Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

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Pretorious
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Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by Pretorious » Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:21 am

(Though this is merchandise-related, I'm not sure if it's the right section of the forum for it, so I hope you'll forgive me if it's not.)

Hi, friends. I need advice.

I've collected all of the U.S. Dragon Boxes. In 2014, I went to the fantastic Dragon Ball panels at Animazement (side note: I'm in the Kanzenshuu group picture in the DB 30 Years magazine, between Meri and Derek Padula). While there, I got Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa, and Ryusei Nakao to sign the boxes that their characters are featured on.

This summer, I moved into a place that had toxic mold. I lived there for only three weeks, but it was long enough for the spores and toxins in the air to saturate pretty much all of my possessions. I left that place for a new apartment, but in the process of trying to clean/weed out which of my possessions were not too far gone, I smell-tested lots of my stuff and inhaled so much of the toxins that I made myself sick. I've been diagnosed with inflammatory-response illnesses called hypersensitivity pneumonitis and CIRS, and I am still sick today.

My genetic susceptibility to the toxins, plus the volume of them that I inhaled has made me REALLY sensitive to the stuff. I've thrown away almost ALL of my possessions, including most of my comic book collection that I've built up for over half my life, hand-made gifts, journals, love notes (sigh), my college diploma, a very expensive violin, and so on. Plus I cross-contaminated my car AND the new apartment, so I got rid of the car, and am transitioning to yet another apartment.

But...somehow I'm still holding on to those Dragon Boxes. I don't think they were as badly tainted as some of my things. Actually, they were protected to some degree because they were contained in tightly-sealed boxes and never removed from them for the entirety of my stay at the moldy apartment. And after I moved into the clean apartment and unpackaged them, I couldn't really smell anything weird on them until I placed them on a shelf that (even though I cleaned it thoroughly) smelled weird. Even then, they didn't seem to me like they picked up the smell too bad. But this illness has made me sicker than I've ever been in my life (difficulty breathing and walking, dizziness, panic attacks wherein I legitimately thought I was going to die), so I don't want to own anything that might keep me sick.

All that is to say: what do I do with the Dragon Boxes? I freaking love the things, but I have to get rid of them. But how? Sell them? Throw them away? I have spent thousands of dollars in the form of medical bills, supplies, a replacement car, and a new apartment (I will likely pay double rent from January to May). If I sell them, that money would go toward my medical and housing expenses. But is that ethical? I have a roommate in the post-mold apartment, and he is not affected by the toxins that my possessions brought over--but again, there is a genetic component, plus I inhaled WAY more of the stuff than he did. This makes me think that someone who buys the boxes would be okay, but what if they're like me and they're super sensitive? That seems sort of unlikely, but how should I know?

I just wanted to get other people's thoughts.

Thanks so much to anyone who reads or responds. <3 :wave: :)
Last edited by Pretorious on Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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sangofe
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by sangofe » Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:51 am

Ask someone to put them into DVD plastic folders for you and clean them? You'd have the DVDs at least.

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TheGreatness25
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:10 am

I'm really sorry that you're going through that. I feel for you, it's rough. You'll pull through all of this mess.

I don't think that selling them would make you happy if you love them. I had a rough time with money where I considered selling my entire collection (or the most valuable stuff from it), but figured that in a few years, whatever money I made off of it would be forgotten, but keeping the collection is something that makes me happy. Even if I made $1,000 off of it, it isn't exactly worth more than my personal happiness in owning them. But that's my outlook. I know that we all prioritize differently, and to many people, any little bit helps, so it's really hard to give advice.

Regardless, I really wish you all of the best.

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NitroEX
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by NitroEX » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:15 am

Don't throw them away. Too valuable.

If it bothers you that much then sell them and leave a warning about the mold. Plenty of people would love to own these, myself included.

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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:47 am

Did you thoroughly clean them yourself? If not I'd see if there any businesses near you that offer cleaning services and use antitoxins? Keep them, if at all posdible, and if not maybe sell with a warning?
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Son_Gohan
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by Son_Gohan » Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:43 pm

Your health/life should naturally take priority over material possessions.

If you're in need of money, try selling them first with that caveat in the description. If no one wants it or you can afford to just dispose of them, you can make a digital copy before you do to retain your investment in another, uncontaminated form.

AnimeMaakuo
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by AnimeMaakuo » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:00 pm

You're probably not going to like reading this, but I sold my R1's to someone on Kanzenshuu and threw my DB/DBZ/DBGT season bricks in my parents fireplace because I got annoyed with FUNimation. Of course, The R1's were never as beautiful as the R2's, nor were they as collectable IMHO (the height of the boxes were inconsistent to the others, the books weren't made nearly as nice as the R2's, etc). If only I knew they would eventually sell for hundreds of dollars, I would've bought truck loads of them like a drug dealer. It's kind of funny how people would spend top dollar for a product that's inferior to the originals in every way. As for me, I've got the R2's with their gifts still sealed in the box for collector value and will never open them. My recommendation is that you sell your dragon boxes to someone who's got alien blasters in their immune system and call it a day. :thumbup:
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by HakkaiBills93 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

AnimeMaakuo wrote:You're probably not going to like reading this, but I sold my R1's to someone on Kanzenshuu and threw my DB/DBZ/DBGT season bricks in my parents fireplace because I got annoyed with FUNimation. Of course, The R1's were never as beautiful as the R2's, nor were they as collectable IMHO (the height of the boxes were inconsistent to the others, the books weren't made nearly as nice as the R2's, etc). If only I knew they would eventually sell for hundreds of dollars, I would've bought truck loads of them like a drug dealer. It's kind of funny how people would spend top dollar for a product that's inferior to the originals in every way. As for me, I've got the R2's with their gifts still sealed in the box for collector value and will never open them. My recommendation is that you sell your dragon boxes to someone who's got alien blasters in their immune system and call it a day. :thumbup:
english subs of course, i think that if r2j it would have make a differrence.
those two release (r1 and r2 dragon box) are expensive so for people that aren't rich , subs make the differrence

rereboy
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by rereboy » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:40 pm

Get rid of them and get another set. If you love them enough to consider keeping them when you got rid of basically everything to preserve your health, then you love them enough to spend the money required to get another set.

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Pretorious
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by Pretorious » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:22 pm

Thanks so much for the replies, everybody! :)

A number of you recommended selling them, but disclosing what they'd been through. I'd also thought about doing that, and since so many other people think that is reasonable, I think that's probably what I'll do. I may put them up on eBay (can I link to auctions in the forum?).

Also, someone sent me a PM with some suggestions, and that led me to thinking that I'm not TOTALLY losing the signatures, because I took hi-res pictures of all the boxes. I can print out the pics and frame them in a crafty way and make an art project out of it. :D
AnimeMaakuo wrote:My recommendation is that you sell your dragon boxes to someone who's got alien blasters in their immune system and call it a day. :thumbup:


I love this phrasing. :lol:
rereboy wrote:If you love them enough to consider keeping them when you got rid of basically everything to preserve your health, then you love them enough to spend the money required to get another set.
Yes, I agree. And I am planning on re-purchasing them some day. I REALLY doubt I'll ever meet Masako Nozawa again, but maybe Ryusei Nakao will come back to Animazement, and I can at least get his signature again. I know he's been more than once.
TheGreatness25 wrote:You'll pull through all of this mess.
Thank you!! :thumbup:

And I'll keep y'all updated as I work through this.

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Pretorious
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Re: Throw away my Dragon Boxes?

Post by Pretorious » Sun Dec 17, 2017 4:35 pm

I went ahead and posted them on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/332490623803?s ... 1558.l2649

Bidding is starting at $1 (not sure if that was a good idea), and the auction lasts 5 days.

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