Posted on 02/21/2005 7:54:38 AM PST by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
The weather is nasty here, so I'm cleaning out my closet. In the process, I am once again re-stacking old newspapers, magazines, etc that my mother and I have "saved" over the years:). Newspapers/magazines that covered major events, Kennedy's assination, Nixon resignation, Vietnam War,Princess Diana's death, Mark McGuires homeruns, etc.
I have moved, restacked, stored, this stuff for years. Is it worth it for anything other then sentimental reasons? It sure creates alot of clutter, we never really get it out to look at other then when straightening:). Every time I'm tempted to just get rid of it. I'm sure ALOT of people have this stuff, it's not like it's going to be rare. Should I/would you keep it?
One word: ebay
You may not be interested, but this is the only ping list I have:)
Becky
Maybe your public library or town historical society would like it. Or you could cut out some of the most significant items and put them into a scrapbook.
To sell? Is this worth the effort?
I've never really looked into this sort of thing.
Becky
I would keep it for a while but you might consider checking with local historical societies and museums, they may want the stuff.
I save the special racing editions of my local paper when NASCAR comes to town. A few years ago I called the big NASCAR museum down in Daytona and asked if they wanted them. They said sure send them down. They just go into storage there but maybe it will help preserve the historical record.
Ephemera..???
What kind of search words would I use on google? I never get it right:), and then get frustrated trying to find anything.
Becky
LOL...that's what I say everytime I have to mess with the stuff. How long is awhile...some of this stuff is very old? Becky
Here are some Kennedy papers on Ebay...
http://search.ebay.com/kennedy-newspaper-assassination_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8
EBay is worth a try - a friend of ours had to clean out his parents' home a few years ago. They had boxes and boxes of old Life, Saturday Evening Post, etc. Those brought more than the fairly new fishing boat on the estate auction.
Thanks.
Becky
If you find a grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary on it, let me know. ;)
Just type in the word "Ephemera"...lots of sites.
Here you go.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en&q=ephemera
LOL....how about a 4 grade discourse on The Ten Commandments:) I found a booklet that my dad wrote when he attended the Elementary Catholic School. Very interesting.
Becky
Only time I watch much PBS is for "Antiques Roadshow". It is amazing just how valuable some stuff is. Don't dump anything, yet.
That's my whole problem:). "WHEN" is it time to dump?
Don't you think that alot of people have this same stuff so it's really not got much monetary value. We never get it out and look thru it. I have problems with mice chewing on some of it, (we live in the country). I had one of those old Barbie dolls one time, one of the first ones that was worth a bit. I put it in the attic with some other old toys, and the dam mice chewed her face off. So that is a consideration in wether to keep this stuff.
I look at it as if it will change my life style:), well lets sell, but if it's just a nominal amount, I'd just as soon get rid of it, so's I don't have to keep moving it around trying to find a convienent place to keep it without every mouse in the countryside makeing a nest in it:)
I know I sound very mercenary:), but I can't figure out why my mom kept this stuff, and why I do the same, when I'm already swamped with what I have:)
Becky
As a professional personal property appraiser (ISA accredited) I recommend not saving the newspapers. Consider that a mint condition 1865 paper with Lincoln's assasination on the headline is today worth maybe $100.
See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347898/posts
This scared Me, I may do some early spring cleaning today.
LOL...Well, I don't have that much. Actually, I don't really have alot. That's one reason I feel it's not worth hanging on too. Might be enough to get one good night out one:)
But everytime I go to throw it away, my son says keep it, but he doesn't want to store it either:) One of those things that it's six of one and half dozen of another.
Becky
Wow..I would have thought something like that would have been more.
What about old Life/Look magazines? From around the time of the Vietnam war. And not in mint condition. Not bad, just yellowed and the edges nibbled on.
Becky
My mom is a 'collector', also. You can hardly move around her house for all the stuff. All attempts to remove some of the clutter are met with stiff and sometimes hostile resistance. So, we have finally given up.
Once, about 20 years ago, I convinced her to let me clean out a couple of storage sheds and I hauled off about three truckloads of junk. She still talks about that.
LOL...that's part of my dilema too. My mom saved all this stuff for "us", my brother and I. I got stuck with all of it tho. It almost feels disloyal to her memory to throw it out, and I got in the mind set that mothers were suppose to do that for their kids, so I run out and buy newspapers and magazines when major world events happen. But I'm really not a collector. I like big empty spaces, no clutter, not much nicknacs:) Feels neater and easier to clean up.
Becky
When my parents kick off, I'm just gonna set fire to their house. Dealing with the arson investigators will be easier than going through everything Dad has kept since (my hand to God) junior high.
My family is a stratifying group. When we have something that needs to go into the attic, we go up the ladder, push the pre-existing attic stuff back until we have a space just big enough for the new attic stuff, shove it in, shimmy down the ladder, and shut the trap door.
When my parents kick off, I'm just gonna set fire to their house. Dealing with the arson investigators will be easier than going through everything Dad has kept since (my hand to God) junior high.
My family is a stratifying group. When we have something that needs to go into the attic, we go up the ladder, push the pre-existing attic stuff back until we have a space just big enough for the new attic stuff, shove it in, shimmy down the ladder, and shut the trap door.
I also still have my wedding dress. 30 years old....do I keep it???? It's pretty yellowed too.
I guess after 30 years this stuff just doesn't have the sentimental value it use too. I have never even thought about throwing it out, but still having the man seems a whole lot more valuable then still having the dress:)
Becky
LOL...sounds like what I use to do with this stuff till the mice ate the face off the Barbie doll.
But hey, it would make a nice bonfire:)
I feel alot better knowing others would just get rid of this type of stuff. It almost felt like there was something wrong with me that I didn't want it.
Becky
Are you one of my sisters? :~)
BTW, you do look like Xena. I think I'm in love.
Awww, you're sweet. ;)
I don't resemble her much these days - I'm blonder and don't have bangs.
I should stipulate that there are things of which I will not get rid. For instance, in 36 years, I have never thrown away a book. Not once.
Now thats a tough one. I've got some old stuff that no longer has any sentimental value to me but someone else may want one day and thats usually the only reason that I hang on to the stuff.
My mom was a book of the month member for years. I got all those too. I'm a big reader, but there were alot of them I wasn't interested in. So years ago I went thru picked out the ones I wanted. I did call the libaray and 2nd hand books stores, but no one wanted them. So those went to the trash. But if it's a book I bought, I don't throw them out. I don't mind reading a good book over.
Becky
I keep alot of old stuff, I've got my grandmothers old treadly sewing machine, still works, my moms china, and china cabinet, lots and lots of it, 18 place settings and all the serving pieces. I also have a cabinet with alot of little interesting stuff, my grandfathers cigerette roller:), a round cylinder metal thing that has some wooden matches in it that have to be zillions of years old, old pocket knifes, some old buttons, like my brothers cub scout button, the bride and groom off my parents wedding cake, one of those tiny coke a cola bottles with the coke still in it (looks pretty thick:)....little things. I love that stuff.
It's just these newspapers and magazines that I wasn't sure if it was worth keeping.
Becky
Looks like I'm busted on that one. I've still got boxes of college text books.
Got a couple of other things that I never throw out or get rid of; photographs and guns.
My ex-wife has two of my old guns and I'm holding her Waterford crystal hostage until I get em back. :~)
That is the category of stuff that is really hard to throw out or know what to do with. It's the kind of stuff that I've found going through my grandparents' and my mom's estates, and we all gathered around and marveled at it... then wondered what to do with it :~D
Some of it is worth something to somebody, somebody else will think it's at least really cool to look at. You may offer the lot of it (it'd be tedious, perhaps, to offer it all individually) on Ebay and see what kind of bids you get. People may spot one thing that is worth money and in exchange, they get all the rest and you get rid of the clutter! We did that with old record albums too.
I have my mom's wedding dress... it was too tiny for me to fit in or I'd have worn it. Other than that, I don't know what to do with it. I don't have her any more, and those things are impossible to know what to do with.
I do hear that vintage clothing especially wedding dresses, do have a market that collects them. The yellowing is probably not even a problem, it can be cleaned, or sold as is, and they'll clean it.
Check with local costume shops and community theaters . . . they might want Mom's dress.
One of the neatest things I saw done with a wedding dress was at my aunts 50th anniversary. One of her granddaughters wore it that day for show. I thought that was cool. My dress isn't a very fancy one but it was nice. I'm thinking it can continue to hang at the back of the closet:)
Becky
Does 30 years make it vintage?:) Boy does that make me feel old:)
Becky
These mementos make me think of them and smile. The photos remind me of pleasant times. I don't have room to store all the other stuff.
Oh, BTW, old National Geographics aren't worth anything, but old Life magazines can be worth from $2.50 to $10.00 retail. That's retail. A guy who sells them would probably only buy them from you for about 25 cents each or by the pound. Give fair warning to anyone in the family who wants stuff to COME AND GET IT by such and such date. If not, you'll hear about it. Believe me.
Sorry doll.... I think it's vintage :~D
All of the kids tease about "arson" investigations when she dies also. She is now thinking of moving, but none of the houses that she looks at "are big enough" for all of her stuff.
She loves clutter. Two years ago, my two sisters-in laws decided to surprise her for her birthday by organizing her kitchen (she had complaining about it for years). We all chipped in and bought lots of organizational bins, etc. I was gone the weekend they organized (boy am I glad now), but when she got home, she never even Thanked them, in fact she still complains about it, two years later, when she can't find something in her kitchen. Within a week, everything was back where it was originally.
They might indeed use it. I don't know what's best, to store it, or to give it to someone who will say "This is really neat".
Mom's dress is home-made, she made it herself, and it isn't fancy either, but it does have elegant tiny buttons on the sleeves and is all lace with satin underneath.
One of my cousins wore my granmother's wedding dress at their 50th wedding anniversary party. There are possibly neat uses for yours yet to come in the family, with daughters and grand-daughters around. I am not sure I will have that :~D
Thanks that's interesting about the magazines. I have figured out from this thread, that I really don't have enough of anything to make the effort other then tossing it worth keeping. But:)...I am going to try one more time to find a place for it. The kids are gone and I think we are going to make one of their bedrooms a place to put stuff like that.
There was never really a question of my keeping all the old photos I have. Those I couldn't part with.
That cowbell would be a special thing:)
Becky
LOL...Wow, that's kind of cool:)
Becky
Wheaties boxes...
so attractive gathering dust on a shelf.
Ebay sounds like the ticket..
I think it was back in the 70's, the cola bottle industry went thru a craze of labeling their bottles with football stuff. My husbands parents worked in a glass factory where these bottles were made. We have alot of them up in the attic:) Mice can't destroy them, but there isn't much else to do with them but stick them in the attic.
Becky
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