I’ve been debating this for quite some time now. I’ve been rapidly running out of space to store my HWs recently as I keep all of them on the card. My wife asks me why I even buy them if I’m just going to stick them in a box in the closet. I tell her “it’s a collection” and I just don’t have anywhere to display them, and she just rolls her eyes. And I’d absolutely love to get my hands all over them and get pics of them and all, but I’ve always been afraid of de-valuing them and damaging them once they’re out of the case. I know since most of my stuff is mainlines, then they aren’t really going to be worth much later on and I wouldn’t sell them even if they were. But still, part of me feels like I’d be destroying the “collectible” value of them by opening them.
Lately though, I’ve been have the urge to just tear them all open, get some of the display cases everyone has, and let the Diecast Liberation Movement gain more ground towards their worldwide acceptance. R32rennsport’s massive DLM post earlier actually inspired me to give this more serious consideration today. So my question to you is this: am I just being ridiculous about them losing the “collectible” value by opening them and should just go ahead and do it, or should I leave them on the cards how they are and hope that they actually end up worth something someday?
*Side note: I would still keep a few things carded though. Special releases, like my F&F collection, my ‘90s First Editions, etc.