pez dispensers (i have around 90), anything having to do with velma from “scooby doo,” and i have old collections of stuff like shells and rocks.
Pencils. Currently, my favorite is from the Newseum in Arlington VA. Since I also use them when recording data, I’ve got a good excuse to stop at the gift shop.
I also collect anything corvid. Statues, pins, prints, and books, especially children’s books. My favorite is Aldous Huxley’s “The Crows of Pearblossom.” It’s a wonderful story about a married crow couple, trying to have kids, but Mr Snake always eats their eggs. Mr Crow foils him by planting fake clay eggs, which causes Mr Snake to writhe in pain after eating them. He ends up stretched taut between branches and Mrs Crow uses him as a clothesline to hang baby crow diapers. Heh.
Fridge magnets of places I’ve been.
**Souvenier spoons ** ( I stopped a few years ago when I realized I never wanted to display them on a rack. I hang mine on the Xmas tree, always a conversation peice.)
Tea pots. Nothing special. Just what catches my eye at antique places. My favorite is a an ugly brown shell teapot that says “florida” on it. Paid .25 for it at a garage sale.
**Matches ** of places I’ve been and places my friends have gone. don’t even think of striking one of these matches if the power goes out. Cheap and easy to pack.
**Children’s books ** nothing in particular, just lots of them.
** Beer posters ** Not really a collector. I stole them from a brew-ha-ha beer fest years ago and cannot bear to part with them. Great art work.
**Movie Posters ** Left over from my days working in a video store. Cannot bear to part with them.
**Evening Bags ** All are from my mom, but these things are just so cool and conversation peices for the nights I go out hobnobbing with the Queen.
My partner and I collect old postcards, especially those from the 1930s-1950s. We focus on cards from our hometown, Fort Worth, and from other places that have some significance to us (Texas cities such as Galveston, Lubbock, Dallas; places along old Route 66; Pittsburgh). Right now our collection numbers around 1000 cards.
I also have a collection of snowdomes from different places I’ve visited, but they are packed away somewhere in a box from my last move. And like Shirley, I have a collection of about 50 or so movie posters left over from my days of working in a movie theater.
Depictions of snakes/snake figurines–have to be realistic, not cutesy.
Books–lots of children’s, esp. fairytales.
Boxes–small, decorative type.
Also, gymnastics memorabilia & videotapes.