Thats what I tell my wife, junk collecting is a public service. There have been a few times when I have been able to save junk from the landfill and give it a dry home until it becomes desirable.
When I eventually need the space I will pass it on to someone who will really take care of it, a museum can be a good choice but not always. Sometimes 'colectors' will pay handsomely as for example this Collins radio transmitter, circa 1950's which I kept in my garage for 25 years then sold to someone a long way away.
Read the other guy's story here
http://www.k9qi.com/page32.htmlSometimes it does not go so well, I collected 3 complets sets of Teletype Corp model 15 (c1936) teleprinters, power supplies, tape perforators, tape readers, page printers etc.
Most were serviceable spares taken from the workshops when those machines were being phased out in 1977. I kept those about 15 years then took them them a technology museum. I had kept them in working order and would sometimes run them all at once to amuse small kids (and their parents). They had all be regeared for 50 baud working and of course I had cartons of spares, manuals, calibration scopes and motor strobes. Then I got a call from a musesum two hours drive from here who were looking to set up a working display of telegraph equipment, next time I went by that way I took a look and I was most impressed. They had a lot of stuff including radio, telegraph, cable and first generation fax equipment. They also had two fully working telephone exchanges (automatic) Strowger and step by step (I think). So I told them what I had and they were most excited. There was a full load for my ute in fact probably a slight overload and it was gratefully accepted. But three years later when I next looked in there was a sorry sight to see, nothing had been done and the shed they were in had leaked and other stuff had been piled on them. The guy who was showing me around did not know the history and remarked "I dont know why people give us useless junk like this"..
Other times, like the IBM card punch and the Fridan Adjustawriter (fully programmable, entirely mechanical, word processer) I run out of space and just reduce the entire item to pieces to go in the parts bins!
