When collectors finally decide they have lost interest in the hobby, they can be faced with a difficult decision. How should they get rid of their collection? What most individuals in this situation do not consider is that their decision can have a beneficial or detrimental effect on the future of this hobby. The purpose of this article is to explore the most common methods of disposing of a collection and the effects each method produces.

The most common method is to sell the entire collection to another collector. The seller inventories his collection, establishing an acceptable price, advertises it, locates a buyer, and the deal is struck. This selling method is very beneficial, because ownership of the collection has simply changed from one collector to another. Unfortunately, finding another collector willing to purchase an entire collection is usually quite difficult.

The next most common disposal method is selling the entire collection to an insulator dealer. Here again the seller can dispose of everything with a minimum of work involved. But ordinarily this method will not yield as high a sale price, simply because all dealers work on a buy low, sell higher basis. If they are to invest a substantial amount of money in a collection, it must be on a profit potential basis. They must be able to realize an honest profit on each insulator they will later sell. And often they sell on a single piece basis. Let's face it -- if there were no profits to be made selling insulators, there would be no insulator dealers!

If, however, you are still an enthusiast in the hobby, but you are realistically looking ahead to a future date when you will sell your collection, there are choices available to you now. These choices will increase the overall value of your collection. If your overall collecting objective is to accumulate the largest number of insulators, these suggestions will not interest you. But if the size of your collection is not supremely important, a collector can continually upgrade his collection by replacing lower value pieces with rarer, higher quality additions. Another idea would be for a collector to thin out his collection by deciding to reduce its overall size. Perhaps he can objectively analyze the collection and decide that a 30% reduction would not substantially reduce the collection's overall value. Both of these methods, the upgrading and the thinning, offer the advantage of allowing the seller the convenience of selling surplus pieces at his leisure and not having to part with everything at one time.

Most of us know other individuals who could be classed as "almost collectors." These are people who will buy a few insulators from time to time, but just cannot seem to find enough interest to fully involve themselves in our hobby. By selling our surplus units to these individuals, we will be improving the overall quality of our collections and, at the same time, we may be able to increase their collecting interest. Another result is that we will have reduced the number of pieces an insulator dealer would have little interest in acquiring. Most collections are sold to dealers for the convenience factor alone. Dealers are not allowed to "pick and choose." They are required to take it all. With these stipulations, the dealer adjusts his bid price to include higher offers on the rare pieces, lower offers on the intermediate stuff, and virtually nothing on the common portion.

I attended a show in the early 1970's and watched as a collection of over 150 insulators was sold to a dealer. As the show ended the dealer sorted through the newly acquired collection. He packed approximately one half for transport home and intentionally left the remaining 75 at the show site. Why? It's obvious -- he knew these 75 insulators were worthless to him. He had tried for several hours to sell them for "gas money home." When this failed, he chose to leave them behind. These insulators should have been worth something! If the seller had used a little forethought, a buyer probably could have been found. And even if not, wouldn't our hobby have benefited if the seller had sorted out the common portion of the collection and given it away? Given it to an individual with the purpose of hopefully recruiting another collector into our ranks. This act would have cost nothing to anyone involved, but look at how all of us would have indirectly benefited. 

Another common method of disposing of a collection is to give it away to a relative. Heirlooms can take many forms: jewelry, furniture, china, silverware and valued possessions. Why can't insulators qualify as valued possessions? Well, they can, and they do for many of us! And it's only fitting that we would want to leave them to a son or daughter because of our appreciation. But, are we sure our children share the same level of enjoyment as we do? Just because our collection has required a great deal of expenditure on our part, both from the time and monetary standpoints, does this automatically qualify the collection as a family heirloom? Perhaps it would be better to discuss the subject openly and pay close attention to their response. Based on their answers, we may be able to make an easy decision. It may turn out that the collection holds little interest to them. Or perhaps it contains a small number of individual pieces they would like. If either of these situations exist, it would be better for everyone to sell the remainder of the collection. By doing this we will have preserved the particular insulators our children would want to own. And at the same time we will have increased the collecting enjoyment of individuals we sell to, because they will have obtained that sought after addition to their collection.

Other individuals might decide to dispose of their collection by donating it to a museum. From the standpoint of overall effect on our hobby, this disposal method is certainly the most injurious. Now, before a dozen or so readers decide to band together, convoy to Kansas City, and lynch me from the top crossarm of a telephone pole, let me explain myself. Most of us are aware that the selling price of many rarer insulators continues to increase every year. It's a simple example of the old economic principle of "supply and demand." There are always more buyers than sellers. But as soon as a collection is donated to a museum, we have all lost something! Those insulators have permanently passed out of private ownership. Never again will they be owned by a collector. Never again will they be a part of a display at a local, regional or national show. And the obvious result is that the supply-demand deficiency has increased, and someplace another collector remains frustrated, unsuccessfully searching for that "most wanted" insulator.

Some readers may argue that making a museum donation is marvelous, from the standpoint of making a collection available for viewing on a permanent basis by a large number of persons. And, further, by doing this, it will increase awareness and interest, and thereby recruit new collectors. On this point they may be right. If a donated collection is displayed permanently, there will be some interest generated. But the only way a donator can be sure this will happen is for the receiving museum to commit to displaying it. And this is where the hair gets short! Just because a collection is donated to a museum is no guarantee that museum will display it. When you sign a contribution form giving away your collection, the chances are very slim that the receiving museum will allow you to make stipulations regarding the use of your donation. You as the contributor have little say about how long each year your collection will be displayed or how it will be cared for when not on display. Most museums are plagued with display space limitations and forced to keep a large proportion of their inventory boxed away. If a person does receive some assurances about the planned use for the donation, these assurances are usually verbal ones. Most likely an "I give you my word" type of deal. But what happens two years later when the old museum curator retires or resigns? Most likely that verbal assurance leaves with the departing employee.

This brings to mind another consideration, the matter of honesty and integrity. Approximately six years ago the Kansas City Museum of Natural History was the subject of an investigation by the city newspaper. The investigation results showed that several hundred donated antiques worth thousands of dollars had vanished. These missing items were finally assumed to have been stolen. Since these items had not been displayed for years, there was no sense trying to assess blame -- they were just gone! So, before considering a museum donation, you would be very wise to perform some serious investigating.

Finally, let's spend a minute thinking about nostalgic reminders. Perhaps you are almost ready to give up the hobby and have not decided how to part with your collection. But you have decided to save back a few insulators when you sell. You want to display these pieces in a sunny window to act as nostalgic reminders of the days when you were a hobby participant. Let's say your window is just wide enough for displaying six insulators, and you decide to keep six of your best. Let's picture this: a cobalt E.C.&M., a carnival Hemingray #62, a peacock blue N.A.T. Co., a lemon yellow McLaughlin #20, a burgundy California helmet, and a deep green P.R.R. transpo. You've decided to keep these six, simply for the sake of the color extremes. But co-incidentally, you've also decided to keep six of the most desirable insulators in the hobby! These six are on numerous active collectors' want lists. They've been after these for a long time. And, if you do not return these to the hobby, these same collectors will continue to hunt. Remember, you've decided your hobby participation has ended. So -- is it absolutely imperative that those nostalgic reminders be such rare specimens? Why not decide to sell the very rare ones and keep the following examples of each color: a cobalt blue Hemingray signal, a Pyrex #63 carnival, a peacock blue H.G. Co. signal, a yellow Canadian beehive, a deep purple W.G.M. Co. toll, and a deep green Brookfield hoop skirt. Wouldn't these six come mighty close to achieving the same color effect? By keeping the lower valued pieces, you have satisfied your color requirements and at the same time you have made one final and generous contribution towards the future of this hobby.

Some readers might think it's odd that an article about quitting would be included in this magazine. Even though this article did cover some options available to the person who is ready to exit the hobby, it should be of benefit to many collectors. By planning towards this possible future date, collectors may be able to avoid saying, "I quit -- now what?" Instead, they may be able to say, "I quit, but I know exactly what I'm going to do!"