I sort of collect cigars.
It’s sort of like a collection in that I like to seek out different ones that I haven’t tried before, but it’s not really a collection since I do eventually smoke them. They usually sit in my humidor for a year or two first, though.
Does that count?
Awesome! Reminds me way too much of a plate in The Epic of Man that my sisters and I used to call The Scary Thing, because – guess what! – it scared us to death.
Queen Bruin, here’s the ocarina.
And, just for shits-n-giggles, here’s the weird plastic cat with breasts.
(Nice dust and cobwebs in both pics, no?!??)
That ocarina is awesome! (And I have the same Puss in Boots toy too!)
Another cat figurine collecter here.
One of my favourites is a little black walking cat toy that I’ve had since I was little.
I also collect the Red Rose tea figurines (also known as the Wade Whimisies). I almost have to complete nursery set.
Other collections come and go.
Thimbles and owls (not live ones)
I have upwards of 300 thimbles all displayed in glass fronted cases.
Made of: porcelain/wood/metal/glass…I have one made of solid gold and a couple of silver ones.
I’ve got about 60 owls and my faves are the collection of 12 hand carved and painted that I picked up in Kenya. They range from daddy owl down to bably owlets
Well, I don’t “collect” comic books - I read them - but after I’m done reading them I’ve been known to put them in bags with backing boards and stow them in specially designed boxes in the closet of my spare room :).
I have 7 “long boxes” full of comics, plus ~50 graphic novels. I check out most of my comics from the library anymore, though.
My favorite “piece” is the Fantastic Four #48 my best friend got me for my birthday last year.
I collect coins. The most valuable is an 1854 $3 “indian princess” gold piece, in nearly uncirculated condition. But my favorite is a 1914D Lincoln cent in “very fine” condition, which I miraculously found in a parking lot, several years ago.
I also collect stones from places I’ve visited. My favorite is a beautiful pock-marked stone from a beach on the island of Guadeloupe, where I watched a total solar eclipse in February, 1998.
I don’t collect, but evidently I am a “collector facilitator” or perhaps a “collector enabler.”
I was walking out of work with two beautiful tin moon cake boxes under my arm. I ran into my friend and offered him a box. He asked: “what am I gonna do with this ?” I answered: “give it to your wife, some chicks really like them.”
I had been taking the boxes home to give them to my wife who gives them to a friend of hers who really likes them. They are normally seized by the agricultural inspectors where I work because the moon cakes inside have whole eggs in them and are coming from a bird flu country. They incinerate the moon cakes and throw away the boxes unless anyone wants them.
The next day my friend hunted me down and said I had gotten him into a lot of trouble with his wife. It turns out that his wife really likes the beautiful moon cake boxes (and she only saw one) and because my friend works in an office and doesn’t have contact with the agricultural inspectors, he has no way of getting more of the tin boxes. It’s like his wife has taken her first whiff of an extremely addictive drug and now he has to find a way to support her habit.
I went and told the agricultural inspectors of my friend’s problem and they will probably give him many many of the tin boxes to take home to his wife. I hope.
I collect vintage postcards.
I don’t have a lot of money for this hobby so I don’t have a lot of stuff yet, but I have some focuses of interest. The one I have the most of are picture postcards of the Edwardian actress Isabel Jay, who posed for about 400 postcards during her career. I especially collect pictures of her with her young daughter Cecilia, because Isabel herself is the appearance model for a character in one of my stories, and Cecilia is the appearance model for her daughter.
If you haven’t read them already, you might enjoy “The Gallery of Regrettable Food” and “Gastroanomolies,” both books by James Lileks. Both are full of photos and descriptions of American dishes from some less culinarily advanced eras. A lot of the recipes were developed in concert with advertising for products that have now vanished.
Lileks’ writing is sometimes over the top, and he never includes the actual recipes (which annoys the hell out of me - I want to know what is actually in some of the concoctions he describes and reproduces photos of) but for the most part his sarcastic deconstruction of idiocies from the 1940s to 1960s is quite entertaining.
Thanks for the tip. I’m actually quite familiar with Lilek’s books and site, since it is most definitely up my alley.
In fact, I have a couple of the books he mocks in my collection, if you’re interested in getting some recipes. How about a nice frosted sandwich loaf? Gloriously inedible Jell-O salad with floating unidentified bits? Cocktail weinies in secret sauce (also known as ketchup and grape jelly)? Mmmmm. 
I collect faeries (art, statues, etc), zodiac items, and several books on mythology/folklore/fantasy creatures. But my most prized collection is my Barbie & Ken as King Arthur & Guinevere and Merlin & Morgan Le Fey and also an astrolgy pendent. Oh, and my Brian Froud Faerie cards.
Ah, I thought they were the natural accompaniment to kimonos, serving as “pockets.”
I collect trench art.
Some of my favorites are crucifix’s from WW1 and WW2 and a letter opener made from a piece of shrapnel from an artillery shell. My favorite is a flower vase made from an 8mm shell casing holding flowers made of brass and aluminum.
I can’t imagine being in the middle of a war and having the patience or the steady hand it took to create it.
Well, ladies have longer sleeves and those are usually used as pockets for small lightweight stuff. Otherwise I carry a small purse.
I collect trinket boxes. I have a large collection of many types, from about 60 different countries. A subset of the collection is of boxes made from semi-precious stones. Here is a grouping of some of my favorites, with the rhodonite box (pink) being my current favorite. (The others in the picture are lapis, marble, jade and tiger’s eye.)
I also collect glass birds and small brass bells. You could also say I collect houseplants, since I have 250+ of those.
Obsessive? Who, me? 
Boys. I’m still deciding. 
I’m trying to think of what I’ve had the most of… what might constitute a “collection”.
It’s probably either wives or children.
Old hand tools.
Hammers, saws, block planes, wooden pullys, old machinist measuring tools and the like.
I have a workbench in my store where I restore and repair old brass lamps as a side buisness. My old oak toolbox with brass hardware draws a lot of comments from the customers.
On my desk in my store I have a lot of antique brass and gilt desk accessories. Letter tray, letter opener, bookends (one refinished and polished and one not so I can show before and after), a bankers lamp, ink well and blotter, stamp holder, ashtray, letter holder, a perpetual calendar, a carrage clock, and a solid brass candlestick telephone with the original bakelite earpiece that hangs on the side cradle.
The bankers lamp has a rolled brass shade, not glass it’s very cool. But my favorite is the stapler from the 20’s. It has a spool of brass wire that bends and cuts off each staple one at a time.
