Culling Collections & Where To Start - Tips Wanted

Collecting
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Hey all.

I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.

In light of recent stresses in this hobby space that I am evidently not alone in, I am shifting focus back somewhat to collecting Star Wars.

Will still complete a few goals in Pokémon, but I wish to trim my collection down. Stuff I love, but doesn’t really serve anymore, or was just purchased on a whim. This comprises of cards and non-cards. I also wish to trim my collection of Star Wars and refocus there.

However - 90% of these collections are from childhood. There are some things I can easily get rid of, but the majority has been mine for a long time. I do not really have storage concerns, nor in financial need, there is just a mental burden to owning many objects.

My questions to you lovely lot, who are healthier in this regard and have shifted collections before…

  • How do I structure my culling so as not to regret it?
  • Do you have any tips for quantifying value, i.e. sentimental/nostalgic?
  • Do you have any guidelines for how you choose what to get rid of?
  • Do you have a formulae or flowchart you follow for such decisions?

I’d appreciate some weigh-ins from everyone because in scale I am dealing with retail inventory amount of items.

Many thanks,

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Search your feelings, the difference between the things you need and the things you need to get rid of is inside of you.

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Goodbyeeee liver!

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I don’t have anything productive to chime in with I’m afraid, but thanks to this thread this song is now stuck in my head:

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I do not have experience in culling, however, I have performed this exercise to really refocus on what brings me joy in collecting cards, prevent burnout and also get out of the cycle constant worry about ticking off the next check box.

  1. Lay out all of your cards, slabs, binders and really have a slow look through all of them. You can perform it multiple times if needed.
  2. Write down what brings you joy about your collection. Try to remember and write down why you started collecting or why do you still collect. Put the feelings on paper.
  3. Lastly try to fit as much as possible the cards that you think fulfill the feeling that you have noted down on paper. If you have a hard count on X cards you want to keep, stop at that count.
  • The writing or journaling is an important aspect since I believe the process brings clarity rather than just keeping the thoughts in your mind. You can also try to repeat the writing exercise everytime you go through your cards and see if your feelings change.
  • Most importantly it gives you information. I think gathering and having as much of information while making some hard choices is much more better than just doing it on a whim.

I would actually be surprised if you did not have any regret. Every choice we make means that it cuts off opportunities for the choice we did not make. However, in order to have a fulfilling life , you have to make the choice and stick by it, always knowing that once you choose one card, you cannot choose the other. The sooner you come to peace with this reality, the better.

I personally would focus on joy / happiness the card brings. They can be linked to sentiments and memories, but make sure they are happy memories.

Lastly, there will never be the very perfect choice. However, whatever choice you make, take pride in it. Revel in it. Focus on all the great things about the cards you have. Try to avoid the impulse to compare the known to the imagined.

I wish you happiness and peace of mind in whatever choice you make.

Cheers!

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I’m also condensing my collection at the moment. For each item I ask myself:

  1. Do I still enjoy this?
  2. Would this be difficult to replace if I miss it later?

If the answers are both no, then I let it go

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You are my favourite. Thank you.

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I have not been culling my collection yet, but I have set very strict parameters for what I collect these days. Basically, only gen 1-2 cards from the period 1996-2002, For Japanese I include e-reader sets and promos, and for English I stop with Neo Destiny. This makes things easy, as I simply ignore everything newer, including all modern releases. And there is still so much to collect from this time period… A few years ago I was also collecting lots of modern full arts and promos, but it was too exhausting to keep up with all the new releases, and in the end I did not really have the same deep and long-lasting enjoyment from modern Pokemon cards.

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I have sold off parts of my collection several times, lots of things I regret selling more than others. The Pokemon market seems to dynamically change in unpredictable ways every few years. Recently it’s been changing more than it has been stable.

The most important question to ask yourself, in light of all of this, is:

  • Am I comfortable never owning this card again?

Chances are, if you sell something, you may not be able to get it back. The answer to that question might be influenced by a lot of things, whether that’s the price of the card, the sentimental value, whether it contributes to a collection goal, and so forth. But you should consider each card you sell as likely to never return to your collection.

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Thank you for this good advice. Some things cannot ever be replaced and it’s about the circumstances of acquisition more often than the item itself.

I sold some Warhammer I picked up on a walk with my fiancée. It just came with a magazine. It wasn’t anything I needed. I made a profit. Still regret it because that was part of a lovely day and now I can never get them back.

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Also amazing advice which is slowly turning into me never getting rid of anything because I am a massively sentimental sop.

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What I’ve learned over the years is that when it comes to the cards I’ve let go, I always regret the ones I can no longer get back. For example, a childhood Latias Gold Star my brother pulled. I sold it when I started collecting again in 2016. Even at 10 times today’s market price, I can never get it back because I don’t even know where to find it.

From what most of us have seen, many people’s biggest regret is selling a card too cheaply, wishing they had held onto them as prices rose. If you’re just starting to sell cards, my advice is to try it and see how you feel. You won’t know how you would react until you experience it.

For me, if I can buy the card back, even at a higher price, there’s no reason for regret. But some cards can never be replaced, especially those with deep sentimental value. But beware, as being sentimental is like digging a rabbit hole. It’s up to you how deep you want to go.

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I’ve got a bit of a plan together thanks to the advice of everyone so far.

I will be going through my cards firstly, all the slabs, binders and even bulk, and identifying which ones truly bring happiness and/or have a strong memory attached to them.

I may even remove cards from my best binders, e.g. completed 1st gen, and remove some of the cards I have in the odd pages there, like full-arts and what have you. The first binder was supposed to represent a journey through the games, and this involved supplementing with some modern, but I feel like I want to return it to complete nostalgia. I think I’ll then resort to my original binder formats for the others, which is 1 of every single unique card I have, and perhaps I’ll re-order these by Pokedex number instead of release.

As for slabs, guess I’ll have to pray that ebay is kind. Worst thing is that some of my purchases for things like “got a new job” e.g gold stars, I don’t really feel huge attachment to. So I have some real thinking to do, and then some nice specific goals to figure out.

Thank you everyone!

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I’ve had a lot of experience culling collections.

I often think about a few special MTG childhood cards that I sold off in 2014-2015 to buy packs and singles for deck building. A decade later, I’ve compiled pristine graded versions of these cards, copies signed by the artist, complete foil sets to commemorate those eras, etc., but they will never truly replace the played childhood originals.

These are some questions that I ask myself before selling portions of my collection.

  1. Will this card/collectible be easy to obtain in the future?

If YES, feel free to sell it.

If NO, consider a cost-benefit analysis. Is the additional cost of repurchasing this card/collectible in the future worth the benefit that it can provide to my current collection goal? Replace cost of repurchasing with time to find for rare items.

  1. Do I have a strong attachment to the card/collectible?

If YES, sell other cards/collectibles first. Return to this card/collectible in the future after other sales have concluded.

If NO, feel free to sell it.

It sounds a bit silly, but one way that I determine how much I care about a card/collectible is whether I think about it when scrolling through my collection in my head. Cards that I love, cards that I deeply cherish for sentimental reasons, will always be brought to the forefront of my mind when thinking about my collection.

If a card/collectible is easily forgettable, odds are that I could sell it and not feel any sadness.

Lastly, if you are completely unsure and frozen about a specific card/collectible, I would highly recommend this:

  1. Take a coin in your hand. Heads is KEEP, Tails is SELL.
  2. Flip the coin.
  3. As the coin is flipping in the air, see if you hope that it lands on one side or the other.
  4. If you find yourself hoping for a specific outcome, then you know how you truly feel. If you do not find yourself caring about the outcome one way or another, the coin will decide for you.

Sometimes we subliminally desire one outcome to another, but this is only clear to us when we are forced into a situation to rapidly make a choice. A simple coin flip has helped me make significant life decisions. I always keep a coin in my wallet for this purpose. :coin:

I hope that this helps - best of luck!

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