Monday, March 17, 2008

I hate to throw things away

...but I did.

There was a time when I would have saved this spent Starbucks card. It has a cool design. ("Cool" is not a pun on the card's theme.) The problem is that when you get to be my age, saving stuff like that means boxes of stuff like that. Piling up in our limited storage space.

And to what point? Am I thinking this card would have value someday to some collector? (Such things have been known to happen.) Would I spend more than 5 minutes looking at it 20 years from now?

Into the trash can it goes.

6 comments:

Barb said...

An idea for recycling: Ian cuts these up into guitar picks!

The Lone Beader® said...

I try to keep a card like that for scraping off the thin layer of frost on my windshield!

jasonjyee said...

I think it's a designer thing. I used to keep all sorts of well designed things with the thought that I'd look at it in the future and it'd help inspire my creativity. When I owned starbucks stock, they'd give shareholders an annual card... they were very nicely designed, but after you used them they were still junk like normal cards.

I used to do the guitar pick thing too, but cards like that tend to shred and leave plastic bits everywhere.

I usually try to keep one or two around if i need a shim for some contraption i'm building.

Rob said...

Every year I end up throwing away whole boxes of collector's items I've been saving. I think I've thrown out a million dollars worth of Road Show Antiques since 1990. That card would have just been one of the items. Who knows? I wish I could have some sense of what is going to have a patina in 20 years!

Anonymous said...

i am still waiting for a starbucks to open up in nairobi. do you think that s ever going to happen? java house are perhaps doing too good of a job. and lately there have been some new coffee shops downtown. same style. interior red in color.... by the way, you might like my new Nairobi story on my blog. Check it out!

paulmerrill said...

Not sure where your blog is, mb.

Yes, I think Java House has too much of a hold on Nairobi for Starbucks to ever open there. And that's probably a good thing!