Mrs. Top (A/K/A Boondock Saint) and I were talking about regrets today and this question came up. In my case, it was a 1975 Ford Maverick I owned. Rebuild junkyard 302, subframe connectors, rebuilt suspension w/ ajustable shocks- totally dialed in. Wasn’t much on straightline preformance, but could hold its own against a new 'Vette down Mulholland (this was in the early 90’s). After getting stopped 25 times in two years in this car, I finally got a ticket for going five miles over the speed limit. The next day I sold it and I’ve (mentally) kicked myself ever since.
So, fellow Dopers, what did you have that you regret getting rid? Favorite chair, collectable, car, pet, anything you want to get off your chest.
My third boyfriend. Looking back on him, he really was a keeper, just a little young. But we all grow old, I should have kept him around for a few years.
I really regret giving up my massive collection of Lego blocks. My parents convinced me to give them to my younger cousin. After a couple years, he junked them. For the past few years, I’ve had a longing to relax on the floor, staring at the mountain of them, and letting the creative urges take over. I cannot help but feel a pang of sadness when I see the expensive new Lego sets in the toy aisles. I yearn to roll around naked in my mountain of Legos.
Okay, maybe I put that last part in the wrong thread…
I sold a beautiful cherry sunburst Rickenbacker 330 12 string guitar to a friend of a friend. He still has it, and I told my frind to tell his friend that I want to buy it back…fingers crossed.
Years ago, I had a box that lots of goodies in it, including some short rolls of 35mm movie film from my days as a projectionist. I had some cool stuff. My favorite prize was a Simpson’s cartoon that I liberated from the head of “The War of the Roses”
Sadly, I think I tossed the box in an overly-zealous dumping spree before we moved to our current home. Either that, or it’s been buried in some dark corner for the last five years.
When I was preparing to move cross country I threw away all the negatives to my pictures…now of course I need to redo my oldest son’s scrapbook and I can’t reprint anything…bad move…Margo
I have sold 2 SKS rifles, one of them to a man that never reclaimed it from the dealer who was brokering the deal. I wish I hadn’t. I love that rifle, and really really want one now. Exceedingly hard to find, since most folks seem to think they’re illegal.
In a moment of needing money badly, I sold a handgun to someone. The deal was illegal as all hell, but I needed money. I regret that one for many many reasons.
My step-brothers let a lego collection of immense magnitude get thrown away. Part of me will never forgive them. You just can’t get lego’s like that anymore… all the kits and such just suck too much.
Two comic books I inherited from my grandfather - the first Superman and the first Wonder Woman. I wasn’t into superhero comics, so I kept them for a few years, and tossed them when I was about 16. NOW they’re worth a fortune.
Also, my grandmother used to let me play in her jewelry box when I was little, and when I was about 12, she gave me all her “plastic” jewelry, which, over the years, disappeared in various circumstances - I gave a bracelet to a friend in exchange for some silver earrings, I lost a necklace, sold a bunch of it for a quarter per piece in a garage sale. It was all gone by the time I was 20. It was all Bakelite, and again, now it’s worth a fortune.
The suit I wore at my wedding. I gave it to Goodwill a year or two ago for a reason that I cannot remember now. I’m not a sentimental person and definitely not a pack-rat, but I miss it now. We eloped so there weren’t a lot of momentos from our wedding. It would be nice to still have that suit.
I used to have a huge collection of MAD books and magazines. Since I hadn’t read them for several years and I was desperate for money I virtually gave them away at a yard sale my parents were having. Now I find myself wanting to read them again and wishing I still had them. :smack:
I also wish I had held onto my Tandy Color Computer 3. I had been using it for about four years when I got my first IBM-compatible computer in 1991. The old computer sat forelornly in the corner gathering dust and taking up space, so I sold it for $100 w/ the monitor, IIRC. Now I wish I had it back. It was such a fun little computer (all 128K of it, whoo hoo!) I used to buy a monthly (now long defunct) magazine called The Rainbow (wish I still had these magazines, too). Every issue would be loaded with dozens of BASIC programs to be typed in. It was quite rewarding to have a full-featured game running after a few hours of typing.
Fortunately I still have my Legos, as I could never give these away. My 7-year-old nephew likes to play with them now.
Life on Wry… I was just checking the value of rare comics to get a value on my own collection. I was pleased to see that many of the comics I collected in my younger days are now worth significantly more than the pocket change I paid for them.
I went to see what a mint first edition Superman was worth…
Nine hundred thousand dollars.
I regret selling my old Toyota Landcruiser, I got great money for it at the time but now their value is skyrocketing as a collector’s item. Mine had been rebuilt from the ground up and was better than new.
Not that hard to get. Several of the SKSs have been classified as Curios and Relics by the BATF and can be purchased mail order if you get the relatively cheap C&R FFL.
I just bought a very nice Yugoslavian SKS for $109 including shipping from Aim Surplus. Southern Ohio Gun has them also. (You can find their web sites with Google). I agree, they are surprisingly nice rifles.
I regret getting rid of my 1958 Chevy Biscayne. Damn I loved that car.
When I was just out of college, I had a Diamond Back Ascent EX mountain bike painted in a gorgeous gray smoke pattern with a subtle iridescent purple overlay. I sold it to buy what I thought was a cooler bike, but ended up not liking the new bike and missing the old one. I’ve never seen one in a similar color since and really regret selling it.
My 1997 Z3. Traded it in on an isotope green Bug because I fell in love with the color and thought I wanted a new car, but now even though I like the Bug just fine, I really miss the Z3.
A whole bag of various toys/action figures that disappeared during our last move. I think I might have had it out in the garage during a garage sale and someone walked off with it, but there’s no way I can prove it. They weren’t valuable, but they represented years of casual collecting.
I miss my first car. A real POS Ford LTD. It’s just as well I got rid of it, because it was always falling apart, but the car I stupidly let my Mom talk me into buying just cost too much and ended up getting wrecked and reposessed anyway.
I also regret getting rid of oen of my other cars, a '77 Volkswagon Bus camper. I couldn’t afford the upkeep and, once again, my mom was of no help. I didn’t get a single red cent for that thing and I heard the guy fixed it up and sold it for a fortune. Damn she’s stupid. Instead of helping me figure out a way to sell it (in fact, she refused to do this) she told me my only choice was to call a junkyard. And of course, the guy took advantage of the fact that I was a kid who had no idea what I was doing.
I regret selling my Commodore 64 setup, mostly since I had a real, functioning Spartan Apple 2 emulator for it that was the next best thing to vaporware and exceedingly rare.
I also regret selling my little Ruger 10/22 Rifle. Very common, and if I wanted another I could buy it without too much difficulty, but man, it was a nice little gun.
I also miss my 300ZX Turbo, but I didn’t need it so I don’t really regret it.
NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Holy %#*$&@, Batman!!! I don’t think I am worth that much!
I am NEVER throwing anything away ever again as long as I live so help me Pete. (Although my copy wasn’t in mint condition when I got it, I bet it still would have been worth a pretty penny now.)