# On Stuff: Collections and Tools and what Amounts Matter to You **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845 "2015-01-03T12:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845/21 "2015-01-04T21:33:30Z")
fisha, check your PM’s. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845/22 "2015-01-04T22:22:39Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > If you love the magazine it’s too bad you can’t come to Kansas. I’d give anyone who really wanted the collection intact. Did I mention they are boxed in chronological order, and each issue is in a slip cover? I’ve got a pal in Lawrence who would front for me… But… Alas, no: I don’t have room for the collection I have. (My brother-in-law hosts most of it for me.) I envy whomever you give the collection to. (Have you considered a museum or library, somewhere that the material can be curated, protected, preserved, catalogued, etc.? Here in San Diego, there is a lovely Regional Park Visitors Center that has a huge National Geographic collection – but it pales in comparison to yours!) Anyway, wow, my hat is off to you. Among everything else, collecting is fun! ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845/23 "2015-01-05T19:23:05Z")
I collect crystal figurines; specifically, I’m a [Swarovski](http://www.swarovski.com/) snob. I’ve been collecting for, oh, about 26 years now (I’m 43). I think it’s the girliest thing about me. It’s never been about quantity: a piece has to mean something to me, even if it just amuses me (e.g., in addition to the ducklings being totally adorable, the [duck family](http://www.swarovski.com/Web_US/en/5004695/product/Ducks_(Set_of_4).html) I recently bought reminds me of the geese that are _everywhere_ around here every spring). Some of my pieces were gifts, but most I bought myself. The larger figurines can be quite expensive, so I tend to only get one or two a year. My newest figurine is this amazing [butterfly](http://www.swarovski.com/Web_US/en/1183940/product/Butterfly.html), which I still can’t believe my best friends gave me on my birthday. 🙂 Since 2008 I’ve also collected the annual Swarovski snowflake ornaments: somehow I missed 2011, but someday I’ll buy it on eBay or something. [Here is this year’s](http://www.swarovski.com/Web_US/en/5059026/product/Christmas_Ornament,_Annual_Edition_2014.html). I will break from Swarovski on special occasions, like for the crystal space shuttle I got at the Kennedy Space Center in late January 2003. Tragically, a week later the Columbia exploded: I brought the crystal shuttle into work and kept it on my desk for a while, as a kind of tribute. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845/24 "2015-01-05T19:48:37Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > For me it is completeness. I have a huge collection of the National Geographic magazine. I have every single issue from 1914 to the present, and every map that went in them. > > Now I am trying to find a new home for them, as I need to move them out of my mother’s attic and don’t have room for them myself. You could sell them on eBay, perhaps split up by years or decades… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-stuff-collections-and-tools-and-what-amounts-matter-to-you/708845.md?page=1)