In addition to my CJ buffalo collection, I also collect vintage sports pinback buttons. Yesterday, my mother-in-law came over for Thxgiving and unbeknownst to me, put flowers in water in a tin cookie jar and placed it on top of one of my store-size display cases. I had a number of my favorite and very rare football pins on top of the case. Last night after my mother-in-law left I noticed that my wife had moved several of the pins. Upon closer examination, I saw that two of the pins had water damage, caused by the tin jar leaking. I would value the two pins at $300-$500 together, and they are the only ones of their kind I have ever seen offered for sale. Needless to say, I was and continue to be very bummed out about it, and recognize it was largely my fault for leaving the pins on top of the case instead of securing them in the case or in a Riker mount case.
I'm sure you all have collection disaster stories of your own, and since I'm a firm believer in the old adage "misery loves company", I invite your stories.
Mike (a sadder, but hopefully wiser collector)
P.S. Anybody got any CJ buffaloes available to help me get over myself?
I won't try the "My disaster is worse than your disaster" but to commiserate, we too have had a lot of disasters. My wife deals is, among other things, antique doll clothing. These are typically sturdy but may be fragile as they are usually made from remnants of people clothing which has passed the point of repair stitching and are well worn. We had several ryker mounts of very special doll clothing. At his antique show we placed the mounts in the middle of a table, away from the sides so that any rain would not get to them. That night when the rains came, I was out several times checking the tent for puddling water on the top and it was not until the morning that I discovered the tent had a hole conveniently located right over the ryker mounts. The ryker mounts although a glass top are not water proof or water resistant. The rains had managed to soak thru the top 4 mounts, the rainwater being soaked up conveniently by the clothing. We spent many hours trying to salvage the clothing to limit the water staining and color running.
Well, I feel with you, and wish I has some buffalos to ease the pain. Two things. I always learn from my mistakes. Second, I always make new ones to offset the old mistakes.
My husband and I very fortunate that we have not had any major disasters with any of our collections. All I can offer you two is a BIG hug!! Mike, any buffaloes that I come across will definitely be herded your way!
This squirrely gal is *NUTS* about collecting Cracker Jack prizes!
I haven't had any real Cracker Jack collection disasters, except maybe trying to open a "Construct a Scene", but had one when my (then) two year old granddaughter snapped the swinging perch out of a 1920's brass bird cage and when I tried to wash a really dirty figural Christmas tree light bulb (a little, warm, soapy water couldn't hurt, right?) and washed all the water soluable paint right off! I have a whole string of those old bulbs--Santa's, snowmen, cats, etc., and they all light. I've driven some dealers batty testing all their old bulbs!
I had a mouse problem in a bedroom in my house used for storage that was jam packed with boxes of collectibles that I had not touched for over 5 years. As I was moving out of my house and getting ready to sell everything, I threw away thousands of dollars worth of paper collectibles, including a number of CJ items and lots of packaging that had been chewed on by my livestock population. Lesson learned: I will never again collect anything that has food (e.g., Cracker Jack) inside it.
I was preoccupied with starting a new adventure when I stored all of my unsold possessions in two box trailers that are parked at my parents farm in Kansas before I left the United States. Only the good Lord knows what I will find when I open those time capsules someday, but I hope they remain watertight. At least polystyrene is pretty durable, water resistant, and not extremely temperature sensitive. So my Alphabet Animals should be fine, even if the comics and trading cards are shot. I will take whatever I find in stride, because it is just stuff and cannot compare with the people and experiences that became parts of my life as a result of the endeavor of collecting all of it. It is definitely the journey and not the destination that makes collecting exciting for me.