Not discarded, but I sold a man’s beaver top hat in its original Dobbs Fifth Avenue hat box. I had bought them at an estate sale years earlier, because the hat and the box were in wonderful condition. I think it dated to perhaps the early 1920’s.
I was trying to accumulate money for a down payment on a house.
I was reading a thread about Bitcoin, a guy back in 2013 was delighted he’d raised the deposit for a house in Belfast by selling his collection of 650.
Both of these are vehicles, so I have to temper my statements by realizing that they would have needed a lot of mechanical work and attention over the years. Also, I obviously sold them and did not just discard them.
First, my 1984 Olds Cutlass Supreme. It was blue over gray and beautiful. It had every option available except the T-tops, and that was because I got the moon roof. It was…perfect. The gauges were all in the right place, it had a great ride and comfy seats, and it was just…perfect.
Second, my 1984 Honda V65 Magna. I added 4 into 1 pipes, a jet kit, and slightly longer handlebars. I foolishly sold it to help make a down payment on a house. Then I went to an H-D. I would pay three times what I sold it for to have it back.
My first car. Black '91 Volvo 240. Great car. Wasn’t really anything wrong with it, it had been my mother’s commuter and became mine when I went to college. After college I wanted a Crown Victoria and bought one. Gave the Volvo back to my father who had no use for it and sold it.
I’ve looked for another one over the years but they just don’t come up for sale that often. Anyone who owns one still running tends to hold on to it with both fists (like I should have). On cars.com there are only 11 for sale in the entire USA. Autotrader only had 20 for sale in the entire country. By contrast, on a European site I found almost 200 up for sale.
A Crayola crayon collection. Over 30 years of collecting and sold almost all of it. I was single and met a gal that was not into collecting anything. She thought my collections were childish. Besides the crayons, also sold off an extensive Monopoly token collection and a cribbage board collection. I am over the tokens and cribbage boards but the crayons still cause an ache. I had some really rare pieces and haven’t found any to buy to replace them.
…also my entire childhood was left in an attic when I was 12 and my dad moved out of that apartment. I had so many “cards” - baseball, hockey, Star Wars and other 80’s movies, Fisher-Price toys, Red Rose tea figurines, etc. All discarded. The worst feeling is I know I had 3 Wayne Gretzky rookie cards.
I sold off most of my record collection (900+ albums) in 1996. I had moved 3 times in 2 years and I just got tired of schlepping all those crates around. (Plus the fact that my new apartment was pretty small and I didn’t have enough room for an entire wall of records).
I don’t miss the records themselves, it’s the full-sized album art, liner notes and inserts I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of.
Oh, man! The 64 is a great item to keep in your car console. I wish I had one. No problems with corrosion, the sights don’t get bumped out of alignment, the round is effective, no hot brass being ejected, you don’t have to rotate magazines, there’s no worry about whether a round is chambered, no safety to worry about, great accuracy…
When I moved to California, I went on an absolute tear to reduce the amount of stuff we’d have to ship and store. There were some items, like my Linotype and my printing press that could not have been affordably moved, but I badly regret giving away my like-new late '50 Crown Graphic Pacemaker 4x5 press camera. Stupid.
I’m tempted to find the guy I gave it to and ask him if he’ll sell it back. A new public darkroom with 4x5 capability just opened up downtown.
Good grief! I have a Sansui 5000a sitting in the bookshelf behind me as I type. I bought it in Hong Kong in 1970. I had to replace the on/off switch about 20 years ago because it wore out and the FM doesn’t work any more, but it has so many input/output plugs on the back that I just use it as an amp for a plethora or other equipment.
Not necessarily discarded (I never throw anything away) but sold:
53 Chevy Bel Aire
53 Chevy 1/2 ton pickup (5-window)
57 Triumph TR3
56 Triumph TR2
64 Triumph TR4A
Belgian made Browning Hi-Power
a Lionel train set from the 50s
Everything I left at my parents house when I went into the Navy that they threw away while I was gone.
I had two copies of Superman Annual #1, which I understand is worth a lot now.
Even worse, I had a lot of early Marvel superhero comics (and some pre-Spiderman ones).
All tossed by my parents.
Plus I had the entire set of Invaders from Mars cards (the source of the Burton movie) which was worth a lot when the movie came out. Most of them didn’t make it across the country, but they did make it from Brooklyn to Queens.