Options
Who wants our stuff when we're gone?
Catbert
Posts: 6,603 ✭✭✭✭✭
What’s the Hardest Thing for Collectors to Find? Someone Who Wants Their Stuff
By
James R. Hagerty
Updated June 25, 2015 3:46 p.m. ET
PITTSBURGH—At a recent meeting of the Penn-Ohio Matchcover Club, Shirley Sayers had a confession.
“We sat down one day and counted 36 things we collect,” said Ms. Sayers, a 67-year-old retired secretary. Along with about a million matchbooks, the collections include calendars, pens, straight razors and shoehorns.
“Everything but money,” sighed her husband, Richard Sayers, 78, a retired computer operator.
“It’s nuts,” said Ms. Sayers. “Totally nuts.”
Many collectors of old stuff—things of mostly sentimental value, such as matchbooks, menus and postcards—worry that no one will want it all after they die. Meanwhile, they keep collecting more.
For younger people, collecting seems to be less of a priority. Online pursuits take up much of the time once given over to baseball cards or sea shells, and the hunt for that rare Beanie Baby is less interesting now that it can be found instantly on eBay, said Dr. Montana Miller, an associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University.
In the Sayers’ home, figurines and other doodads still trump the virtual world. They crowd the living room and swamp the dining table. Two bedrooms upstairs are devoted to boxes and shopping bags bulging with matchbooks.
As for the basement, don’t go there. “We have a treadmill down there. We can’t use it because we have stuff piled up all around it,” Ms. Sayers said. She can’t recall exactly where she shoehorned the shoehorn collection. “They’re somewhere in the basement,” she said. “I haven’t seen them for a while.”
Cathy Campbell, 74, a retired school principal in Albion, Mich., has amassed more than 35,000 paper napkins decorated with advertising and other imagery, filling more than 40 boxes. Friends and relatives keep giving her more. She hopes a museum may want some of them someday.
Museums often decline collections, though. The Smithsonian Institution museums “get offered way more than they can take,” said Linda St. Thomas, a spokeswoman. That doesn’t mean the Smithsonian won’t take a look. The institution’s National Museum of Natural History, for instance, has accepted several collections of ticks.
The Rathkamp Matchcover Society—a 75-year-old international group of matchbook collectors named for its late founder, Henry Rathkamp—has about 550 members, down from 1,600 in the 1980s. Many of the remaining members have grown old together.
“It’s the camaraderie,” said Steve Weiner, 70, a retired special-education teacher who lives in Jaffrey, N.H. It’s also the variety of themes for matchbook collections: “You can go automotive, you can go funeral home…,” he said. “I’m big into liquor stores.” Though businesses rarely give out matches anymore, there are millions of books still in circulation, swapped and sold among the dwindling band of collectors.
Several dozen matchbook collectors gathered in early June for a “swapfest” at a Ramada motel in Hagerstown, Md. Many said their children and grandchildren had no interest in the hobby. Some aim to bequeath their collections to other collectors. That may not be a long-term solution, though, because nearly all of the collectors are over 60.
Hunched over round tables at the Ramada, collectors pawed through mounds of matchbooks others didn’t want. There were no takers for vintage matchbooks advertising the Kipling Steak House in Toronto or Capitol Federal Savings of Topeka. Bill Calhoun of Lindsay, Ontario, spotted one touting Eljer plumbing fixtures. “Right up my alley!” he said. “Toilets and bathtubs, that’s what I collect.”
“I’m trying to pare down,” said Joe DeGennaro, a retired broadcasting executive who lives in Manhattan and has a couple hundred thousand matchbooks stacked in his apartment and in a storage space rented in the Bronx. “I’m going to be 70 years old and I’m not going to live forever.” At the swap meeting, he bought a few rarities, including a match box shaped like a Coca-Cola vending machine for which he paid about $100.
At the same meeting, Ms. Sayers acquired about 1,200 matchbooks, including some with Camel-cigarette themes.
Ms. Sayers said she keeps collecting because she enjoys the hunt. “I’m still hoping to find things I don’t have,” she said.
The Sayers have no children, so a niece, Kelly Katekovich, is one likely heir to their collections. “My niece tells me, ‘We’re going to call in the dumpster,’ ” Ms. Sayers said. “I say, ‘No, you’re not!’ ”
Ms. Katekovich said she was only teasing about the dumpster. Still, she prefers an uncluttered look and can’t envision all 36 collections blending into her home décor.
Ms. Sayers’s younger sister, Sharon Franssen, may step in. Ms. Franssen, 59, a project manager who lives in San Ramon, Calif., said she would do her best to preserve the collections. But her townhome is already so full of collections, including Homer Laughlin china, that she has to rent storage space. “I have the same sickness,” Ms. Franssen said.
Gregory Gibson, 65, a retired auto worker in Fenton, Mich., cherishes his collection of about 3,500 automotive license plates. Mr. Gibson doesn’t want to burden his wife with the collection if he dies first. So he intends to sell it within a few years. Even so, he still scours the Internet and browses antique shops. He hopes to find one of the few municipal plates issued by Valley City, N.D., around 1909 and made out of porcelain.
“Even though I know I’m going to be selling them, I’m still buying them,” Mr. Gibson said. “It makes no sense.”
Bob Pitcher, a retired police officer in Dunedin, Fla., has given his four grown children instructions about certain items they will inherit: Don’t throw out the matchbook covers. Or the takeout menus.
Mr. Pitcher, 83, wants his children to find another enthusiast to take on his collections. For now, he looks forward to each restaurant opening in Dunedin so he can augment his collection of more than 2,000 menus.
Mr. Pitcher hasn’t entirely given up hope that his children will discover a passion for matchbooks or menus after he is gone: “Who knows?” he said. “Maybe at that time they’ve mellowed out and are looking for a hobby.”
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
By
James R. Hagerty
Updated June 25, 2015 3:46 p.m. ET
PITTSBURGH—At a recent meeting of the Penn-Ohio Matchcover Club, Shirley Sayers had a confession.
“We sat down one day and counted 36 things we collect,” said Ms. Sayers, a 67-year-old retired secretary. Along with about a million matchbooks, the collections include calendars, pens, straight razors and shoehorns.
“Everything but money,” sighed her husband, Richard Sayers, 78, a retired computer operator.
“It’s nuts,” said Ms. Sayers. “Totally nuts.”
Many collectors of old stuff—things of mostly sentimental value, such as matchbooks, menus and postcards—worry that no one will want it all after they die. Meanwhile, they keep collecting more.
For younger people, collecting seems to be less of a priority. Online pursuits take up much of the time once given over to baseball cards or sea shells, and the hunt for that rare Beanie Baby is less interesting now that it can be found instantly on eBay, said Dr. Montana Miller, an associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University.
In the Sayers’ home, figurines and other doodads still trump the virtual world. They crowd the living room and swamp the dining table. Two bedrooms upstairs are devoted to boxes and shopping bags bulging with matchbooks.
As for the basement, don’t go there. “We have a treadmill down there. We can’t use it because we have stuff piled up all around it,” Ms. Sayers said. She can’t recall exactly where she shoehorned the shoehorn collection. “They’re somewhere in the basement,” she said. “I haven’t seen them for a while.”
Cathy Campbell, 74, a retired school principal in Albion, Mich., has amassed more than 35,000 paper napkins decorated with advertising and other imagery, filling more than 40 boxes. Friends and relatives keep giving her more. She hopes a museum may want some of them someday.
Museums often decline collections, though. The Smithsonian Institution museums “get offered way more than they can take,” said Linda St. Thomas, a spokeswoman. That doesn’t mean the Smithsonian won’t take a look. The institution’s National Museum of Natural History, for instance, has accepted several collections of ticks.
The Rathkamp Matchcover Society—a 75-year-old international group of matchbook collectors named for its late founder, Henry Rathkamp—has about 550 members, down from 1,600 in the 1980s. Many of the remaining members have grown old together.
“It’s the camaraderie,” said Steve Weiner, 70, a retired special-education teacher who lives in Jaffrey, N.H. It’s also the variety of themes for matchbook collections: “You can go automotive, you can go funeral home…,” he said. “I’m big into liquor stores.” Though businesses rarely give out matches anymore, there are millions of books still in circulation, swapped and sold among the dwindling band of collectors.
Several dozen matchbook collectors gathered in early June for a “swapfest” at a Ramada motel in Hagerstown, Md. Many said their children and grandchildren had no interest in the hobby. Some aim to bequeath their collections to other collectors. That may not be a long-term solution, though, because nearly all of the collectors are over 60.
Hunched over round tables at the Ramada, collectors pawed through mounds of matchbooks others didn’t want. There were no takers for vintage matchbooks advertising the Kipling Steak House in Toronto or Capitol Federal Savings of Topeka. Bill Calhoun of Lindsay, Ontario, spotted one touting Eljer plumbing fixtures. “Right up my alley!” he said. “Toilets and bathtubs, that’s what I collect.”
“I’m trying to pare down,” said Joe DeGennaro, a retired broadcasting executive who lives in Manhattan and has a couple hundred thousand matchbooks stacked in his apartment and in a storage space rented in the Bronx. “I’m going to be 70 years old and I’m not going to live forever.” At the swap meeting, he bought a few rarities, including a match box shaped like a Coca-Cola vending machine for which he paid about $100.
At the same meeting, Ms. Sayers acquired about 1,200 matchbooks, including some with Camel-cigarette themes.
Ms. Sayers said she keeps collecting because she enjoys the hunt. “I’m still hoping to find things I don’t have,” she said.
The Sayers have no children, so a niece, Kelly Katekovich, is one likely heir to their collections. “My niece tells me, ‘We’re going to call in the dumpster,’ ” Ms. Sayers said. “I say, ‘No, you’re not!’ ”
Ms. Katekovich said she was only teasing about the dumpster. Still, she prefers an uncluttered look and can’t envision all 36 collections blending into her home décor.
Ms. Sayers’s younger sister, Sharon Franssen, may step in. Ms. Franssen, 59, a project manager who lives in San Ramon, Calif., said she would do her best to preserve the collections. But her townhome is already so full of collections, including Homer Laughlin china, that she has to rent storage space. “I have the same sickness,” Ms. Franssen said.
Gregory Gibson, 65, a retired auto worker in Fenton, Mich., cherishes his collection of about 3,500 automotive license plates. Mr. Gibson doesn’t want to burden his wife with the collection if he dies first. So he intends to sell it within a few years. Even so, he still scours the Internet and browses antique shops. He hopes to find one of the few municipal plates issued by Valley City, N.D., around 1909 and made out of porcelain.
“Even though I know I’m going to be selling them, I’m still buying them,” Mr. Gibson said. “It makes no sense.”
Bob Pitcher, a retired police officer in Dunedin, Fla., has given his four grown children instructions about certain items they will inherit: Don’t throw out the matchbook covers. Or the takeout menus.
Mr. Pitcher, 83, wants his children to find another enthusiast to take on his collections. For now, he looks forward to each restaurant opening in Dunedin so he can augment his collection of more than 2,000 menus.
Mr. Pitcher hasn’t entirely given up hope that his children will discover a passion for matchbooks or menus after he is gone: “Who knows?” he said. “Maybe at that time they’ve mellowed out and are looking for a hobby.”
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
0
Comments
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
<< <i>I envision people lining up to offer my wife 70% of greysheet bid.
I envision your wife saying, "that much?"
I have been thinking about thinning the heard way, way down even before I die.
If I think about it honestly I have a little bit of collection and a lot of accumulation.
My local Recycling Center is happy to take Anything especially if it's already sorted out.
My wife USED to collect various things: Swarovski Crystal Animals, Wedgewood Tea Sets, Wedgewood Playing Card Dishes, Blenko Color Water Bottles, Hummels.
All have been STOPPED and now just reside in display cases or along window ledges. The next phase is eliminating groups or at least 90% of a group.
I have the coin collection, my dad's stamp collection, my Mustangs ( 1968 Shelby and 1966 Convertible) and a 3 car garage of parts, and 1 other thing.
All of these are being thinned out.
My kids have ZERO interest in most of the stuff, and if my wife and I go down in a plane crash, it will be liquidation city on the stuff, which is fine with us.
None of them are interested in coins.
Whatever I have left will go to auction and they will get the money from the sale.
Young women like the green.
<< <i>I have three daughters and nine grandchildren. >>
Congrats on the family.
<< <i>Young women like the green. >>
Coins are convertible to green
They're not napkins or matchbooks, after all. They're gold and silver coins.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
<< <i>I'd like to think that when my heirs take my coins and few other tangible assets to dealers, they're greeted with "wow, this guy knew what he was doing" and strong offers.
They're not napkins or matchbooks, after all. They're gold and silver coins. >>
That probably depends in part on the dealer they go to. Ideally, the dealer already knows you and your collection.
<< <i>I'd like to think that when my heirs take my coins and few other tangible assets to dealers, they're greeted with "wow, this guy knew what he was doing" and strong offers.
They're not napkins or matchbooks, after all. They're gold and silver coins. >>
More likely the dealer thinks to himself "wow, this guy knew what he was doing" and then says, "nothing of value here, but I'll help you out by offering $xxx.xx (10 cents on the dollar)."
Indian Head $10 Gold Date Set Album
Anything can be collectible. There's a sense of pride in being able to say that "I have the most comprehensive collection of advertising napkins in the country' compared with 'I have the 157th finest collection of Morgan dollars in PCGS holders'. The napkins certainly will cost you a lot less. But having 35,000 of anything kind of kills the idea. Are you really going to sit and appreciate any one of them?
I think what these collectors are demonstrating is a lack of focus, a problem we coin collectors also face. There is no reason to own a million different matchbooks (there's also no reason to own a million coins). Go for a much more focused theme. Create a collecting goal of manageable size and acceptable budget. Presume that nobody will want your matchbooks, or license plates, or coins at the end of the day, and collect for enjoyment.
Just like you can't collect coins with the goal of getting 'all of them.' Coins have been produced for thousands of years all over the world and nobody (not even a museum) has examples of every one, it's simply not possible.
Some of the best strategies, besides a date/mm run of a series, are collecting type coins and the 'box of twenty'. You can do a great deal with these. Once you find yourself owning more than a few hundred collectible coins, you should probably do some soul searching and decide what exactly is the goal.
Coins are less likely to fall victim to the "nobody wants them" because of their intrinsic and bullion value, their time-tested history as a collectible, and the fact that there are plenty of new collectors, even if numbers do dwindle over the years. But inheriting a coin accumulation is a difficult things for heirs without coin knowledge. And certainly interests change over generations, and younger people may not have the same appreciation for collectible coins, especially as we move to a cashless society.
I collect years.1848 is a year I collect.If there is such a thing as a matchbook that was made in 1848 or notes something that happened in 1848, I want it. Pamphlets,US coins,stamps,foreign coins,photographs,books, anything that I can associate with year 1848 is of interest to me.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
<< <i> think what these collectors are demonstrating is a lack of focus, a problem we coin collectors also face. There is no reason to own a million different matchbooks (there's also no reason to own a million coins). Go for a much more focused theme. Create a collecting goal of manageable size and acceptable budget. Presume that nobody will want your matchbooks, or license plates, or coins at the end of the day, and collect for enjoyment.
I collect years.1848 is a year I collect.If there is such a thing as a matchbook that was made in 1848 or notes something that happened in 1848, I want it. Pamphlets,US coins,stamps,foreign coins,photographs,books, anything that I can associate with year 1848 is of interest to me. >>
I'm surprised your year isn't 1874
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
<< <i>
<< <i>I'd like to think that when my heirs take my coins and few other tangible assets to dealers, they're greeted with "wow, this guy knew what he was doing" and strong offers.
They're not napkins or matchbooks, after all. They're gold and silver coins. >>
More likely the dealer thinks to himself "wow, this guy knew what he was doing" and then says, "nothing of value here, but I'll help you out by offering $xxx.xx (10 cents on the dollar)." >>
Maybe so, but at least the coins will survive. I'm afraid that Aunt Myrtle's collection of napkins from people's vacation spots are going to the trash bin when she's done with them.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
<< <i>Beware of thin markets. >>
The good thing about thin markets is that items are often really cheap. But you typically get what you pay for.
<< <i>A fine line between hoarding and collecting. >>
That was my thought as well. It seems some of these "collections" are just items of a shared theme hoarded by the owner.
What many of these collectors fail to realize is that the fun is in the hunting, not the owning. Thus passing these collections to an heir defeats the enjoyment they might have. Of course this only applies to an heir who collects to begin with.
Nothing wrong with thin markets that you recognize as such and don't spend much. That can be fun.
And regardless of future appreciation of coins, ones made of gold & silver are unlikely to be unloved. Even if they're widgets.
For those who don't know, this is what we call driving around to various "antique" stores/malls. I usually have no goal or want list in mind. Just something "cool." Usually this ends up being an old camera or related item for my wife, who is a professional photographer. Today I found an old Polaroid film camera with the extendable accordion lens (not the more modern, more popular instant camera associated with the brand). Anyway it still has the flash bulb and came with some extra bulbs, original case, selfie timer (used to have to use a timer and tripod to take selfies because it was too heavy to hold and operate with one hand
Amat Colligendo Focum
Top 10 • FOR SALE
My wife and I bought a new house at the beginning of may and it is only 1900 square feet so some stuff is not going to make the move when we get around to moving next year into it. I have told my wife and son both that when I leave he is more than welcome to around 50 guns of his choice and then the rest need to be disposed of if I do not have time to get it done before hand.
Same for the coins, They can keep or sell the silver and gold bullion and sell most of the coins valued over 500 each if I don't and they should need money. I asked they keep the japanesse coin collection, the nickels and the circulated date set of capped bust halfs.
They of course can do what ever they feel like if I am gone.
The number 1 on the list is to make sure my wife can live out her days without worry that she will run out of funds. I hope that is covered
I am on the fast track to early retirement now and hope that I do not go overbored with new puchases when I am working less. My son likes 90 plus of what I collect so that is a plus to him keeping it.
The key is leaving them enough cash so they don't rush out and give your stuff away for 15 cents on the dollar
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"