to sell these golly badges?

[JammyGem]

My DDad collected them when he was younger. He has a lot of them and knows I'm a bit hard up for money at the moment.

He gave me a massive box of them and said he didn't know why he'd kept them, but it had come up in conversation with a friend the other day and apparently some of them are worth a lot of money now. He gave me a box of them and said he wanted me to have them, to sell them on and get a bit of money for myself.

WIBU to sell them? I'm very grateful to my DDad but I'm aware of their racist symbolism and would feel a little uncomfortable profiting from it. I also wouldn't even know where to sell them anyway, eBay have banned them. It just makes me uncomfortable but to be honest I really do need the money at the moment.

Our local garden centre ( based in South East) sells new cups and breakfast sets with Golliwogs on. I was a bit when I saw that but I guess they must still be selling

there are loads still selling on ebay for good money, just search "robertson badges"

The jam badges? My Nan had some and I ebayed them after her death because she left them to me (apparently I liked them as a toddler) but I didn't want them as an adult with an understanding of what they represent. At that stage of life though I hated the idea of throwing anything away if someone somewhere might want it. Now I'm a Kondo devotee I'd have just binned them.

But if you could use the money, sell them.

Apricot, the point is that if they remain in circulation people think that they are acceptable. In the same wat that Mine Kampf was banned

There is no universal ban on Mein Kampf. I think it may still be banned in Austria and certain parts of the Russian Federation and in the UK during the war.

There was a copy in my school. It was kept in the head of history's room. I skim read part of it and Gustav Stresemann's diaries as part of 6th Year Studies History. We were required to have some familiarity with contemporary writing of that period. It is as awful and as badly written as one would expect.

Sell them. I do not believe that you are perpetuating racism. As others have said, it's in the same vein as Nazi propaganda, holocaust memorabilia etc. It has a place.

They sell on eBay under 'robertsons badges' and sell individually for £3-5 each with the rare ones going for around £25. Look under completed listings for an idea of how to price yours. Don't sell them for £80!

I'd sell my nana's fox fur coat if I was hard up. Doesn't mean I'd buy one for myself.

I imagine I'd do the same with what you have.

...and her ivory keyed piano!

If you need the money for food, just sell them op.

If they all disappear, there won't be any to show people exactly what was once thought to be appropriate. In the US there are some absolutely horrifying racist items - statues, postcards, illustrations, even some of the now-banned Warner Bros cartoons. If we simply erase them, we forget it happened. There's no evidence for us to study. Over time, maybe we will start to believe things weren't all that bad, because it's not like good ol' Warner Bros made vile cartoons, or postcards of sexualised children were sold as funny trinkets.

Seek out a collector, even some museums could take the really valuable ones, but don't just throw them. Preserve them the way we preserve footage of concentration camp liberation; it needs to survive, because people will always need to see it existed.

Do all the posters on here who are advising to sell on eBay or wherever really think the items will go straight into the hands of anti racism activists? Who will use them to educate people about the historical and sociological background? And put the world to rights? No they won't. They will go into the collections of those for whom these items are appealing on a basic level. Who would they be? Ummm, right wing racists who would see building up a collection of golly trophies as appealing. I acknowledge that the badges were not knowingly racist when they were developed. But they are none the less a demeaning stereotype and have no place in modern society except in a museum.

They're a product of their time. And I say that as a fellow product of the 60s/70s. I'd sell them and not give it another thought. I find the sight of them in shops (live in a toruist trap where you still see them) to be repellent and racist, but these are artefacts from another era. Collectors buying them are more likely to hoard than sell on and keep them circulating. Museums are also on their uppers and are unlikely to have money for this.

Or - how about auctioning them to the highest bidder who wants to destroy them? Some people here feel so strongly, I suspect they're also in a position to bid and so do what your dad intended (turn them to good use) and simultaneously they could be nuked by the buyer, if they feel so strongly about it... Could go viral and raise you loadsamoney.

I'm also selling everything that's not nailed down, on eBay, to pay bills/buy food (because we live in such a civilised society) so totally understand your hesitation but also your need to turn this junk into money.

Jammy, when you say:

With regards to the racism aspect - I remember loving them as a kid, never realising that they were supposed to be based on black people. I thought that they were just funny cute things, like the clangers or wombles or something. However I would never dream of defending them now I'm older and know the history behind them.

That's exactly how I feel, too. As a kid I didn't even connect them with people - I thought it was a type of doll, like a Humpty Dumpty - actually genuinely thought they were an abstract thing, like a fantasy character (Wombles is bang on).

My mum was born in the 1920s and saw them the same way. She spent her life working in tough, inner city, multiracial schools and was a real left wing campaigner - she'd have been mortified if she'd thought they were meant to be a satirical depiction of anyone. Of the Enid Blyton books, I only read the Famous Five and a couple of others, so had no sense of the golly as a character in a book, either.

Our generation spawned the whole PC thing (rightly so and I'm proud of it) but we should be cautious about applying current values to the past as they don't work, retrospectively.

"Do all the posters on here who are advising to sell on eBay or wherever really think the items will go straight into the hands of anti racism activists? Who will use them to educate people about the historical and sociological background? And put the world to rights? No they won't."

No, they probably won't. But I'd advise her to sell them on eBay because she needs the money, simple as that. Unless anyone here who feels strongly about it would like to send the OP £30 or £40 to destroy them instead?

"Do all the posters on here who are advising to sell on eBay or wherever really think the items will go straight into the hands of anti racism activists? Who will use them to educate people about the historical and sociological background? And put the world to rights? No they won't."

What is wrong with you? No they probably won't, they'll probably go to a collector who has an interest in their history. What exactly do you think is going to happen to them? Do you think that they're going to end up on some kind of memorial wall of a white supremacist? Grow up!

OP, sell them to the highest bidder and get yourself a good meal or three from them. Take care

I think op should sell if she is desperate - of course

But let's not kids ourselves - the probability of them being bought by a racist twat is pretty high

Sell them.

My mate is a badge collector in relation to a particular sports team. He bought one the other day holding the team scarf.

These are new not original.

FWIW he isn't a racist.

I think you should sell them but don't think you can expect a museum that celebrates black culture to pay you for items symbolising oppression OP. That would be rubbing salt into the wound, surely?

Can your Dad sell them and give you the money?

However if you are skipping meals then your problems go a lot deeper than moral issues around Golliwogs. You need to look into benefits, and also get some advice on cooking cheaply - bean and vegetable based dishes are nutritious and can be extremely cheap.

Bit shocked by all this. I bought 3 original posters at auction 4 years ago. One is a Robertson's Jam one, one is Pears soap, and the other is Sunny Jim Force Flakes. They are all framed and in the kitchen. I never thought of them as anything other than advertising posters from a bygone era, and no one has ever commented on them in a negative way ie as racist. I have to say I hadn't even contemplated that anyone would take in that way.

totalrecall now you know what they represent will you keep them up?

I'd sell them, there's definitely a collectables market out there interested in these things. Try approaching local antique shops, they may have some contacts.

Total they're considered racist but not illegal. If you like the posters and are comfortable having them on your wall then that's your choice. I own a golliwog from years back. I love it as an object/doll and therefore keep it. It's not on display and I purchased it before I learnt about the history of golliwogs. I won't get rid of it because they offend but I certainly wouldn't carry it around in case it did.

I would give them to the museum of London over at canary wharf, or somewhere like that. They have a large display on black history and like them or loathe them, the Robinson's pins and statuettes are part of our social history.

I loved them when I was little as they were so sweet and cute. I thought they were toys, like teddy bears and it wasn't until I was an adult that the penny dropped.

My mother has some Robertson's jam advertising stuff etc in her house, not because she is some white supremacist racist but because she like vintage advertising.
List them all on eBay. They won't go to be the centre piece of some white power archive.

That won't but the OP much to eat though Mavis...

EBay then. It's not illegal in the uk. I think it is in the US though.