Documenting Our Collections - Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?

With the recent passing of an amazing collector like Tiki David a topic came up in conversation the other night –
What are we doing as collectors to ensure that when we leave this world the amazing finds we posted about on this forum are well documented for the next people to discover? When we pass away how will anyone know the value of what we have in our collection or what any of it even is and be able to perhaps pass those items along to people that would appreciate them (whether it be by a sale or by gifting)?

Every time I visit a friend who has any sort of tiki collection we inevitably discuss where pieces came from – “Oh that float light? That hung in the entrance of The Stockton Islander” or “These are the doors from the Trader Vic’s in Oakland” “These two carved poles flanked the doors at Don the Beachcomber” and it goes on and on —and as collectors we have that knowledge and the story and this forum to document what we know but we don’t seem to document the pieces themselves.

When Abstractiki sent people pieces of bamboo that were a part of the Stockton Islander he included a hang tag that said as much. In 40 years when someone goes to an estate sale and finds a piece of that bamboo with the hang tag they will be able to Google “Stockton Islander” and be able to figure out that the piece of bamboo in their hand actually IS important and HAS a history—it’s just not another piece of bamboo.

Not to be morbid but think about it. There is years of research on these pages—an item is found—say a carving—its then spotted in postcard, that postcard leads to a matchbook which leads to a menu which leads to a newspaper article and we find out who and why and where these things were located—the trail of tying what items were in what locations is sometimes spread over months or years but once we figure out that a certain item was located in a certain place we really aren’t doing much to make note of it on the actual piece.

When you pass away will someone be able to take a look at all the amazing tiki stuff you have amassed in your lifetime and know it holds value?

I am mostly a mug collector and due to space don’t have room for carvings but the few I do have (mostly by TC artists) I have tags attached saying who made it and when.

Do you have a system for cataloging your collection that goes beyond Tiki Central? Do you have tags attached to pieces that hold importance explaining what those items are/where they are from?

I would be interested to hear others take on this topic or even any suggestions/examples on how you make sure the historical significance of what you own lives on after you do.

Thats a tough question..The bigger the individuals collection the more difficult it becomes to document it..As far as value. mugs are a bit easier due to ooga mooga (although far from accurate) other items
are going to be a lot harder. As far as where it came from etc.Can't wait to hear what people here have to say about this..

I was not thinking "value" as in dollar amount per say..more along the lines of once I am gone and someone comes to sell the contents of my house I don't want them thinking that ______is just trash but instead it is valuable because ____ came from ____and is significant because of _______

Dollar value is always hard because something that sells for say $300 today may not sell for $300 in a week from now.

Once our collections are all that is left behind how do we let others know that what we had was significant and needs to be saved, not tossed out with the trash.

SandraDee;

I believe what you're describing is exactly what Humu had planned on for the next version of ooga-mooga.com. For it to be a place to document any kind of collection, not just mug-centric as it is now. That would be the ideal, so we could add any of our items there, with as much detail as we care to add.

There's so much that could be said on this subject...in various directions. I'll try to keep my thoughts brief.
For me, I'd always wondered what would happen or how to document my rather large Hawaiian/Exotica vinyl LP collection. It's something I've been amassing since age five, literally. I'm 52 now.

One man's trash is another's treasure. There are people who collect everything and 90% of it all really only has sentimental value to the collector him/herself. Even to family & friends it means little. They may save a few items as a momento. I once offered my 2,300 LPs to the Center For Hawaiian Studies at U.H. and was turned down for 'lack of space" and because someone would need to catalog it. (Seemed like that would be a great library studies project to me).

After that, I started telling my family, you know, do one of two things. Best of all would be to find some young person interested in the old music, both authentic & inauthenic, and GIVE them the entire collection absolutely free. Otherwise, sell them if you want to, or just haul them to Goodwill (I like to imagine the heart attack some Hawaiian collector would have walking in the store THAT day), or I'm ok if you want to throw them away. After all, it's been "my' thing, not theirs.

Nothing last forever, and in the end, it's all just "stuff."

Great topic Liz. My collection has a dual purpose. The collection as a whole tells the history of the places that were around back in the days of Tiki's heyday and the mugs, menus and items that came from them. On the other hand I can tell stories of where my wife and I found every piece in the collection and the adventures of the hunt and the excitement of unexpected finds. I've spent hours telling people who visit for cocktails all the histories and stories and they seem to enjoy it. As for documenting the collection I don't have anything written down yet but plan on it. One thought I had was to put an index card in each mug with it's history and price I paid for it. If anything it would help my daughter price them for a garage sale after I kick the bucket.

On 2014-04-25 15:43, Kaiwaza wrote:
or just haul them to Goodwill (I like to imagine the heart attack some Hawaiian collector would have walking in the store THAT day),

That would be EPIC! I'd like to imagine some TC dude randomly coming across my estate sale pictures on the internet after I go!

Buzzy Out!

On 2014-04-25 16:35, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:

On 2014-04-25 15:43, Kaiwaza wrote:
or just haul them to Goodwill (I like to imagine the heart attack some Hawaiian collector would have walking in the store THAT day),

That would be EPIC! I'd like to imagine some TC dude randomly coming across my estate sale pictures on the internet after I go!

Buzzy Out!

What Buzzy said! how cool would that be

So I say a big FU to established collecting rules, when a member of "Tiki Mug Club" dies
all their stuff goes to Goodwill!

No one has mentioned a will but that is where you can get pretty specific with your wishes and can include a lot of descriptions for clarity. That should help you to avoid some of your fears of what will happen to stuff or who will be responsible for it when you are gone. I am working with a relative now to do something that will help when she is gone. We are taking pictures of "family pieces" and writing the details down and putting it all together in an album so we will know all about the items to be kept in the family and if it isn't in there, it can go to family, yard sale, goodwill or the curb. Otherwise I wouldn't know all about the old things and who they were handed down from. Another thing, if you don't have a tiki relative or friend to leave your collection to, leave instructions as to who your survivors should contact to sell the stuff. Good topic and well worth considering.

8 FT -

That is a great idea. After recently losing my mom and a few years back my FIL, my husband I discuss this somewhat frequently. (Having to clear the content of someone's house like we did after his father died does this to a person.)

He'll kind of morbidly say, one day the kids will be selling this for a buck.

I love the idea of someone who truly loves tiki inheriting another person's treasures.

On 2014-04-25 15:29, Loki-Tiki wrote:
SandraDee;

I believe what you're describing is exactly what Humu had planned on for the next version of ooga-mooga.com. For it to be a place to document any kind of collection, not just mug-centric as it is now. That would be the ideal, so we could add any of our items there, with as much detail as we care to add.

That would be fantastic--I wish I was tech savvy enough to create an Ooga-Mooga spinoff to do just that since I know Humu is living the motherhood life these days.
I would love to have the ability to document everything.

I'm taking it with me!

David was a friend and got me thinking as well. My wife and son would be clueless about my collection or what to do with it when I am gone. So I have started doing the following.

• Documented avenues where they could be sold recommended options to sell and included links and account info for sites such as this
• Created an Excel Spreadsheet and have shared it to a Microsoft OneDrive folder my wife has access to
• Started by taking pictures and documenting the significant pieces Values/Back story
• Just purchased a bunch of those small round stickers. I will attach those to my mugs and other minor things and assign them a catalog number
• Catalog number can be cross checked with the spreadsheet for Values/Back story

There is one drawback to this, my wife is going to know the actual value of all my “junk”

I'd like to have my carcass put into my Tiki Bar and have it brunt to the ground.

Tiki forever!

-Longboard

On 2014-04-25 15:29, Loki-Tiki wrote:
I believe what you're describing is exactly what Humu had planned on for the next version of ooga-mooga.com. For it to be a place to document any kind of collection, not just mug-centric as it is now. That would be the ideal, so we could add any of our items there, with as much detail as we care to add.

Confirmation: yep, Loki-Tiki is right. It's coming! Sharpening my programming knives as we speak...

I was in on some early Beta testing of the new version of "Ooga-mooga" (pre-MamaHumu mode) and can say that it was definitely going in a great direction. Of course, that was a couple years ago, so there's no telling where that wonderful brain of hers has gone with the plans since then, but I expect it will be fabulous and useful for the most minimal, the detail-focused, and everywhere in between collectors.

A great subject. I’m going to add some kind of tag or note to my tikis and mugs! As far as the Islander bamboo I’m glad I had the thought to tag them for surely they would be tossed by future generations otherwise.

An easy way to put some info to your mugs is to copy any ebay sales of a mug you have in your collection and put it in that mug.
Just fold it up and stick it in.

Then when you die or get too old to remember it will have some info right in the mug.

I also write on any Kahiki pieces I have, stuff like this table/light came from the Kahiki.