When I’n not working, or writing my website, in the free time I have left over, I’m a hoarder collector of a few specific things. Such as South Dakota political pins, SD State Capital fight campaign items, and certain comic books.
And among those items, I’m not ashamed to say that there are items in those categories out there that I consider “holy grail’ items for me. Items that are elusive, or so expensive, that they are not everyday purchases.
For my comic book collection, there are a few that relate back to books I owned when I was a teenager. X-men #1 (1963), and All Star Comics #7 (1941) are a couple of them that are holy grails for me, and at some point, I will put them back in my collection when I have the right book at the right price. Those are elusive mainly by cost. If I had the money and opened up my checkbook, I could probably have them tomorrow.
For my South Dakota political buttons, it is not cost as much as the rarity of certain items. We are not a large state, and they just didn’t make that many. That makes some things just a tough find. Or near impossible. And tonight, I was fortunate enough to put a pin in my collection I’ve been hunting for over 35 years.
The first South Dakota Inaugural pin from 1933. I finally got one.
I’ve been close on occasion before. There was one on eBay around 10 years back. I missed the bid as it cruised out of reach at the time for around $400. Darned kids, and braces. And car repairs, and groceries. How dare they stand in the way of my hoarding?
But aside from the cost on the pin, it is such a difficult one to find, that you might stumble across it with blind luck, as some collectors have, or if you’re like me you hunt for it for decades.
My only problem tonight was the fact that it was one pin out of a collection of 450 South Dakota pins that were all being sold as a group. I literally had to buy every inaugural pin at once, plus a lot of others, just to get one pin. And now I find myself having to commit to sell 449 other SD pins to try to recoup some of my expense.
But I did win. And after 35 years of looking for this, it’s a task I’m not going to complain anymore about taking on.
I always say the fun is less the actual possession of it, and more of the chase for the item. But, damn. It feels darned good to finally put my hands on this piece of South Dakota history.
update..
I don’t even want to tell Lee what it cost me to get this pin as part of the collection. Lol..
Rad finds!