Kids and Merch

NashvillePJfan

Blessed to have a big family of six. And two great dogs.  
However, large family with lots of kids has merch implications. Such as, where is my Gigaton 3D viewer? I know it fascinated you kiddos but it's also a limited edition collectible. I must take a deep breath and accept that this is either gone for good, battered and broken in a hidden spot in the house, or at one of their friends' houses.
My teen Anna:  "Dad, that is such a cool Pearl Jam American flag! I want to hang it in my room." Me: "OK. Take good care of it." So she redecorates her room a few times a year. A very cool collectible becomes a casualty of my love for her. 
I buy this kind of merch so I can set it out and people who visit the home can be like, "Cool!" Don't buy it to keep it locked away in mint for resale. I do avoid this kind of dilemma with posters which I do store flat.
Who else faces kid-merch issues?

JH6056

Mine are only now starting to be of the age where they think anything I have is cool   But my hubs was super happy earlier this month when, our 6th grader getting to go to in person school for the 1st time all school year, picked his "Metallica: Justice For All" t-shirt as her shirt for a VERY important day to her.  Does she EVER listen to that album?  Nope.  But she loves the shirt and knows it's one of her dad's favorite bands ever, so she made that choice which surprised us both.

If anything, my kids would say our family has the opposite problem. I scored free tix to see Billie Eilish on a theater tour back in early 2019 and because the tix were free, I allowed 2 items for each at the merch table which was VERY EXPENSIVE. I got a t-shirt but now that a kiddo is the same height as me, I like borrowing their sweatshirt.  Doesn't go over well.  And they don't want to hear about how we gave them life and how just lending me a sweatshirt shouldn't be a big deal in comparison... LOL!

PJNB

Not yet as mine are 6,5, and soon to be 3 but that is awesome you can share that experience with your young ones. I am really hoping the band stays together for another 10 years at least so I can experience some of this and seeing shows with them if they are interested to. 

JH6056

NashvillePJfan said:

Blessed to have a big family of six. And two great dogs.  
However, large family with lots of kids has merch implications. Such as, where is my Gigaton 3D viewer? I know it fascinated you kiddos but it's also a limited edition collectible. I must take a deep breath and accept that this is either gone for good, battered and broken in a hidden spot in the house, or at one of their friends' houses.
My teen Anna:  "Dad, that is such a cool Pearl Jam American flag! I want to hang it in my room." Me: "OK. Take good care of it." So she redecorates her room a few times a year. A very cool collectible becomes a casualty of my love for her. 
I buy this kind of merch so I can set it out and people who visit the home can be like, "Cool!" Don't buy it to keep it locked away in mint for resale. I do avoid this kind of dilemma with posters which I do store flat.
Who else faces kid-merch issues?

I meant to say before, you're a far more gracious parent than I am! For the merch that I absolutely love, nope, kids do not get to hang it/play with it/wear it to school.  Too many items that THEY love of their own get damaged/lost/misplaced, so they mostly know to stay out of my stuff.  And because of the generation gap, music itself isn't an issue because I still have so much on cds and everyone can have their own Spotify playlists or listen/watch on youtube, so we don't fight over albums the way we did when I was growing up.

That said, Victrola has some super affordable, decent record players for sale and that was an early Pandemic/lockdown gift to my 6th grader, so now she likes to go record shopping which just makes her dad and I beam with joy.  

on2legs

Family of six here also... my kids occasionally  discuss which pearl jam posters they want when I die.  I tell them they’re getting buried with me. 

dankind

My kids get all the stickers, and most of the more valuable posters (Cracker Jack, Transformers, Sperry Miami) we have are actually theirs.

This sucks because I I know that I could buy the instruments and recording equipment I want if I could just sell those stupid pieces of paper! 

JH6056

dankind said:

My kids get all the stickers, and most of the more valuable posters (Cracker Jack, Transformers, Sperry Miami) we have are actually theirs.

This sucks because I I know that I could buy the instruments and recording equipment I want if I could just sell those stupid pieces of paper! 

Are your kids adults now? And also giving the "Graciousness Award" to you, are they also huge raging PJ fans, or what made you give htem your most valuable stuff?

mlcoon23

Family of seven.  I have had "the posters I want when you die with a couple of kids."  Glad some of them want to keep them around. The only challenge I have really faced is missing shirts. I finally gave my oldest several shirts hoping that would stop the plundering. 

hihobibo

I have 3 kids between ages 6-11. My kids got all of the card packs I got in the mystery boxes. (Their favorite is Mike.) My daughter got my wife's Women's L shirts because they shrunk so much and wears them as nightgowns. My youngest has the West Palm alligator poster hung in his room, which he loves. My oldest is redecorating his room and I told him he can hang the EV Skateboard in there. I let them play with the Gigaton Viewer, but they got bored with it after an hour.  

As long as they get a kick out of the minor stuff, they can use it. Even if the items are collectibles, its too much of a hassle to ship some items, so I just let them get used rather than hold out hopes of selling one day. Once they get into middle & high school, if they want the patches or stickers for their backpacks and guitars, they can have those as well. 

Flavafraz

I had to start getting duplicates of stickers cuz my daughter would take them and put them on anything she felt like and had to get a new forum vault cuz my youngest daughter thought it was fun scratch it up with a screwdriver 

Tim Simmons

My kids (12,10,8,6) appreciate that I enjoy PJ, but they could not give a shit about them. They do love Tonight You Belong To Me from the EV album tho.

JH6056

Tim Simmons said:

My kids (12,10,8,6) appreciate that I enjoy PJ, but they could not give a shit about them. They do love Tonight You Belong To Me from the EV album tho.

Currently mine are the same. But PJ did get on the radar of my daughter last night because we watched some tween drama movie filmed in Hawaii and it had a lot of girls surfing, and I told her Eddie Vedder's daughters surf in Hawaii, and she was instantly far more willing to consider PJ might hold some value. 

mace1229

Hasnt happened with PJ merch. But I had a very nice Omega watch my dad gave me. Was new old stock from the 60s or 70s, more expensive than anything I would buy. It was lost, I convinced myself I left it in our hotel on our vegas trip. We moved about a year later, I found it in the bottom of the toy chest while packing up the house.

PJNB

This thread just reminded me there are 2 bouncy balls that are some wheres in my house that went missing 2 years ago from the mystery box. Such a simple toy but so much fun for them.