Anybody Else Keep Their Old DRFs? - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

Rook · 03-23-2007, 01:00 AM

The talk on DRF chart thread about pack rats certainly hit home. We are moving in 5 weeks and I have to decide what to do with my old DRFs. I have about 1500 of them in boxes from the years '88 thru '95. Several of the years are complete.

So my question to this board is am I completely crazy to think about keeping them? They are in pretty good shape because they've been stored in the dark in a dry enviornment but they sure aren't mint since every one of them has my hieroglyphics all over them.

I used to do a great deal of research with them but since the dawn of the internet 12 years ago, they have never been touched. I know they will serve no practical purpose for the rest of my life and they take up a fair bit of real estate but I've kept them because I have this vision that in 30 or 40 years, I will be a sentimental old man and they will once again be one of my most treasured possessions.

Does anybody else think like this or am I alone on this one?

cj · 03-23-2007, 01:02 AM

eBay, you could make some cash for some of the big days I would think.

I pitched mine a while back after losing one of my kids and a dog in the stacks.

Indulto · 03-23-2007, 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rook

The talk on DRF chart thread about pack rats certainly hit home. We are moving in 5 weeks and I have to decide what to do with my old DRFs. I have about 1500 of them in boxes from the years '88 thru '95. Several of the years are complete.

So my question to this board is am I completely crazy to think about keeping them? They are in pretty good shape because they've been stored in the dark in a dry enviornment but they sure aren't mint since every one of them has my hieroglyphics all over them.

I used to do a great deal of research with them but since the dawn of the internet 12 years ago, they have never been touched. I know they will serve no practical purpose for the rest of my life and they take up a fair bit of real estate but I've kept them because I have this vision that in 30 or 40 years, I will be a sentimental old man and they will once again be one of my most treasured possessions.

Does anybody else think like this or am I alone on this one?

I would say that 8 years of Forms would qualify you as an eccentric if you also have access to that data on the computer. You're only a packrat if you literally can't bear to part with them AND you collect other stuff as well.

I still keep PP's and charts for Breeders' Cup races even though I also keep something resembling a subset of the winners book on computer. I had also been saving them for triple crown races and preps, but they were negotiated away in preparation for our most recent move. A lot of old books bit the dust and I still haven't opened the few I kept.

It's not a good sign if you still have your baseball and other trading/flipping cards from when you were a kid unless you have the ones for Mickey Mantle, of course.

Overlay · 03-23-2007, 06:27 AM

I used to justify hanging on to my archives for purposes of research, but I found that the only analysis I was doing was on a "go-forward" basis, so I pitched them. (I thought about going the eBay route, but my copies weren't that well-preserved after six moves with long-term storage each time.)

Dave Schwartz · 03-23-2007, 07:04 AM

What is a "Racing Form?"

<G>

Pgh. Gere · 03-23-2007, 07:05 AM

I'm with ya Rook. I always tell myself that I'm saving them for research, but it's all on-line now. I've moved several times over the last decade, and every time as I'm struggling, lugging them to the dumpster i tell myself I won't do this any more. But here I sit, with another couple of stacks of forms. For some reason I think I'm gonna miss something or lose some edge if I throw them out. Or I take the "drf as the bible" literally and believe it is blasphemous to throw them away.

gillenr · 03-23-2007, 09:12 AM

Sorry about your dog!

Premier Turf Club · 03-23-2007, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rook

The talk on DRF chart thread about pack rats certainly hit home. We are moving in 5 weeks and I have to decide what to do with my old DRFs. I have about 1500 of them in boxes from the years '88 thru '95. Several of the years are complete.

I've moved around a lot, which I guess is good, else I'd never toss anything. When I relocated from Cleveland to Florida 7 years ago I tossed about 20 years of forms, trip notes, etc. It broke my heart, but we don't have basements in Florida so I just didn't have the room.

SMOO · 03-23-2007, 09:29 AM

They are a fire hazard. Sell them, dump them, or burn them in the fireplace.

DanG · 03-23-2007, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Schwartz

What is a "Racing Form?"
<G>

LOL...

Exactly!

BIG RED · 03-23-2007, 10:02 AM

My first wife used to complain bigtime about my 'collection'. So, I got rid of her, not the forms

But on a different note...

I just got rid of mine last year. Tons of them, back to the 80's. They were hard to part with. You open them up and read your old notes and such, brings back memories of when...... of course turning a page may have it fall off! They were to old.

I have 3 boxes right now, that's my limit. About 200 of the latest. When I start a 4th, I chuck the oldest

When you see Telegraph, ahh, that's a little to much

ryesteve · 03-23-2007, 10:04 AM

I used to do the same thing... but eventually nostalgia had to give way to practicality. I no longer had the room for them, and I knew I'd never look at them again. At first I tried consolidating... disacarding the non-NYRA sections of each issue... then discarding the non-weekend issues. I probably still have just one box filled with PPs of horses of special interest, but the mountains of paper I used to keep are long gone.

Ron · 03-23-2007, 11:01 AM

Don't you have top secret notes written all over them?

banacek · 03-23-2007, 11:11 AM

I'd keep a few for nostalgia sake and ditch the rest. There are undoubtedly some nice scores to remember.

When my father died four years ago, my Mum asked me if I wanted any of the racetrack stuff, so I looked it over. I found a few forms from the 60s and 70s all marked by my dad, with the corresponding programs from the track. Of course, these were races where my dad had 4 figure scores - including a newspaper clipping about a lone unidentified bettor having the only ticket on the daily double at a nearby bush track - I was with him that day (I think I was about 8). I took them home with me and still have them.

So when you are 80, you or your family might enjoy looking back and remembering some of those hits.

And if Dave Schwartz ever comes for a visit you can show him what a racing form looks like.