OPENING REFERENCE I read the news today. Oh, boy.

I READSKIM, OCCASIONALLY There was an article in the U-T about people selling off their childhood memorabilia (Hot Wheels, sports paraphernalia, trading cards, comics, etc.) to make some extra cash during our down economy, and finding it isn’t worth so much anymore. Sentiment is not easily hawked.

MAINLY IN ARLINGTON, TEXAS During the late 80s-early 90s, I definitely went into a collecting phase of my life. A lot of my disposable income at the time (read: percentage of my parents’ income) went to hobby shops, buying packs of cards or comics.

My mom recently sent me a few boxes of said cherished memories from a storage facility they were residing in for the last few years. Tons of binders full of meticulously pampered baseball, basketball, football, and comic book trading cards, most of them organized nicely. Also, boxes upon boxes of Marvel, DC, Image, and Valiant comics, all sealed in Mylar bags, some never opened.

I feel bad that I was so into the collecting nature of it all, and I don’t really remember enjoying reading the comics as much. Sure, there was ephemeral enjoyment reading the story and looking at the art, but I think it was largely a passing phase. Most of them barely look handled. And now, the reason I tried to keep them in as mint of condition as possible has most likely fallen through.

It’s been a long time since I picked up a Wizard or Beckett’s, but I presume the news to be sobering at best. Not really sure what to do with any of it right now.

FOR THE ROAD Thankfully, my current collecting motif is musical instruments, something that brings me (and others) a lot of joy, and was not started as an investment, but as a labor of love of music and the things that can be used to make it.