Unless things today change hella drastically, that ‘someday’ won’t be any day
This is such a gross misrepresentation of those suffering from the myriad of mental health issues that can manifest as hoarding.
Hoarders aren’t stupid people “collecting” trash on purpose. It is a manifestation of unhealthy coping mechanisms surrounding resource instability, so they have a tougher time mentally letting go of things because they might need it later and not be able to obtain replacements, or an issue of executive function where the trash becomes a mountain too large for them to climb and they have spiraled out.
The best selling comic book of all time was X-Men #1. No it’s not the first X-Men comic from the 1970s, it was a comic Marvel released in the 90s. The collectors all bought it because it was a #1 thinking it would be worth a lot of money some day. And this is exactly why Marvel did this.
Right now there’s probably at least a million copies of that comic preserved in mint condition by collectors. It’s worth about what they paid for it in the 90s… because there’s so many out there.
I do remember a neighbor years ago who had a pile of X-Men issues from different times, and they were just ready to be read. No special covers, no gloves, no… while I hung around their house after school, I was asked to go freely read any of them, and it was truly entertaining reading comic books than just trying to hoard them.
The 90’s were a golden age for companies to trick people into thinking they were going to get rich someday. It had to do with the rising popularity of shows like Antique Roadshow and the expanding reach of media and stories about old comics and paintings being discovered in yard sales and auctioned for tens of thousands or millions of dollars.
I still have boxes and boxes of “first issues” with die-cut, holographic covers and other stupid gimmicks. I already dumped my old collection of trading cards and action figures all trying to cash in, I’ll probably have a big free box of comics and donate or burn anything leftover.
I remember, around this time, Spider Man relaunched with a dozen different holographic covers, and there were a million variations of The Death of Superman. Everyone thought they were going to be worth big bucks down the line.
They probably have to wait another 40 years, then it’ll be totally worth it!
Seems like some things are the same. Seen those pictures of huge Funko pop walls, people expecting to those figures to rise in value. Now also we have other “get rich” gambling scene in loot box collectibles like labubu or similar. It do feel like burning everything of these would be good.
It’s not always about what it might be worth later. It’s often about what it’s worth to the hoarder right now, and how much anguish getting rid of it would cause.
People will develop attachments to the most bizarre of things. Even a straw and a plastic lid.
Source: I’m pretty much a hoarder. Thankfully I don’t develop attachments to rubbish and recyclables like the character in this comic, but I have far too many books, clothes, knick-knacks and household items that I can’t let go of. Many were gifts.
The books are the worst because I feel like they’re tainted by having been in my house. If they ever leave here, the best place for them might be landfill or incineration and that feels like a waste. So here they languish where they might have some use.
You can’t wash a book.
I had a clear-out 10 years ago - anything that could be cleaned up went to charity - and still have regrets about some of that. The next one probably isn’t going to happen any time soon.
You list the books, the condition, add pictures if you choose, people can request it from you if they want it, it’s their choice and you don’t have to feel bad about it, and you ship it to them. In return you get points you can use to request books from others.
Hey, what do you mean your books are tainted by having been in your house? It’s clear you love your books, they aren’t tainted for having come in contact with you. There are plenty of people who would love to have them if you just put a sign out.
When I was younger all I had to pass the time was a random assortment of books my parents had collected over the years. That set introduced me to some of my favorite genres
I’m a bit of a hoarder, but not because I’m sentimentally attached. I feel like I would later need it and not have it. To my bane, I sometimes end up using some seemingly useless piece of trash one day without having to buy it, thus affirming my beliefs.
Also if you finally throw something out that you hoarded for years, you end up needing it within like a week.
It’s a universal law *nodnod*
DIY-ers unite!
I’m 100% gonna use all of those niche, one-off cables. Maybe just the connector will be useful…
That little metal bracket thingy? Uh, I don’t remember what it was for… or actually I do but I don’t have that thing anymore… But if I end up making something similar in size, I’ve already got a bracket!
Was this the box of good parts, or the box of bad parts? Eh, I don’t have time to test right now, better just keep both boxes… (followed by, "why isn’t this working? I just swapped in new parts…)
Ah, this completely useless thing I made! Ha! How foolish I was to think this would ever serve it’s intended purpose. I’d better keep it to remind myself how dumb I was.
My great-grandmother turned 20 during the Great Depression, and she helped raise me. I think that’s why I’m like this too.
I’m just too lazy to toss it right away so I stack it until I hate the stack more than getting up.
Then the cycle repeats.
After having to deal with the shit my hoarder parents had accumulated after they died, all I can advise is make sure you get that shit sorted out or cleaned out before you pass away if you have any family at all.
Having to manage those hordes of shit was fantastically difficult. It’s not “The Sims” you can’t just drag everything to a taskbar and exchange it for cash. The time investment alone of trying to auction or yard sale or swap-meet everything makes it almost completely worthless to attempt.
The number of things I managed to recover and sell that weren’t improperly stored and had value was probably less than a couple thousand dollars in various antiques, which took me years to sort out and find buyers for. From nearly forty years of accumulated shit that cost more to store than could have ever generated in return.
all I can advise is make sure you get that shit sorted out or cleaned out before you pass away
I know you mean well, and I hate to say it, but this is roughly equivalent to telling a depressed person to “cheer up”.
I’m well aware of the burden this would leave someone having to clear out my house, because I’m the one with that same burden right now. This is not the motivation someone in good mental health might think it would be.
Mental illness does not imply stupidity. I mean, I’m plenty stupid a lot of the time, but the two aren’t connected. And I can see the problem where a lot of hoarders can’t. And yet, if I was capable of fixing the problem, it wouldn’t have existed in the first place.
I am well aware of how mental illness works. I am saying don’t leave it on people, nothing more and nothing less. Your mental illness may not be your fault but it is your responsibility.
Strange how this is one of those cases where someone who is clearly incompetent to meet a responsibility must nonetheless meet it. I should maybe pick myself up by my bootstraps while I’m at it.
What are you talking about books? The one thing I sold and bought used the most are books.
My dad with seemingly every piece of lumber he’s ever come in contact with 😮💨
My family is full of semi hoarders, i’m quite the opposite, and i often really don’t get them.
But then i hold two pieces of wood in my hands and contemplate for a few moments if i should keep them.
Son?
I can relate to your dad.
i knew people like this. everything was thrown away after they died.
My parents were like this. Figuring out how to deal with their hordes of shit was one of the hardest things I had to do. Most of it got thrown away, but there was also so much shit with actual value, that I spent years going through it all until finally giving up. I’ll never know how many tens of thousans of dollars worth of shit is now landfill.
The lesson here is that collecting every little thing for some kind of imagined “value” is that you will never, ever, ever have the time nor energy to cash any of that investment in.
Had to rent a full size semi truck dumpster for my mom’s place. Filled it up and had to have them haul it out and bring another, which we filled 2/3.
that’s pretty much exactly what happened. there was a bunch of old stuff that could definitely be used, but it was so much actual garbage thrown in we couldn’t sort through it and had to throw out most of what we couldn’t donate away. they still have some stuff to sort through.
I feel that.
It was kind of a nightmare, I still have dreams about it because it was entire lifetimes of memories and experiences all blended together in piles. Childhood trinkets covered with dust and bugs next to a box of photographs all stuck together from water damage, next to unopened toys in perfect condition but were actually worthless, next to something that would have been worth a lot of money if it had been stored properly, and so on. It was just one heartbreak after another going through it all. It spanned multiple storage units and homes and everyone was angry about it, from the managers of storages to the people who owned the land the homes were on.
That’s before even getting to the unending hassle of storing the stuff I was trying to sell off or get rid of. I never did finish the task, I lost my own home at the time and just had to leave a pile in the garage for the next owners to go through.
Okay, but by then 20 million dollars will be considered pocket change.
Dang that’s fucking grim
Yes it is. Feels wrong to poke fun at people with mental disorders.
Here, let me help - That far in the future that amount of money would probably buy a loaf of bread.
😁
Nah I mean the hoarding. The sad flimsy justification for living in filth and piles of worthless objects
Often the “worthless” stuff can have a purpose though consumism brainwash or force people in to buy new things
Twilight Zone ending theme starts
General rule of thumb for me: if you haven’t touched it in a year and it’s not a valid keepsake it goes…(sorry hoarders, that random chip clip that you haven’t touched in 5 years isn’t a keepsake)
glad to know my method of cleaning up by moving things from one side of the room to the other allows me to keep everything!
$10-20mil in the year 2571 is like $0.15 today
I’m not broke, I’m just a temporally displaced millionaire
So that’s what they mean when they say they were born in the wrong generation
Just expecting my paycheck soon…the lottery
Why does he have nft-face
