I have a terrible addiction. I collect things. To make matter worse, so does my wife. Our house is literally packed to the rafters with things we collect. My wife collects Mickey Mouse and Disney items, mice, cats, and giraffes. Together we collect old fashioned restaurant and food signs and items.
For me it started innocently enough, as a fan of auto racing, I began collecting diecast cars depicting racecars in the early 80’s. The market took off in the late 80’s and by the mid 90’s things were out of control. The market has cooled and a few companies still supply the market. Over that time I have collected over 5000 NASCAR and other racing diecast. Add the other racing items and the collection has over 10,000 items. Most of it now takes up about 1/3 of a two car garage.
Just before my mother died, she bought me a couple of skunk items, a change dish and small figurine. Since that time my skunk collection has grown to over 300 items. Someone said they collect Wile E. Coyote, I have about 75 Pepe Lepew items.
But wait, there’s more. Along the NASCAR diecast, I began collectin diecast of American muscle cars and other American cars. I have over 300 of them now, everything from an AMC Gremlin to a Pontiac GTO. Just today I picked up a Hemi Cuda and a Dodge Super Bee at a garage sale.
About 15 years ago I bought a big box of Crayola crayons at a garage sale. Over the years I have bought other Crayola items and added them to the box. About a year ago, I found a lot of Ebay sellers selling colors of crayons I have never heard of. I now have over 10,000 Crayola crayons in 643 unique colors. Along with all the crayons comes all the containers the crayons come in, thats about 100 different items from a crate of 175 crayons to restaurant packs of 3 crayons. My oldest set is a box of 8 Rubens Crayons made by Binney and Smith in 1921. Mint crayons in a mint box, paid $114 for them. Crazy.
Remember I said I’m a collector? Yep, I’m not done yet. Do you know that there have been over 200 different versions of Monopoly made over the years? Also, the tokens in the regular game have changed too. The next time I play a game of Monopoly, I will have a choice of over 400 different tokens available to use. Everything from original 1936 first edition Monopoly, WWII paper and chalkware, up to todays current tokens. Plus the tokens from at least 50 other versions of Monopoly. Plus Johnny Lightning produced a series of diecast cars that came with tokens and I have them all.
And one last thing, I only have about a dozen items in this collection, it’s more if I stumble across it I’ll buy it, buy I don’t search it out. There are two different companies that make automotive replacement parts, one is mostly filters used on vehicles and such, the other manufactures parts for rebuilding engines such as piston rings and bearings. The names of the companies is also my last name so when I find something from the companies at a garage sale or antique store, I’ll buy it. Guess I don’t collect anything strange, but I do like to collect.
Some of it is short, but most of it is 5, 6 inches long or longer. It’s not really fine, not thick, I’d call it medium and a little coarse. Plies? Is that the doubling?
