And with each year another page of the comic wilted away, until a pony could see beyond the nerd and give Luna true love's kiss. Only then would the curse be broken.

As a collector myself, I can understand the compulsion to try and preserve what you collect, especially something rare. It's not so much that "it's expensive to buy", it's more… trying to preserve history, I guess.

With items in small supply like that, there's a feeling of "if mine is destroyed, that's one less in the entire world". And when something like that is gone, it's gone forever.

I understand that I'm probably not making 100% sense right now, but it's not the easiest thing in the world to describe.