I have been collecting elephants for about 65 years, ever since I won a little plastic one at a carnival. I now have about 3,000 different elephants and elephant-themes items (eg. 100 cups and mugs, 50 neckties, 100 coins (some dating back to the Roman Empire, 100 books, 75 planters, 150 Christmas tree ornaments, paintings, statures, etc.). I have enjoyed collecting them, but it is now time for me to get rid of them. I would like to donate them to a museum, college, non-profit organization, etc. I would prefer to keep the collection intact rather than have the organization “cherry pick” only the ones it wants, but I have been unable to find any such organization that wants them. Can anyone suggest where I might find someone interested in such a collection?
Since the OP is looking for advice, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
You might try eBay. I know you’d like to keep the collection intact, but a lot of people with large collections parcel them out on eBay in lots, making sure that each lot has a mix of both very desirable and sort of so-so pieces.
Good luck!
An enormous Alabama fan?
(Not me, tho. i mean, I’m a huge Bama fan, but no.)
Forget Bama: Tufts University, home of the Jumbos
No idea, but you can’t rely on the donee to follow through with your wishes and maintain the collection either. I’ve been through this with a Pez collection. Why not preserve them as images? Make a web site, your collection can grow virtually. Sounds like you could get a lot of different pictures from your collection. Or just go on Craig’s list and look for other elephant collectors. You may not mind seperating your pachyderms if you know they’re going off to live in other collections.
I’ve asked them. They are not interested in collections, just individual pieces.
Sounds like you need someone who wants to open their own elephant museum.
Oh, god, I read the title and thought you meant actual elephants.
So did I! I thought this was going to be about some crazy dictator (looking at you, North Korea) ordering 3000 elephants for some parade but insisting they all be adorned in singular and unique ways.
I could add them to my elephant collection, which currently numbers 5.
That sounds prime for eBay. I sold my mother’s collection of pigs, several hundred at least, on eBay.
Sell them as a maybe ten lots of x-hundred pieces each.
I have no idea but I collect elephants, too, so I had to at least see what this thread was about.
Have you got one of those unbrella stands made from an elephant’s leg?
I’d like to have a look, too, if you did decide you were willing to split up the collection.
No, but I have an ice bucket made from an elephant’s foot.