TREASURE HUNT

When I left for college, like most young people, I left my childhood behind. I took the things I needed and a few extra goodies to decorate my room. The rest was boxed and put away. And then, unfortunately, the boxes went away.

My mother and step-father divorced and somewhere in the chaos of divvying up a home, my childhood things disappeared.

In an earlier Treasure Hunting column I wrote about how years later, strolling through the flea market, I spotted one of my most cherished toys – a battered and dog-chewed “Johnny Marx” doll. I recognized the doll by his missing hand and the missing ear which had been gnawed by my dog. I bought the cowboy doll, and for a few dollars, bought back a part of myself.

When my oldest child went to college, I remembered that experience. So, as she was packing and putting away her things (there was a younger sister waiting to move into the room) I told her to look carefully at each item. Instead of saving everything, or worse, discarding everything thinking she was too old for it, I advised her to hang on to what she had once loved.

So, the most beloved stuffed animals, dolls and other toys went into bins. Everything else – the clutter and accumulation of her school years – was given away or discarded. I refused to think too much about what might have some monetary value in the future. I found it paralyzing, making it too difficult to decide.

Parents often have the job of deciding what to keep and what to give away after a child has packed and moved away. And, it’s not easy.

We don’t want to be the one who loses the cherished teddy bear, or tosses the collectible that will be worth a fortune one day, but neither do we want to be the permanent curator of a room full of junk.

Now that it’s back to school, and away to college, I thought it might be a good time to look at just what to keep if you are packing up a child’s belongings. So, I went straight to the top. I called the Kovels.

The Kovel name is synonymous with antiques and collectibles. Inveterate collectors, Ralph and Terry Kovel host a weekly show on the popular Home and Garden Television network, write a syndicated newspaper column and publish a library of price guides for collectors.

Oh, and as the parents of two grown children, they’ve been in the same position many of us are in today; packing up a child’s belongings.

Terry Kovel told me there aren’t any hard and fast rules for deciding what should be kept and what can be thrown away.

“As far as what will be collectible in the future, it’s always hard to say,” Terry Kovel said. “But if it was produced by the millions, chances are it isn’t going to be scarce, or valuable.”

There, that should help you get rid of all those Happy Meal toys.

Kovel also said it helps to look at things with a historical perspective. “You know, there were a lot of collectible items that came after 9-11,” she said. “Anything you might have gotten as a souvenir that shows the skyline before that day is now collectible.”

Another overlooked area is licensed character or entertainment items. “People think only the older metal lunchboxes are valuable,” Kovel said. “But now the vinyl boxes are increasing in value.”

Other examples of future collectibles are limited-release concert posters and first editions of children’s favorite books.

Kovel noted that in the last 20 years, with the advent of treasure-in-the-attic television shows like “Antiques Roadshow,” even children have become archivists, holding on to things because they think they’ll be collectible one day.

“Take baseball cards. My kids kept them in shoeboxes and put them in the spokes of their bikes,” she said. “Now, kids don’t even open the package.”

Kovel said the surest way to save a real treasure as you send your children into the world, is to hold on the things that mean the most to them. “If she still loves the little paper parasol she brought home from the restaurant, or the perfume bottle Grandma gave her, save it,” Kovel said. “Sentimental value matters, too.”