One of the most fun things you get to do as a collector is deck your house out with all of your treasures and build an amazing display! The person who has has room to decorate their whole home in model kits, statues, action figures, and the like can really go nuts with their space. One such lucky person was the source of what we called “The Clubhouse Collection”.
Building the Ultimate Fandom Clubhouse
The collector in question was a bachelor who owned a home and filled it as they saw fit. Their heyday of collecting had been the 80s and early 90s. The collection was a crystal-clear snapshot of nerd culture right when it blew up. The house was decorated with model kits (both official and garage varieties), statues, and action figures reflecting the stuff they thought was cool. That means early anime/manga releases like Bubblegum Crisis and Battle Angel Alita, classic movies like Universal Monsters and Heavy Metal, comic strips and indie cartoons of all stripes, and the iconic works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Possibly the most intriguing category of items related to tabletop gaming. See, turning their house into this nerd shrine also made it the regular location for game night. This led to having an extensive library of gaming books from Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and more! All these books were early editions, long out of print and highly sought after.
There were even rarities like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness! Based on the early comics, the RPG system predates the cartoon by a few years. It is a fairly rare piece of Ninja Turtles history, and could be dismissed as just another cartoon tie-in by the untrained eye.
Helping Others Build Their Clubhouse
The core of our staff was having their formative nerd culture experiences during the same era as this collection. As such, it was an absolute blast for us to sort and research, a real trip down memory lane. Our audience felt the same way and really showed up for it. These beloved collectibles ended up in the hands of new owners who would cherish them as much as the original AND the estate earned a solid five-figure payout in the process. Everyone went home happy.
And it all could have ended up in a dumpster! Often, collectors of this type that don’t have immediate family (or family that doesn’t care about the collection), to assist in their twilight years, end up with everything carted to the curb. Luckily, this collector did have extended family and friends that cared enough to step up and take care of things the way the owner would have wanted. That’s why estate planning can be very important for large collections like this. Relying on luck to make sure a collection brings in its value and continues to spread joy is a bad plan. This situation could just as easily end up with some distant cousin hiring a clear-out company sight unseen to just get the house sold. If you want your collection evaluated to document its value or want to sell it and enjoy the profits while you’re still around, drop Back to the Past a line!
What’s your dream collectibles clubhouse look like? Let us know below or hit us up with an answer on social media @b2pcollect!
