"The man in black who never smiles": how to build a great collection and not enjoy it

[Fletch]

We Loungers are people with living passions that we love to share. So it's hard to understand a guy like this.

Jerry Greene put together one of the world's best model train collections, but it sounds as though he had no passion or love for what he had. It all went right down the cellar, secret from the world.

Although toy-train enthusiasts are a tight-knit clan, Mr. Greene rarely socialized with them. He did not identify himself on buying sprees and let only a few visitors into his basement. “I would be considered a closet collector, because nobody knew,” he said.

His daughter, Melissa Greene-Anderson, who helped set up the Sotheby’s show, said, “He was called ‘the man in black who never smiles.’ ” As a child, she did not play with the trains, she said, but her father did ask her and her two siblings to wiggle into basement crevices and retrieve and arrange the toys. “I would wear a conductor’s cap” while clambering through cobwebs, Ms. Greene-Anderson said.

He's now selling the whole shooting match at auction. Thank goodness.

If you collect - anything - what do you think of collectors like him? What do you feel?

 

[Tomasso]

I have no problem at all with Mr.Greene's collecting style. Collectors are simply the temporary custodians of the objects they amass. As long as a private collection is well kept, it's all good. And BTW, had Mr. Greene become a well known figure in the field he would have had to pay considerably more for his acquisitions.

I have a friend who had, over a quarter of a century, collected warehouses full of stuff before finally having to decide between selling it off or opening a museum .

 

[PrettySquareGal]

We Loungers are people with living passions that we love to share. So it's hard to understand a guy like this.

Jerry Greene put together one of the world's best model train collections, but it sounds as though he had no passion or love for what he had. It all went right down the cellar, secret from the world.

He's now selling the whole shooting match at auction. Thank goodness.

If you collect - anything - what do you think of collectors like him? What do you feel?

I think there is nothing wrong or odd with having a special collection kept private. A lot of collectors and dealers like to remain anon when they buy so as to not affect pricing. They also don't want to get robbed so they tend to not announce prized possessions. As for not smiling, maybe he had indigestion or other issues unrelated to his trains. Also, not everyone is into tight knits groups; it doesn't mean they aren't passionate about the objects they collect.

 

[Fletch]

I guess it's obvious I'm no financial genius.

The Times does have a quiet tradition of pathologizing collectors - they're often portrayed as poorly adjusted or flawed in some way, not quite people of substance or culture. (And some really do fit the stereotype.) But the tone of this piece seems to suggest an individual who really does not relish his treasures - who just views them as pawns in some abstract and highly personal game. The keynote is obsession, not passion.

Now I'm somewhat ashamed to say this, but as someone who's always collected for the love of it, I feel revulsion toward such people. I wish I could just be happy for their successes, and sad for whatever it is they're missing, or never knew they missed.

 

[Tomasso]

I believe that the fact that he will not chop up his collection speaks to his passion. Collecting is sorta like grief; everybody has their own expression.*






* ©

 

[Fletch]

All he said is, "I worked too hard."
Nothing about why - nothing about passion - nothing about joy.
All it is is him and his game.

That makes me want to feel sad. But it's hard.

 

[Feraud]

He is selling now because there is little left to pursue, he said, adding, “Once it goes on a shelf, it’s just history to me.”

I guess it was the thrill of the chase for him. You encounter all types in a hobby.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I dunno--I could see how a private person might not want too many people to know about something like this; you'd start getting pesterd by individuals and magazines wanting to see the collection, do articles, take pictures, buy bits of it... no reason to put up with that if you don't want to or have to.

Or he could have been someone for whom the biggest thrill turned out to be in the hunt and acquisition of each piece. There are more than a few here who have admitted to enjoying that!

And he must have some feeling or passion for his collection if he's not willing to break it up. He could probably get a lot more out of it if it was auctioned off a bit at a time then sold as one lot in a private sale. It sounds to me like he wants to be sure it'll go to someone that will treasure it rather than turn around and start selling off the bits to make a profit.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think there's two kinds of collectors -- people who collect for the sake of enjoying the things they collect, and people who collect to fill in the boxes on a checklist. Lord knows there's plenty of record collectors like that -- people who own rooms full of records they'd never actually listen to, just because they have to have every single release in a series, or book collectors who maniacally collect every possible edition of a given author, even if they don't actually bother to read the books. I suppose there's toy train collectors like that too.

I don't begin to understand this type of collector, and I do suspect a bit of obsessive-compulsiveness is involved in extreme cases of it, but this particular guy seems not to be the stereotypical holed-up-in-his-cellar collector -- after all, he functions well enough to have a wife and kids, and a job that pays him enough to afford to collect stuff. So -- whatever. As long as he's in control of his own situation, where's the problem?

 

[Tomasso]

All he said is, "I worked too hard."

With all due respect, that may well have been what the reporter/editor chose to be fit to print .


BTW, the top piece in the link about Louie Sullivan was WAY more interesting and important.....to me at least.

 

[Fletch]

What I took away from it was basically as follows:
"quirky loner"
"his body was not found for a month"

Careful, kids. Stand in front of the wheels of progress and this could be you someday.

 

[Tomasso]

Well , I'll say this...... whatever the quirks and eccentricities that many collectors often exhibit.....it's better to have their geeky butts foraging around than having our culture end up in landfill.

 

[sheeplady]

I think it is up to the collector to decide what and how to collect. It is their business, as long as they are not doing anything illegal and come by their collection in a legit way. (Or unless their collection or collection method indicates extreme mental illness such that they are a threat to themselves or others- such as massive hoarders who don't even throw out trash.)

I agree with Tomasso. I really hate to see anything useful thrown away, yet alone something old that was loved. One of the reasons why we have things that are valuable to collect is that many of them have been thrown away. If someone collects something, that at least keeps it in circulation, so that it can be owned again.

 

[martinsantos]

I know a camera collector who hardly knows how to make focus. He shoots with a little digital point&shoot. But has one of the most compreensive camera collections I know. And no one is allowed to ever put hand in any.

 

[John in Covina]

I tend to prefer someone that uses the things they collect or at least displays the things that they collect. For me when someone is a collector where the items are hidden away and not enjoyed by use or as at least display is creepy.

There is a guy down the block that tells me every few months that he has about 6 fedoras that were his dad's in the attic.

For the first 2 or 4 times he made a point telling me this I would say: "Are you going to wear Them?"
His answer: "No!"
Me: "Well you should consider selling them like on Ebay."
His answer: "No!"
Me: "What is the use of having them? You won't wear them, won't display them and won't sell them. All they do is take up space."

I finally realized he was the oddball type of guy that would buy something simply to keep another from getting it. He was happy with the idea of having and not using an object that others might like to have and use. Just so that others can't have it or use it.

 

[Foofoogal]

I believe that the fact that he will not chop up his collection speaks to his passion. Collecting is sorta like grief; everybody has their own expression.*

:eusa_clap Tomasso. What an exquisite observation. Even I do not understand my collecting ways. I am sure on some level it brought him joy or I do not think he would of shared it with his children.
I discuss things like this as much as I can with other dealers.
I know one that just has to have bowls. Why? I think I have narrowed it down to she did not get her mothers prize bowl when she died and her sister did.
I know another one that loves and has Fiesta. She tells me she just gets great joy out of opening the cabinets and looking at them. It is probably one of my least favorite vintage of all time. Another loves toy cap guns like as a boy. He sits and clicks the things for comfort or whatever.
Selling some things come easy to me but a few if you are very, very nice and it is a really good day I may possibly let you see it for a few minutes. (not even high monetary values either) I can completely understand that train guy in the story. I feel if it is not hurting anyone better than many vices.

 

[p71towny]

I drive cars at the Auburn Auction here in IN each year. Most all of these guys buy these classics not because they love em and want to drive them, but to turn a profit a year later. Most of the time the gas is stale, the battery is dead, and stuff doesn't work properly. Yet, these cars fetch anywhere from 20-200k. They sit in a pole barn all year long. I drove a 70 Superbird this year that went for 220k, yet my wife's 95 Grand Marquis with 280,000 mi on it drives waaay better. I dunno, if it were mine it would be streetable. I built up my 71 Chevelle, beat the hell out of it and now I've got other project cars to keep me busy. The fun in stuff is using it, unless its ridiculously rare.

 

[LordBest]

Well, models trains as nifty as they are hardly national treasures (I say this as someone with a modest collection of model trains, including some rare ones my Grandfather acquired). His approach to collecting I would find reprehensible for something like artwork antiquities where the objects can be of national significance or scholarly interest. In that situation the collection should at least be made available to scholars, if not on display.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

One such inveterate collector was Walter Knott, founder of the Knott's Berry Farm theme park. In the back area of the park there was a warehouse full of antiques that he had acquired over the years ostensibly for display at the park. It remained in storage untouched for almost twenty years -- at least -- from the time of Walter Knott's death in 1981 till several years ago or so when Knott's Berry Farm was acquired by Cedar Fair who auctioned off the collection which included scores of antique grammophones.

 

[CigarSmokePhilosopher]

all i can say is that i am ecstatic about modifying cars.


but once i'm done and the build is complete. i'm unhappy.

its in the chase not the result id say. I'd be sad too if I'd hit the final brick wall of my favorite hobby