4 ms·

As a person who descends from a line of hoarders, you really should examine why your empathy went to the dead collector and his system instead of the girl who l

As a person who descends from a line of hoarders, you really should examine why your empathy went to the dead collector and his system instead of the girl who lost her father. When my paternal granddad died, he left 39 000 books behind. I hope you can imagine the physical and emotional effort of unloading 40k books. Maybe the daughter should appreciate all that lovely ordering nuance, or maybe not. For my money, large collections are expressions of a pathology and there is no duty to keep them pristine once their owners pass. In fact I think it’s quite rude to leave that burden to others. Your shit, your problem.

akudha 2y ago
It all depends on the family, how close they are/were, their shared interests etc. Not sure we can pass generalized comments - what if my dad left me 40K books and he and I shared interest in books? It may not be rude for my dad then to leave me his collection. On the other hand, if I am someone who hates to read, then yeah, even 40 books might be annoying much less 40K
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- zemvpferreira 2y ago
  Maybe I let my ranting get in the way of my main point: Objects and their order matter less than people and their problems. If you find yourself ranking things the opposite way, you should think that through. No aggression meant towards the original commenter but in my experience as a son and grandson, that road can take you somewhere you don’t want to end up as a father. Edit:I should add I’m just as pathological as the rest of my family. Instead of stuff I collect rules, and I have to be very careful to not impose those rules unconsciously on other people.
  - Obscurity4340 2y ago
    What other rules have you collected?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bane 2y ago
I know a guy who's grandfather died and left him the contents of his basement. After his grandfather passed, he drove several hours to the home and found a floor to ceiling collection of comic books going all the way back into the golden age of comics - thousands upon thousands of books. He rented a moving truck, and put them all in some storage units closer to where he lived. It turns out he had also recently lost his job, and so with nothing else to do, and the impending need for some money, he started cataloging and selling them on eBay, bootstrapped his way into opening a small comic book business, then opened a larger store selling other things, which turned into a small chain of stores selling all kinds of hobby and collector stuff in the local area. When I decided to offload my small childhood collection, he made me a generous offer for it which enabled me to make rent month. As he was looking through what I brought he told me this story, I asked what happened to the original collection. He said he now had a warehouse full of inventory of people's collections like mine, and that he just continued to move them via his stores, shows, and eBay. It had made him a steady living. What you do with these things very much depends on you and an ability to find positivity in the situation. A literal library's worth of books is not an easy thing to handle for certain. I grew up in a family printing business so I have a pretty reasonable idea of how difficult it is to handle and store 40-50-60k books so I'm not without sympathy. But there is often value in these kinds of things.
- zemvpferreira 2y ago
  I get you. There was actually a lot more monetary value than even you might presume. Many of the books were worth 30K+ at auction. But many others weren’t and they were all still a pain to cope with, plus all the other smaller collections we had to deal with. In any case, the broader point is that valuing a collection over people is always a bad idea.
  - bane 2y ago
    As somebody who also inherited their great grandfather's prized polka sheet music collection and some accordions, and has approximately zero interest in either...and has also found that the secondary market near where they live doesn't exist, I feel you.

akudha 2y ago

It all depends on the family, how close they are/were, their shared interests etc. Not sure we can pass generalized comments - what if my dad left me 40K books and he and I shared interest in books? It may not be rude for my dad then to leave me his collection. On the other hand, if I am someone who hates to read, then yeah, even 40 books might be annoying much less 40K

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
zemvpferreira 2y ago
Maybe I let my ranting get in the way of my main point: Objects and their order matter less than people and their problems. If you find yourself ranking things the opposite way, you should think that through. No aggression meant towards the original commenter but in my experience as a son and grandson, that road can take you somewhere you don’t want to end up as a father. Edit:I should add I’m just as pathological as the rest of my family. Instead of stuff I collect rules, and I have to be very careful to not impose those rules unconsciously on other people.
- Obscurity4340 2y ago
  What other rules have you collected?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bane 2y ago

I know a guy who's grandfather died and left him the contents of his basement. After his grandfather passed, he drove several hours to the home and found a floor to ceiling collection of comic books going all the way back into the golden age of comics - thousands upon thousands of books. He rented a moving truck, and put them all in some storage units closer to where he lived. It turns out he had also recently lost his job, and so with nothing else to do, and the impending need for some money, he started cataloging and selling them on eBay, bootstrapped his way into opening a small comic book business, then opened a larger store selling other things, which turned into a small chain of stores selling all kinds of hobby and collector stuff in the local area. When I decided to offload my small childhood collection, he made me a generous offer for it which enabled me to make rent month. As he was looking through what I brought he told me this story, I asked what happened to the original collection. He said he now had a warehouse full of inventory of people's collections like mine, and that he just continued to move them via his stores, shows, and eBay. It had made him a steady living. What you do with these things very much depends on you and an ability to find positivity in the situation. A literal library's worth of books is not an easy thing to handle for certain. I grew up in a family printing business so I have a pretty reasonable idea of how difficult it is to handle and store 40-50-60k books so I'm not without sympathy. But there is often value in these kinds of things.

zemvpferreira 2y ago
I get you. There was actually a lot more monetary value than even you might presume. Many of the books were worth 30K+ at auction. But many others weren’t and they were all still a pain to cope with, plus all the other smaller collections we had to deal with. In any case, the broader point is that valuing a collection over people is always a bad idea.
- bane 2y ago
  As somebody who also inherited their great grandfather's prized polka sheet music collection and some accordions, and has approximately zero interest in either...and has also found that the secondary market near where they live doesn't exist, I feel you.