{"id":6344,"date":"2011-11-11T00:05:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T05:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=6344"},"modified":"2011-11-11T16:48:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T21:48:34","slug":"the-cardback-quandry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2011\/11\/the-cardback-quandry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cardback Quandry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every figure has one, most of the time they are specific to the toy and can certainly be a hot-button design issue, but what do you do with them?<\/p>\n

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It all started with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/i> for me. Playmates took the \"ID Card\" premise from GI Joe<\/i> and included one on each release. Somewhere on the pseudo Index Card graphic it said \"cut out and save\" so being the impressionable youth that I was, I did just that. In fact I remember being fairly heartbroken when I realized I had left my \"Skateboarder Michelangelo\" card at a Souplantion after dinner one night. Eventually it occurred to me that were I to keep the entire cardback not only would I maintain the Info Cards but I'd also get the pictures of other figures, this toy's accessories and the rest of the cool art all over the card - and thus, the game was forever changed.<\/p>\n

Flash forward two decades and I have a (parents') attic full of cardbacks and still save every single one. A lot about collecting is tied into compulsive behavior, at least for, and thus it became of major importance to me to preserve the cards. In fact I open toys by slicing around the base of the bubble, over the seam glued to the card, in order to have little-to-no image tearing. I then toss all of the cards and boxes into a box to pretty much never look at again. I know this is kind of silly but part of me imagines one day I'll do something with them (like wallpaper a room or Man-Cave). Yet, to date I just have boxes of cardboard.<\/p>\n

The dilemma comes into play as I prepare to move to Chicago to Los Angeles. When I moved out here I sucked it up and chucked most of the cardback boxes into the recycle, but once here the old habit picked back up. Having to pack up once more I am yet again directly confronted with a monetary cost to preserving this part of the collection and as such find myself wondering - do I want to?<\/p>\n

Thus, dear readers, I turn to you! What do YOU do with your figures' cardbacks, boxes, packaging and so on? Save it all or just some it? Rip and toss it? Save a sample or buy a second figure to keep carded?<\/p>\n

And what about all those little paper inserts from Hasbro and DST?<\/p>\n

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<i>And now, some more OAFEry:<\/i><\/H5>