You never know when something you hoarded as a kid is going to make a comeback or – even better – become a collector’s item worth big bucks.
If you ever realized that you might have a bunch of crap in your old bedroom that could suddenly net you some cash, only to find out that your parents purged it, well…you know what it’s like to be in these 15 people’s shoes.
15. This is just awful.
“I found out my brother in law was using his grandfathers coin collection to buy energy drinks and cigarettes. They were a lot of mint silver dollars, assorted old coins he had been collecting for decades.
I found him basically taking the coins out of their display cases and tossing the plastic case so he could use them at face value. Grandfather at the time had dementia so no longer cared and I never found out how much money was lost.”
14. This is just a sad story all the way around.
“I remember when state quarters first came out, my father sent me a collection of every first edition state quarter and one time I went to show my friends awhile later and couldn’t find them, I asked my mother and she said she had to use them for laundry.
We were very poor at the time so I understand, but I was a little sad by it as well because it was one of the only things my father ever sent me.”
13. I have to assume he’s not lying.
“Nearly all of the first 24 editions of virtually every Marvel series, from The Fantastic Four to Spiderman (including the Amazing Tales in which he was introduced) to Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Basically all of them.
At a comic book store I was once looking at some collectors editions of those comics priced at about $1500 to $2400. I said to the clerk “Man, I used to have all of these.” The clerk, whom I’m sure was Matt Groening’s model for Comic Book Man, without even looking up said in a bored voice, “Do you know how many times a day I hear that?””
12. I wonder if she knows where they are…
“My brother had a bunch of first edition Pokémon cards, that he spent over a year collecting. Mom took them away for getting in trouble at school, and they were never seen again.”
11. None of this is remotely okay.
“Jeez, After my mom died, my dad met this crazy, Jahova’s witness bitch and one thing led to another. About a month before my highschool graduation we got into a HUGE fight over something and she burned my collection of old DnD books and magic cards.
Complete collections…
every 1st edition book in good condition signed by Gygax. Guess my brother knew him at some point.
The real kicker? I rode the wave of the original magic the gathering launches back in the day, complete sets of the original series through…homelands? All burnt to a crisp. Every once in a while when i want to be depressed about never being able to retire i look up the card values
Edit: For the Curious, this was almost 25 years ago, i dont even know if the crazy bitch was still alive honestly.”
10. Yes but they were packed away neatly for a reason!
“I had the complete collection of teenage mutant ninja turtles figures.. i packed them into a box and put them away then later when looking for them i couldn’t find them… asked my mother.. “oh those, i threw them out.. you weren’t playing with them anymore””
9. I have all the rage.
“I feel your pain. My parents were evangelical Christians and burned all of my first edition harry potter books and mine and my brother’s pokemon collection. The HP stuff for “witchcraft” reasons and he cards because the yin yang sign on them is “a doorway for demons”. Religion eh?”
8. Definitely still worth something.
“Lots of original Star Wars toys. They wouldn’t be NIB, definitely used but still…”
7. Some lucky buck found those and squealed.
“1st editions of The Chronicles of Narnia signed by C.S. Lewis”
6. Oh man, that must be driving him mad!
“I had an original burned CD of Drake’s first ever home recorded demo LP. Like.. burned by him and signed with a sharpie. He gave it to me when I was working as a security guard in his condo before he blew up and got famous. I still keep hoping I’ll find it in a box somewhere…”
5. How many garbage men are retiring on stuff our parents trashed?
“I had every single beyblade released in the US until I went to college and my mom ‘gave them away to a worthy cause’. Turns out she dumped them in the trash, the man who drives the garbage van told me about them and asked me if he could take them home for his kid. I agreed anyway.”
4. One person’s trash…
“About 40 Indian Arrow heads collected on my grandparents farm for years by myself and my grandfather and full sets of baseball cards from 1969-1980, my mom decided to toss out all that “junk” when I moved out for military.”
3. Someone is not ready to let this go.
“I had a huge collection of magic the gathering cards all in mint condition dating back all the way to alpha that I collected as a young kid. My psycho mom decided that I had too much stuff that I enjoyed and threw out my collection and a bunch of other stuff.
Some background is needed since there’s a lot of issues of clarity on this collection.
I hung out with an autistic kid all the time as a kid and his dad owns a comic shop. So he would give me booster boxes at vendor cost and also give me tons of stuff as gifts for holidays and birthdays. He also knew how horrible my mom was, so he was always cool and teaching me stuff.
All my friends use to order booster boxes through me and give me a few booster packs for helping, most of them have me their collections when they quit playing. I also learned from him how to take care of my stuff properly, which was something I enjoyed because my brother and sister broke my toys all the time and they ignored me when I had my cards or read books.
I bought everything myself with money I made for myself at 5 years old. I would fix other kids bikes, mow lawns, shovel snow, do yard work, help old people with various things, etc.
The moment I could have a real job I got it delivering papers by bike at 12 years old. Asking my parents for money was basically like asking to play a prank on myself that wasn’t funny. Right now I have a similar sensibility with money and trading favors with other professionals to get deals on stuff.
I bought a new furnace and had it installed for a grand total of $2k because of a contractor friend of mine getting it for me, modifying it, and installing it himself because I designed all his business materials. He gives me deals like that all the time and helps me fix stuff because everything I did made his business blossom making him 3x what he normally did independently.
That’s an example, I also have a tax friend and other various friends in various trade fields that I do this with. It pays to be socially open / open minded, caring, and diplomatic while having a good time.
while quite possibly a $1 million collection, maybe slightly under, I am offsetting this by the comics she did the same thing to. Basically by the time I left home my mtg collection, comic collection, soccer gear, signed artwork, and various other things were thrown away. If you add it up it definitely goes well above the $2 million dollar mark
12 collections of mtg cards I was given were alpha-Arabian nights. Every collection afterwards given to me had cards from there in them but were usually after beta. Over 30 collections with a majority being friends that followed my cues on care. They all though sleeves, binders, and boxes looked way cooler than torn up cards.
I post all the time in r/raisedbynarcissists but I never thought this many people would care about losing that kind of collection.
I have no want to waste time suing my mom or the desire to deal with the drama, i prefer to have an excuse to not have her in my or my kids lives. I also don’t talk to her much or let her in my kids lives, I have her a chance with my first son and she failed miserably.
She was racist to his autism therapist the only time I let her take him to his ABA center, which I smoothed over by meeting with them to explain her actions and words are not representative of me or my family.
Her excuse was that things were “too easy” for me, so she tried to screw it up so I’d have to drive an hour away to the next best acceptable facility. She doesn’t care, she’s just that horrible type of parent that doesn’t want you to be better off than she was at any point in your life.
my mom was way worse than just doing this, it wasn’t done for any reason other than she hated that I was a strong willed person that questioned everything when she wanted to control everything and everyone around her.
So when I see people say she arbitrarily did it, she knew it would hurt/traumatize me and possibly give up and fall in line with being the nobody she wanted me to be.
I feel for anyone who had similar experiences
I don’t believe in revenge, I believe in karma
I was not going to sell my entire collection in college, I was going to sell a few of the expensive cards I had that I had more than 5 copies of. I was planning to save the rest for when they were so expensive I’d feel bad touching them.
my mom ruined a scholarship for studying abroad in high school where my room and board were paid for already and I would have a job tutoring English for extra money.
She also spent my grandparents money that was set aside in my college account as my inheritance, got me injured playing soccer costing me to lose a full ride to a university that won national titles every year I would have attended, intentionally tried to sabotage me from being able to go to class in college, lied to family constantly causing them to harass me about stuff I knew nothing about, and many other things I don’t care to reminisce about.”
2. This is one forgiving brother!
“South African coin collection that my older sister threw away without consulting anyone.
Wow, it looks like this resonated with a lot people. Thanks for all your responses and for the silver from the kind person. Stay well Everyone.
To answer your questions: Thankfully, they were not kruger rands. My parents would have kept those safe. They were random old copper coins that had become rare because they were old. I was young and naive and had never thought to value them.
They may not have been worth that much at the time, but they were valuable to me for sentimental reasons. They may been worth a few hundred each by now. Who knows.
My sister was into different things at the time, so I don’t think she had any clue about coin collecting. It was very mean to throw out my stuff and I think she realised this later on, but I don’t resent her for it because we all make mistakes.”
1. Why would anyone do that?
“My mom had a collection of signed Beatles records that she threw away after she converted to Christianity because played backwards they summoned the devil or something. For years I was hoping to inherit it when I grew up.
All i think it summoned was poverty.”
This has never happened to me because I never really took care of my things. Womp-womp.
Do you have a story like this?
Please share it with us in the comments!