<VV> Down-sizing

[Robert Marlow]

Been there, doing that!

When my wife needed brain surgery in 2021, I realized that it was time 
to shift gears from "collecting" to "disbursing."  I sold my last 
Corvair (a Rampside), we moved to a senior community, and I began the 
process of selling off my enormous hoard of parts.

That hoard of parts, both NOS and used, once filled a 1500-sq-ft 
building.  What remains today won't fill the trunk of a 1960 Corvair.

So I have now begun to sell off an equally enormous hoard of what I put 
under the umbrella term of "collectibles:"  Toys and models, magazines, 
manuals and reference materials, dealer and sales brochures, etc.

As with you, my heirs have no interest in all this stuff. Fortunately, 
as much as I enjoyed the years of collecting, I find that I am also 
enjoying the process of un-collecting.  Most recently I was able to 
re-home several of the parts and a good number of the toys and models at 
the DACC Homecoming, along with some of the magazines and a few 
less-common manuals.

You have 16 file cabinet drawers?  Piffle.  I have 22.  😁  Plus 72 
linear feet of shelving.  I expect to have a very large table in the 
vendor room at Gettysburg next summer.  In the meantime there are a few 
local shows and the big AACA Hershey meet.

Also like you I have had a huge collection of racing memorabilia (oval 
racing mostly), but I have already donated virtually all of it to a 
racing historical foundation here in the East.  And like you I have 
aviation items, because my father was a Pan-Am pilot, but it's a modest 
amount.

When I do fall off the twig, my heirs will likely donate the remaining 
Corvair stuff to the local clubs or the CPF.  But at least they will 
have only clean paper goods to deal with, since the parts will already 
be gone.

/*Robert Marlow*
rmarlow4040 at gmail.com

/
On 7/22/2025 3:56 PM, James Rice via VirtualVairs wrote:
> All:  When people ask me how I am, my response is "up right, mobile and able
> to take nourishment".  If discussion goes beyond that, my comment is that
> when I can and/or do stand up straight, and then stretch, I can see the Exit
> Door.  A lot of my free time, is spent dealing with "downsizing".   My
> "first love" was WWII aircraft, being born while that unpleasantness was
> still active.  In about the 7th or 8th grade, I discovered Sports Car
> Quarterly by Peterson Pub.  Then I found Sports Cars Illustrated (later C&D)
> and R&T.  I was off to the races metaphorically.   By the 9th grade, I was
> ripping magazines apart, saving what pages as I desired.  Today, after
> selling and/or giving much of my literature collections away, I still have
> so much stuff.  If I were to depart this life as we know it suddenly, my
> daughters would not be happy with me for leaving so much stuff behind.
>
> I recently went thru all my Corvair material.  And made a list of such.  It
> went to ten pages.  Some of the magazines on the list pre-date the actual
> introduction of the Corvair.
>
> If you would like a copy of my ten pages of material, please e-mail my at
> ricebugg at comcast.net.  I'll be happy to send you the list.  Be warned, the
> entire list is not cheap.
>
> Historically Yours,
> 		James Rice
> 		CORSA member since mid-1976
> 		Chairman of the CORSA Competition, late 1979 into 1984.
> 		Member of CORSA BoD 1999-2002
> 		Member of CPF BoD 1999-2002
> 		Occasional contributor to CORSA Communique
>
> PS:  Do not even ask what non-Corvair material is in the 16 drawers of 4
> file cabinets. Hint: it is mostly sports car and racecar stuff...and
> airplane stuff.
>