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Author
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Topic: Thoughts on selling a piece of memorablia that is a part of your life?
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thepackratsattic New Member Posts: From: Registered:
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posted 12-29-2003 02:22 PM
Have any of you ever sold or traded an item that was so much a part of your life, that you questioned yourself after having done so? Almost 3 years ago, I sold a 1973 letter from Neil Armstrong that many friends & family members thought would NEVER leave my possession. It was the "Boy Scout Merit Badge Counselor" letter that was first traded for other items; then sold at an R&R Auction; and I just recently discovered it again for sale on University Archives website! Well, *I* am the Boy Scout he refers to in the letter (which was originally acquired from my scoutmaster in exchange for a signed photo of NA to display at our scout meeting room!) While I have watched the price of something that was once mine, climb dramatically; I also hold no regrets for having made it available to the collecting community....it will be interesting to try & keep track of it (and the value!) for the rest of my days. I guess you would call that "profit-once-removed" thrills! I have a very well done, duplicate display of the items that I can look at and remember that the real ones WERE once MINE! And no one else can ever OWN the memories of the experience of having the first man on the moon as your merit badge counselor, and being able to have talked with him about "what it was really like" taking that first step! Just some rambling thoughts as I sort thru the collection I started in 1965 and watch auctions for other items I thought I would never sell right now. Would be interested in reading other people's similar stories here. Would help with that "letting go" theory! ![](http://collectspace.com/ubb/smile.gif)
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Rick Boos Member Posts: 851 From: Celina, Ohio Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 12-30-2003 10:00 AM
I have sold many items over the years that were VERY special to me for sentimental reasons. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do for a variety of reasons. I have found it isn't so hard to part with such items if you have photos of them to remind you of what you had. At one point or another you have to come to the realization that they are only materialistic trinkets that you can't take with you. In one case I had to exit the house because of a fire and left it all behind. Living in Ohio and in tornado alley, you often seek shelter and have to get your priorities straight, be it family or an Armstrong or Grissom item. On the subject of Armstrong, too many of you put him on a pedestal above or equal to God. This sickens me, as Alan Shepard told my wife one day, "We are ordinary men who have done extraordinary things, but we still put our pants on one leg at a time." Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I dislike Neil, but he is HUMAN and all the astronauts are equal to him. Being first isn't everything. |
Scott Member Posts: 3307 From: Houston, TX Registered: May 2001
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posted 12-30-2003 10:55 AM
I think a lot of the attention Armstrong receives now is due to the value of his autograph, which has become astronomical. This has led to more and more forgeries and so people are rightly concerned about what is real and what is not. He's not my favorite astronaut, that would be Charles Conrad or Story Musgrave. As Michael Collins relates in a footnote in Carrying the Fire (which is very favorable to Armstrong), Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon mainly by chance and the luck of the draw. An exceptional person no doubt, but just human like all of us.Yes, it is sad to part with items. I wish I still had every autograph, limited edition litho or lucite. I held on to them for 10 years before I parted with any of them, but as you mention there comes a time when some of us unfortunately have to choose between family bills and autographs, and we chose the former. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo Member Posts: 3445 From: Toms River, NJ Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 12-30-2003 02:00 PM
quote: Originally posted by Scott: ...there comes a time when some of us unfortunately have to choose between family bills and autographs, and we chose the former.
Yep. I had a _massive_ Star Trek collection, 8*10s and signed index cards of not only all the stars from all incarnations - Classic, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise - but also the movies, and I was also working on the first incarnation, "The Cage," and I had loads of guest stars as well. But I needed the money, and that's when I realized that whatever you spend on autographs you don't get back. I think I got barely above the cost of an unsigned photo for each of them. In terms of space memorabilia, I hated to part with my Silver Snoopy certificate signed by many Apollo astronauts, but again I needed the money. I had a twinge of regret when I went to see Haise a few months ago and I could have added him to it, but what's done is done. Hart |
James Brown Member Posts: 1287 From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 12-30-2003 02:35 PM
Hart,If it will make you feel any better, your silver snoopy certificate now resides in my collection. It has a good home, and is being well taken care of. I do plan to have Schirra added to it at the UACC show this Sept. If I ever decide to let it go, I'll get back with you first. James www.magnificentdesolation.freehomepage.com
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thepackratsattic New Member Posts: From: Registered:
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posted 12-30-2003 09:49 PM
I am not sure if *I* would list Armstrong as my "favorite" either. In many ways, I found John Glenn to be more personable and outgoing. Having met NA at the Wapakoneta Homecoming originally, and then being fortunate enough to spend time with him one-on-one at his farm in 1973; I was impressed by his humility more than anything else. It has been widely reported & I have witnessed it first-hand....he *IS* almost embarrassed by the prominent place in history that "chance" gave him. I am not all that certain; in retrospect of course; that he wouldn't have preferred that Aldrin had taken "the first step". It would be an interesting question to ask him. |
mzieg Member Posts: 72 From: Seneca, PA USA Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-31-2003 09:07 AM
Armstrong was asked that very question: "would you rather have flown to the moon on a later flight and have kept more of your privacy ever since?" at a press conference at KSC to mark the 30th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. I remember his reply was short & quick in coming. "Never", he said. It left no doubt in my mind that being first was worth the downside of being a very public figure ever since.In that same press conference (at the very end) Gene Cernan made it a point to say that no one in the astronaut corp at that time, including himself, was better suited and could do a better job of bearing the honor & responsibility of the first man on the moon than Neil Armstrong. The camera panned over to Armstrong at that moment, and humility was written all over his face. That man has never let his fame go to his head - he sets an example that a lot of others in the public eye should emulate. I've often wondered if he tried to model himself after Charles Lindberg, at least in the early years of his fame, until he developed his own public persona. ------------------ M Ziegler | |
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