Sid Sackson's stuff: a message from the family
Kevin J. Maroney
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/> on Saturday. The author
is Mary Ellen Waithe. I asked her to let me repost her message here
because I thought that it would address many questions that people
here have asked.
***
Hello, I'm Sid's infamous daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen, daughter of
the late Claude Soucie of (modest) LOA fame. The family is touched by
the thoughtfulness of so many of you, your "obits" your websites,
your kind messages, etc. Although not a gamer myself, I've joined
this list (probably only for a short time) because there seems to be
a lot of discussion and confusion about Sid, his collection and its
sale. In a few posts I will address the questions of Sid's personal
papers, the "Museum Dream," and the Auction itself. So here goes...
1) SID'S PERSONAL PAPERS: Do NOT return anything to Bernice or to us.
We don't want it. For 50 years their home has been a living shrine to
Sid's games and to his skills as a spielmeister. He didn't believe in
funerals, eulogies or memorials. In keeping with that, we'd like to
sweep.
Initially, when the auction ball got rolling, the family decided that
it would be irreverent to let go of any of Sid's personal papers,
prototypes, etc. while he was still alive. We felt that it would be
treating him as though he were already dead and as though we were
disposing of his estate. But (IMHO) the auctioneers did such a sloppy
job of collecting stuff that there was no opportunity to supervise
what was being removed. In the midst of all this, Sid died
unexpectedly and by doing so settled the question of whether or not
the auction was an estate sale or not. It was.
Many of you got some personal papers fair and square -- the same way
Sid got his collection. He lucked out at bazaars, estate sales,
thrift shops, etc. for decades, and now you've lucked out. That's
exactly how he would have wanted it. So keep the stuff if you want
to, sell it if you're so moved, scan and post it on your websites if
there's interest. BTW: Bernice says that the handwritten corrections
to the Gamut of Games mss are her handwriting. She also typed the
mss. She's tickled pink that there's so much excitement over Sid's
stuff.
The Game Museum Dream: Many of you found correspondence mentioning
Sid's Game Museum. For decades he tried to convince universities,
game companies and others to create a board game museum. His dream
was to have it housed at a university and for him to have an adunct
appointment to teach game theory. Decades of effort never yielded so
much as an exhibit, though he gladly allowed visitors to tour the
collection. You must understand the organizing principles upon which
this collection was stored. The earliest stuff was stored in his
study, with the boxes discarded to save room (yep!). When that room
filled, and when he realized the value of keeping original boxes, he
filled the basement. Then a spare bedroom. Then the kids' bedrooms
(ehhey moved.) Then three other rooms,of their 2-family house. Then
his bedroom, then the garage. Although he kept a diary of every
purchase, (many games have masking tape stickers with .25 written on
them) there was never an inventory, never any other organizing
principle such as manufacturer, type of game, etc. The sole
principle, if you can call it that was that what he considered junk
was stored in the garage (once he was no longer able to drive).
Game museum?? Well, with all due respect, folks, if YOU want one,
YOU are going to have to create one. Sid tried for decades.
3) The Auction: Two things motivated the decision to sell the
collection. First and foremost, Sid was no longer able to enjoy it.
His deteriorating health and repeated hospitalizations, and
ultimately the inability to continue caring for him at home even with
help, meant that there no longer was a reason for the collection to
be kept privately.
Second, despite Sid's deteriorating mental health, once he was living
in the neighborhood nursing home, he stopped having constant falls,
inttracranial bleeds, etc. His physical health stabilized in the
sense that he had no major diseases. He was simply declining. The
decades he had devoted to game inventing and collecting were years in
which he was self-employed and without medical insurance. The
astronomical bills meant that within the next two years we would have
to sell the collection. No collectors we approached could buy it,
neither Sotheby's or other auction houses were willing to handle the
sale.
Then I found [BoardGameGeek]. My husband Dana and I were willing to
give up 2 summers that would be needed to inventory the collection.
Bernice like the idea of auctioning individual games to people who,
like Sid, loved the things. There was a mix-up with one sibling not
knowing what the other was doing and Bernice thinking we were both
referring to the same party. I went to Barcelona (not in Italy as
reported) to give a paper and returned to find that Bernice had signed
a contract with the Jersey auctioneer. At that point Sid was still
alive, declining but certainly not dying. To try to intervene at that
point in order to have the auction proceed through BGG would have been
disruptive and burdensome for Bernice. After the games were removed,
but prior to the auction, Sid suddenly died. I feel badly because
Scott Alden had been so helpful. (I had even listed part of the
collection on BGG: and those are just the games A-D that I recognized
from the collection.) The family thought that there were 6,000 -
10,000 games, unaware that Sid himself had told someone that he
thought there were 15,000. In fact we were all low for the count. The
second half of the games will be auctioned next spring. I believe the
auctioneer wants to schedule it so that those who are going to the
Connecticut (??) meeting can add it to their schedule.
So, no, there is no discord within the family over the games; we
merely tripped all over ourselves and jumped at an opportunity we had
been seeking for years. While I lament the lack of organization of
the auctioneer, many of you seem to have been in hog heaven. So maybe
it's not so bad after all.
E-bay, however, is another thing.
***
--
Kevin J. Maroney | k...@panix.com
"Love doesn't have a point. Love *is* the point."--Alan Moore
Tony Nardo
> The
> second half of the games will be auctioned next spring. I believe the
> auctioneer wants to schedule it so that those who are going to the
> Connecticut (??) meeting can add it to their schedule.
(??) = AGPC : Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors
BTW, looks like I was wrong on my estimate of how many Sid Sackson stamped
games would hit eBay this weekend. I really did expect the count to be
higher by now.
Greg Fleischman
>
> Hello, I'm Sid's infamous daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen, daughter of
> the late Claude Soucie of (modest) LOA fame.
...
> many of you seem to have been in hog heaven. So maybe
> it's not so bad after all.
>
> E-bay, however, is another thing.
>
I took away about 50 or 60 games from the Sid Sackson Auction. I think I
may have been the only one who didn't have any of the games stamped. It
was simply a gut reaction. I became so busy in the auction that I didn't
revisit the decision. In retrospect, I don't regret it. Should I,
someday in the future, need to sell my games, I would be obliged to reveal
any writing in a description of the game, as I do with all the sold games
having added marks. By that time, it may not matter if the games were
stamped, but I just wasn't comfortable thinking that the price may be
influenced by the fact that Sid Sackson is gone.
Nevertheless, I do want to remember the games I have from his collection.
I maintain a catalog of my games that records the acquisitions of the last
5 of the 20 years I have been collecting. The source of the game is part
of that catalog and that's how I will know, and perhaps a post-it note in
the game to remind me, that these once belonged to Sid Sackson. In at
least one case, so far, I won't need a post-it note. In one game from the
auction there was a detailed and very clean shipping receipt from the
manufacturer, with much information including recipient (Sid). That will
stay with the game regardless of its disposition. In the future it may be
a nice treasure for someone else to find.
Greg
Justin Green
> The following message was posted to the Spielfrieks mailing list
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/> on Saturday. The author
> is Mary Ellen Waithe. I asked her to let me repost her message here
> because I thought that it would address many questions that people
> here have asked.
<snip message>
Thanks for posting it here, Kevin...I check spielfrieks every once in
a while, but I'm not thorough, especially on weekends. It is truly
fascinating reading. Please pass on anything else if you get the
chance!
(One of my best friends (despite the fact that he doesn't like playing
games) was probably at that same fateful Barcelona conference (he is a
philosophy grad student) and may have heard Ms. Waithe's paper...small
world and all that...)
Justin
EYE of NiGHT
wrote:
>The following message was posted to the Spielfrieks mailing list
><http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks/> on Saturday. The author
>is Mary Ellen Waithe. I asked her to let me repost her message here
>because I thought that it would address many questions that people
>here have asked.
Many thanks for posting this. Apart from being interesting itself,
it's good to see the family wasn't squabbling and did the best thing
possible to them.
Cheers,
Jon.
++++++++
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www.tragsnart.co.uk