Bladed weapons coins and rocks. Haven’t gotten anything new in years, though.
Okay, this is where I publicly admit that I have a problem.
I collect dollar bills. I collect change too and have a number of plastic, 5 gallon Deer Park water bottles filled with coins, but I consider that normal. I’ve been collecting singles since I was in my late teens. Basically, if ever I have occasion to break a denomination during a purchase, say a twenty or a ten, whatever singles result are brought home and added to an open collection of other singles. When I get 100 singles, I sort them by serial number and rubberband them into a small stack. 5 small stacks get resorted and re-rubberbanded together into a $500 stack. I’m 50 now, so I’ve been doing this a long time. I collect without really thinking about it, and experience a kind of inner contentment during the sorting process. I agree with my wife, however, that I have way too much money in the house at this point, all in singles, and rubberbanded in an admittedly insane number of $500 stacks.
Yes, I know I could be earning interest on that money, and understand that even with interest rates as ridiculously abysmal as they currently are, anything I earn would be better than my current zero. And yes, yes, I’d be very upset if my house were ever broken into and the money stolen. None of this deters my…whatever this is, obsession I guess.
At first, my wife thought it was kind of cute and quirky, but after 20 years of marriage she sees it as evidence of deeper issues and it’s no longer fun, or funny, for her. I see her point, I really do, but it’s one of very few vices, if that’s even what this is, that I have.
Around 10 years ago, my wife bought a FireKing data safe for my birthday. It’s almost as tall as I am and at over 1300 pounds I’m not worried about it being stolen, but it’s reached its capacity, so I was keeping the overflow in my office until very recently when I converted it all to hundreds in preparation for our Hawaii vacation a few weeks ago (Hawaii was amazing, by the way).
On a positive note, within the last few years, the volume of my collecting has dropped off to approximately 10 percent (or less) of what it was because we’ve gotten to the point where we rarely use cash for anything anymore, even groceries. I still save every single I get but, at this point, it’s maybe $10 a month.
The way I look at it, I could have worse habits, e.g., smoking, drinking, infidelity, or even a porn addiction, but I don’t. Collecting and sorting singles is my porn addiction, and that, in my opinion, aint so bad.
Magnets and Lighthouses.
Carousel horses (minatures - I really want a full size one!)
Cats
Cottonmouths hockey stuff - game worn jerseys, sticks, bobbleheads, etc.
I collect crystal (Jamestown Gold) for some reason. I only bring them out to actually use once in a blue moon. I have spent WAY more time packing and unpacking my collection during four moves over the last 12 years then I’ve actually spent USING the crystal. I have two china cabinets full of the stuff. Eight (at least!) of every stem I’ve been able to track down (wine, water, iced tea, champagne flute, champagne saucer, brandy snifter, pilsner, liqueur, hock wine, margarita, martini, cordial, double old-fashioned, highball.) Plus the matching decanters, pitchers, flower vases, compotes, candlesticks, oil & vinegar cruets.
Even though I hardly ever use the stuff, I feel compelled to complete the set. The pieces I’m missing at this point are rare and expensive, and hardly ever available for sale, but for some reason I still want them, just for bragging rights, I guess. 
I collect crystal (Jamestown Gold) for some reason. I only bring them out to actually use once in a blue moon. I have spent WAY more time packing and unpacking my collection during four moves over the last 12 years then I’ve actually spent USING the crystal. I have two china cabinets full of the stuff. Eight (at least!) of every stem I’ve been able to track down (wine, water, iced tea, champagne flute, champagne saucer, brandy snifter, pilsner, liqueur, hock wine, margarita, martini, cordial, double old-fashioned, highball.) Plus the matching decanters, pitchers, flower vases, compotes, candlesticks, oil & vinegar cruets.
Even though I hardly ever use the stuff, I feel compelled to complete the set. The pieces I’m missing at this point are rare and expensive, and hardly ever available for sale, but for some reason I still want them, just for bragging rights, I guess.
Things I’m still buying:
kimono and related garments and accessories
books, especially drawing, art, and linguistics
toys, but just the specific ones in toylines I like (iow, I’m not a completist)
ties and bowties
handkerchiefs
Things I haven’t bought since I put my life in storage:
Thundercats everything
Silverhawks everything
Bijin dolls (aka geisha dolls)
random Japanese knickknacks
You BARBARIAN![sup]1[/sup]
Books are meant to be held. Sniffed. Paged through. Tossed against walls (OK, I don’t do that). Lost under beds and tables. Autographed, if you’re lucky enough to meet the author. Placed lovingly on shelves in an order that makes sense only to you (no LoC nonsense in my library!). Not … turned on and off.
I collect books. Including Pratchett.
I’ve been collecting Prizer-ware, too, but only because I want to use it. I could just get modern enamalled cast-iron, but I had a piece that was a wedding gift to my parents, and I liked it so much I decided to get stuff that matched instead of just getting any old thing. (I buy the white enamaled with the PA Dutch flower pattern. Just in case any of y’all have any of the baking dishes, serving platters, or dutch ovens.)
[sup]1[/sup]Just kidding.[sup]2[/sup]
[sup]2[/sup]Mostly. 
This is interesting. Any idea how much you got total? Could be enough to retire 
Balance, if you ever come across a decent Irish wooden keyed flute for a great price let me know.
At one point or another I’ve collected
Tinwhistles esp Copelands
old Hot Wheels from the late 60s early 70s
Carrol Shelby memorabilia
Dodge viper memorabilia
vintage snap on tools
cookbooks
Ansel Adams prints ( I’m down to 3 now)
pocket knives esp Benchmade and Kershaw
HK P7 pistols - long gone but I’ve owned every variant ever made.
comic books
toys from the 80’s
Universal Monsters
Bats (the animals, not the sports equipment)
Light Emitting Diodes
Obsolete Computers
Vacuum Tubes
Walking Sticks
Slide Rules
I firmly believe that bumper sticker “He who dies with the most toys shall rise again and live forever”
I collect mountain passes and robots.
There’s 25 (paved) roads in Colorado that go over mountain passes greater than 10,000 feet. Add Mount Evans and Grand Mesa to that and there’s 27. I’ve ridden my motorcycle over about 80% of them and I get a picture at the top of each one.
I also have a collection of movie & TV robots (no cyborgs, please). It’s not completely comprehensive ( I have no Gundams, for example, but don’t really want them). These are robots that important to my viewing past.
I know exactly how much I have, to the dollar, 
and no, it’s no where near enough to retire on.
Sports trading cards… collected them since I was a kid… mostly baseball and then primarily Yankee greats.
I am, however, ten short of the 79/80 Topps NHL set (Wayne Gretzky’s rookie year) and actively trying to complete it.
SF books and magazines. I have about 2650 books, and am still indexing the magazines. Up to almost 2600, and only at F&SF from 1989.
I used to kind of collect jigsaw puzzles, but they take up too much space and I’m getting rid of them except for a few favorites and pre-Hallmark Springboks.
do you mean like slime molds …i tried to keep a slime mold alive in a jar once …i didn’t do a good job and it died …
i love it ~
- Not actively anymore, but I have a collection of First Edition books
- Guitars - mostly to play, but some are vintage and have value
Have plenty of other “collectibles” in the house since my parents are antique dealers, but no specific collections of this other stuff…
Bibles in different languages
First edition books.
Yarn - althought his one does get used eventually, if I see a good sale I’ll just rack up colors I like until they call out to me.
do you have a hawaiian bible??