Collecting & Care for Guitar Picks
The Care of Guitar PicksThe Care of a guitar picks is very simple, listed below are some tips to help your collection stay in great shape !
1) The first thing to when you obtain a guitar pick is to clean in thorough with mild soap and water, toweling the pick gently dry!
2) The next step is picking up the cleaned guitar pick. Gently pick the pick up with tweezers. (this is done so the oil on your fingers will not come in contact with the pick, the oil will make the pick deteriorate faster.)Or with surgical gloves.
3) Gently place the pick in either a plastic bag (which should be aired out regularly, ventilation's plays an important part of the care of a pick) or in plastic sheets used to mount coins or photo slides preferably using the more expensive archival quality pages made from polypropylene instead of the cheaper polyvinyl.
Unfortunately one bad pick in the same bag can and will damage the other picks!
4)Keep picks away from direct sunlight and fluorescent lamps this may make a pick brittle, fade the color and other wise make a picks value diminish. The ideal place to keep your picks in a cool, dry, dark place.
Wise thing to remember is a pick needs to breath!
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Collecting
Picks are cheap to collect, hundreds can be stored in a single sandwich bag. Collecting picks can start by collecting a brand or musician pick or bands you enjoy listening to. You can expand in all ways such as material, historical, or even odd ball prints, it is at the collectors discretion.
The Value of a pick: How much for a guitar pick?? I am a firm believer in sentimental value. I really like Ace Frehleys guitar playing so to me any price is worth what I pay for a pick I really want.
Wear Marks:
1)No wear 2)Light wear 3)Medium Wear 4)Heavy Wear.
All in all it depends on the collector some collectors want a pick that shows wear while other don't so that is like a open area for collectors.
Obtaining a Pick
There are several ways to obtain picks I will list a few for you.
1) Work at show venues
2)Front row seat - Remember Watch out people fight over theses things.
3)Guitar Tech/Security Guard
4)Online Auctions *
5)From the Artist through his fan club ,website, or record label*
6)Music Memorabilia Stores
7)Trading among collectors (PickNet for example is a great place and I suggestion you look into it)
*Advice on online auctions- Beware of fakes and misleading information, Research the pick you are bidding on, check sellers feedback, set a maximum bid amount (some times picks go for very high prices).Make sure the pick is being shipped safely.Do not use tape to ship a pick cuz it will and can ruin the pick and leave a film on it.
*Artist info -Allot of artist use generic picks on stage and throw out personalized one to the fans. So do your research on a pick.