Stuff you are sooooo sorry you sold (or lost or gave away)

[Nostalgiabuff]

my Aquaman great white shark, was tossed because the pins holding the upper jaw on had broken. that one haunts my dreams to this day

also my Mission to Gamma VI set

[Toy Talk]

My 12" Gabriel Lone Ranger and a Fischer Price record player. Both went missing when my parents sold their first home when I was in the 1st grade. The Gabriel Lone Ranger I replaced about 5 or 6 years ago, but the Fischer Price record player has never been recovered in any form or fashion.

[kennermike]

Makes me cry as an adult especially in the 90's how many items I have sold some really RARE. to pay bills or what not.As a child I really played hard with my toys none them survived

1977 Bionic Bigfoot Kenner Mint in Mint Box
1979 Alien Kenner Mint in Mint Boxed
6MDM Kenner Boxed with the extra outfit a JC Penney or Sears Exclusive Super Rare
just to name a few of the stuff sold in the 90's

[Captain Big Trousers]

I didn't have a great number of toys as a boy. One Action Man, one Matchbox "Fighting Furies" figure, one Mego Ivanhoe...

I did collect Matchbox cars with my weekly pocket money though, so I had most of the '71-'76 range. Marbles were a big thing in the playground when I was nine, and I was somewhat of a marbles champion, winning any cool marbles that other kids were foolish enough to bring to school. My marble bag overflowed with cool examples (I gave away lesser marbles). The favourites were these huge 2" marbles a few kids bought in (which, 35 years later, I discovered were victorian-era glass which sell for a packet on eBay).

Anyway, shortly before my tenth birthday my father decided we were moving from the UK to Australia, and I was told to give away my toys. Everything.

All the local kids were quite keen to get at my marble bag. I stood at the top of a hill, opened the bag, and rolled the lot downhill, into the hands of a mad scramble of kids.

My Matchbox car collection I gave away to a younger boy called Karl, from two doors down. That boy emigrated to Australia himself several years later, and when I was seventeen I visited him in Sydney. "I have something to show you" he said, and pulled a box from under his bed - a box full of my old Matchbox cars, just as I'd last seen them!

"Here..." he said "... take them. They're yours."



Actually, no he didn't. The little bugger kept them.

Such is life.

Anyway, I've collected new minty versions of my old cars now. And I have 16 vintage Action Men. And three Fighting Furies. And Ivanhoe is back on the shelf.

So my collecting is therapy, I guess.


TAKE THAT, KARL!!!


MINE, Karl. MINE!!! NOT YOURS!!!

Yup. The therapy is working great.


But the thing I regret losing the most is my great-grandfather's brass cigarette lighter - a memento from WWI France. I think one of my flatmates stole it when she moved out.

[megomania]

I sold my entire vintage Star Wars collection in about 1992 for $50. I had pretty much everything with boxes that I got as a kid for Xmas or birthdays: all the action figures, playsets, vehicles, carrying cases, etc. I have no earthly idea what prompted me to sell them but to this day it is in my top 5 regrets..not because I would want to sell them today but because I did not get a chance to pass them down to my son

-Chris

[VintageMike]

Two stick out for me.
When i was around 13 or 14 we had a garage sale. Wanting some omoney and not knowing the attachment I'd have latter I sold some of my more beat up Megos, a remco Wolfman, and a wooden box filled with just about every kind of trading card you could imagine. I MIGHT have made $20 that day. Luckily I did already have an attachment to my Mego Spider-man (since I had since I was 6) and he avoided the sell-off and is still with me.

The second, was in my mid to late twenties I sold a handful of my original Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi figures to a store as well as my large size R2-D2.
That one really stung year slater as my ESB figs in particular went on many vacations/sleepovers. Many years later I went back to the same store in search of my figures knowing there some identifying marks to indicate if they were mine. I found two of my favorites and was thrilled to get them back , but the rest are lost forever. I can't even go back to that store for another try as they have since closed.

[Figuremod73]

This tread is great and horrible at the same time....

All went really cheap in a yard sale in the late eighties:

About thirty G1 Transformers
Almost all the Masters of the Universe figures, including Castle Greyskull and most of the vehicles.
Blackstar figures (a favorite of mine)
Various Gobots, secret wars, superpowers....
Yea, this becomes sad after awhile.

[Duncan]

I sold my WGSH for $.25 or $.50 each in 1979, or so, along with my Batman wallet, Batman cowl/helmet & some GI Joe stuff (Mummy's Tomb, etc.). Stupid yardsale. However, my worst move was probably letting a friend go through my 1970s baseball card collection & pay me what they were worth to him in 1986. Don't know what I had; don't know what they were worth; assuming I took a bath.

[Toyman_Chris]

I traded my original Star Wars early bird kit 20 years ago.....it seemed like the week after I did it, it doubled in price.... :sigh:

[Werewolf]

Anyway, I've collected new minty versions of my old cars now.

Awesome looking collection.

[cjefferys]

The things that stick out in my mind that I regret selling:

-a bunch of deadstock mint, unopened Star Wars vehicles, including the Tatooine Skiff, that I sold for not nearly enough money back in the early 90's

-carded Mego Isis on a C-9 card, sold on ebay around 8 years ago when I decided I wasn't going to collect carded figures. Probably should have made an exception with her, as it will be tough to find a boxed one, and this carded one was really, really nice

-boxed Bullmark Japanese POTA Soldier Ape -sold around 8 years ago on ebay (yeah, I was really going through a "thinning out" period then). I was changing my focus, and the lesser condition of the box bothered me. But I only got around $150 for it, and those things are really, really rare, so now I wish I kept it. On the plus side, I later found out that someone here ended up buying it, so at least it stayed in the "family"

-loose Power Action Superman that I sold when I upgraded to a boxed one. Only because I later found out that someone else would have paid me four times what I sold him for. Ouch.


On a happier note, I had regretted selling my childhood boxed large size Boba Fett to a relative of mine, but was able to get him back around 15 years later. Sometimes you get a second chance.

[DocDrako]

An original fuzz-head GI Joe in pretty good shape that my wife bought me at a yard sale for 25 cents. Someone offered me $35 for it knowing what it cost, and my wife said to sell. I thought about it and reluctantly flipped it for a huge profit. I still regret selling it because she bought it for me out of the blue. It doesn't bother her at all, but it bothers me.

[Splitty]

Man, seeing all your guy's long lost toys pains me deeply. Ouch

You know, I know toys aren't alive. I have always known they don't have feelings or thoughts, but are just plastic or stuffed fibers or whatever. I know that.
But when I was in early grade school, we were going to move from the trailer park to a house, and of course were ordered to pack up toys we didn't want to go to a used store.

So I dutifully packed up a bunch of junk, including an old tattered stuffed animal from my baby years, since I had so many better upgraded ones now. Then move day came, and the parents told me they didn't have time to drop by a used store, just go dump it in the communal garbage dumpster. I WAS HORRIFIED, but they would not by swayed.

I still remember that exact scene so clearly in my head. Walking away from the big blue dumpster, the sun shining through the fall leaves onto the pavement, the long dejected walk home. I had dumped the toys, throwing the stuffed animal on top face up, in case anybody else dumping stuff saw him and wanted to rescue a dirty old torn thing. Even though I knew it wasn't alive, and couldn't possibly feel hurt, I kinda felt like he could. There I was leaving a trusted friend who had never done anything except dutifully comfort me for so many years (all of like 6 or 8 then), on top of a pile of garbage all alone, looking up at the sky. I felt so GUILTY.

Since then I have never EVER been able to throw a toy in the garbage. Given away, left behind for someone else to find maybe, but not in the garbage.

[LadyZod]

I've never sold anything that I've regretted.

I've bought stuff instead of other things that I've regretted.

Like when I chose to purchase a computer for $2500 instead of a sweet, sweet MG my photography teacher was selling. Just needed a new ragtop. That one still haunts my dreams.

[Captain Big Trousers]

Man, seeing all your guy's long lost toys pains me deeply. Ouch

You know, I know toys aren't alive. I have always known they don't have feelings or thoughts, but are just plastic or stuffed fibers or whatever. I know that.
But when I was in early grade school, we were going to move from the trailer park to a house, and of course were ordered to pack up toys we didn't want to go to a used store.

So I dutifully packed up a bunch of junk, including an old tattered stuffed animal from my baby years, since I had so many better upgraded ones now. Then move day came, and the parents told me they didn't have time to drop by a used store, just go dump it in the communal garbage dumpster. I WAS HORRIFIED, but they would not by swayed.

I still remember that exact scene so clearly in my head. Walking away from the big blue dumpster, the sun shining through the fall leaves onto the pavement, the long dejected walk home. I had dumped the toys, throwing the stuffed animal on top face up, in case anybody else dumping stuff saw him and wanted to rescue a dirty old torn thing. Even though I knew it wasn't alive, and couldn't possibly feel hurt, I kinda felt like he could. There I was leaving a trusted friend who had never done anything except dutifully comfort me for so many years (all of like 6 or 8 then), on top of a pile of garbage all alone, looking up at the sky. I felt so GUILTY.

Man, this is the worst story.

I'm not a believer in ghosts, but some folks say ghosts are manifestations of the emotions people have invested into things/places.

And if there's one thing kids do well, it's invest emotions, stories and life into toys.*

That wasn't just a stuffed toy on the rubbish heap - that was a piece of you. That's like a 6-year-old's equivalent of a funeral. On a rubbish heap.

[keanu] Whoa, dude. [/keanu]



*Nothing sadder than a boxed toy.**



** Except a toy on a rubbish heap.