Post #90967 by Atomic Cocktail on Thu, May 13, 2004 10:28 AM

On 2004-05-12 19:44, Jungle Trader wrote:

On 2004-05-12 19:24, Atomic Cocktail wrote:
Is simply avarice under another name?

You mean greed? Greed could definitely be a factor in the reason for collecting.

Yup! Unfortunately, I've come across many a folk where greed seems to be the motivating factor in their collecting mentality. I used to be an antiquities and historical collectibles dealer and collector and I've had folks who I thought where friends:

steal from my home, fight one another for an old pieces junk (in the process destroying their friendship), call me 3:00am in the morning to "get a jump" on a new item, declare themselves "experts" and drone on for hours about everything I had for sale at a show while blocking the table preventing folks who want to actually buy something from getting a look, etc.

The worst was when I nearly sued two of my best friends to get $10,000 they owed me for my items they sold. They thought it was their right to use my money for speculation (without my permission.) When their scheme failed and I came to collect my money well, I was "taking food out of their kids mouths!" End of friendship and out of the collecting world.

To top it off I later came to learn they actually sold one of my items for a lot more than they divulged and kept the difference (on top of their 20% commission). What's funny is that all the while they would pontificate how my NYC home was the Sodom of the world and I should move to the Mid-West. I guess I didn't understand down-home, neighborly treatment.