is very, very hard. I can't even let myself go down Barbie aisles anymore. And I have to be selective about going on ebay. I won't subscribe to any doll magazines. The temptation is too great. Now I have to really want a particular doll. It's tough, but learning restraint is the difference in whether I enjoy my purchases or just purchase because I can. I want my purchase to reflect my knowledge of the doll and how it reflects my values. I've had to take my collecting to an intellectual pursuit--it costs a whole lot less.
The truest fact of all this collecting, the one that I hate to admit, is none of this collecting has much value outside of what it means to me. (I can't believe there was a time that I actually bought into the notion of buying 2 Barbies--one for display and one for resale. Utter, complete lunacy. ) But what depresses me more than a doll purchase losing value as soon as it leaves the store is that I don't get the same enjoyment out of collecting because there's no one other than me to SHARE it with. So, it's also becoming easier for me to wrestle with liquidating a lot of stuff around my house and buying fewer dolls. But God-knows, selling stuff is a miserable chore! It's so much easier to BUY, BUY, BUY! And SPEND, SPEND, SPEND! Regards, Pat Brown ----- Original Message ----- From: sisupygmies sisupygmies@yahoo.com To: Bradford ebradfrd@crosslink.net Cc: Candi Chat List Owner candichat@dolls.de Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 11:11 AM Subject: Re: ot: dolls & thoughts
I don't know about sickness, but my house is pretty full, too. Melissa
Am I the odd collector out here? My house is so sparse, our new game warden came over and thought no one even lived in my house.
I could write the book on simple living. My one exception is my doll collecting, my one splurge in life. I wouldn't say I have a small collection but certainly no where near as large as others. Candi dolls greatly outnumber any other dolls.
sisu
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