So, What Do You Collect?

And thanks to you every time I see a lost glove I wish I had a camera with me. I’ve seen tons of them. I’ll be on vacation next week so I’ll keep my eye out.

I collect Indiana Jones stuff. I’ve got way too much crap. I’m thinking on getting rid of a lot of it. I have kids pajamas, kites, books, videos, action figures. I ended up getting tired of getting it and haven’t even gotten the last of the newer action figures that came out. I’m thinking on only keeping about half of the stuff, if that, mostly the books, figures, and Lego.

I used to collect CDs as well, I have 600 or so, but since a lot of the stores have shut down it’s harder to find newer music, plus with kids I just don’t get the chance to really listen to my own music much.

Recently I’ve been getting books on the history and genealogy of western Maryland, especially Frederick county since that’s where a good amount of my family is from. I’ve already got 30-40 books, and I’d get more if I had the money.

Active current collections:

Laserdiscs and DVDs. There are a few sub-categories which receive special attention: I’m collecting all of the Warner Peanuts DVDs as they come out, collect Criterion Colection releases in both formats, and have lately been snapping up promotional and industrial-use laserdiscs.

Classic video games, with a focus on Atari 2600 and Odyssey 2, and I still want to branch into Vectrex. I also collect PlayStation (1) releases.

Tron merchandise. I’m a happy boy since the new movie comes out this year… more merchandise!

I also have lots of books (a few thousand) and CDs (a few hundred) but don’t consider myself a collector of either, which (to me) implies methodical acquisition.

Former:

Stamps (from age 4 to 12 or so, got rid of them eventually).
Comic books (from age 6 to 25, still have them). I eventually specialized in Golden Age and promotional comics.
Video games (from 6 to 28, still have a portion). I used to stay current with system releases, and had nearly complete collections of titles for more than a dozen systems, but stopped buying with the demise of the Dreamcast. Outside of the above mentioned 2600, Odyssey 2, and PS1, I have no real interest in any of the stuff I still have.
Retro computers (from 12 to 28, got rid of most). I had a pretty impressive array of machines, from an IMSAI S-100 machine to an Amiga 3000, but they’re too much of a pain to set up and maintain, and took up too much space. I kept a few complete systems (Commodore 128, Atari 800xl, TI 99/4a), tossed most of the rest, and I think I’ll be getting rid of the few I kept pretty soon.

Once you start seeing them, you can’t stop - it’s like they’re all waving “coo-ee! look at me!”

Silk blouses, some bought, but mostly from thrift stores. They have to be in very good condition, have some kind of style as far as cut and trim (not just another generic shirt) and fit well, of course. I have about three dozen in various colors and styles. I also have quite a stash of silk scarves collected over the years and have almost a hundred of them.

My big collection is horse statues. Mainly from the Breyer and Peter Stone companies, but I also have a fer expensive artist resins and some porcelains & chinas. But I am picky… I have to like the general conformation & position of the horse. At this time I have about 450, ranging from a tiny foal less than an inch tall to a big Appaloosa about 2 feet tall.

I also collect dog statues of all breeds but with an emphasis on Gordon Setters and Papillons.

And meerkats. I have about 40 stuffed and statues of meerkats.

I collect Mighty Muggs, books, graphic novels, video games and figures (I have a nearly complete set of FVIII dolls, for example).

Ex-girlfriends and bad relationship experiences.

Casino “frequent gambler” cards (put it in a slot machine and it totes up rewards of varying kinds, depending on how much you shovel into the slot machine)

Railroad passes and commuter rail tickets, especially from the old Pacific Elerctric.

Military insignia, especially US Army “Regimental crests”, which are beautiful little cloissone pins

HO scale railroad cars from model railroading conventions

And books. Actually, it would be more accurate to say I accumulate books.

Brooches I have over 4000 of them all different. Been collecting them ever since I saw an woman’s collection on her wall when I was 5.
Also Mystery novels I have about 3000.

Various small objects from my travels - they might not make a real “collection” of anything, it’s more like a wunderkammer, I suppose.
Amongst my priced possessions are

  • shards of ancient pottery from Mohenjo Daro (there’s lots and lots of the stuff basically just lying around and noone to collect or care for it, so …),
  • a blue tile from the dome of the Masjed-e Shah in Esfahan (they were renovating the dome so a great big pile of tiles was lying on the ground behind the mosque. I asked the workers, and nobody minded me taking a small tile - I guess they were throwing it away)
  • a carved Kapala that I bought in Nepal years ago. It’s very pretty and lined with silver inside.

Mostly it’s just objects without any real value - like small handmade Bengali toys, funny hats from Kyrgyzstan, a nice seashell from the Andaman islands etc.

Words.

You used to have that as your signature. I remember that, and I would see gloves in the wild, as it were, and I would wonder if that “magnetout*” guy still cared for them.

*Ok, so I wouldn’t think “magnet out” but, I felt like I couldn’t remember your name exactly.

[Probably asked you that from the older thread]

First hand in the field, or archival research?

Refrigerator magnets from places I’ve been.

Casino chips.

Episodes of MST3K. Not technically collectible, since all I have to do is go to a website & click a series of buttons to get the complete set…but still, I’m slowly trending that way.

Knives. Oh, I’m not a real collector, like some friends of mine, but I do have many, many more knives than would be dictated by actual need. :smiley:

My dad and I used to collect pocket knives. He had quite a number of the knives made between WW1 and WW2 by Remington and Winchester, who converted some of their manufacturing capacity to knives when the war need for rifles dissipated…

Knives are just fascinating things - tons of art to the science of knife design…

I collect:

  1. comic books
  2. “Cthulhu Mythos” and H. P. Lovecraft related books (plus I have a couple of Cthulhu plush toys)
  3. Medieval weapons (replicas)
  4. books in general
  5. “superheroine-in-peril” art, commissioned from many different artists

Books and movies about Vikings (not the football team)

Mid-Century Scandanavian jewelry

Roseville pottery, mostly Rosecraft and Pinecone patterns.

I have a small collection of miniature clocks in various shapes, (dog, cat, rocking chair, camera, airplane, egg.) It used to be fun seeking them out, but now they’re so overly produced, I’ve lost interest.

I also have a collection of vintage metal serving trays that I use as wall decor in every room of my house.
Most are made by Daher. Here’s some on Ebay

They were mass produced in England in the 70s. But there are some earlier ones from Holland that I love and only have a couple of.

I have a small collection of signed Brian Froud prints and a couple of first editions of books of his art. TheElf collects green man, Pan and dragon art, but he is pretty picky, and we both keep on he lookout for unusual faerie art. I don’t consider my yarn and beads to be a collection, because I plan on using them, but I do like to have pretty yarn and beads around just to covet.