Why are Snow Serpents going for so much $$$?

[3DJoes]

Man, that is terrible news. She didn't adequately photograph everything before selling?

[3DJoes]

Sadly "has" is now in the past tense, "had". It seems she sold most of the GIJOE collection. There will be NO books, that dream is dead for all of us waiting on them. It really sucks because I was offered a full set of the books for free, for my spending a good chunk of money to travel to her house to film her collection a few years back.

Man, that is terrible news. She didn't adequately photograph everything before selling?

[Katana]

Sadly "has" is now in the past tense, "had". It seems she sold most of the GIJOE collection. There will be NO books, that dream is dead for all of us waiting on them. It really sucks because I was offered a full set of the books for free, for my spending a good chunk of money to travel to her house to film her collection a few years back.

That's really too bad. I'm really surprised that she didn't complete the project considering the amount of time, resources and money she must have put into to acquire all of her stuff. Any idea on why she decided to pull the plug? Your film was really great, btw, and it seemed like Aire had gotten to a point where she was all consumed but the collection to a really unhealthy degree that was affecting her, but I don't want to jump to conclusions about why she decided to stop the production.

[3DJoes]

That's really too bad. I'm really surprised that she didn't complete the project considering the amount of time, resources and money she must have put into to acquire all of her stuff. Any idea on why she decided to pull the plug? Your film was really great, btw, and it seemed like Aire had gotten to a point where she was all consumed but the collection to a really unhealthy degree that was affecting her, but I don't want to jump to conclusions about why she decided to stop the production.

It is unfortunate if she didn't get a chance to document everything professionally before parting it out.

I believe she decided to let the collection go out of financial necessity due to health issues (either hers or another family member).

I wish her the best. She's an interesting figure in the Joe community!

[Katana]

It is unfortunate if she didn't get a chance to document everything professionally before parting it out.

I believe she decided to let the collection go out of financial necessity due to health issues (either hers or another family member).

I wish her the best. She's an interesting figure in the Joe community!

I see, thanks. In that case, I hope her or her family member well. I have a feeling that even her "downsized" collection will probably still be jaw dropping. She is certainly a unique person. I can't think of any middle-aged women that took up collecting their kids toys, let alone toys like Joes.

[darthdrew13]

Please re-read the part of my last response that reads: "They are only ACTON FIGURES!!!" We shouldn't care THAT much about Snow Serpents. His money to do with as he pleases, yes, but if you could choose to spend extra cash on ALS or 30,000 action figures, what would you do? Legal versus ethical.....that's why the human race is in such a sorry state. How would you feel if you saw someone in Canada literally setting fire to hundreds of thousands of American dollars (as it would be illegal for someone to do that in America, and vice versa)? Even if they have the right, wouldn't it be a terrible waste?

The only thing I want to add here is, while, yes, they are only action figures, there is a history of "play things in society" being documented here. History is cool. Regardless of what it is.

Airedevon has a huge collection of Joes, and I'd imagine that she has a tone of Snow Serpents. Her huge collection was for the purposes of documenting the entire vintage Joe line, and producing a 7 volume book series. I'm not sure what handed to that project, but I hope it sees the light of day sometime. But my point in bringing Airedevon up is, it's nice when collectors that have the fortune of collecting such huge amounts of figures do something with it that somehow benefits more than themselves.

As was previously stated, the entire 3.75" collection (minus what belongs to her sons) is gone.

Man, that is terrible news. She didn't adequately photograph everything before selling?

Nope. She only took pictures of the big vehicles and documented their parts. She did actually log everything she found (what existed in each country, major variants, etc). I took over 2000 pictures of stuff before it was all sold off. It's a pittance compared to what the collection entailed, but at least it's something.

It is unfortunate if she didn't get a chance to document everything professionally before parting it out.

I believe she decided to let the collection go out of financial necessity due to health issues (either hers or another family member).

I wish her the best. She's an interesting figure in the Joe community!

No, the main reason for selling was she was getting older and can't get around her house like she once did (it's kind of a 3-story house) and that she was finally burned out on Joes. She is very happy to have her house and her life back. I am working with her to get all of her data (spreadsheets, logs of interviews, etc). I think she wants to scrub it to remove personal communications and such before sharing it.

We may not get the 7-volume set of books, but at least a lot of the research is still available to learn from.

[3DJoes]

^good stuff Drew. Let me know if I can help.

Carson

[FireFox91]

I'm not at all surprised the books didn't happen. I got the privilege of seeing her collection in person during the 2008 convention. She really spoke with a passion for the hobby during the tour. But honestly, she probably had too much passion in the form of obsession. I never saw the books getting completed because she was never going to complete the collection. There was always some rare and obscure item that had to be procured because of the desire to make it complete. I wish she had drawn a line somewhere and said no more. I think she tried to do that, but it didn't succeed. Having let it go she is probably far happier in life because she doesn't have the metal chains holding her down. It can sound silly, but this happens and it is hard to break. But the good news is that you are going to see more of those rare and obscure things for sale if you want to take a shot at them yourself.

[Plastica]

I bought the 2 and 3pks from the 2010 Convention from her since they were priced at just the right amount to get my attention. Oh and ERich while I have a few Snowies myself I plan to hold onto them since I'm kinda partial to the Eels Branch.

[code_name_flint]

I think this is very interesting and I'm curious to see the results.

However I think you just contaminated your experiment. You told everyone what your doing and how much your currently willing to pay for them. My first reaction when I heard you were doing this was to go to ebay and bid you up. Not like the others you have said before because I would pay for them if I ended up winning. I don't have the money to throw around as much as you do but if I wanted to I could throw a small wrench into your plans.

Now that I've read your full story I'm not going to do it because my curiosity has taken over. Maybe just a few at 31 and 36 for my own amusement.

With all that being said even though I understand it now and am curious that's not to say one of the other collectors won't take the course of action I initially wanted to. There are plenty of collectors that have the capital you do and could throw a huge wrench in your plan. That would completely ruin your experiment. Have you thought about that at all when you decided to come public about all this?