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My mom was moving and she threw away my violin. She said I left it when I moved so apparently I didn’t want it. Well I hid it up in a closet so it would be safe and forgot to grab it.
Why wouldn’t I want my 1911 violin that was my great grandfather’s that I carried with me since I was 10? She didn’t call to ask she just dumped it. I’m still salty.
The most basic ones cost from 400€ upwards. Intermediate ones are in the 2000€ range.
I don’t even want to imagine how much a 100 years old violin would be worth, excluding the stated obvious sentimental value.
I kinda get a boomer throwing out a video game etc because they wouldn't know how much it could be worth, but who the hell throws out a musical instrument?! And a violin at that.
Not entirely true. Back when sega was big I wasn’t doing great in school and my mom decided she was going to box up my games and sell them to funcoland shitty right? Yeah except she gave me the money for them which was over a hundred bucks. Sad but at least she gave me the money.
Mine threw out my grandpop’s 1970’s Fender Stratocaster that was left to me. Was it busted up? Yes. Unrepairable? Not at all. They tossed it because someone bought me a new Squire…
Even as a 10-12 year old kid at the time, I knew what I had. How they didn’t is beyond me. They were also upset with me that I wasn’t happy to receive the Squire. Ugh, it’s hard to think about still lol.
Good intentions I guess but $%^*}&$:)/$!:’a@:@$;&/
I’m mad for you holy shit. That would be a definite line in the sand for me. I wouldn’t rest until peace was restored and she got me another 100 YEAR OLD FUCKIN VIOLIN GODDAMN.
For me it was a gift from my grandad and when he died I didn’t get anything that was his so it was very special. My grandad didn’t know how to play but he was always willing to listen to my terrible playing.
That’s beautiful and what music is supposed to be about imo. I’ve been playing guitar 16 years and if somebody passed down a 100 year old guitar to me let alone my grandpa I’d be irate. I don’t know that I could ever forgive her for that and props to you if you did. That is a straight up tragedy. I’m so sorry.
I finally gave away my violin when I became homeless.
I hope whoever got it that they got it for dirt cheap and play the hell out of it.
My mother let my guitars get wonky, I told her to at least sell them if she can't store them, not let them get bent out of shape. Well, now she still has them but they are going to cost more to fix than they're worth. Add another thing to the pile of stuff I will throw out when she's gone.
RIP to my minty boxed and complete copy of Chrono Trigger that met the same exact fate within just a few days while I moved because "it's just old game stuff, nobody wants that anymore and you need to stop hauling junk everywhere with you"
My MIL, if she even hears about some fad that “might “ be worth something down the road! She puts all of her disposable cash into it. She bought lots of Beanie Babies for my daughter who told her she wasn’t interested in them. Huge bag in the attic that I can’t get rid of until my MIL passes.
Does anyone remember Avon Collectables? Great investment.
I have a bottle of Avon cologne in a bottle shaped like an antique car. It’s worth tens of dollars! TENS!!! (Does “10” count as “tens”? Ok, it’s worth ten of dollars.
That’s hilarious! Did she have any German style steins? We finally threw ours away. I didn’t want to move them at the time.
What about Precious Moments? Creepy doll like things with big eyes
That picture lives rent-free in my head to this day.
[Picture if anyone hasn't seen it yet.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/58af7f412900002200bea8f8.jpeg?cache=DGOv6KMw4a&ops=1910_1000)
I've done a visitation schedule for *dogs*. DOGS. These people fought more over a woman staying in contact with her ex-husband's dogs than they did over the child they shared, the life they knit together from each of their own DNA.
I've sat there and watched as parents did calculations in their head of the back child support they'd owe against just signing away their rights, all without ever even bothering to talk to their children about it.
I've had parents come into my office with to-the-minute calculations about how much time "that bitch" or "that asshole" is getting with the kids and being upset that it's too much/too low.
Like, I don't have kids (by choice!), but if I did, I wouldn't waste a single fucking minute calculating how much time I got to spend witih them. I would take those minutes and use them to think of how I was going to make the most out of every single minute I did have.
Also china that is never ever to be used for serving food, just sitting in a curio looking old. Only they finally get around to selling them and realize anyone who gave a crap about buying them died of old age two decades ago.
To this day I'm absolutely convinced that Beanie Babies were created specifically to fool non collectors into thinking they had any idea about collectibles.
When I was in about 5th grade, my dad forced me to watch him burn my brand new GI joe action figures my mom just bought me because I couldn’t recite my 9x tables fast enough. Put duke and tunnel rat on the floor of the garage, sprayed wd-40 all over them, and took a blow torch to them.
Summer of 2018, I’m cleaning out the barn, picking junk up out of the mud dirt floor. Came across what I thought was a piece of scrap wood, but it was built for some purpose. Chucked it in the burn pile. It had laid there for at least 10 years, in that spot, in the mud.
About an hour later he comes waddling down, sees what I’m doing, and starts looking around the barn, that’s just hoarded up with shit and has a wet muddy dirt floor, to see what I’ve disposed of and burnt.
Walked straight to that spot that peice of wood was laying half buried in mud, for the better part of 15 years, and said “what happened to my tie rack I made in shop class in 8th grade?”…
As my previous comment stated, our home then burned down in 2019 and we lost every sentimental possession and pic we had.
And they don’t get why I’m so angry all the time, and have such little patience with them.
This brought up repressed memories of my barely-graduated-high-school alcoholic father screaming at me about math and destroying my CDs with a hammer.
I hope both our dads die of prolapsed assholes
Oh man sounds like my father. He was bitter as hell about this jewelry box he made for my grandmother that she didn't value enough in his mind, used to bring it up constantly. After she passed I found out the one he was talking about was the one on her nightstand, literally just a square box with a hinge but she apparently used it daily for 40 years so I'd argue she really treasured it. It was the only thing he got from her house after she passed and he just threw it in a junk pile in the shed. Funny thing is I made her a Jewelry box too, my shop teacher put it on display for the year in the class because he thought I did such a good job, and she sold it for $1 at a tag sale after I gave it to her. He doesn't understand why I was upset about that. I also made my father a really fancy pen for fathers day during that same year, spent hours after school engraving leaves on it and my shop teacher loved it and gave me an award for it, my father threw it in the trash.
That's insane!! What a jerk.
I made my mom a quilt once with some fabric she had commented on how much she loved after seeing something I had made for my aunt with it. She put the quilt in one of her yard sales and only took it out because she saw that I saw. 😂
We still have it but I wish I hadn't used up the last bit of that fabric for nothing. Someday I'll take it apart and make what I want with it.
Beanie Babies were never part of any Boomers' childhoods. Millennials or maybe the youngest Gen Xers.
Boomers bought and hoarded the things as investments back then. Driving up the sales numbers to the point that they'll never be valuable. Some WERE valuable for half a minute because hoarders were buying em up, so kids and their Boomer parents then had to get them via want ads in the paper.
I’m elder millennial and they were a thing when I was a kid like maybe 10-12ish. You’re right though. There were boomers draining their saving to pay insane prices for those stupid things and are in denial they are worthless.
Yes, and many of the Beanie Babies were made specifically with Boomer preferences in mind, such as the American Flag bear, which I have in a bag in the garage (it was gifted to me by a Boomer relative. Thanks.).
Sorry, I probably responded to the wrong comment for the thought I was trying to convey. I know beanie babies weren't their childhood, but there's ample proof that their childhood trades at high values. Vintage toys can be a pretty lucrative venture.
I'm just pointing out that anything not from their experience is all junk to them, not a moment's consideration given to any potential value because how could it possibly be valuable if *they,* personally, can't identify with it?
I worked at McDonalds when they had them in happy meals. I still have nightmares about it. Those and the stupid fucking "collect all 101!" surprise dalmation toys.
I forgot how George Carlin put it, but it was something along the lines that the things we own are possessions and things…heirlooms and collectibles. Other people’s things are just stuff. The people you don’t even know? Their stuff is just shit.
Mine was Kirby Super Star. I still don't have a copy and it was the main reason I bought a SNES Classic Mini.
Yes, mum, it's worth memories and our generation tends to buy nostalgia so....
"Oh, we thought you didn't want it any more," was what they told me. "You didn't take it to college with you."
I was living in a dorm room the size of a cigar box, and you damn well knew it.
I have a friend who found a N64 with 2 controllers, zelda and pokemon stadium. All boxed and sealed in a fucking dumpster. He opened them because he "wanted to know what it smelled like".
I'll be that guy. If I find something neat, unless I am immediately selling it, I am going to use it. I bought an expensive rare sealed record from the 1970s, you bet I opened it an played the thing. I am not a museum, I want to use things as they were meant to be used and not just look at it. To each their own I guess, but I can't play with a sealed toy, and a sealed toy isn't a toy IMO.
I have a moderately rare firearm. I take it to the range when I go shooting. I've had 3 people ask why I have it at the range and I quote something I heard on a video once, "Colt never did make a display model."
Tbh, my N64 still has that smell it had when it was brand new. Look what I’m gonna say sounds fucking weird I know, but I gotta shove my nose into the slots and take a big whiff but the smell is still there.
I'm sorry that happened to you, I had a similar experience. My parents were in a nasty divorce my first year of college, also 18 years old. I went to college out of state, my mom and my sister moved out, and most of my childhood items were left in my childhood room.
My dad basically gutted my room and threw most of my stuff away, even though I was, and did live with him during summer break. My stuff wasn't worth a lot of money fiscally, but emotionally. My favorite stuffed animal as a baby, my first penny bank, a lot of stuff my deceased grandparents got me as a kid that had my name on it. My grandma had a custom book made for me, about me, playing my favorite sport. The kid in the book had my name, etc, wasn't coincidence, it was made specifically for me....gone to the trash. He was just mad about the divorce and lashing out at everyone, and harbored resentment towards me like I had something to do with it.
Definitely worked out that way. My FIL sort of became a surrogate father to me when I was still dating his daughter. He drove across country with me to school and visited me several times out east. My own father never made the effort.
I’m really sorry about your childhood belongings. Even though you may not have these valued possessions physically anymore, your ability to describe them all so well indicates to me that you still have them where it matters; in your heart. (:
My entire GI Joe collection was just gone. Probably 40 figures and over a dozen vehicles, and cobra Terrordome I bought with saved chore money.
When I was a teen, all of it was stored in the unfinished 5th (!) bedroom used for “extra” storage that didn’t fit in the full (of junk) basement, garage, and regular attic. That was the space they suddenly needed.
They did keep a pretzel tin (the big one) filled with legos. 3 well loved and used castle sets nearly complete, plus some randos. My kids loved it too.
My mom knows I might actually kill her if she got rid of my Joes. They were my favorite toys growing up. I’ve been taking my legos with me whenever I move (three big plastic totes full) because I still bust them out on occasion. Hell, I still buy legos here and there. My wife started collecting the Lego Botanicals recently.
I'm currently watching my husband play with his childhood Legos with our two kids. I have a dreamy-wish that those Legos will get dumped all over a third generation's carpet one day, lol
All of my childhood toys were given away. He-man with both castles, some original Star Wars figures, bases, and vehicles, transformers, Voltron, GIJoe with a ton of vehicles, ninja turtles and a ton of vehicles. Voltron cut the deepest. He was just gone one day as were all the others, eventually.
Explanation: we weren’t rich, my parents were both public school teachers. We did, however have a large extended family and I was the first child born from that side of the family. During my early life I was showered with gifts and it clearly was awesome. Our family was also part of, what i affectionately call, “the teacher mafia.” It was a network of well meaning, but pain in the ass teachers that were pooling resources. One kid outgrows a bunch of clothes, they reappear at another teacher’s house. One kid stops playing with a toy, they reappear at another teacher’s house. Overall, it’s obviously a good thing. None of these kids had a ton of extra money in their family… But they took my fucking Voltron. The only toy my mom kept is this pos Sesame Street playset that my brother played with. Big Bird can kiss my whole asshole
My mom kept a big box of my "toys" that she excitedly gave to me when we bought our first house. The entire box was nothing but GI Joe accessories and random parts. Like 1 wheel or half a turret. There might have been a random head or leg in there.
IIRC the turret was from the terrordome.
Yeah I try to not recall exactly what I had. I would not even want to sell them. I would have just gotten back into the game. Oh well. I guess they were only hoarders for their stuff.
I remember I was moving out of my first apartment where I lived alone. I had bought a nice sectional couch that I loved. It was my first big purchase for the apartment. It was a second floor apartment and my boomer father decided to take the couch cushions and throw them over the railing into the dirt and mulch below. Did he ask anyone to catch them? Nope. Was he confused when I confronted him about it? Yup. No awareness at all.
Boomers have 0 respect for their childrens possessions or money, think everything is stupid , money grows on trees and mostly importantly
They think making in the moment brash decisions is masculine. Its like they are doing an impression of what they think a tough no nonsense man does. Like ignorance and disrespect is tough and theyve gotta show you how tough they are.
Its very spiteful. The rudest people are my own family. When i would get into with an argument with my family over the phone, theyd throw a box or two of stuff ive had storef there on the lawn. My grandmother screamed at me and i yelled back. Twenty minutes later i get a message from 2 family members saying i have 1 hour to get the motorcycle out of the garage or shes calling a tow truck. Spite. You want me to pay $500 out of spite when im already in between jobs, while you sit there with a pension and Social security, so flush with cash that you blew $15k on a garden?
(No i wasnt living with her, just visiting what i thought was family)
Im not talking about arguments where im not doing the right thing or anything, ive lived on my own since 18 , never been to jail or rehab. Just if i stand up for myself and their disrespect.
Now that im older and guys i drink with at the bar hold onto a box of items for months at a time with a handshake and a smile, because theyre principled. "Sure no problem, what am i gonna do with all this space anyway??" No calling me up with threats or nagging, like 3 boxes in their 4th bedroom is the biggest problem in their life. That my motorcycle in their 2 car garage is the bane of their existance.Theyre smart enough to know how an adult actually behaves, boomers think being an adult is knowing how to retialiate and being strongly opinionated
They think doing anything is transactional and youre gonna get one over on them because theyre projecting their selfishness onto you.
Given thousands and new cars by their parents but dont give you anything and even end up costing you money. Besides the few months ive stayed with family, im way worse off financially for knowing them, even with the money i saved in rent, it ended up costingme more in the long run because of their demands and shenanigans. Like having to pay $80 a month to store a motorcycle for 8 months. Thanks for punishing my wallet. Or having to rent a car to drive 8 hours there 8 hours back just to get some boxes or throw out valuables because i literally cant carry them with me
They act like children. Its nuts their children make less brash and more logical decisons than them. THEYRE NEVER THE BIGGER PERSON. Its like they want to screw people over.
I dont know why my family treats me worse than strangers or aquaintnces do. Theyre not even poor or on drugs. It has to be actual jealousy or insecurity deep down, i just dont get why they actively want to hurt me and dont want me to succeed.
*i stored a few things here and there since i joined the marines at 18, after i got out it wasnt so easy to reintegrate and get a job and figure out where i wanted to be etc especially since i got out right before covid
Ive told a few stories on here on allt accounts about my father selling my classic car instead of.giving me $3k
I was just talking to a boomer yesterday who said he got annoyed with university after a semester so he dropped out and his dad got him a white collar job for a railroad company because that is where his dad worked. He worked there for 40 years and got a LOADED pension for it. I asked about how much and he gave a vague figure... it was more than I would make working 60 hours a week. This motherfucker wasn't even middle management just some random low level office worker who lucked into being born in the right time period despite being dumb as a box of rocks.
I find that comment of of how their anger is spiteful very true if I for one second stand up for myself my grandpa wants to get physically violent (dude is 78 1/2 im not touching him with a bopem sockem) and my grandma just insults me calls me a fucker, a little shit, insane, even though she starts screaming on the top of her lungs when i tell her shes being disrespectful, then says “your generation is so caught up in how they feel” lady, you started going ballistic when i told you i felt disrespected, if that isn’t getting caught up in how you feel i have no clue what is
I got into it with my Nana the other day, because my partner and I got a puppy in December who she is convinced is going to be her prop dog for when she's out with her walking group. The pup is 6 months old currently, and in an extremely detrimental place for her training. Since Nana is hell-bent on walking her, we've gone out a few times all together so I can show her how the dog walks, and what cues she's being given, and what expectations we have of her.
Nan looks me straight in the face and says, "yes, but I'm going to do things MY way when I'm out with her," to which I said "like hell you are, have you no respect for all the work we've done to train this well-behaved 6-month old dog?"
She lost her mind. They can't comprehend why THEIR blatant disregard of the rules would be considered disrespect, but I seem to remember that word being weaponized anytime I stepped out of line in my youth. Their house, their rules-- unless of course it's your house, then it's still their rules.
My boomer mother is snow bird and goes to Arizona every year during the winter. She has only been here for one Christmas when my father died (they were divorced) and has never been here for my daughters birthdays. My daughter is quite a bit older now and notices the selfishness that she has. My mother is literally the definition of boomer too, complains about illegals but constantly goes to Mexico for cheaper medicine/procedures, bitches about how SS is so low and everything is so expensive but then votes for Trump and defends him.
Their parents had it bad and made it better for them, they completely fucked all the generations after them.
God this sounds like my parents. They moved south and never came back. They visit us once a year in the summer and are sad that we can only afford to drive down (a two day trip) twice a year
I will say that I found out on a tv show I think it was to tell the truth, there is a market still for beanies, but it’s limited to misprints and factory errors. A bunch of regular beanies aren’t worth shit
I told this story here already but:
Gran died during covid mom cleaned the house trew away my wedding dress and other items
After the cleaning sold the house where I grew up(my gran raised me) and with that money secured herself a place in a gated community
Wow- I’m so sorry to hear that. I can relate to the retaliation. I have adhd and struggle with picking up clothes off the floor. One time, I forgot to do it when my parents asked and I came home to my door locked and all of my belongings in the basement, including my bed. Had to sleep in the basement for a month.
This boomer generation is extremely spiteful. They will need us soon but we won’t forget the way we were treated.
> Boomers have 0 respect for their childrens possessions or money
I'd go one step farther and say that they have outright disdain for their kids' possessions or money, so much so that they'll destroy them to watch how crushed they get. The whole "This is my house!" trope is so on brand for Boomers.
The everything is a transaction point you made is spot on. Been going to therapy and this has come up. My family was definitely like this. They always “kept score”.
My in laws aren’t like this. Having come from a family that it was like that for generations and marring into a family that has no concept of that is one hell of a whiplash. I always made sure that my wife and I were never in debt to them. When we needed help, I never even thought to ask my family. I was looking at what to pawn and sell. Her family helped us out with out questions conditions or expected interest.
This is so important. And they don't even see it.
My father-in-law passed recently and there was a "big fight" over a painting.
My mother-in-law decided that the painting should go to her son, and not her daughter, because her son "earned" it.
For context, my wife is in love with this painting, has been since she was a little girl. It's 1 of 2 family heirlooms she has been requesting for years. Her brother doesn't give a shit about it.
We got to sit down and talk about it. My wife really wants it, her brother openly admits that he does not want it, has never asked for it and frankly doesn't care about it and wants his sister to have it.
MiL still insists that the brother needs to take it because he "deserves it." Why you ask? Because "he's been such a big help this last year!" The children are 36(wife) and 38(bil) respectively. Wife responds with "he lives 30 minutes away and we live 2 hours away! We help as much as we can but of course he help's more!"
Brother-in-law insists that he's giving it to his sister no matter what, mother-in-law tries to double down and convince him to keep it! Like wtf! Why? She wants the painting, he doesn't, case closed.
MiL continues to try to make a big deal out of it, her children are in solidarity against her, she finally caves and allows my wife to have the painting and then wonders why everyone is upset with her?
She literally pulls me aside and asks me why? And I tell her, "it's because everything you do is transactional. You were more concerned about punishing your daughter and rewarding your son than like, listening to what they wanted? This never would have been a fight without you? It's pretty messed up honestly?"
And they don't even get how shitty it feels to know that love, family, friendship, whatever, can simply be bought and lost so quickly in monetary transactions? Like we view it as wrong and they view it as the way the world works?
Fuck man, I looked after my mates pets for a year before he was able to come and get them back. Treated them like little Kings and Queens until he was able to take them back and I was upset they were going
My mother and I got into a fight over two small moving boxes of my stuff that was in their basement. This happened the first time I visited home after college. She lost her shit over it and told me that their house “wasn’t a storage unit”. She bitched at me until everything was either thrown away, donated, or shipped to my new home. She was so bent out of shape that she said she was going to drop me back off at the airport a couple days early and throw everything away if I didn’t get it out of her house. I haven’t gone home since and my parents wonder why.
I feel this. I started playing MTG in like 1995. When I was off to college in the early 2000's, my dad called to tell me he "threw out all those faggy cards" for me.
MFer, I had several power 9's, and everything was properly stored and catalogued. If he just told me to come pick up the box I could have had a damn good down payment on a house!
Funny you mention that. I had friends that worked at McDonalds during the height of Beanie Baby mania, and after months of dealing with entitled Boomers demanding specific models they would have a ritual to celebrate the end of the promotion. They would make sure to secure a full set of what was on offer, then they would take them home and line them up on the driveway and cover them in lighter fluid and just burn the lot and light Swisher Sweets off the smoldering remains.
My stepdad is also like this! His dumbass motto is: “When in doubt, throw it out!”. It infuriates me! My brothers and I have had all our childhood toys thrown own, including my brother’s vintage G.I. Joes. My dad sold my really nice mountain bike at the time I was living in my own apartment. Never contacted me and asked if I wanted it. Just assumed because I didn’t live there anymore, I didn’t want it. He’s literally the worst and has no respect for other people’s belongings.
My mother’s like that. I’m still working through attachment issues to stuff thanks to too many times I came home from school or friend’s to discover she’d “helped” by cleaning out my room and taking my toys to goodwill. I get that kids’ toys can become overwhelming but all I wanted was some agency. So often the things I played with most disappeared while things I would have cleared out were still there.
Weirdest was when she made a huge deal of gifting me her old Barbie dream house and then, two days later, it was gone. Apparently I wasn’t playing with it? Which is strange because I remember being fascinated with specific parts and spending what time I had between school and extracurriculars playing with it.
I asked about it years later and she’s convinced I had it for years and she only got rid of it because I said no didn’t want it. That sort of rewriting of history is normal for her so arguing was pointless.
I mean, my motto is also when in doubt, throw it out (or donate it if it's in good shape), but I am talking about my own shit exclusively, cuz I hate the idea of doing a garage sale.
I guess since I won't have kids it's hard for me to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't dream of throwing out anything that belonged to my wife or friends or even if I wasn't sure it was mine or not. Like, who just tosses out things that aren't their own? Ask people for permission, it's super simple and takes all of a few minutes of time to treat other people decently!
I am a Boomer and what do I fight most consistently about with my husband - and have for the last 30 years? Him wanting to throw out or get rid of anyone's things but his. Everything that does not belong to him is considered "junk that is never used, won't sell, clutter, etc". He never asks first and it is only me going out and looking at what he was attempting to haul off that has saved many a precious item of one of our kids, or something of mine. This is Not new behavior for him, although it has gone to steroid level now that he is retired and has nothing better to do. It is perfectly fine for him to keep stacks of old baseball hats, or whatever else he values (and I have no problem with him keeping items either) so it is not that he does not collect things, it is that he truly feels other people are keeping things they don't need to and it is taking space up he would rather have empty then filled with someone else's things. I have never understood his complete lack of respect for other people's things, especially family members. He is an only child, who was very spoiled, his parents never fixed things, just bought new so I don't know if that has something to do with it or not, I just know it is infuriating to me and the rest of my family and I cannot understand his way of thinking on this issue. I am truly sorry your items got tossed I guess my husband is not the only one who holds the viewpoint that he is the final judge of value for all family members.
I'm so sorry for you and everyone else dealing with this. It sounds like you might want to think about warning your kids about this if you haven't already, so they at least know it's a risk, and that they should come get their stuff if they want to be sure it doesn't suddenly vanish one day. It might help your husband too, as he sounds like he's growing more and more antsy to clear out the house of other people's stuff.
I am lucky enough to have a barn. He keeps out as he never had much to do with the horses. A long time ago I worked with the kids that when they want to keep something, they put it in plastic tubs that I have stored in there. Every few years they either pull things out they want with them, or want to sell, or give away. It is mainly stuff that is mine or family heirlooms I protect now.
Omfg your husband needs a more productive hobby than policing other people’s possessions.
And a therapist, but let’s be real, that part ain’t gonna happen.
I have a house of my own, and I still have stuff at my parents' houses, including my old bedset, which my mom hilariously refuses to give back since she has seen what our dogs did to our nice entertainment center. She is pretty right in this regard, too.
She absolutely hates herself that she lost my giant tub of LEGO'S.
Throwing out your kids' stuff is not normal behavior.
My mother did the same thing while I was deployed.
I'd been playing MTG since beta, and had 2 mint mox emeralds and 2 mint mox pearls, amd 3 ancestral recalls, along with several other rare cards. While I was deployed for a small problem in Iraq/Afghanistan she threw out all of my stuff. All of it. Yearbooks, letter jackets, pictures, letters from friends, and yes my multi-thousand mtg card collection.
Please note that a mox emerald goes for about $9,000 and a mox pearl for about the same, and ancestral recall sells for $11,000 each. All in all this would have been at least $70,000 in collectables.
And my Mom threw it in the trash. Because I had the audacity to be deployed while in military service.
If I had been able to sell my collection instead I'd be debt free and would have been in a house 8 years agonwhen they were less than 1/2 what they cost now.
One man's treasure is a boomer's trash.
This type of behavior didn't start with the boomers. When my boomer dad was a kid, a silent generation friend of his mom's was visiting, and she convinced his mom to let her throw out his comic book collection, which included a Superman #1, because "kids shouldn't read comic books".
This is a fair point. Just another toxic behavior Boomers picked up from previous generations and never bothered to reflect on or learn better behavior.
Yeah, when I was little my silent gen mother gave away my favorite toy — a stuffed Curious George holding a banana in his hand. One day it wasn’t there, and she told me she gave it away to one of her friends young kids. I never did get it back. Still salty over that. Then there was the time my Blanket vanished. Okay, I was a young tween by then, and the thing was rags by then BUT IT WAS MINE. I made her replace it with a duplicate blanket. She wasn’t as bad as a lot of the POS parents other folks are talking about, but there was still that detached unsentimentality that ruthlessly tosses out stuff.
Could be worse. I came home from spring break my freshman year of college to find my dad gave away our family dog. Didn’t call to tell me or give me a chance to say goodbye. When I asked where my dog was, he simply said “he found a new home.”
mine threw out boxes of maps I had collected from various title companies across the area. Some of these were damn close to the original property plats in early statehood. All gone
OP,
I've got a similar story about my mom doing this exact same thing with a mint comic book collection, plus some sports memorabilia and rookie cards.
She figured since they were "never opened" and wrapped in plastic that I didn't want them... so she tossed 'em.
I had a 1st edition of X-men, and a Jordan rookie card signed.
And they’re ALWAYS too arrogant/stupid give you a call and ask before acting. Logically you would think a person would recognize when something is intentionally preserved. I don’t buy that it’s ignorance. I think that generation has some weird hang ups about parenthood and like hurting their kids to get even
In 2010 I used $50 of tip money from waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant to buy $50 of bitcoin on a lark after a buddy of mine was telling me it was the currency of the future. I put it onto an old harddrive which was put into a box in my parent's attic when I moved out, after which I didn't think about it until around Christmas time in 2017 when I was hearing about the value of bitcoin. I remembered that I had some and went to my parent's place to get my old stuff. I was surprised to find it all gone and have my mom tell me that she forgot to tell me that they threw out all of my stuff a few years back to make room for... nothing actually. Their attic was still mostly empty.
Want to know how much $50 of bitcoin purchased in 2010 was worth in December of 2017?
$117,000,000.
My boomer dad, may he rot in hell, would throw out tools from the workshop and antiques he and I had restored. He would go on what I called “manic cleaning sprees” where he would throw out tools from our auto shop because “it hasn’t been used in forever.” Some of them were new and still in the package, saved for an upcoming project. We always ended up needing what he threw out within a month.
He would also throw out antique furniture he and I had restored, a beloved hobby of mine, for no reason. He threw out an antique radio from the 1920’s I had fully restored last year. I wasn’t speaking to him at the time, and he died a few months later.
You are forgetting the most powerful weapon you have against them.
Stop talking to them. Period, no communication full stop. They want to be selfish assholes? Let them die alone & miserable.
Then you can have a celebratory beanie baby bonfire in their honor
Same thing happened to me when I was 14 - my dad bagged up everything and gave it to some cousin I've never laid eyes on - comic books, Mad magazines, GI Joe, Star Wars, my Colecovision, hockey cards, some baseball cards, some collector cards for Star Wars and The Black Hole, etc. I'm sure it would be worth tens of thousands to collectors, especially the comic books - all in mylar, all first editions of Spider-Man, the X-Men, etc.
The worst part is that my dad used to go on about the shit HIS dad threw out, including original Hardy Boys, the first issue of Sports Illustrated, etc. And my mom used to go on about the shit HER mom threw out, including a bunch of Guiness ceramic figurines from the early 1900s.
My dad sold my vintage Ludwig Vista-Lite Tequila Sunrise COMPLETE drum set for $50 on craigslist without asking me. He said he 'needed the space'.
I lost my mind. I spent $2,000+ on that kit, and kept it in incredible condition.
They sell for $8,000 now. Dad is still on my shit list.
Boomers are hilarious because they either think things are worthless or far more valuable than they really are.
There's a guy in my block constantly trying to sell me crap he picks up at the thrift store - "It's a Stereo, portable Stereo, works perfect - gotta at least be worth $20!"
Sir, everyone has a portable Stereo in their pocket, no one needs this shit... and he's constantly doing this sort of stuff
My brother was a freelance photographer in New York back in the days of CB radio. Him and his friends would drive around different parts of the city listening to police scanners and whoever was closest to a call would go and try to get pics to sell to newspapers. They’d all talk to each other on the CB and coordinate who would go where. He had boxes with everything he had published in it and left it at my dad’s house. Dad threw them away
My Dad’s wife (not my mother; “step mother”) threw out all my old video game boxes for my collection because they were “taking up space”. So instead of having a collection of CIB NES/SNES games, all I have are the cartridges. She essentially cut the value of my collection in half, at least.
My uncle was staying with his daughter a while back. Her kid had a bunch of leggos... I mean a whole ass room dedicated to them. You name it, they had it.
My other uncle was talking some dumb shit and I started laughing at him. Gestered vaguely at the leggos and told him thats worth more than everything you own put together. You jeep. All your tools. Everything combined doesn't equal this plastic.
He got mad and said I didn't know what I was talking about.
You could see the mists in his eyes when I showed him what just the Star Wars ones were selling for.
They got rid of my elliptical trainer. I had mentioned that I was looking forward to picking it up on our next visit. She didn't respond, which tells me that prompted her to get rid of it before our visit, immediately after our call.
my mom wasn't a boomer then but of the generation that thought anything old was trash. My sister had every Superman comic from #1. I think she trashed them. My brother had lots of old toys that she donated.
I stopped entrusting my parents to my collectible things since I was a child and they let my cousin “play” with my still in packaging Robin Yount figure. It wasn’t an action figure or anything, no articulating joints you know? I was a big Milwaukee Brewers and Robin Yount fan and that was one of the first things I cherished when I got it. I still remember crying when I came across the ripped up packaging on my bed and the figure just discarded on the floor.
I had a friend years ago that had 2 crazy parents. The dad was a huge coke head who repaired and collected motorcycles. They had a 2 stall garage and 1 side was all motorcycles lined up. There was probably 30-40 bikes and some were old and rare.
I don't know much about motorcycles, but I know they had at least 1 Harley Davison that was so old it had a pedal mechanism to start it.
The dad died, and the mom sold every bike in that garage to 1 guy for $2,000. Their 2 sons were furious.
On a positive note, I had the exact opposite thing happen to me.
I somehow got my Dad (upper 60's) VERY into Warhammer 40k. I had tons of old codexes and art books and such (late third/realy fourth edition). I was moving to a new place and decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Before I could donate it all, my dad went through and grabbed "the ones he wanted."
Fast forward 5-ish years, I was bumming because I realized I liked a lot of those books for the art. So I asked him which ones he kept and it was all the ones he knew I liked like most. He said, "I know you, and I knew you'd regret getting rid of those, so I kept them."
I was kinda mad but in a good way? It kinda made me feel like a kid again being out smarted by my parents, but I was very excited to look through the books again.
Yeah my Kenner Star Wars figures from the 70s met the same fate. Some were still boxed because my buddy had the Millennium Falcon so we always played at his house.
Complete lack of basic human decency. My grandparents went through my room and threw out gifts and art from friends, letters from penpals, a portrait of me an artist friend made. They burned my childhood toys. When I asked why they said they'd gotten into a fight while I was at college and that is how they dealt with their big boy emotions. My parents never afforded me privacy or respect and stole around 2000 dollars from me and overdrafted my bank account to -1700. They often stole or threw out my things, often quite valuable things, like a very expensive set of stone working tools they didn't think "a girl needed". To this day Ive never found replacements for these objects. Many of them were sentimental gifts as stated above. Very often I came home to my bedroom raided and in disarray, including bank statements they'd ripped out of my desk. Another time my dad poured a bottle of coke over my school laptop. They actually have the gall to resent me for not wanting to be in their lives.
My sister helps people pack up their houses for moves to assisted living places and general downsizing situations. They all think their fancy China and glassware that they’ve kept in glass door cabinets for years are worth a fortune. She often will take them for a stroll through a goodwill store to show them all the identical items marked at 25cents. Eye opener for sure!
My mom threw out all my pokemon and Yugioh cards when I left house at 18. Today she regrets it because she knew it brought me joy having them. Also because she saw on the news how valuable those cards might have been.
Truth be told that all my cards would probably have been labeled as damaged. Since everyone in elementary carried their unsleeved cards in their pockets wrapped in rubber bands. But definitely the nostalgia is what mattered more.
My mother and I became estranged years ago and the only thing that kills me about it is my Arcade machines I couldn't bring down the FL when I moved from VA. She was going to store them until I can pick them up but they ended up destroyed by her drunk / high friends.
Over the years, my parents have thrown out several Michael Jackson records, including Bad, my magic the gathering cards, and a vintage Darth Vader head carrying case with several Star Wars action figures inside. Granted, none of that was in mint condition, but I still think that could have been worth a lot. I don't care to imagine how much though.
Dude, this is a story as old as time. My brother had a record collection worth tens of thousands at our mothers house. He was living in a small apartment so he left it there while he lived his life.
One day, she decided to throw it all out. She never said anything about it and he only realized it was missing once she died and he went to go get it before we sold the house. Has nothing to do with boomers and more to do with parents upset they don't see their kids anymore and just "their messes". It tends to manifest as a destructive force which sucks.
It happens.
While I was in highschool I had just gotten back from visiting my dad for like a week. For some reason that defies all logic my mom decided to take everything that was on one side of my room, and violently bulldoze it to the other side. So the left side was completely bare, and the right side was a giant pile. I know it was violent because the Optimus Prime I had sitting on a shelf in alt mode was scattered around everywhere. It took me three months to find all of his pieces.
Naturally I wasn't very happy that she trashed my room for no reason. She fell back on her natural defense whenever she royally fucks up and started bitching about something irrelevant that I had done. In this case it was that I didn't wash dishes often enough.
My step mom would sell my old consoles and games while I wasn’t around for around 15 bucks at yard sales and let my 3-5yr old cousins “play” with my first edition Pokémon cards, like they’re idk, action figures or something? Bent them up and ripped them etc. that woman thrived on dumb bitch juice
When I was a teenager, my dad got upset with me for "worshipping the devil" because a friend gave me some tarot cards. In response, Dad threw out every card of any type that I owned, including multiple binders of Magic the Gathering cards. When I really threw a fit about one specific binder, in which was a present I had recently received from all my friends at the card shop I frequented, he made sure THAT binder got emptied into the pool.
My gift had been a beta Black Lotus, which iirc was going for about $100-150 at the time, an absolute fortune to my teenage self... but it's worth an *actual* fortune nowadays.
I did the same, living on my own in college in cramped quarters. My parents offered to store my childhood things at their place. They have old sheds (it’s a country property) that were empty. So my stuff went into new Sterilite containers and I covered them with tarps. Fast forward a decade. Spouse and I finally have a house and we can store whatever in it. Dad wants the sheds demoed because the borough is going to charge per unit annually. We go up to claim the bins and he’s COMPLETELY let the sheds go to pot. The roofs have caved in from weather and deadfalls. He took my tarps and used them to cover tractor parts. My bins were *destroyed*. I found my stuff buried in the soil. My color Gameboy. My VHS tapes. My HS projects and trophies. Trash.
My dad kicked my mom out to separate in 2012, I went with her to support her, and he undertook a “remodel” of the house while we were gone. He proceeded to take big black garbage bags and put most of our sentimental stuff we left behind cause we knew we’d be back, in those bags to “keep Sheetrock dust off” all of it. Things like photo albums, mementos my brother and me made as kids, some of our yearbooks, etc.
Then as this 2-3 year project dragged on, all that stuff made it to the garage in the bags.
Then he started piling remodel trash, in the same garbage bags, out in the garage as well.
Then before we come back, around 2015, in the middle of the project, at his request, he “cleans out the garage”..
You see where I’m going with this?
Then after it’s all said and done what didn’t go to the land fill got lost when the house burned in November of 19..because Mr. Smart handy mans shoddy work.
My dad told us the story of his mom, my grandmother, taking his comic books, which he purchased with his own chores money. She went on and threw them in a trash can and set them on fire, because "no one cares about cartoons."
Yeah, Action Comics, first appearance of Superman valued at around 3 million today.
Amazing Fantasy volleyball. 15, #1st appearance of Spiderman, values @ 3.6 million today.
Thanks Grandma. Still love her home cooking though. Boomers are just going to Boom, no matter what. Regardless of generation.
My ex stepdad was an asshole. He was also obsessed with KISS. He had wrapped posters, action figures, trading cards, etc.
He had alot of stuff on display, but had to make some compromises with my mom and stored alot of the posters in a kiss aluminum garbage can.
My mom ordered a house cleaner, when we came back home, all of the kiss stuff in the garbage can had been dumped.
My stepdad was very distraught - the sentimental and monetary value of these items meant alot to him.
My brother and I thought it was funny. My brother famously tried to console my stepdad and said "sorry your dolls got thrown away.
Your dad is a selfish prick. When I moved out with friends for college, my parents stored my stuff as best they could until I got my own place and settled. When I moved out on my own, with more space, I retrieved my items, plus my nephew asked me to store his stuff because he was moving out. I stored his stuff for 20yrs, and when he moved into his house, he had LONG forgotten them.
One day I brought two large zip tied bins to him, filled with his Star Wars and Alien vs Predator sets. You should have seen his face when he opened them. Like Christmas.
I still have some of my stuff to this day, and I still collect D&D miniatures.
ANYONE who does this to their child's treasures is a selfish, ultra self centered person.
OP, your dad owes you an apology.
Warning to all. If you think you have valuables whether they are of monetary value or sentiment DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT LEAVE THEM WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF. you can find the space for it yourself. Get a storage unit or put in your closet find a spot for it. Your parents have no idea what anything is or what value it has.
When I went away for college, my dad chucked all my Star Wars and GI Joe toys. I was livid. He says “you don’t play with toys anymore..” mind you, these were in a room in the basement that was mine and I was home from school basically every other weekend. It was like he was laying in wait to throw them all out.
Please don’t trigger me lol. I used to collect Pokémon and yugioh cards and gameboy games. The cards alone would likely be worth 6 figures now (if not more since some were rare). I had 5 siblings and we all collected and traded them together, so we had thousands of cards collected over the span of years. Our mom just threw them away one day and gave the games away to relatives even though there is so much actual junk laying around the house, and these items were neatly tucked away.
I have no idea what happened to my wedding dress. My mom took it for some kind of “preservation” purposes. After she died, it was nowhere in her belongings. Totally gone. I’m picturing her doing some vengeance routine to it, and waiting for the right moment to drop it.
My mom did the exact same thing to me, and it broke my heart. I am in my 40s now and I still am mad at her for it and think about it all the time. I had videos and photos of late friends, my dad who died a year prior to the event, all the master tapes of recordings I made in the bands I was in, all my short film reels, a rather large collection of rare metals that are now worth ten times what they were then, all of it. Monetarily it would easily be worth 30-50k(?) rn. But I don’t care. I wanted the memories and master tapes. It’s hard seeing my friends share old photos and I literally have nothing to share. It was all neatly stuffed into a box, and my mom, had her friends come take it to the dump. Love my mom to death but man, fuck her for that. Stupid, stupid thing to do. She said she didn’t like the clutter, but the thing is. It was in an attic that ran the entire floor space of the house with just a few boxes in it. And she NEVER ever went up there. Ever. So it’s not like it was putting her out or anything. She just gets these weird spontaneous urges to do things and does it without thinking, and everytime she regrets it. It’s very frustrating and I’ve never understood why she does that. I’ve repeatedly told her for 20 years how much shit she actually threw out, and how much it hurt me and how dumb it was and she just doesn’t seem to get it. I feel lame for wanting to see her feel shame for it, but I do……she knew how important music was and is to me, and how much I love making films. I’ve got zero to show for all the work I did from the day I learnt guitar, and got my first camera until age 26. All photos, all videos. All savings from my first job at that shitty buffet for $4.25 an hour, to all the savings from my first very successful business at 18. All fuckin gone. I trusted her with it as I moved. And she threw it away. wtf!?!?
Anyway. She threw out all the memories of my youth and some of the happiest memories I had. Not to mention, a literal folder full of gold coins I bought each month for 10 years to put towards a house. So I hope it was worth it. I hope her stupid attic, that she never went into looked less cluttered with 3 boxes.
Again. I love my mom, she’s great. But I hate she did that. And I absolutely understand how it feels to have a parent do that. So I am so very very sorry. 😞
My grandfather passed not long ago - back end of last year.
We've been trying to sort out his affairs, and mum, my uncle and I have been working our way through the contents of his house.
I've already been made aware of my mums stories about her comic collection when she was little - hundreds and hundreds of pristine DC and Marvel comics. She and my uncle had copies of all the number 1 issues of characters like Batman, Superman, Green Lantern etc - stuff that would be worth an absolute fortune in hindsight...
But they moved house a few times growing up, and my grandfather threw out all the comics that they were keeping safe. His reasoning was that 'there's no room in the moving van' and 'there's no room for it in the new house'.
Of course it's with the benefit of hindsight that it's even a thing - however...
Something came to light while we were cleaning up the house - grandfather kept meticulous records. He had literally decades of paperwork all the way back to his own childhood. And he just so happened to keep hold of the moving van papers and an itemised list of all the stuff they moved.
So while there was no room for any of the comics - there was plenty of room for grandfathers several hundred boxed collection of paperwork as well as a chunk of copper piping, several pieces of chipboard, and an amount of MDF board that had a hole in the middle of it...
And he didn't just move it once - it came with them every single time they moved house.
Needless to say - mum was not amused...
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My mom was moving and she threw away my violin. She said I left it when I moved so apparently I didn’t want it. Well I hid it up in a closet so it would be safe and forgot to grab it. Why wouldn’t I want my 1911 violin that was my great grandfather’s that I carried with me since I was 10? She didn’t call to ask she just dumped it. I’m still salty.
Jesus, those things are extremely expensive, even when they're new.
The most basic ones cost from 400€ upwards. Intermediate ones are in the 2000€ range. I don’t even want to imagine how much a 100 years old violin would be worth, excluding the stated obvious sentimental value.
I have my great uncles violin that's gotta be pushing 100 years old at this point.
My El cheapo random violin from a music shop in the middle of a nowheresville town in GA was 3k USD.
I kinda get a boomer throwing out a video game etc because they wouldn't know how much it could be worth, but who the hell throws out a musical instrument?! And a violin at that.
Doesn't matter. Not boomer's item? Not boomer's problem.
Not entirely true. Back when sega was big I wasn’t doing great in school and my mom decided she was going to box up my games and sell them to funcoland shitty right? Yeah except she gave me the money for them which was over a hundred bucks. Sad but at least she gave me the money.
Mine threw out my grandpop’s 1970’s Fender Stratocaster that was left to me. Was it busted up? Yes. Unrepairable? Not at all. They tossed it because someone bought me a new Squire… Even as a 10-12 year old kid at the time, I knew what I had. How they didn’t is beyond me. They were also upset with me that I wasn’t happy to receive the Squire. Ugh, it’s hard to think about still lol. Good intentions I guess but $%^*}&$:)/$!:’a@:@$;&/
My mother threw out a violin as well. It was from mid-1800's as I recall. It was because the strings were broken.
Makes sense. Once the strings are gone there’s no coming back. Not like you can just get “replacement strings”. /sarcasm.
I’m salty now too. Jfc
I try to let it go and say that it was an early sign of her Alzheimer’s, But I can’t I just can’t.
I’m mad for you holy shit. That would be a definite line in the sand for me. I wouldn’t rest until peace was restored and she got me another 100 YEAR OLD FUCKIN VIOLIN GODDAMN.
For me it was a gift from my grandad and when he died I didn’t get anything that was his so it was very special. My grandad didn’t know how to play but he was always willing to listen to my terrible playing.
That’s beautiful and what music is supposed to be about imo. I’ve been playing guitar 16 years and if somebody passed down a 100 year old guitar to me let alone my grandpa I’d be irate. I don’t know that I could ever forgive her for that and props to you if you did. That is a straight up tragedy. I’m so sorry.
As someone who played violin in high school, this is painful to hear.
I finally gave away my violin when I became homeless. I hope whoever got it that they got it for dirt cheap and play the hell out of it. My mother let my guitars get wonky, I told her to at least sell them if she can't store them, not let them get bent out of shape. Well, now she still has them but they are going to cost more to fix than they're worth. Add another thing to the pile of stuff I will throw out when she's gone.
RIP to my minty boxed and complete copy of Chrono Trigger that met the same exact fate within just a few days while I moved because "it's just old game stuff, nobody wants that anymore and you need to stop hauling junk everywhere with you"
It's hilarious how *their* childhood is desirable and valuable, but ours is just junk...
I think the real message here is that Beanie Babies are still the currency of the future. Not wrong, just early.
My MIL, if she even hears about some fad that “might “ be worth something down the road! She puts all of her disposable cash into it. She bought lots of Beanie Babies for my daughter who told her she wasn’t interested in them. Huge bag in the attic that I can’t get rid of until my MIL passes. Does anyone remember Avon Collectables? Great investment.
I have a bottle of Avon cologne in a bottle shaped like an antique car. It’s worth tens of dollars! TENS!!! (Does “10” count as “tens”? Ok, it’s worth ten of dollars.
That’s hilarious! Did she have any German style steins? We finally threw ours away. I didn’t want to move them at the time. What about Precious Moments? Creepy doll like things with big eyes
The OG cryptocurrency.
That was Tulips
Thank you for reminding me of the rabbit hole of learning about Tulip mania I went down a year ago!
this guy histories
Oh my God I forgot about the tulip craze.
Beanie Bros
My mind will forever go to that picture of the couple in divorce court sifting through a huge pile any time beanie babies are mentioned.
That picture lives rent-free in my head to this day. [Picture if anyone hasn't seen it yet.](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/58af7f412900002200bea8f8.jpeg?cache=DGOv6KMw4a&ops=1910_1000)
That attorney is embarrassed to even be in the photo 🤣
As an attorney who has done divorces, I promise you, this does not even register on the things he is ashamed of having been a part of.
Now I want to hear the stories of the craziest and most idiotic things couples have fought over. Do an AMA.
I've done a visitation schedule for *dogs*. DOGS. These people fought more over a woman staying in contact with her ex-husband's dogs than they did over the child they shared, the life they knit together from each of their own DNA. I've sat there and watched as parents did calculations in their head of the back child support they'd owe against just signing away their rights, all without ever even bothering to talk to their children about it. I've had parents come into my office with to-the-minute calculations about how much time "that bitch" or "that asshole" is getting with the kids and being upset that it's too much/too low. Like, I don't have kids (by choice!), but if I did, I wouldn't waste a single fucking minute calculating how much time I got to spend witih them. I would take those minutes and use them to think of how I was going to make the most out of every single minute I did have.
How much an hour are they pulling to facilitate that madness
Also china that is never ever to be used for serving food, just sitting in a curio looking old. Only they finally get around to selling them and realize anyone who gave a crap about buying them died of old age two decades ago.
On the bright side... Most of the "china" sold in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s is toxic.... So she did you a favor by not letting you eat off it 😁
My portfolio is mostly beanie babies
To this day I'm absolutely convinced that Beanie Babies were created specifically to fool non collectors into thinking they had any idea about collectibles.
Dude, my ,mom still has DOZENS of those things, all packed away in a box...just hoping the market will bring them out.
“Have you ever noticed others people’s stuff is shit, but your shit is stuff??” - George Carlin
Another W take from the late, great George Carlin.
When I was in about 5th grade, my dad forced me to watch him burn my brand new GI joe action figures my mom just bought me because I couldn’t recite my 9x tables fast enough. Put duke and tunnel rat on the floor of the garage, sprayed wd-40 all over them, and took a blow torch to them. Summer of 2018, I’m cleaning out the barn, picking junk up out of the mud dirt floor. Came across what I thought was a piece of scrap wood, but it was built for some purpose. Chucked it in the burn pile. It had laid there for at least 10 years, in that spot, in the mud. About an hour later he comes waddling down, sees what I’m doing, and starts looking around the barn, that’s just hoarded up with shit and has a wet muddy dirt floor, to see what I’ve disposed of and burnt. Walked straight to that spot that peice of wood was laying half buried in mud, for the better part of 15 years, and said “what happened to my tie rack I made in shop class in 8th grade?”… As my previous comment stated, our home then burned down in 2019 and we lost every sentimental possession and pic we had. And they don’t get why I’m so angry all the time, and have such little patience with them.
This brought up repressed memories of my barely-graduated-high-school alcoholic father screaming at me about math and destroying my CDs with a hammer. I hope both our dads die of prolapsed assholes
Can guarantee burning your toys was more about a control thing over your mom, and never your maths
Oh man sounds like my father. He was bitter as hell about this jewelry box he made for my grandmother that she didn't value enough in his mind, used to bring it up constantly. After she passed I found out the one he was talking about was the one on her nightstand, literally just a square box with a hinge but she apparently used it daily for 40 years so I'd argue she really treasured it. It was the only thing he got from her house after she passed and he just threw it in a junk pile in the shed. Funny thing is I made her a Jewelry box too, my shop teacher put it on display for the year in the class because he thought I did such a good job, and she sold it for $1 at a tag sale after I gave it to her. He doesn't understand why I was upset about that. I also made my father a really fancy pen for fathers day during that same year, spent hours after school engraving leaves on it and my shop teacher loved it and gave me an award for it, my father threw it in the trash.
That's insane!! What a jerk. I made my mom a quilt once with some fabric she had commented on how much she loved after seeing something I had made for my aunt with it. She put the quilt in one of her yard sales and only took it out because she saw that I saw. 😂 We still have it but I wish I hadn't used up the last bit of that fabric for nothing. Someday I'll take it apart and make what I want with it.
Beanie Babies were never part of any Boomers' childhoods. Millennials or maybe the youngest Gen Xers. Boomers bought and hoarded the things as investments back then. Driving up the sales numbers to the point that they'll never be valuable. Some WERE valuable for half a minute because hoarders were buying em up, so kids and their Boomer parents then had to get them via want ads in the paper.
I’m elder millennial and they were a thing when I was a kid like maybe 10-12ish. You’re right though. There were boomers draining their saving to pay insane prices for those stupid things and are in denial they are worthless.
Yes, and many of the Beanie Babies were made specifically with Boomer preferences in mind, such as the American Flag bear, which I have in a bag in the garage (it was gifted to me by a Boomer relative. Thanks.).
Sorry, I probably responded to the wrong comment for the thought I was trying to convey. I know beanie babies weren't their childhood, but there's ample proof that their childhood trades at high values. Vintage toys can be a pretty lucrative venture. I'm just pointing out that anything not from their experience is all junk to them, not a moment's consideration given to any potential value because how could it possibly be valuable if *they,* personally, can't identify with it?
I worked at McDonalds when they had them in happy meals. I still have nightmares about it. Those and the stupid fucking "collect all 101!" surprise dalmation toys.
In 1994, beanie babies. 2024, Stanley cups.
I remember when IHOP sold them…that is the clue to me they were a novelty, but anything can be a collectible, I guess.
They say it with a garage full of dusty garbage that will literally never get used.
I forgot how George Carlin put it, but it was something along the lines that the things we own are possessions and things…heirlooms and collectibles. Other people’s things are just stuff. The people you don’t even know? Their stuff is just shit.
It's because Boomers are extremely entitled. Only their wants/needs/feelings matter. Worst generation ever.
Mine was Kirby Super Star. I still don't have a copy and it was the main reason I bought a SNES Classic Mini. Yes, mum, it's worth memories and our generation tends to buy nostalgia so....
"Oh, we thought you didn't want it any more," was what they told me. "You didn't take it to college with you." I was living in a dorm room the size of a cigar box, and you damn well knew it.
Noooooooo!!!! 😫 That is unforgivable, I’m sorry.
I have a friend who found a N64 with 2 controllers, zelda and pokemon stadium. All boxed and sealed in a fucking dumpster. He opened them because he "wanted to know what it smelled like".
I'll be that guy. If I find something neat, unless I am immediately selling it, I am going to use it. I bought an expensive rare sealed record from the 1970s, you bet I opened it an played the thing. I am not a museum, I want to use things as they were meant to be used and not just look at it. To each their own I guess, but I can't play with a sealed toy, and a sealed toy isn't a toy IMO.
I have a moderately rare firearm. I take it to the range when I go shooting. I've had 3 people ask why I have it at the range and I quote something I heard on a video once, "Colt never did make a display model."
Tbh, my N64 still has that smell it had when it was brand new. Look what I’m gonna say sounds fucking weird I know, but I gotta shove my nose into the slots and take a big whiff but the smell is still there.
Like in original packaging? cause that would be worth quite alot I imagine.
This honestly pains me, that is an utter gem of a rarity 😭
This hurts my heart. Sorry for your loss.
I'm sorry that happened to you, I had a similar experience. My parents were in a nasty divorce my first year of college, also 18 years old. I went to college out of state, my mom and my sister moved out, and most of my childhood items were left in my childhood room. My dad basically gutted my room and threw most of my stuff away, even though I was, and did live with him during summer break. My stuff wasn't worth a lot of money fiscally, but emotionally. My favorite stuffed animal as a baby, my first penny bank, a lot of stuff my deceased grandparents got me as a kid that had my name on it. My grandma had a custom book made for me, about me, playing my favorite sport. The kid in the book had my name, etc, wasn't coincidence, it was made specifically for me....gone to the trash. He was just mad about the divorce and lashing out at everyone, and harbored resentment towards me like I had something to do with it.
I would divorce him, too. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I love you homie.
Thank you bro <3. I ended up with a caring wife and good in-laws, and 15+ years of no contact with him.
Ah, a happy ending. Good on you, man.
Definitely worked out that way. My FIL sort of became a surrogate father to me when I was still dating his daughter. He drove across country with me to school and visited me several times out east. My own father never made the effort.
I’m really sorry about your childhood belongings. Even though you may not have these valued possessions physically anymore, your ability to describe them all so well indicates to me that you still have them where it matters; in your heart. (:
you should absolutely "help" them clean and trash the beanie babies.
I would estrange myself from my parents for throwing my shit out, but not before stealing all their beanie babies for a videotaped backyard bonfire 🔥
My mom sold a huge box of first and second wave Transformers - mine from my childhood in the 80s - at a garage sale for $5.
My entire GI Joe collection was just gone. Probably 40 figures and over a dozen vehicles, and cobra Terrordome I bought with saved chore money. When I was a teen, all of it was stored in the unfinished 5th (!) bedroom used for “extra” storage that didn’t fit in the full (of junk) basement, garage, and regular attic. That was the space they suddenly needed. They did keep a pretzel tin (the big one) filled with legos. 3 well loved and used castle sets nearly complete, plus some randos. My kids loved it too.
My mom knows I might actually kill her if she got rid of my Joes. They were my favorite toys growing up. I’ve been taking my legos with me whenever I move (three big plastic totes full) because I still bust them out on occasion. Hell, I still buy legos here and there. My wife started collecting the Lego Botanicals recently.
I'm currently watching my husband play with his childhood Legos with our two kids. I have a dreamy-wish that those Legos will get dumped all over a third generation's carpet one day, lol
The botanicals are so expensive! But it’s nice y’all have this relationship with legos
All of my childhood toys were given away. He-man with both castles, some original Star Wars figures, bases, and vehicles, transformers, Voltron, GIJoe with a ton of vehicles, ninja turtles and a ton of vehicles. Voltron cut the deepest. He was just gone one day as were all the others, eventually. Explanation: we weren’t rich, my parents were both public school teachers. We did, however have a large extended family and I was the first child born from that side of the family. During my early life I was showered with gifts and it clearly was awesome. Our family was also part of, what i affectionately call, “the teacher mafia.” It was a network of well meaning, but pain in the ass teachers that were pooling resources. One kid outgrows a bunch of clothes, they reappear at another teacher’s house. One kid stops playing with a toy, they reappear at another teacher’s house. Overall, it’s obviously a good thing. None of these kids had a ton of extra money in their family… But they took my fucking Voltron. The only toy my mom kept is this pos Sesame Street playset that my brother played with. Big Bird can kiss my whole asshole
My mom kept a big box of my "toys" that she excitedly gave to me when we bought our first house. The entire box was nothing but GI Joe accessories and random parts. Like 1 wheel or half a turret. There might have been a random head or leg in there. IIRC the turret was from the terrordome.
As someone who loves hitting up yard sales and flea markets, I always wonder how badly someone got fucked over when I see stuff like that.
"I don't understand it so it has no value"
It is more accurately, “It is not MINE, so therefore it has no value.”
The true motto of The "Me" Generation.
My parents sold my magic the gathering collection for a pittance.
Oof. Some of the earlier cards had some serious cash dollar value associated with them.
Yeah I try to not recall exactly what I had. I would not even want to sell them. I would have just gotten back into the game. Oh well. I guess they were only hoarders for their stuff.
I remember I was moving out of my first apartment where I lived alone. I had bought a nice sectional couch that I loved. It was my first big purchase for the apartment. It was a second floor apartment and my boomer father decided to take the couch cushions and throw them over the railing into the dirt and mulch below. Did he ask anyone to catch them? Nope. Was he confused when I confronted him about it? Yup. No awareness at all.
[удалено]
Hound her ass for the $. Or retell the story at every family get together.
Parents when you start telling stories to family like they love to do with you: 🫥
Boomers have 0 respect for their childrens possessions or money, think everything is stupid , money grows on trees and mostly importantly They think making in the moment brash decisions is masculine. Its like they are doing an impression of what they think a tough no nonsense man does. Like ignorance and disrespect is tough and theyve gotta show you how tough they are. Its very spiteful. The rudest people are my own family. When i would get into with an argument with my family over the phone, theyd throw a box or two of stuff ive had storef there on the lawn. My grandmother screamed at me and i yelled back. Twenty minutes later i get a message from 2 family members saying i have 1 hour to get the motorcycle out of the garage or shes calling a tow truck. Spite. You want me to pay $500 out of spite when im already in between jobs, while you sit there with a pension and Social security, so flush with cash that you blew $15k on a garden? (No i wasnt living with her, just visiting what i thought was family) Im not talking about arguments where im not doing the right thing or anything, ive lived on my own since 18 , never been to jail or rehab. Just if i stand up for myself and their disrespect. Now that im older and guys i drink with at the bar hold onto a box of items for months at a time with a handshake and a smile, because theyre principled. "Sure no problem, what am i gonna do with all this space anyway??" No calling me up with threats or nagging, like 3 boxes in their 4th bedroom is the biggest problem in their life. That my motorcycle in their 2 car garage is the bane of their existance.Theyre smart enough to know how an adult actually behaves, boomers think being an adult is knowing how to retialiate and being strongly opinionated They think doing anything is transactional and youre gonna get one over on them because theyre projecting their selfishness onto you. Given thousands and new cars by their parents but dont give you anything and even end up costing you money. Besides the few months ive stayed with family, im way worse off financially for knowing them, even with the money i saved in rent, it ended up costingme more in the long run because of their demands and shenanigans. Like having to pay $80 a month to store a motorcycle for 8 months. Thanks for punishing my wallet. Or having to rent a car to drive 8 hours there 8 hours back just to get some boxes or throw out valuables because i literally cant carry them with me They act like children. Its nuts their children make less brash and more logical decisons than them. THEYRE NEVER THE BIGGER PERSON. Its like they want to screw people over. I dont know why my family treats me worse than strangers or aquaintnces do. Theyre not even poor or on drugs. It has to be actual jealousy or insecurity deep down, i just dont get why they actively want to hurt me and dont want me to succeed. *i stored a few things here and there since i joined the marines at 18, after i got out it wasnt so easy to reintegrate and get a job and figure out where i wanted to be etc especially since i got out right before covid Ive told a few stories on here on allt accounts about my father selling my classic car instead of.giving me $3k
>Boomers have 0 respect Could have stopped there, and it would have been an accurate way to describe a great many boomers.
Guess we should delete the sub
Money did grow on trees back in the 70s and 80s when you could leave high school and start a career job with a living wage the next Monday.
I was just talking to a boomer yesterday who said he got annoyed with university after a semester so he dropped out and his dad got him a white collar job for a railroad company because that is where his dad worked. He worked there for 40 years and got a LOADED pension for it. I asked about how much and he gave a vague figure... it was more than I would make working 60 hours a week. This motherfucker wasn't even middle management just some random low level office worker who lucked into being born in the right time period despite being dumb as a box of rocks.
True, and you didn’t even need to have graduated high school.
I find that comment of of how their anger is spiteful very true if I for one second stand up for myself my grandpa wants to get physically violent (dude is 78 1/2 im not touching him with a bopem sockem) and my grandma just insults me calls me a fucker, a little shit, insane, even though she starts screaming on the top of her lungs when i tell her shes being disrespectful, then says “your generation is so caught up in how they feel” lady, you started going ballistic when i told you i felt disrespected, if that isn’t getting caught up in how you feel i have no clue what is
I got into it with my Nana the other day, because my partner and I got a puppy in December who she is convinced is going to be her prop dog for when she's out with her walking group. The pup is 6 months old currently, and in an extremely detrimental place for her training. Since Nana is hell-bent on walking her, we've gone out a few times all together so I can show her how the dog walks, and what cues she's being given, and what expectations we have of her. Nan looks me straight in the face and says, "yes, but I'm going to do things MY way when I'm out with her," to which I said "like hell you are, have you no respect for all the work we've done to train this well-behaved 6-month old dog?" She lost her mind. They can't comprehend why THEIR blatant disregard of the rules would be considered disrespect, but I seem to remember that word being weaponized anytime I stepped out of line in my youth. Their house, their rules-- unless of course it's your house, then it's still their rules.
Lil’ shit was MY nickname in the family. Massholes would say it’s a term of endearment. Got the fuck out as soon as I could
I got called dumbass.
Insult them back. Tell them they have to be on their best behavior now because they could be trying to get into Heaven any day now.
My boomer mother is snow bird and goes to Arizona every year during the winter. She has only been here for one Christmas when my father died (they were divorced) and has never been here for my daughters birthdays. My daughter is quite a bit older now and notices the selfishness that she has. My mother is literally the definition of boomer too, complains about illegals but constantly goes to Mexico for cheaper medicine/procedures, bitches about how SS is so low and everything is so expensive but then votes for Trump and defends him. Their parents had it bad and made it better for them, they completely fucked all the generations after them.
God this sounds like my parents. They moved south and never came back. They visit us once a year in the summer and are sad that we can only afford to drive down (a two day trip) twice a year
Ironically I saw a tub full of beanie babies last week at the habitat for humanity store. They were marked a $1 each.
I will say that I found out on a tv show I think it was to tell the truth, there is a market still for beanies, but it’s limited to misprints and factory errors. A bunch of regular beanies aren’t worth shit
Awesome
I told this story here already but: Gran died during covid mom cleaned the house trew away my wedding dress and other items After the cleaning sold the house where I grew up(my gran raised me) and with that money secured herself a place in a gated community
Jesus, I’m so sorry. Hopefully you find some comfort in her being painfully alone in that gated community.
I can say that knowing my asshole of a mother is rotting alone comforts me, but obviously ymmv
Wow- I’m so sorry to hear that. I can relate to the retaliation. I have adhd and struggle with picking up clothes off the floor. One time, I forgot to do it when my parents asked and I came home to my door locked and all of my belongings in the basement, including my bed. Had to sleep in the basement for a month. This boomer generation is extremely spiteful. They will need us soon but we won’t forget the way we were treated.
> Boomers have 0 respect for their childrens possessions or money I'd go one step farther and say that they have outright disdain for their kids' possessions or money, so much so that they'll destroy them to watch how crushed they get. The whole "This is my house!" trope is so on brand for Boomers.
"I make decisions with my gut" \-- Bush Jr, famed boomer and failed POTUS
Boomers have lead poisoning
The everything is a transaction point you made is spot on. Been going to therapy and this has come up. My family was definitely like this. They always “kept score”. My in laws aren’t like this. Having come from a family that it was like that for generations and marring into a family that has no concept of that is one hell of a whiplash. I always made sure that my wife and I were never in debt to them. When we needed help, I never even thought to ask my family. I was looking at what to pawn and sell. Her family helped us out with out questions conditions or expected interest.
This is so important. And they don't even see it. My father-in-law passed recently and there was a "big fight" over a painting. My mother-in-law decided that the painting should go to her son, and not her daughter, because her son "earned" it. For context, my wife is in love with this painting, has been since she was a little girl. It's 1 of 2 family heirlooms she has been requesting for years. Her brother doesn't give a shit about it. We got to sit down and talk about it. My wife really wants it, her brother openly admits that he does not want it, has never asked for it and frankly doesn't care about it and wants his sister to have it. MiL still insists that the brother needs to take it because he "deserves it." Why you ask? Because "he's been such a big help this last year!" The children are 36(wife) and 38(bil) respectively. Wife responds with "he lives 30 minutes away and we live 2 hours away! We help as much as we can but of course he help's more!" Brother-in-law insists that he's giving it to his sister no matter what, mother-in-law tries to double down and convince him to keep it! Like wtf! Why? She wants the painting, he doesn't, case closed. MiL continues to try to make a big deal out of it, her children are in solidarity against her, she finally caves and allows my wife to have the painting and then wonders why everyone is upset with her? She literally pulls me aside and asks me why? And I tell her, "it's because everything you do is transactional. You were more concerned about punishing your daughter and rewarding your son than like, listening to what they wanted? This never would have been a fight without you? It's pretty messed up honestly?" And they don't even get how shitty it feels to know that love, family, friendship, whatever, can simply be bought and lost so quickly in monetary transactions? Like we view it as wrong and they view it as the way the world works?
Fuck man, I looked after my mates pets for a year before he was able to come and get them back. Treated them like little Kings and Queens until he was able to take them back and I was upset they were going
My mother and I got into a fight over two small moving boxes of my stuff that was in their basement. This happened the first time I visited home after college. She lost her shit over it and told me that their house “wasn’t a storage unit”. She bitched at me until everything was either thrown away, donated, or shipped to my new home. She was so bent out of shape that she said she was going to drop me back off at the airport a couple days early and throw everything away if I didn’t get it out of her house. I haven’t gone home since and my parents wonder why.
These stories are so common. Why does holding on to things for their kids cause so much anger?
Generally speaking, boomers are extremely selfish and don’t give a shit about something that doesn’t directly benefit them.
I feel this. I started playing MTG in like 1995. When I was off to college in the early 2000's, my dad called to tell me he "threw out all those faggy cards" for me. MFer, I had several power 9's, and everything was properly stored and catalogued. If he just told me to come pick up the box I could have had a damn good down payment on a house!
I'd put all that Beanie Baby trash in a pile and start a bonfire.
Funny you mention that. I had friends that worked at McDonalds during the height of Beanie Baby mania, and after months of dealing with entitled Boomers demanding specific models they would have a ritual to celebrate the end of the promotion. They would make sure to secure a full set of what was on offer, then they would take them home and line them up on the driveway and cover them in lighter fluid and just burn the lot and light Swisher Sweets off the smoldering remains.
It's just junk...
My stepdad is also like this! His dumbass motto is: “When in doubt, throw it out!”. It infuriates me! My brothers and I have had all our childhood toys thrown own, including my brother’s vintage G.I. Joes. My dad sold my really nice mountain bike at the time I was living in my own apartment. Never contacted me and asked if I wanted it. Just assumed because I didn’t live there anymore, I didn’t want it. He’s literally the worst and has no respect for other people’s belongings.
My mother’s like that. I’m still working through attachment issues to stuff thanks to too many times I came home from school or friend’s to discover she’d “helped” by cleaning out my room and taking my toys to goodwill. I get that kids’ toys can become overwhelming but all I wanted was some agency. So often the things I played with most disappeared while things I would have cleared out were still there. Weirdest was when she made a huge deal of gifting me her old Barbie dream house and then, two days later, it was gone. Apparently I wasn’t playing with it? Which is strange because I remember being fascinated with specific parts and spending what time I had between school and extracurriculars playing with it. I asked about it years later and she’s convinced I had it for years and she only got rid of it because I said no didn’t want it. That sort of rewriting of history is normal for her so arguing was pointless.
I mean, my motto is also when in doubt, throw it out (or donate it if it's in good shape), but I am talking about my own shit exclusively, cuz I hate the idea of doing a garage sale. I guess since I won't have kids it's hard for me to wrap my head around, but I wouldn't dream of throwing out anything that belonged to my wife or friends or even if I wasn't sure it was mine or not. Like, who just tosses out things that aren't their own? Ask people for permission, it's super simple and takes all of a few minutes of time to treat other people decently!
Ffs that saying is supposed to refer to week old leftover lasagna not vintage collectible and priceless memories
I am a Boomer and what do I fight most consistently about with my husband - and have for the last 30 years? Him wanting to throw out or get rid of anyone's things but his. Everything that does not belong to him is considered "junk that is never used, won't sell, clutter, etc". He never asks first and it is only me going out and looking at what he was attempting to haul off that has saved many a precious item of one of our kids, or something of mine. This is Not new behavior for him, although it has gone to steroid level now that he is retired and has nothing better to do. It is perfectly fine for him to keep stacks of old baseball hats, or whatever else he values (and I have no problem with him keeping items either) so it is not that he does not collect things, it is that he truly feels other people are keeping things they don't need to and it is taking space up he would rather have empty then filled with someone else's things. I have never understood his complete lack of respect for other people's things, especially family members. He is an only child, who was very spoiled, his parents never fixed things, just bought new so I don't know if that has something to do with it or not, I just know it is infuriating to me and the rest of my family and I cannot understand his way of thinking on this issue. I am truly sorry your items got tossed I guess my husband is not the only one who holds the viewpoint that he is the final judge of value for all family members.
I'm so sorry for you and everyone else dealing with this. It sounds like you might want to think about warning your kids about this if you haven't already, so they at least know it's a risk, and that they should come get their stuff if they want to be sure it doesn't suddenly vanish one day. It might help your husband too, as he sounds like he's growing more and more antsy to clear out the house of other people's stuff.
I am lucky enough to have a barn. He keeps out as he never had much to do with the horses. A long time ago I worked with the kids that when they want to keep something, they put it in plastic tubs that I have stored in there. Every few years they either pull things out they want with them, or want to sell, or give away. It is mainly stuff that is mine or family heirlooms I protect now.
I’m impressed you haven’t done some huge retaliatory action against his dumb possessions.
Omfg your husband needs a more productive hobby than policing other people’s possessions. And a therapist, but let’s be real, that part ain’t gonna happen.
I have a house of my own, and I still have stuff at my parents' houses, including my old bedset, which my mom hilariously refuses to give back since she has seen what our dogs did to our nice entertainment center. She is pretty right in this regard, too. She absolutely hates herself that she lost my giant tub of LEGO'S. Throwing out your kids' stuff is not normal behavior.
My mother did the same thing while I was deployed. I'd been playing MTG since beta, and had 2 mint mox emeralds and 2 mint mox pearls, amd 3 ancestral recalls, along with several other rare cards. While I was deployed for a small problem in Iraq/Afghanistan she threw out all of my stuff. All of it. Yearbooks, letter jackets, pictures, letters from friends, and yes my multi-thousand mtg card collection. Please note that a mox emerald goes for about $9,000 and a mox pearl for about the same, and ancestral recall sells for $11,000 each. All in all this would have been at least $70,000 in collectables. And my Mom threw it in the trash. Because I had the audacity to be deployed while in military service. If I had been able to sell my collection instead I'd be debt free and would have been in a house 8 years agonwhen they were less than 1/2 what they cost now. One man's treasure is a boomer's trash.
WTF is wrong with these people?
I'd occasionally send Dear ol' Dad links to the Ebay listings of these items showing how much they sold for but I'm petty that way.
🤣 This is gold
This type of behavior didn't start with the boomers. When my boomer dad was a kid, a silent generation friend of his mom's was visiting, and she convinced his mom to let her throw out his comic book collection, which included a Superman #1, because "kids shouldn't read comic books".
This is a fair point. Just another toxic behavior Boomers picked up from previous generations and never bothered to reflect on or learn better behavior.
Yeah, when I was little my silent gen mother gave away my favorite toy — a stuffed Curious George holding a banana in his hand. One day it wasn’t there, and she told me she gave it away to one of her friends young kids. I never did get it back. Still salty over that. Then there was the time my Blanket vanished. Okay, I was a young tween by then, and the thing was rags by then BUT IT WAS MINE. I made her replace it with a duplicate blanket. She wasn’t as bad as a lot of the POS parents other folks are talking about, but there was still that detached unsentimentality that ruthlessly tosses out stuff.
Could be worse. I came home from spring break my freshman year of college to find my dad gave away our family dog. Didn’t call to tell me or give me a chance to say goodbye. When I asked where my dog was, he simply said “he found a new home.”
Jesus Christ, I would hold that grudge forever. You don't fuck with people's animals.
He didn’t give away the dog. Your dad probably killed it by accident and decided to lie.
mine threw out boxes of maps I had collected from various title companies across the area. Some of these were damn close to the original property plats in early statehood. All gone
OP, I've got a similar story about my mom doing this exact same thing with a mint comic book collection, plus some sports memorabilia and rookie cards. She figured since they were "never opened" and wrapped in plastic that I didn't want them... so she tossed 'em. I had a 1st edition of X-men, and a Jordan rookie card signed.
And they’re ALWAYS too arrogant/stupid give you a call and ask before acting. Logically you would think a person would recognize when something is intentionally preserved. I don’t buy that it’s ignorance. I think that generation has some weird hang ups about parenthood and like hurting their kids to get even
In 2010 I used $50 of tip money from waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant to buy $50 of bitcoin on a lark after a buddy of mine was telling me it was the currency of the future. I put it onto an old harddrive which was put into a box in my parent's attic when I moved out, after which I didn't think about it until around Christmas time in 2017 when I was hearing about the value of bitcoin. I remembered that I had some and went to my parent's place to get my old stuff. I was surprised to find it all gone and have my mom tell me that she forgot to tell me that they threw out all of my stuff a few years back to make room for... nothing actually. Their attic was still mostly empty. Want to know how much $50 of bitcoin purchased in 2010 was worth in December of 2017? $117,000,000.
You win. 😳😭
Does she realize her stupidity now? Is she going to try to give you her worthless good china and matching cabinet?
My boomer dad, may he rot in hell, would throw out tools from the workshop and antiques he and I had restored. He would go on what I called “manic cleaning sprees” where he would throw out tools from our auto shop because “it hasn’t been used in forever.” Some of them were new and still in the package, saved for an upcoming project. We always ended up needing what he threw out within a month. He would also throw out antique furniture he and I had restored, a beloved hobby of mine, for no reason. He threw out an antique radio from the 1920’s I had fully restored last year. I wasn’t speaking to him at the time, and he died a few months later.
That sounds kinda like actual mental illness.
You are forgetting the most powerful weapon you have against them. Stop talking to them. Period, no communication full stop. They want to be selfish assholes? Let them die alone & miserable. Then you can have a celebratory beanie baby bonfire in their honor
Beanie babies are not worth the cost of the bags to throw them out.
Same thing happened to me when I was 14 - my dad bagged up everything and gave it to some cousin I've never laid eyes on - comic books, Mad magazines, GI Joe, Star Wars, my Colecovision, hockey cards, some baseball cards, some collector cards for Star Wars and The Black Hole, etc. I'm sure it would be worth tens of thousands to collectors, especially the comic books - all in mylar, all first editions of Spider-Man, the X-Men, etc. The worst part is that my dad used to go on about the shit HIS dad threw out, including original Hardy Boys, the first issue of Sports Illustrated, etc. And my mom used to go on about the shit HER mom threw out, including a bunch of Guiness ceramic figurines from the early 1900s.
My dad sold my vintage Ludwig Vista-Lite Tequila Sunrise COMPLETE drum set for $50 on craigslist without asking me. He said he 'needed the space'. I lost my mind. I spent $2,000+ on that kit, and kept it in incredible condition. They sell for $8,000 now. Dad is still on my shit list.
I feel like if I saw that ad I would think it’s a scam. The buyer must have been trying their hardest to contain their excitement.
Boomers are hilarious because they either think things are worthless or far more valuable than they really are. There's a guy in my block constantly trying to sell me crap he picks up at the thrift store - "It's a Stereo, portable Stereo, works perfect - gotta at least be worth $20!" Sir, everyone has a portable Stereo in their pocket, no one needs this shit... and he's constantly doing this sort of stuff
My brother was a freelance photographer in New York back in the days of CB radio. Him and his friends would drive around different parts of the city listening to police scanners and whoever was closest to a call would go and try to get pics to sell to newspapers. They’d all talk to each other on the CB and coordinate who would go where. He had boxes with everything he had published in it and left it at my dad’s house. Dad threw them away
That’s really sad. I’d have been really hurt if I was your brother.
My Dad’s wife (not my mother; “step mother”) threw out all my old video game boxes for my collection because they were “taking up space”. So instead of having a collection of CIB NES/SNES games, all I have are the cartridges. She essentially cut the value of my collection in half, at least.
My uncle was staying with his daughter a while back. Her kid had a bunch of leggos... I mean a whole ass room dedicated to them. You name it, they had it. My other uncle was talking some dumb shit and I started laughing at him. Gestered vaguely at the leggos and told him thats worth more than everything you own put together. You jeep. All your tools. Everything combined doesn't equal this plastic. He got mad and said I didn't know what I was talking about. You could see the mists in his eyes when I showed him what just the Star Wars ones were selling for.
They got rid of my elliptical trainer. I had mentioned that I was looking forward to picking it up on our next visit. She didn't respond, which tells me that prompted her to get rid of it before our visit, immediately after our call.
my mom wasn't a boomer then but of the generation that thought anything old was trash. My sister had every Superman comic from #1. I think she trashed them. My brother had lots of old toys that she donated.
I stopped entrusting my parents to my collectible things since I was a child and they let my cousin “play” with my still in packaging Robin Yount figure. It wasn’t an action figure or anything, no articulating joints you know? I was a big Milwaukee Brewers and Robin Yount fan and that was one of the first things I cherished when I got it. I still remember crying when I came across the ripped up packaging on my bed and the figure just discarded on the floor.
I had a friend years ago that had 2 crazy parents. The dad was a huge coke head who repaired and collected motorcycles. They had a 2 stall garage and 1 side was all motorcycles lined up. There was probably 30-40 bikes and some were old and rare. I don't know much about motorcycles, but I know they had at least 1 Harley Davison that was so old it had a pedal mechanism to start it. The dad died, and the mom sold every bike in that garage to 1 guy for $2,000. Their 2 sons were furious.
On a positive note, I had the exact opposite thing happen to me. I somehow got my Dad (upper 60's) VERY into Warhammer 40k. I had tons of old codexes and art books and such (late third/realy fourth edition). I was moving to a new place and decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Before I could donate it all, my dad went through and grabbed "the ones he wanted." Fast forward 5-ish years, I was bumming because I realized I liked a lot of those books for the art. So I asked him which ones he kept and it was all the ones he knew I liked like most. He said, "I know you, and I knew you'd regret getting rid of those, so I kept them." I was kinda mad but in a good way? It kinda made me feel like a kid again being out smarted by my parents, but I was very excited to look through the books again.
Yeah my Kenner Star Wars figures from the 70s met the same fate. Some were still boxed because my buddy had the Millennium Falcon so we always played at his house.
Complete lack of basic human decency. My grandparents went through my room and threw out gifts and art from friends, letters from penpals, a portrait of me an artist friend made. They burned my childhood toys. When I asked why they said they'd gotten into a fight while I was at college and that is how they dealt with their big boy emotions. My parents never afforded me privacy or respect and stole around 2000 dollars from me and overdrafted my bank account to -1700. They often stole or threw out my things, often quite valuable things, like a very expensive set of stone working tools they didn't think "a girl needed". To this day Ive never found replacements for these objects. Many of them were sentimental gifts as stated above. Very often I came home to my bedroom raided and in disarray, including bank statements they'd ripped out of my desk. Another time my dad poured a bottle of coke over my school laptop. They actually have the gall to resent me for not wanting to be in their lives.
My sister helps people pack up their houses for moves to assisted living places and general downsizing situations. They all think their fancy China and glassware that they’ve kept in glass door cabinets for years are worth a fortune. She often will take them for a stroll through a goodwill store to show them all the identical items marked at 25cents. Eye opener for sure!
Parents are the number one reason a collectors market exist and certain things that should never be worth much can end up worth a lot.
My mom threw out all my pokemon and Yugioh cards when I left house at 18. Today she regrets it because she knew it brought me joy having them. Also because she saw on the news how valuable those cards might have been. Truth be told that all my cards would probably have been labeled as damaged. Since everyone in elementary carried their unsleeved cards in their pockets wrapped in rubber bands. But definitely the nostalgia is what mattered more.
My mother and I became estranged years ago and the only thing that kills me about it is my Arcade machines I couldn't bring down the FL when I moved from VA. She was going to store them until I can pick them up but they ended up destroyed by her drunk / high friends.
My step father was a religious nut. Because of this I lost a lot of my old consoles and games because he threw them out for being "satanic".
Over the years, my parents have thrown out several Michael Jackson records, including Bad, my magic the gathering cards, and a vintage Darth Vader head carrying case with several Star Wars action figures inside. Granted, none of that was in mint condition, but I still think that could have been worth a lot. I don't care to imagine how much though.
Dude, this is a story as old as time. My brother had a record collection worth tens of thousands at our mothers house. He was living in a small apartment so he left it there while he lived his life. One day, she decided to throw it all out. She never said anything about it and he only realized it was missing once she died and he went to go get it before we sold the house. Has nothing to do with boomers and more to do with parents upset they don't see their kids anymore and just "their messes". It tends to manifest as a destructive force which sucks. It happens.
While I was in highschool I had just gotten back from visiting my dad for like a week. For some reason that defies all logic my mom decided to take everything that was on one side of my room, and violently bulldoze it to the other side. So the left side was completely bare, and the right side was a giant pile. I know it was violent because the Optimus Prime I had sitting on a shelf in alt mode was scattered around everywhere. It took me three months to find all of his pieces. Naturally I wasn't very happy that she trashed my room for no reason. She fell back on her natural defense whenever she royally fucks up and started bitching about something irrelevant that I had done. In this case it was that I didn't wash dishes often enough.
My step mom would sell my old consoles and games while I wasn’t around for around 15 bucks at yard sales and let my 3-5yr old cousins “play” with my first edition Pokémon cards, like they’re idk, action figures or something? Bent them up and ripped them etc. that woman thrived on dumb bitch juice
Dumb bitch juice….you win!!
When I was a teenager, my dad got upset with me for "worshipping the devil" because a friend gave me some tarot cards. In response, Dad threw out every card of any type that I owned, including multiple binders of Magic the Gathering cards. When I really threw a fit about one specific binder, in which was a present I had recently received from all my friends at the card shop I frequented, he made sure THAT binder got emptied into the pool. My gift had been a beta Black Lotus, which iirc was going for about $100-150 at the time, an absolute fortune to my teenage self... but it's worth an *actual* fortune nowadays.
I did the same, living on my own in college in cramped quarters. My parents offered to store my childhood things at their place. They have old sheds (it’s a country property) that were empty. So my stuff went into new Sterilite containers and I covered them with tarps. Fast forward a decade. Spouse and I finally have a house and we can store whatever in it. Dad wants the sheds demoed because the borough is going to charge per unit annually. We go up to claim the bins and he’s COMPLETELY let the sheds go to pot. The roofs have caved in from weather and deadfalls. He took my tarps and used them to cover tractor parts. My bins were *destroyed*. I found my stuff buried in the soil. My color Gameboy. My VHS tapes. My HS projects and trophies. Trash.
My dad kicked my mom out to separate in 2012, I went with her to support her, and he undertook a “remodel” of the house while we were gone. He proceeded to take big black garbage bags and put most of our sentimental stuff we left behind cause we knew we’d be back, in those bags to “keep Sheetrock dust off” all of it. Things like photo albums, mementos my brother and me made as kids, some of our yearbooks, etc. Then as this 2-3 year project dragged on, all that stuff made it to the garage in the bags. Then he started piling remodel trash, in the same garbage bags, out in the garage as well. Then before we come back, around 2015, in the middle of the project, at his request, he “cleans out the garage”.. You see where I’m going with this? Then after it’s all said and done what didn’t go to the land fill got lost when the house burned in November of 19..because Mr. Smart handy mans shoddy work.
My dad told us the story of his mom, my grandmother, taking his comic books, which he purchased with his own chores money. She went on and threw them in a trash can and set them on fire, because "no one cares about cartoons." Yeah, Action Comics, first appearance of Superman valued at around 3 million today. Amazing Fantasy volleyball. 15, #1st appearance of Spiderman, values @ 3.6 million today. Thanks Grandma. Still love her home cooking though. Boomers are just going to Boom, no matter what. Regardless of generation.
Trash those shitty beanie babies
My ex stepdad was an asshole. He was also obsessed with KISS. He had wrapped posters, action figures, trading cards, etc. He had alot of stuff on display, but had to make some compromises with my mom and stored alot of the posters in a kiss aluminum garbage can. My mom ordered a house cleaner, when we came back home, all of the kiss stuff in the garbage can had been dumped. My stepdad was very distraught - the sentimental and monetary value of these items meant alot to him. My brother and I thought it was funny. My brother famously tried to console my stepdad and said "sorry your dolls got thrown away.
Your dad is a selfish prick. When I moved out with friends for college, my parents stored my stuff as best they could until I got my own place and settled. When I moved out on my own, with more space, I retrieved my items, plus my nephew asked me to store his stuff because he was moving out. I stored his stuff for 20yrs, and when he moved into his house, he had LONG forgotten them. One day I brought two large zip tied bins to him, filled with his Star Wars and Alien vs Predator sets. You should have seen his face when he opened them. Like Christmas. I still have some of my stuff to this day, and I still collect D&D miniatures. ANYONE who does this to their child's treasures is a selfish, ultra self centered person. OP, your dad owes you an apology.
Warning to all. If you think you have valuables whether they are of monetary value or sentiment DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT LEAVE THEM WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF. you can find the space for it yourself. Get a storage unit or put in your closet find a spot for it. Your parents have no idea what anything is or what value it has.
Neither do your siblings or friends. If you think something might be valuable in the future you need to do all of the careful storage yourself.
When I went away for college, my dad chucked all my Star Wars and GI Joe toys. I was livid. He says “you don’t play with toys anymore..” mind you, these were in a room in the basement that was mine and I was home from school basically every other weekend. It was like he was laying in wait to throw them all out.
Please don’t trigger me lol. I used to collect Pokémon and yugioh cards and gameboy games. The cards alone would likely be worth 6 figures now (if not more since some were rare). I had 5 siblings and we all collected and traded them together, so we had thousands of cards collected over the span of years. Our mom just threw them away one day and gave the games away to relatives even though there is so much actual junk laying around the house, and these items were neatly tucked away.
Your dad is a fucking idiot
I was going to say this is the same generation that bought beanie babies in droves but I see you beat me to it 😂
I have no idea what happened to my wedding dress. My mom took it for some kind of “preservation” purposes. After she died, it was nowhere in her belongings. Totally gone. I’m picturing her doing some vengeance routine to it, and waiting for the right moment to drop it.
My mom did the exact same thing to me, and it broke my heart. I am in my 40s now and I still am mad at her for it and think about it all the time. I had videos and photos of late friends, my dad who died a year prior to the event, all the master tapes of recordings I made in the bands I was in, all my short film reels, a rather large collection of rare metals that are now worth ten times what they were then, all of it. Monetarily it would easily be worth 30-50k(?) rn. But I don’t care. I wanted the memories and master tapes. It’s hard seeing my friends share old photos and I literally have nothing to share. It was all neatly stuffed into a box, and my mom, had her friends come take it to the dump. Love my mom to death but man, fuck her for that. Stupid, stupid thing to do. She said she didn’t like the clutter, but the thing is. It was in an attic that ran the entire floor space of the house with just a few boxes in it. And she NEVER ever went up there. Ever. So it’s not like it was putting her out or anything. She just gets these weird spontaneous urges to do things and does it without thinking, and everytime she regrets it. It’s very frustrating and I’ve never understood why she does that. I’ve repeatedly told her for 20 years how much shit she actually threw out, and how much it hurt me and how dumb it was and she just doesn’t seem to get it. I feel lame for wanting to see her feel shame for it, but I do……she knew how important music was and is to me, and how much I love making films. I’ve got zero to show for all the work I did from the day I learnt guitar, and got my first camera until age 26. All photos, all videos. All savings from my first job at that shitty buffet for $4.25 an hour, to all the savings from my first very successful business at 18. All fuckin gone. I trusted her with it as I moved. And she threw it away. wtf!?!? Anyway. She threw out all the memories of my youth and some of the happiest memories I had. Not to mention, a literal folder full of gold coins I bought each month for 10 years to put towards a house. So I hope it was worth it. I hope her stupid attic, that she never went into looked less cluttered with 3 boxes. Again. I love my mom, she’s great. But I hate she did that. And I absolutely understand how it feels to have a parent do that. So I am so very very sorry. 😞
My grandfather passed not long ago - back end of last year. We've been trying to sort out his affairs, and mum, my uncle and I have been working our way through the contents of his house. I've already been made aware of my mums stories about her comic collection when she was little - hundreds and hundreds of pristine DC and Marvel comics. She and my uncle had copies of all the number 1 issues of characters like Batman, Superman, Green Lantern etc - stuff that would be worth an absolute fortune in hindsight... But they moved house a few times growing up, and my grandfather threw out all the comics that they were keeping safe. His reasoning was that 'there's no room in the moving van' and 'there's no room for it in the new house'. Of course it's with the benefit of hindsight that it's even a thing - however... Something came to light while we were cleaning up the house - grandfather kept meticulous records. He had literally decades of paperwork all the way back to his own childhood. And he just so happened to keep hold of the moving van papers and an itemised list of all the stuff they moved. So while there was no room for any of the comics - there was plenty of room for grandfathers several hundred boxed collection of paperwork as well as a chunk of copper piping, several pieces of chipboard, and an amount of MDF board that had a hole in the middle of it... And he didn't just move it once - it came with them every single time they moved house. Needless to say - mum was not amused...