For those who don't remember me... I collected Ninja Turtles for the better part of 30 years. At my height, the collection I had amassed was gigantic -- Toys, comics, original art, movie props, etc etc etc.
Then... about 5 years ago... a bunch of changes began to happen over the course of 2 years:
- I "finished" what I considered the core of my collection (Every Playmates product from 88-98 )
- My wife got terminal cancer
- I got a job at Nickelodeon, a portion of which involved working on the Turtles
I started asking myself hard questions like: "How much does this collection define me as a person?" , "what would I be without it?"
questions like that gnawed at me enough that I decided...I would sell one thing... and see how it felt.
So I did. I sold a concept sketch. In fact it was the very first sketch of the Shredder. I knew it would catch a heavy price tag, but also be something that I wouldn't miss so much that if I decided not to sell anything else, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
After I sold it, it was freeing. I loved the feeling. but I waiting a couple months before selling anything else just to be sure...
Then I started selling LOTS of stuff. It kept feeling like the right thing to do.
When the smoke cleared, I had sold about 5% of my physical collection, but about 80% of the monetary value (that's how collecting almost anything works -- 99% of the value is in 1% of the stuff), and I haven't really looked back. I still have thousands of things in my garage, so don't worry about that ;P
anyway, i guess the point of this post was to give words of encouragement to other people who have thought about selling out over the years. It isn't as scary as you think it might be, and in the end, you are still going to be you <3