Minimizing Unused Accounts

[Mike C.]

I have about 15 years of investment data with a lot of accounts that are 
no longer used such as stock, bond, and mutual funds that were purchased 
in the past and sold with no expectation that they will be purchased again.
I have been trying to find a way to minimized the long list of accounts 
that show up in various places like the Security list.  I have not found 
a way to archive the past data and retain the open account data.  I know 
you can mark an account hidden/placeholder to keep it from showing up on 
the chart of accounts and transaction account list but they still show 
up on the report list, security list, and other places.
The best solution I can think of is to create a new account in Assets 
and Income called Closed Accounts and then delete each individual 
account and move the transactions to Closed Accounts. There would have 
to be separate accounts for each account type to be able to move the 
transactions.
Does anyone have a better solution to this problem of no longer used 
accounts that accumulate over time?
Mike