RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1500

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2015

Milestones, Anniversaries, and Legacies

Column #1300, written in late December 2011, was the 25th anniversary column for “Rinker on Collectibles”.  Writing 1,300 weekly columns without missing a deadline required a major commitment.  At the time, I seriously questioned if I had the desire and fortitude to continue.

After wrestling briefly with the question of what is the lifetime of a weekly column, I decided to continue.  My reasons were twofold.  First, I wanted to continue analyzing and interpreting the digital revolution that still impacts the trade.  Second, many of the traditional collectors were reaching an advanced age.  During the next decade, many of these collections will re-enter the secondary market.  What impact would the Great Recession and changes in the collecting focus of the antiques and collectibles trade have on the value of these collections?

I set a goal of 1,500 columns.  Once I reached that milestone, I would revisit the future of “Rinker on Collectibles.”  When I wrote “Rinker on Collectibles” Column #1301, that decision was almost four years in the future.  The future is now.  This is “Rinker on Collectibles” Column #1500.

It is a milestone column, one of those numerical columns, such as 100, 250, 500, and 1,000 that means more to the writer than to his/her readers.  It does not signify an anniversary.  “Rinker on Collectibles” Column #1560 will mark the column’s 30th anniversary.

When I wrote the “Rinker on Collectibles” columns commemorating the 20th anniversary column, I reflected back on the changes that transpired in the previous 20 years.  Column #1300 chronicled the additional changes in the intervening five years.

[Author’s Aside #1:  Those readers who are unfamiliar with my 20th and 25th anniversary columns can read them on the “Rinker on Collectibles Special Series Column” URL on www.harryrinker.com.  I have asked Dana Morykan, my friend, webmaster for www.harryrinker.com, and “Rinker on Collectibles” proofreader for more than 20 years, to add Columns #1040 and #1042 to the 20th-year series and Column #1300 to the 25th-year series to provide a fuller overview.]

I checked “Rinker on Collectibles” Column #1000 to see if I did anything special.  I did not.  It was a text column devoted to the question of whether one can own too much stuff.  I argued in favor of the negative.  While I still would take the same position, my own personal experience has raised doubts.  Ten years ago, I had no thoughts of getting rid of anything.  Five years ago, I had to face the fact that there was no way I could move everything I owned to a new home in Michigan.  I have watched almost two-thirds of my things find homes with new owners over the past two and one-half years.  Today, I am organizing what remains as the first step to cataloging and creating a disposal plan, not for me (although it may come to that) but for Linda should something happen to me.

[Author’s Aside #2:  I recently celebrated my 74th birthday, neither a milestone nor an anniversary.  However, the older one gets, the more every birthday seems like a milestone.  The Germans treat every fifth birthday after 65 as an anniversary.  Having attended a few raucous 70th, 80th, and 85th German birthday parties, I appreciate the merit of this approach. The celebrant pays for the party, not my interpretation of what should occur.  Unlike my European German friends, Pennsylvania Germans, my ancestors, are somewhat thrifty, a polite term for cheap.  I am not convinced this is how I want to spend my money when I turn 75.]

As I get older, I find myself thinking more and more about my legacy.  Linda argues that I should have thought about it much earlier in life.  One cannot undo the past.  A person is who he/she is.

My “Rinker on Collectibles” column is just one of my many written antiques and collectibles legacies.  As I consolidate my paper files in an effort to decide what to save and what to discard, I am astonished by the number of articles, columns, newsletters, and reports I have written over the past 40 years.  Many articles, columns, and reports appeared in trade publications that no longer exist.

I recently found a file containing the hardcopy for No. 30 through 39 of “The Rinker Report,” that appeared in “Collectors News” in the 1990s.  “The Rinker Report” contained a “What’s Hot, What’s Not” section that “reported and commented about antiques and collectibles categories that have been traded during the last several months” and two think pieces, these in addition to my thoughts on “Rinker on Collectibles.”

Currently, there are four completely full file drawers containing hardcopies of my articles, columns, newsletters, and reports.  This is insufficient draw space, especially if I make hard copies of the internet blogs I wrote for several different websites.  I estimate there is enough additional material to fill at least another full file cabinet that I do not own nor for which I have space.

The above does not include my book files.  As I went through my material, I made the difficult decision to discard all book drafts, proofs, and final blue lines (the final check before publishing).  I applied the “Who Will Care” criteria, a question any collector or accumulator is loath to ask.

When considering the “Who Will Care” criteria in respect to the files containing my articles, columns, newsletters, and reports, I made a different decision.  This is a legacy I do not want to die.  Such a statement sounds selfish.  It is.  I take pride in what I have and still hope to contribute to the understanding of how the antiques and collectibles marketplace functions.

A paper legacy is very different from an object legacy.  Object life is measured in generations, even centuries.  Although I question extra value being assigned to any object because it was once part of one of my collections, I understand the potential marketing sale value.  I recently decided to sell a collection of Continental currency I accumulated in the 1970s and 1980s.  After meeting with George Cuhaj, Vice President of Cataloging and Consignor Relations for Archives International Auction, I consigned the notes to AIA.  Much to my surprise, the lots were listed as “The Harry Rinker Collection of Colonial Era Banknotes.”

Paper legacy has a much shorter lifetime.  There is a limit to how much ephemera can survive, although owners of large under and above ground storage facilities might argue to the contrary.  The internet “cloud” increases the possibilities exponentially.

The difficulty is that I am a member of the generations who lived the majority of their lifetime prior to the arrival of the digital age.  I do not trust the cloud, perhaps because I have read one too many stories focusing on electronic warfare.  I am a hardcopy guy.  I want to hold the paper in my hand.

Further, most paper legacies have limited to no financial value.  Their intellectual property value is directly related to the “who will care” test.  In 100 years, who will care about the writing legacy of a person who tracked, analyzed, and interpreted changes in the antiques and collectibles trade?  No academician, that is for certain.  Those historians who study antiques and collectibles are object focused.  The antiques and collectibles trade as a business had no historiography.

When Rinker Enterprises, Inc., was headquartered at the former Vera Cruz (Pennsylvania) Elementary School, a sign on one of the hallway bulletin boards read: “He who dies with the biggest pile wins.”  The assumption was that the pile would keep getting bigger.

As one gets older, the emphasis is no longer on making the pile bigger but questioning what is achieved by making the pile bigger.  When does one reach a point where enough is enough – what needs to be said, has been said?   I find myself asking this question with greater frequency than I did in the past.

What I still do is fun, my principal criteria for continuing.  “Rinker on Collectibles” will continue with the goal of reaching Column #1560, a much shorter window of time than the jump from Column #1300 to Column #1500.

To achieve this goal, I must write 30 more think piece text columns.  My list of potential text columns stands at 12.  I need 18 more ideas.  Upon what aspect, question, or change in the antiques and collectibles trade would you like me to pontificate?  Email your suggestions to harrylrinker@aol.com.  And, thanks for reading “Rinker on Collectibles.”

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI  49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.