your finds---trash or treasure?

[Whiterook]

Most of us have found enough interesting items that we have some kind of display or at least storage boxes to keep stuff in. I just found a little counter display case with a glass top(approx. 2 feet square and 4 inches tall) at a garage sale where I now keep my best finds. I have the rest of my finds in Plano plastic storage boxes. On this forum I’ve seen people find an old rusted lock at an old home site and proudly keep it as a relic but others have found the same thing and were going to send it to the recycler? When I first started finding stuff a rusty flat washer was cool but now I seemed to have reached some kind of “metal detecting maturity level” and I want to throw some things out. How do you make a decision on what you keep and what you discard? Or do you just keep everything but obvious trash? Seems as though there is no standard to go by just personal preferences. How much old rusted railroad spikes, lead fishing weights, and pieces of toy cars does a guy/girl need to save?

 

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[Kevin in IN]

As the old saying goes, one mans trash is another mans treasure. I have things in my displays that many would put in their scrap pile, but to me, it's just cool, something you don't see anymore. When I'm dead, someone else can do with it what they will. But for now it's my junk, and it makes me feel good. I'm in my 50's now and I remember lots of things we threw away over the years that people collect today. Kevin

 

[Keppy]

On my finds if i can turn them over for cash fast i do .. If it is what some call a Relic ... To me it is only a relic to me if i can sell it fast ... But if is is just rusty scrap that at one time was a part of a buckle or a gun or something like that ..... that is what i call junk scrap iron and it goes in to my scrap iron pile... I do not have any type of display cases for i am not a collector of any thing ... The only thing i ever saved was my first find .. And that was a scale weight and i keep it for i use it on my scale.... And i have been detecting for 40 plus years..

 

[AugustMoose87]

I have found that it helps me psychologically to think for most of my finds as somewhere between trash and treasure - scrap. When cans, bottle tops and other metal "trash" show up instead of the silver of gold we all hope for, thinking of it as 1/10 of cent in scrap rather than trash help keep me from getting discouraged. I'm lucky that my little sister uses pull tabs for art/jewelry, so they are kind of like pennies - I'm bummer they weren't something better, but I'm not upset to have dug them. Most of my stuff gets scrapped, and I consider that total part of my take. Selling all the lead weights, scrap aluminum, brass, steel, and copper can really start to add up.

As far as what I keep and what I don't, I really don't keep much. I have 3 horse shoes that at least for now I'm keeping, hoping they will bring me some good luck I've only found silver items, but if/when I find gold, they will suffer one of three fates - stolen by the wife or daughter, sold as jewelry or sold as scrap when prices are right. I have kept my first "gold" dollar and half, and a scout tie slide (only because I was a scout, and am hoping to find all/many of the different ranks). To be honest, unless I start finding some SIGNIFICANTLY more interesting find, I doubt I will ever have a display case of any size for my finds.