Around Casa Silenus, there are displayed several collections I’ve amassed over the years. Since I proposed in front of the Buddha at the Huntington Library, the wife has started finding little Buddhas wherever we travel. We have a hot sauce collection that also started on our travels together. I still collect Mausers, and won’t be happy until I have an example from every country and every caliber ever issued. We also seem to be collecting cats lately, but that is strictly an accident.
So, what do you collect, and how did you get started?
Shot glasses. Or as Disney likes to call them, toothpick holders.
My SIL had a collection, and mrs.gnu and I figured it’s a cheap and plentiful souvenir, and by using them on a rotational basis, we’re constantly reminded of our travels.
As a child I collected seagul figurines; somehow it made sense at the time. (“Mine! Mine!”)
I don’t do that anymore, but I do also collect animated movies on DVD.
Columbus Cottonmouths hockey stuff.
Carousel horses.
Cigarette lighters (I have them very nicely mounted in shadowboxes)
Cats - the collection of real ones stopped at 8, but I haven’t counted the stuffed ones lately.
Action figures – these days I’ve scaled back a lot, but I still enjoy the occasional Justice League Unlimited figures from Mattel, since they are nice and cheap and easily available and lots of fun. I am far pickier on higher-ticket items such as DC Direct, Buffy, and Angel figures, which usually retail for $15 each (although I rarely pay that much for them). With those lines, I only buy an “iconic” version of my favorite characters, as opposed to collecting them all.
Comic books – I’ve stopped collecting monthly single issues cold turkey, and now I wait for the nice trade paperbacks (collected editions) to come out.
DVDs and CDs – only of movies and bands I really really love, that I will watch and listen to multiple times in order to get my money’s worth.
Sauces, spices, seasonings – anything that looks delicious or cool goes in the pantry or the fridge, no matter how exotic. Yes, I do actually use them!
Actually, lately I’ve been collecting corks from wine bottles. I’ve seen them turned into nice shadow box designs, and if I get enough of them before I get tired of collecting them I’d like to make something from them.
I’m not a wino or anything, but I do buy my favorite “two buck Chuck” by the case. So the corks are piling up.
Although, not out of an attempt to get a complete set, like some do. I collect them (in the sense of “accumulate”) because I actively play the game, and you gotta have the cards to play the game. I’m not totally sure how many I have, but packed tightly in boxes, they take up about 2 ft[sup]3[/sup] of space.
Interestingly, I used to be an avid collecter of all kinds of things: comic books, knick knacks, movies, books. But I appear to have entered into a non-packrat stage of my life. I no longer have any desire for a collection of things that I don’t really need. I’ve even whittled down my book and DVD collections by giving away the ones I’m unlikely to read or watch soon as gifts.
Decorative tins, mostly with food product associations. My BIL has been giving me ceramic Basset Hounds (We have a real one). But so far, there’s only two, so it isn’t technically a collection yet. Unless you count the real dog.
Records and CDs. Currently at near 4800 albums, 11,000 singles. There are individual collections inside each, for instance, original pressings, withdrawn records and covers, stereo and mono mixes of the same song where one is different from the other, imported pressings, radio promo records, colored vinyl and picture discs, misprints, printing variations, pirate pressings, live and studio bootlegs, different mastering jobs by different engineers (on labels such as Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and Dunhill Compact Classics, which are audiophile versions).
The Beatles made twelve albums. I have over 600 titles by them. Anyplace they ever were where a tape machine was running and the tape became available by some means, I have an example. Same for Jimi Hendrix. If you were given to drool over unbelievably rare recordings, and you came to look at my collection, you’d have to carry a bucket!
