Do you have a collection? --- Heard of someone else's interesting collection?

[Sultan Kinkari]

I collect chopsticks.

No, not the fancy kind made of wood with a gold inlay, the cheap ass kind you get at the sushi bar. Sometimes they have the name and address of the restaurant on the wrapper, sometimes they don't, I collect them all. :)
I have almost a hundred different pair. WOOO HOOO!!


Here's a link for people that collect banana stickers:

http://216.218.237.155/

[Sultan Kinkari]

BTW, that's the wierdest freakin URL that I've ever seen.

[Pammipoo]

None of mine are really exciting, but definitely fun. I collect PEZ dispensers (I have over 150), those celebrity Got Milk? ads (i lost count around 97), and the statehood quarters. I only do the quarters because I figure someday, they'll be worth something.

I used to know a kid who collected toenail clippings...rather gross, actually...

[rjung]

I used to collect comic books.

I semi-collect Transformers robot toys, though I'm rather picky about which ones I get.

The closest thing I have to a "real" collection (as in everything in the set) would be my collection of Atari Lynx portable video game system cartridges. Aside from a few obscure home-brewed titles, I've got all of 'em. And while I still enjoy my collection, a part of me wonders why I didn't save the money for a "worthier" cause...

(Gad, I am getting old.)

[Zenster]

A collection of glass bottled sodas (all still full): Coca Cola (American)
Coca Cola (short Korean)
Coca Cola (tall Korean)
Coca Cola (Mexican)
7Up (green glass)
Wink (Canada Dry)
Orange Crush (art deco bottle)
Squirt (green spiral glass)
Sprite (green nubbed glass)
Peñafiel Mineral Water (enameled label)
Limonatta (Italian)
Arinchatta (Itallian)
Sport (Italian)And the grand winner is: G&L Green Ramune

This is a spectacular Korean specimen (perhaps Astroboy will drop by and tell us about it). I have an extra sample that is empty in order to demonstrate the remarkable marble seal. A spheroid of glass (the marble) is used as a sort of cork that must be dislodged in order to open the bottle. A sharp blow to the cap will knock it into the bottle. The flask must be oriented specifically so that the marble will roll into special pocks that hold it while you are drinking. Otherwise it will roll up and block the bottle when you tilt it. It is one of the oddest mechanical closures that I have ever seen on a food product.
I also collect really odd electronic and solid state component specimens but I'll save that for later.

[Zenster]

Since I love to cook, a significant part of my collections are devoted to kitchen related themes. Such as:

Cast Iron Ware.
Square pans, round pans, molded pans, trivits, griddles, flat irons, dutch ovens, muffin pans and clothing irons. A mongolian barbecue grill, a comal and many others. Almost one hundred different pieces.

Enamel Cook Ware.
Le Cruset and Descoware (bought for pennies on the dollar), somewhere around one hundred pieces by now. Skillets, pots, kettles, terreines and grautins. All in the uranium orange.

Pyrex.
Hundreds of colored and clear pieces (like your grandma had). Nesting bowl sets, refrigerator jars, timbales, baking and serving dishes.

Kitchen Gadgets.
The oddball little aluminum things like garlic presses (20), lemon squeezers, olive or cherry pitters, tomato, egg, mushroom and butter slicers, the little Jello molds.

Cookbooks.
Well over a thousand of these. A copy of the Joy of Cooking that refers to prohibition. Nearly every cusine on earth is represented in the library. An Army cookbook where each recipe serves one hundred people. A Nancy Drew cookbook. A Danish girl scouts cookbook.

Spice Containers and Miniature Tins.
All sorts of small containers plus a four story spice rack to hold the ones that I use for cooking.

Danish Crystal and Glass.
Stemware and art glass bottles and vases.

Oddball Stuff.
Tortilla presses, taco shell fryers, muffin pans.


Now we'll get into the other stuff:

Cigar Boxes.
Over ten thousand of these ranging from antique to modern.

Meerschaum Pipes.
Unused and handcarved pipes from Turkey.

Tobacco and Cigarette Tins.
From Camel cigarette tins all the way to Pince Albert in a can. Chewing tobacco to Dunhill samplers.

And the weirdest thing of all is that I don't smoke tobacco!

On to more stuff:

Semiconductor and Computer.
Sapphire and gallium arsenide wafers. Patterned and raw silicon wafers from 1" to 8" in diameter, polished and unpolished. Electron multipliers, ferrite core planes, hundreds of different style chip packages, microwave components, solid state lasers, printed circuit boards. Displays ranging from LED readouts to Nixie tubes. Computer configuration patch boards, IBM punch cards and punched paper tape. Ion collectors, electron beam evaporation hearths, moving mirror optics, photomasks, leadframes, sockets, components, connectors, lamps, electron microscope filaments. Klystron tubes and turbomolecular pumping rotors.

My brother said that my collection belongs in the Smithsonian.

Lasers and Optics.
A 20mW Argon gas laser, a 5mW HeNe gas laser, several other gas laser tubes. Moving mirror optics, diffraction gratings, beam splitters, lenses, micrometer optical mounts and vernier slides. A home made variable speed three stage moving mirror Lissajou pattern generator.

Books.
Old Audel manuals that tell you how to build everything from houses to tram lines. Perry Mason, fantasy, Sci-Fi, Anne Rice, Tom Clancy all sorts of good stuff. Mostly in hard bound. An Encyclopedia Britannica atlas that contains a coupon for a free updated copy of the atlas when the borders are settled after World War II. All sorts of references.

Musical Instruments.
A piano, tenor and alto flutes, bamboo, rosewood and ceramic flutes, penny whistles, tenor, alto and soprano recorders, guitars, electric guitars, bass guitar, amplifiers, straight soprano, alto and C-melody saxophones plus analog synthesizers, harmonicas, kalimba, echoplex effects systems, and lots of others that I play for fun.

Electronic Equipment.
Stereos, tape decks. studio equipment, short wave radios, meters, video pattern generators, oscilloscopes and test equipment, geiger counters.

Tools.
Mostly limited to a real life tool kit that I use to repair anything from a million dollar semiconductor reactor to my own car. A stereoscope, calipers and micrometers.

Nikon Cameras and Lenses.
The old style bullet proof metal body cameras (Nikkormat and F1's) with the super-fine lenses that they used to make. All manual settings, none of these PhD (push here dummy) Brownie Hawkeyes for me. Plus tons of other photographic gear like tripods, vests, camera bags, light meters, slide projectors, screens and other gadgets.

Marbles.
Real aggies and other gemstone spheres. Old style daws, bumblebees, corkscrews, ox bloods, steelies and cats eyes.

Sea Shells.
Abalones, textile cones, local species, miniature shells.

Licorice.
A dozen different types from all over Europe including Italian, Danish and Dutch.

Posters.
Avalon Ballroom, Fillmore, Carousel Ballroom, Fillmore East and many museum event posters.

Hats.
Stetsons, Akubras, fedoras, cowboy, straw, berets.

Pennies.
Completely full five gallon water bottle. Many other bottles full as well.

Drafting Equipment.
Drafting sets (Deitzgen, Kuffel and Esser), templates, ink bottles, Rapidograph pens, calligraphy pens, rulers and T-squares, drafting machines.

Knives.

The Mountaineer, The Champion, and other Swiss Army knives, a Gerber lock blade and mother of pearl scaled penknife, a long blade fruit sampling knife, heirloom pearl handled carving set, Buck fisherman and others.


As you can see, most of the stuff actually has value. I do not collect figurines or anything from the Franklin Mint. My collections have a cumulative value of somewhere around one hundred thousand dollars. I guess I'm going to have to set up a second hand store when I get older.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Antique oil cans! Not like the retail pennzoil cans; I mean the little (and not so little) ones used to oil tools, etc. I started because my husband was collecting old tools and I kept running into them. Did I ever tell you about the time I was trying to clean one using mineral spirits and a wire brush on a dremel tool? And how I dipped the brush--while the tool was still on--into an open bowl of the decades-old-oil-stained spirits? In my WHITE kitchen? Classic Cranky move.

Also frogs. Of all types.

[rivulus]

Zenster: Wow! How big is your house?

My great aunt collected owls. Not real ones, knick-nacks and pictures and stuff. They were all over the house, right down to the toilet seat cover. She had a huge display of ceramic owls in the livingroom on shelves around the fireplace. I loved getting letters from her because she had every type of stationery with owls you could imagine.

It wasn't her idea, actually. Somewhere along the line she got a couple and everyone from then on decided to give them to her for every occasion.

People tried doing that to me with knick-nacks. I nipped that in the bud right quick.

rivulus

[tisiphone]

Books - between us, my husband and I have about 2500 or so, mostly science fiction and fantasy, but we have at least one of everything.

Beads - any substance other than plastic. I'm quite the snob about it. I have amethyst, garnet, antique trade beads, African handmade, eggshell, hematite, bone...

Stuff. I make things, so I have: feathers (budgie, parrot, raven, magpie, even a couple eagle feathers), bones, copper wire, silver wire, agates, soapstone, jade, leather, shells, willows, cedar, and mastodon ivory. It's referred to as Mom's Junk, so I guess that makes it a collection.

Hey, Zenster, how's your collection of drive platters? I got some out of a really old server drive that are a good 8 inches across - if you mix them with other sizes they make great wind chimes. Especially if you use the spacers to provide the high notes. *Warning* If you do this, hang it well away from the house. These things are LOUD.

[Rue DeDay]

Shot glasses from places I've been.

Dog statues. (Mostly little collectable figurines, really.)


-Rue.

[Ukulele Ike]

I have a collection of dust balls.

I keep it under my bed.

[Carina42]

Wow. Zenster wins! I'd love to browse through that cookbook collection.

I collect skulls & interesting bones. Only ones I find count. I travel a lot, so I've got animal skulls & bones from several countries, including a donkey skull from Israel, and a horse skull from Baja. Lots of delicate bird bones, & some small mammals we can't identify. My SO (who is a doctor) has a whole human skeleton in his living room, wearing sunglasses.

I have friends who collect things like frog artifacts, shot glasses, tacky religious souvenirs...it's always easy & fun to buy gifts for people who have collections.

[Johnny L.A.]

I have a collection of about 20 firearms, from replica Colt 1851 Navy revolvers to AR-15s. One of the neatest is a Winchester Mod. 1892 in .32-20 that was made in 1897.

Watches. A Zodiac from the 1950s (dad's), a 1974 Seiko Bell-Matic (dad's), my first watch -- a Timex from about 1971, a Rolex GMT Master II, a Fossil with an airplane on the dial, a military-issue Stocker & Yale, and a Lorus Quartz from the early-80s.

Knives. Too many to list in entirety, but six Victorinox, four Case, a couple of folding parachute knives with a blade and a shroud cutter, a Gerber Mk. II, a Valor copy of a Gerber Mk. I, bayonettes for my Mausers, a Cold Steel SRK, and more.

Flight Jackets. I think about a dozen including G-1s, A-2s, CWU-45/Ps, a CWU-36/P, MA-1s, two issue WEPs and a copy.

Navy flight gear. Everything a Naval aviator would wear (including the S&W snubnosed .38) except for the radio (which at $1,400 is a little pricey).

[Kayeby]

I collect handbags and unique clothes, most of which I buy from ebay or from markets. I also collect minature liquor bottles - I figure that if I ever get sick of collecting them, I can still put the liquor to good use.

[Sparteye]

Music boxes.

Holiday decorations.

**Music boxes with holiday themes!**


Do you know how hard it is to find decorations for labor day?

[MovieMogul]

I collect movie lobby cards--not the full size ones (can't afford them), but ones transferred to postcard size. I stopped counting after 1000.

I also collect stamps--anything directly related to movies (films, but more often film personalities). Often, for a first-day of issue, I will submit said stamp with said related postcards for a first-day cover. I have managed to get some pretty cool ones over the years (cool for a Filmatelic geek like myself at least)

I also have hundreds of movie soundtracks on CD (original scores, not pop hit compilations) including quite a few imports or OOP titles.

Naturally, I have everything catalogued and cross-referenced, which means I'm an archivist at home as much as I am at work.

[Cumber]

I collect lizardy/reptiley things. Sort of collect anyway (haven't bought anything in ages... must get more sometime).
Current inventory is:

2 cheap little plastic lizards (one a skink and the other some variety of bearded lizard, I think)
A 'family' of 3 little stone crocodiles
Another piece with two crocodiles on it (it got dropped at one stage and has a big chip out of it now though :()
A slightly less little and really cute stone dragon
A little pewter frilled neck lizard (which I use when I play Monopoly :))
A little pewter thorny devil
A ring in the shape of a snake
A sand-filled cloth lizard
Another sand-filled cloth lizard, but this one is on my keyring
A plastic crocodile that was formally on my keyring, but it fell off
A poster of a blue-tongued lizard that I got out of a Nature magazine
A poster of a photo frilled neck lizard
Another poster of a frilled neck lizard, but not a photograph
A stone frilled neck lizard

Damn, now I have a craving to go find more lizards. :)

[FairyChatMom]

Dunno if this counts as a collection, but we've bought about 11 or 12 signed, numbered prints by a favorite artist. Sadly, most of them are in a closet because it costs so doggone much to have them properly matted and framed, and since we own that hole in the water that sucks up all our money...

Beyond that, I don't really collect anything, tho I have accumulated a bunch of kitchen stuff. To my mind, "collectables" are things that need to be dusted. No thank you very much.

[tiny ham]

I collect, ravenously, moose items. I love mooses. I have a thousand million stuffed mooses, moose christmas ornaments, a wooden nickel with a moose on it, moose dice, moose crossing sign. MOOSES! They'll Stamp You To Death! They're my favorite animal.

I also, sort of inadvertantly, collect German things. Everyone I know buys me German things because, I am, of course, The Germaniac. I have all kinds of German candy and cookie boxes, I get like 6 lebekuchens every Christmas, german beer bottles, soccer jerseys...blah blah blah...

those are my two big collections.

jarbaby

[Zappo]

Well, my collections are pretty mainstream.

Shot glasses- I started buying them as cheap souvenirs of places I'd been. Then people started buying them for me when they went on trips. Then I discovered eBay. Right now I have about 200 or so, most of which advertise touristy stuff, hotels, bars or liquor.

Car brochures- I'm a motorhead, always have been. When was a kid my dad used to take me to car shows and we'd snap up anything the exhibitors were giving away. After I discovered the car swap meets in Carlisle, PA and started buying stuff on eBay I ended up with a collection of American car literature that spans the era from 1965-present. One of these days I'll get around to organizing it. . .

Model cars- See above. I was collecting die-cast metal models before they were cool. Right now I have too damn many toy cars to count, ranging from Matchbox/Hot Wheels that I snagged at Wal-Mart last week to a 1:12 scale pink '59 Cadillac convertible.

I also collect US Mint proof and uncirculated coin sets and statehood quarters. BTW, does anybody out West want to swap some Denver quarters for Philadelphia quarters? :)

Yer pal,

Zappo

[Spoons]

Books. My wife and I must have thousands of books. Fiction and all kinds of non-fiction, on all kinds of topics.

And like Zenster, we also like cigar boxes, although we don't have quite as many. But we've got some nice antique ones, as well as the run-of-the-mill ones.

I used to collect cigarettes--packages of all kinds of different brands of cigarettes from all over the world. I had hundreds, sealed in their original cellophane and with their tax stamps and so on intact. Damaged them in a move some years ago though, and lost interest afterwards.

Does one of anything constitute a collection, if it's big and you plan to collect more when you get the room for them? I've been a fan of pinball machines for years, and have owned a beautiful old Gottlieb electromechanical from the mid-1970s for quite some time. (Fixed it up so it is playable, too.) But I'd like to have more of the 1970s electromechanicals, and plan to look into getting more (if possible) when we can manage to move to a bigger home.

[buffalogal]

We're saving the state quarters too.

Really the only thing I collect is Wee Forest Folk mice. I bought my first one about 20 years ago, and I've mostly received them as gifts. I have over 30. I'd like to buy more, but the costs range from about $40 for an inch-high little mouse to over $400 for a more complicated knick-knack. Seems a bit extravagant.

[Flymaster]

I don't have anything particularly interesting, but my father has a collection of beer cans that is 750 cans strong. It's stopped growing, however, as we've run out of room to display them all.

[caircair]

Books -- well, I don't actually COLLECT them, they just sort of accumulate. And I do recycle them, so the "collection" is constantly changing.

My one true Collection is dolls. It started when my mother got interested in collecting dolls -- specifically, Robin Woods dolls. She asked me what type of doll I would collect if I decided to collect dolls -- bride dolls, maybe? I said no, everyone collects those. But growing up, my favorite story was "Cinderella" -- so I'd collect non-porcelain Cinderella's. Next thing I knew, I had 13 of them, of which I'd bought myself only two.

About that time, Mattel came out with their Disney Cinderella and Prince set. Since then, I've gotten every Mattel Disney (and non-Mattel animated doll) that I can get my hands on -- with a few notable exceptions: Namely, I did NOT get the dolls for the animated "King and I". (That movie was an abomination!!!) My collection currently consists of about 110 dolls, and I plan on adding the two from Disney's "Atlantis" soon.

[Bumbazine]

Originally posted by Zappo

I also collect US Mint proof and uncirculated coin sets and statehood quarters. BTW, does anybody out West want to swap some Denver quarters for Philadelphia quarters? :)

Yer pal,

Zappo

Zappo, I put those state quarters aside when I get them also. I must have over $200.00 worth now, all Denver Mints. They aren't uncirculated, but if you want some gently used ones, I've got you covered. E-mail me.

[another aside] Spoons, I have a cousin in Detriot who deals in amusement devices and he has a room full of old pinball machines, most of which work. The last time I was there, he had one really big one that used billiard balls. IIRC, his business is called 'Big Toys' in Sterling Heights. [/aside]

And now,(finally) back to the OP.
I have larger-than-normal quantities of a number of things, tools, hats, electric trains, books, knives, etc that I used to collect, or at least was compulsive about, but the only thing I would say I still actively 'collect', that is I still buy on a semi-regular basis, is paperweights, and I only have about 30 or so of those. Well, I buy a lot of books too, but I recycle many of those.

[Balance]

Originally posted by Zenster
Musical Instruments.
A piano, tenor and alto flutes, bamboo, rosewood and ceramic flutes, penny whistles, tenor, alto and soprano recorders, guitars, electric guitars, bass guitar, amplifiers, straight soprano, alto and C-melody saxophones plus analog synthesizers, harmonicas, kalimba, echoplex effects systems, and lots of others that I play for fun.


I had begun to wonder if I were the only one who did this. I have a number of pewter figures, lots of electronic junk, and such, but the only real collection I have is musical instruments. I have a wide variety of flutes--bamboo in several different scales, end-blown (including recorders and Kiowa flutes), side-blown, an antique piccolo in ebony (thanks, Dad), two harmonic flutes (a purpleheart flute with a melodic pipe and a drone pipe, and a bamboo flute with two melodic pipes), a bamboo tenor sax (which I made myself, and am quite unreasonably proud of), several ocarinas, trombone, trumpet, keyboard, didjeridoo, bullroarer, mouth harp, bodhran, gong, some chimes, a thunder-tube, and assorted noisemakers.

When I move into a house, I will get a piano. I'm considering buying a harp very soon, and I've also toyed with the notion of a glass harmonica (one of the motorized ones).

[Johnny L.A.]

Zappo, I put those state quarters aside when I get them also. I must have over $200.00 worth now, all Denver Mints. They aren't uncirculated, but if you want some gently used ones, I've got you covered. E-mail me.
Ditto.

[Garfield226]

Well, let's see.

I have a large collection of Star Wars cards, from the Collectible Card Game.
Magic: the Gathering cards.
Baseball cards.
Tons of magazines, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, RC Car Action.

Now, the interesting stuff:

I have every Jones Soda bottle I have ever drunk the soda out of.

I also have a collection of old cameras, including: Kodak Bantam RF (with case), Kodak Instimatic S-10 (with case and instruction booklet), Polaroid Model J66 (with case, instruction book, flash, box of flashbulbs, adapter to take color photos, two packets of color film, film developer fluid).

Also, two old movie cameras, a Keystone K-36 and a Bell and Howell Two-Fifty-Two.

The cameras are my favorite, and they have all been gifts with the exception of the Instamatic and the 252, which I picked up at a garage sale for $5.00.

[jsc1953]

Casino chips. I've got 70 or so, just your run-of-the-mill $1 chips, not fancy commemoratives. Pick one up anytime I'm near a casino, and occasionally hook up with collectors from other parts of the country via e-mail for a swap. Apparently it's a rather common hobby.

Plus state quarters.

[Sultan Kinkari]

Originally posted by wishbone
I collect chopsticks.

No, not the fancy kind made of wood with a gold inlay, the cheap ass kind you get at the sushi bar. Sometimes they have the name and address of the restaurant on the wrapper, sometimes they don't, I collect them all. :)
I have almost a hundred different pair. WOOO HOOO!!




Here's an offer for anyone who loves asian food as much as I do: If you ever go to a restaurant that has the disposable chopsticks in the paper wrapper, unused of course ;), it doesn't matter if they have the name of the restaurant on them, I have a large stack of free movie passes that I would be willing to trade. Also, if you want to trade for anything else I'm sure we could work something out. Thanks :)

[cmkeller]

I collect comic books. As Fiver and Fenris know, I'm major into the Legion of Super-Heroes. I also collected the just-ended Starman series.

I also collect baseball cards. I have at least one card or photo of everyone who played for or managed my beloved Royals (through the 2000 season, that is, I update for each season at season's end) and postcards of each of the stadia they called home as well.

And I have a collection of cards/photos of every professional baseball player whose last name begins with the letter "X." Yes, some did exist. None in the last ten years, though, so at the moment, it's not a very active collection.

[Creaky]

I have a small collection of animal bones. Mostly skulls. The two biggest I have are that of a boar (with tusks, cool!) and a big ole horse skull. I have a cow legbone as well, which was the first piece I ever got, when I was six. I also have the top half of a human skull, which is lined with nickel silver.

I got it in a curio shop in downtown Baltimore, which really is the World Capital of Weirdness. I used to use the skull as a candy dish, but it wobbled too much since the bottom of it was curved. It also eventually occurred to me that I had better things to use as candy dishes!

[cmkeller]

jarbabyj:

Way cool! I love moose as well, although I don't really collect them. But I do have a little "Moosie" from the Moosehead brewery in St. John, New Brunswick, and a pair of moose crazy-straws from Anchorage (where we saw moose roaming the city streets!)

Chaim Mattis Keller

[Baker]

I collect the National Geographic magazine. I currently have every issue,(with maps) back to February of 1913, plus a few issues before that date, and a couple of earlier maps. The oldest piece I have is a map from 1891 that I got on ebay. The collection takes up a lot of space but it's worth it. I sprung for enough slip covers to place each one in. I've spent enough money on them that I don't want them to rub against each other too much. Anyone need to unload some old NG's? Let me know! I really wnat to get a couple of issues before 1910, to get the older style cover.

[TV time]

My wife and I also have quite a few thousand books, but we don't really collect them we just, as was mentioned before, "acquire them".

What I do collect is neckties. I have about 400, some dating back to the turn of the century (20th not the 21st). I have hand painted ties, "peek-a-boo" ties, ties designed by noted artists (I want Opal to design one for me if I can reach her) and even a few nudie ties.

Some of the more unique ties include a leather tie made by a tanner, two macrome (sp?) ties, a wooden tie made by a carpenter and a celuloid tie made by a film student. I have an incredibly wide and long tie given to me by a clown from Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Baily. I have a tie with shamrocks on it given to me by the mayor of Dublin.

My tie collection is relatively well known in the area and seldom does a notable stop by our little town that he or she does not bring me a necktie as a gift. During election years, I can be certain to receive three or four ties with either donkeys or elephants on them from people running for office.

I have not bought a tie in over ten years.

TV

[Guinastasia]

Pictures of old royalty, from Victoria's time until the 2nd world war. Especially the Romanovs, the Roumanian royals, and the King of Yugoslavia...*sigh*...Sandro...rorrror!

[Carina42]

Originally posted by Johnny L.A.
I have a collection of about 20 firearms, from replica Colt 1851 Navy revolvers to AR-15s. One of the neatest is a Winchester Mod. 1892 in .32-20 that was made in 1897.




My SO has a C&R licence & collects exotic firearms...mostly automatics. He's a real buff on history in general, & rare firearms in particular. That is not a cheap hobby...!

[hardygrrl]

Books

The last time I moved when I shelved my books I counted them-that was two years ago and I had 1546. I've probably added a couple hundred to the collection since then. I have a first edition of every one of Martin Amis' books.

Dolphins

I'm fascinated with dolphins. I started collecting dolphin items and soon people starting getting them for me when they ssay them. Figurines,candlesticks,bookends,etc.

[racinchikki]

I collect:

-- Racin' stuff. I have approximately 200 diecast NASCAR race cars, in sizes varying from 1:144 (less than an inch long) to 1:24 (~8"). I also have Coke bottles, stuffed animals, Barbies, a Rusty Wallace Beef Jerky package, Slim Jim boxes with the Labontes on them, and a box of Cheezits with a picture of Buckshot Jones, not to mention tins, books, magazines, autographs, videos, t-shirts, and a couple hats. I want to acquire some sheet metal off a car someday.

-- Chickens. I love birds. I love barnyard animals. Chickens are both! I have a large collection of those little chenille Easter chickens, plus toys I've stolen from my foster sister's farm sets, and lawn ornaments from the dollar store. I'm always on the lookout for more chicken things.

-- Stemware. I have hurricane glasses, wine glasses, a brandy snifter, martini glasses, and margarita glasses, although most of them are actually plastic, because it's cheaper and easier to keep clean and unbroken.

-- Silverware. I'll admit, a lot of my silverware collection has been "liberated" by my friends and given to me. :O I do have quite a bit that I've bought legitimately, piece by piece, at different home stores and kitchen outlets. I have all those funny little bits of cutlery, like shrimp forks and dessert spoons. I don't have a metal spork, though. That's what I'm on the lookout for.

I'd like to start a collection of rubber duckies, so if anybody'd like to aid me with a donation I'd love ya forever! :D

[BobbySuezQ]

I collect ...

Matchbox, Racing Champions and Hot Wheels cars. Corvettes Only. I keep them at work ... I like rolling them around my desk and my co-workers like simulating traffic pile-ups. :)

Depression glass patterned cake plates. The challenge is I won't pay over $10 for them. The downside is everytime I buy one I am compelled to bake a cake.

Napco Porcelain Birthday Angels. A collection started by my grandma, there is one themed girl and boy angel for each month. I have 11 of the girls, (Oh to find March). I happened on 2 of the boys and bought them for later antique hunting.

Hard Rock Cafe Guitar Pins from the ones I've been to.

[Verrain]

Well I collect Magic Cards, Star Trek cards, and Babylon % cards though none as actively as I used to.

I have a collection of Anaimaniacs merchdise including:

Yakko and Dot pillows (Still need Wakko)
Three figurines of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot holding hearts from valentines chocoloates
Every Happy Meal toy made during that promotion
Most of their episodes on tape
Pinky and Brain floppy disks
Pinky and the Brain puzzle.
Dot keychain

I am lookinng to expand. :)

[Johnny L.A.]

My SO has a C&R licence & collects exotic firearms...mostly automatics. He's a real buff on history in general, & rare firearms in particular. That is not a cheap hobby...!
Tell me about it! I ordered a Shiloh Sharps 1874 several years ago. It took a year after I ordered it for it to be delivered. I could have picked up an Italian copy for about half the price, but I liked the idea of owning an "official" copy of the famous rifle that was hand-made. So after waiting a year, I had to fork over $1,500... and I was flat broke at the time! Ow! My aching credit card! I still haven't fired it or even put a round in the chamber. It really is a beautiful piece.

[Eliahna]

My SO collects old ("antique") computers. See http://www.unnamedpcmuseum.com

I collect fish. Much like the story of the aunt with owls, I like fishy knick-knacks, and had a couple, so now every single person I know buys me fish stuff for birthdays and Christmases. Consider yourself warned, Pammipoo. :)

[A Friend of the Devil]

I collect cartridges. I've let it slide for a few years (too much other stuff going on), but I have a fairly sizable collection. Most is displayed in 3 old printer's type trays, velvet-backed and glass-fronted, hanging on the wall. My particular areas of interest are the pre-1920's, with emphasis on the early rimfires and the British big game period.

fscinating hobby.

[even sven]

As a child, I collected snowglobes from places where it doesn't snow. It all began with a Sacramento snow globe, and it grew from there.

I have a thrift store art museum. My house is filled with original art. How many college kids do you know with oil paintings over their toilet? I pick them up for two or three bucks a piece. I kind of like the anonyimity involved. Some of my pieces are really compelling. Others (like those assigned to the bathroom) are somewhat less pleasing.

[Feynn]

I have a fairly large comic book collection, most of which were acquired in the early eighties. Many are worth quite a bit, having been read once and then packed away in sleeves.

My current love (besides Lola) is fountain pens, one cannot help but appreciate the workmanship that goes into a well made pen. They are the only pens worth writing with.

[zensi]

Cocktail shakers. I don't drink, yet am completely obsessed.
Frogs. Unfortunately, I started this collection around the age of 10, and it has followed me. How do you explain to your Great Great Grandmother that you stopped collecting the little green guys years ago?
Classic Punk Records. I have over 250. It sucks to move these. They're fragile and they weigh a ton.
Fabric. I love sewing, so I pick up random scraps of fabric all the time.
Purses and Handbags. One for every outfit, and a few to spare.

[Annie-Xmas]

Andrew Lloyd Webber cast CDS. Over 500 in 18 different languages. Such rare items as the Russian Jesus Christ Superstar, Hebrew Joseph, Danish Evita, Norwegian CATS, Mexican Starlight Express, all THREE Japanese Phantom of the Opera CDS, all 3 German Sunset Boulevard CD-singles, songs in Hindi and Finnish, and a lot of other stuff.

I am looking for the Norwegian Tell Me on a Sunday and the Japanese Phantom CD-single if anyone happens to have them.

[AbbySthrnAccent]

Antique bookmarks, well it used to be a collection. I had about a dozen. Four of them were true antiques, the rest were old, but not antique, or they were unusual in some way. One my brother sent to me from Japan when he was working there. Sadly, they were stolen when our first home was broken into. I have two left. They were being used and not in the shadow box that was stolen. The two I have left weren't 'real' antiques. My mom had said when she gave them to me that she knew they were imitations when she bought them, but she wanted to get some I would use instead of just admire. Someday I'll have a collection again.

Using a post-it note for a bookmark today,
Abby

[Studi]

Single serving sugar packets...like the types you see in restaurants, all over.

My international collection contains over 500 unique packages.

Studi

[Miller]

Movie stubs. The ones with the name of the movie printed on it. I've got close to a hundred in a drawer somewhere, but only eight in my current stack, three of them for the same movie. Been a bad year for Hollywood so far.

[Arden Ranger]

-Scatter boxes. Those small boxes that really have no useful purpose except maybe to hold a few pieces of jewlery. I have about a dozen at the moment. Among them are silver, alabaster, a woven straw one from Russia, a little wooden treasure chest and a brocade covered one.

-Books on Egyptian history, even the weird stuff with little or no basis in fact. My oldest one is from 1918.

-Not intentional, but just seemed to happen with the classes I was taking, books on Human Sexuality. Not text books, but not those silly Cosmo type books either. Well researched texts. I have almost 2 dozen in two years.

-I used to collect unicorns, but my daughter slowly took that one over, as well as the dolphin collection.

- Madame Alexander (http://www.twodaydreamers.com/) dolls. I have about 30. Not the newer ones that they started making after Madame herself died, but the ones the company produced when she was alive and are now retired or impossible to get. They're worth a small fortune at the moment, which is why they reside, carefully packed away, at my mother's house so no one plays with them.

[Nocturne]

I have the world's largest collection of sea shells. You can see my collection on the beaches of the world.


(Okay, so I stole that quote. I really do collect stuff. Like dust. And concert tickets.)

[straykat23]

I have a collection of Yixing teapots, about twenty or so, but have called a halt to the collection (they're a collection rather than an obsession!) To see what they look like and to read a very short history, check out this eBay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1247665035

The eBay item shown is actually too bright - I prefer the purple/gray pot

Also collect Xing warrior reproductions -- have about eight of them. There are about 7000 warriors in Xing, China, but I doubt that I'll collect more than twenty. Am going to China next year and hope to buy a few at the Xian site. I have one that is about three feet tall outside my front door (a General) and a few smaller and lesser warriors and a horse scattered around. You can view these guys at the following site:

http://www.unc.edu/courses/hist033/terracotta_warrior.htm

I don't really collect books; I amass them. When they fill the bookcases (about 1000 books) I have a first-come/first-served giveaway for people that I work with. Those that aren't selected, I donate. I swap mysteries at a used bookstore.

I used to collect more but after hearing George Carlin's take on "Stuff" I've become more selective. Only collect things I genuinely love.

[Zenster]

I left out the several hundred matchbooks in an old institutional size Folger's Coffee tin.

[kinoons]

I collect toy ambulances

[R3nergy8]

I collect clocks. they all run too (spend a fortune on batteries though!) my favorites are my kittycat clock ('member those) and my backwards running clocks.I also have a s**t load of Mad Magazines that I seem incapable of getting rid of,oh this is getting embarrassing, I'd better go...

[urban1]

1950s science fiction movies

Old software (DOS 1.1, for instance. I haven't been able to find 1.0)

[Kepi]

I collect road/street maps, especially old ones from the 40s and 50s before the Interstate System came to be.

My SO collects old postcards, especially the kind that were printed on linen card stock during the 30s, 40s, and 50s. He also collects almost anything that is Fort Worth related (i.e., books about Fort Worth, vintage promotional items from Fort Worth businesses, etc.) because he grew up here.

[GingerOfTheNorth]

Antique sewing machines. Currently residing with my ex-SO approximately 3500 KM from here.

Last time I looked, I had 7 old cast iron ones, from the 1800s. Singers, and a Minnesota. Beautiful gold paint decoration on a couple of the singers.

[Santos L Halper]

I've collected way too many things over the years (it must have something to do with my generally obsessive compulsive nature): stamps, coins, comic books, action figures, toys, animation art, autographs and probably a few more things that have slipped my mind. I've still got the residue of many of my collections littering my apartment. I also have loads of stuff that I've acquired: books, compact discs and videos.

My major mania for the last several years has been collecting toy Mazda Miatas. I've got 300 different ones so far. Everything from slot cars and model kits to pedal cars and radio controlled versions. I'm always looking through stores or searching the 'net for new ones, as well as trading with people around the world. I've gotten them from England, Japan, Holland, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia and elsewhere.

My collection's even got it's own web site: http://www.toymiata.com

Eric

[schief2]

I have nothing to add here...I just wanted to remark on how much I'm kicking myself for not signing up as Santos L Halper myself. What a great username...it's what I register all my software as, instead of my real name. ;)

Bonus points to anyone who can name what it's from.

[delphica]

The books seem to reproduce themselves, I shelve 2 and I swear there's 12 by morning. The books I actively collect are girls' series books, including Maida, Beany Malone, the Outdoor Girls, Penny Parrish, Little Colonel, Chalet School, etc.

Other collections:

Pink teacups and saucers

Chewbacca Star Wars stuff. I can't really afford to be a serious SW collector, so I limit myself to Chewbacca.

Christmas tree ornaments -- one from every vacation destination

Halloween decorations that depict black cats

Charms for my charm bracelet. This is another vacation themed collection, each charm is from somewhere I visited, and has some link to the city.

Maps of New York State, or places in New York State.

Buffalo Sabres stuff with the cool old logo, not the lame new logo. Likewise, Buffalo Bills stuff with the cool old logo, the rather unintimidating standing still buffalo. If I could find more stuff with the Buffalo Braves logo, I would collect that as well.

[Santos L Halper]

Originally posted by schief2
Bonus points to anyone who can name what it's from.

Ooh, I know, I know! But, I guess I'm not allowed to compete, huh? :)

Eric

[Zenster]

Originally posted by schief2

I have nothing to add here...I just wanted to remark on how much I'm kicking myself for not signing up as Santos L Halper myself. What a great username...it's what I register all my software as, instead of my real name. ;)

Bonus points to anyone who can name what it's from.


What name is Bart Simpson's credit card issued to?

[schief2]

[Alex Trebek]Correct! Zenster, you have control of the board...[/Alex Trebek]

[R3nergy8]

I once new a couple who collected, of all things, beer and whiskey bottles. Not sure if they drank the contents of such, but their home was filled with what seemed like thousands of these bottles,from all over the world!!! I remember the first time I saw it I just stared in open mouthed amazement.

[MovieMogul]

Miller reminded me that I too collect my movie stubs (every one since I entered college in 1988). Doesn't matter if they've got the movie name or are just the little colored stock. Never counted but they reside in a rather large (gallon?) jar, probably about 2/3 full.