Growing Up Part 2

One of the things that brought Shawn and I together was our love of collecting. When we met as teenagers, I had long been reading comic books. Shawn's 2 older brothers had a lifetime of collecting and only nurtured Shawn's hobby. Shawn's bedroom was covered wall to wall with shelves holding masses of action figures. Action Figures. They're not dolls, or toys. They are collectible Action Figures. Don't make me have to get ugly here.

Shawn's closet contained stacks of boxes filled to the brim with sports cards and comic cards. Upon examining Shawn's older brothers collection, I thought I have never seen such beautiful artwork. This spurred my own collection of Marvel Comics trading cards and almost anything having to do with the artists, The Hildebrandt Brothers.

When Shawn and I moved into the rental house, we put aside saving for a down payment on a house. We bought whatever we wanted and the thrill of The Hunt was our high on weekends. Other kids are age drank beer and smoked pot. We spent Saturdays scavenging the malls and Wal-Marts for that Limited Edition figure that said 5 phrases.

Today, we look back on it as a little ignorant. Sure, there are pieces in our collection that we'd never dare part with. But for the most part, we are in agreement that we could without about 75% of it. Most everything is carefully packed in large boxes and stacked as high as the ceiling in the den. It just sits there.

Why don't we sell it? We'd love to! But no one on eBay wants to pay what we want for it. We bought this stuff at full price and paid for it with our weekends of youth. It is in MINT CONDITION! At least, we'd like to get our money back on it. I did sell a couple Hot Wheels sets but soon gave up after no one wanted our Star Wars figures. Hey, Star Wars nerds! We've got the entire set of the first run orange (green too!) carded figures if y'all are interested!

Don't take the term "nerd" as an insult. I'd be proud if anyone called me a nerd. I will fully admit to being a geek. I don't buy comics nearly like I used to because they got so dead-gum expensive but I did buy one last year and it was awesome. I'm a geek, you're a nerd; let's embrace it.

The world just doesn't understand us nerds.