Why do folks collect what?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I collect old playing cards. I suspect by now I have close to 300 decks. I have no idea how I got started doing it, but I’ve continued to collect for interesting designs and unusual sets.

Oldest deck: from c.1870’s, manufactured by a printer in New York State

Most unusual provenance: a set of Skat cards taken from the rucksack of a dead German soldier during WWII

Oddest combination: a set of cards produced in Israel, showing a scene in Libya

Glurge-iest: a set of cards showing 52 different teddy bears

Most valuable: a c.1950’s double-pack of Chessington & Ohio Railway cards, showing “Chessie the Cat” on the back, in mint condition (the railway cards are prized by collectors)

Goofiest: either the magnetic cards (so you can play cards outdoors and not have them be blown away) or the deck of square cards (you can have them upright on all four sides)

22

I collect books. Not books for the sake of saying “Here’s my book collection”, but because I’m a compulsive reader. Library books are fine, but I really like owning books the books I read. I also don’t like parting with them. I see each section of books as a portion of my life, reflecting my interests at the time, my thoughts, and part of the evolution of how I think (even if I disagreed with the premise of a book, my disagreement with it did make me think more about all of the whys and wherefores). I often re-read books that I really enjoyed, or pull out a book I haven’t seen in years.

I also get just a little addicted to buying used books. That may sound odd, but when I was broke, I started scouring used book stores and flea markets for books. Not that I’m rich now, but I could certainly buy books from the new bookstore if I wanted to, but prefer to buy them used. Not only are they a better price, but I really enjoy the hunt. There’s nothing like sighting a book you’ve been looking for. I guess I also like the feeling of history (although that may be slight for recent paperbacks). To know that someone else had read and enjoyed the same book before. I wonder about who used to own it, and inscriptions inside.

Yes, my collection is taking over the house. They’re stacked everywhere, and I hardly have any room left in the basement. When I do buy my own house, one of the big concerns will be making sure I have an adequate library to house my collection.

Sadly, I hardly ever get books as gifts. Everyone always claims that they don’t know which books I want, and which ones I do or do not have, even though I make Christmas lists, and specifically mention certain books when people ask me what I want.

sigh

23

I don’t know if there is something different in the minds of collectors. I do not understand the concept of collecting just to say I have it, or just something’s monetary value.

I know I really like old postage stamps. I started collecting them because I was given a stamp album when I was a kid. I look on my collection as an art collection. I only collect older stamps that were made from engraved plates. There is a lot of crap out there, but there are some truly beautiful works of art. They are just small.

24

Collecting is just something someone has taken a liking to for one reason or another. I collect comic books, for the value I hope they will one day have and for the fact that I just like comics.

The other thing I “collect” is Daffy Duck stuff. I got a small tattoo of Daffy Duck on my chest when I was in the Air Force because that’s my favorite cartoon character. Ever since I did that, my family has given my something with Daffy Duck on it for every birthday or holiday. I have T-shirts, key chains, coffee mugs, soap dispenser, a big latex Daffy Duck head, Daffy Duck videos, etc. Now my friends come over, see all the stuff in my “Daffy Room” and think I collect it, so they get me that stuff too.

The “Daffy Room” is actually the extra bedroom that I just throw all the crap in that I don’t want anywhere else.

25

I think it’s probably a bit of both reasons. We’ve been at stores where my son is getting his latest fix of Star Wars toys, he still plays with them, and he ends up standing behind older guys saying they have this one still in the box, or that one still like new, never been opened. Obviously they think those things will be worth something, SOMEDAY (they think they won’t die, in the meantime, I guess!)

But, most people get started, and they just keep doing it because they like it.

26

Since I love to cook, a significant part of my collections are devoted to kitchen related themes. Such as:

[li]Cast Iron Ware[/li]Square pans, round pans, moulded pans, trivits, griddles, flat irons, dutch ovens, muffin pans and clothing irons.

[li]Enamel Cook Ware[/li]Le Cruset and Descoware (bought for pennies on the dollar), somewhere around one hundred pieces by now. Skillets, pots, kettles, terreines and grautins. All in the uranium orange.

[li]Kitchen Gadgets[/li]The oddball little aluminum things like garlic presses (20), lemon squeezers, olive or cherry pitters, tomato, egg, mushroom and butter slicers, the little Jello molds.

[li]Cookbooks[/li]Well over a thousand of these. A copy of the Joy of Cooking that refers to prohibition. Nearly every cusine on earth is represented in the library.

[li]Spice containers and miniature tins[/li]All sorts of small containers plus a four story spice rack to hold the ones that I use for cooking.

[li]Danish crystal and glass.[/li]Stemware and art glass bottles and vases.

[li]Oddball stuff[/li]Tortilla presses, taco shell fryers, muffin pans.
Now we’ll get into the other stuff:

[li]Cigar Boxes[/li]Over ten thousand of these ranging from antique to modern.

[li]Meerschaum Pipes[/li]Unused and handcarved pipes from Turkey.

[li]Tobacco and cigarette tins.[/li]From Camel cigarette tins all the way to Pince Albert in a can.

And the weirdest thing of all is that I don’t smoke tobacco!

On to more stuff:

[li]Books[/li]Old Audel manuals that tell you how to build everything from houses to tram lines. Perry Mason, fantasy, Sci-Fi, Anne Rice, Tom Clancy all sorts of good stuff. Mostly in hard bound.

[li]Musical Instruments[/li]Flutes, guitars, electric guitars, amplifiers, saxophones and synthesizers, effects systems, and lots of others that I play for fun.

[li]Electronic Equipment[/li]Stereos, tape decks. studio equipment, short wave radios, meters, video pattern generators, oscilloscopes and test equipment, geiger counters.

[li]Tools[/li]Mostly limited to a real life tool kit that I use to repair anything from a million dollar semiconductor reactor to my own car.

As you can see, most of the stuff actually has value. I do not collect figurines or anything from the Franklin Mint. My collections have a cumulative value of somewhere around one hundred thousand dollars. I guess I’m going to have to set up a second hand store when I get older.

Let’s see someone beat this!

27

I guess one could say I collect toys. Not as a collector, but in the same way a four year old would if they got a paycheck. I have one doll, that I love and play with and change her clothes and make quilts for. I have a huge pile of stuffed animals that I know each of their names and personal histories. I sleep with them, throw them at people, set them on stuff, talk to them, etc. I have plastic figurines that I play with. I carry one with me usually, you neevr know when you will have a few moments of boredom and need a toy.

As for themed collections, Tigger and the alien from Toy story are the only constants.

28

I collect lighters.

Table lighters…disposable lighters…(only the really old ones.
And scabs…I collect scabs.

29

Collectors. Wow! There are obsessive compulsive nuts out there. Some collectors I’ve met are in it for cash alone, like the Beanie Baby craze. Parents were buying tons of Beanies for the ‘kids’, who didn’t even like the darn things!

Barbie, my, my, my! I met chunky, grim faced women at conventions who would not only kill you for a 1969 unopened Barbie, but happily screw you out of thousands for a rare edition and divorce their husbands if he protested over their 7000 piece collection taking up the spare room.

I’m an eclectic collector in that if I like it, I collect it, or at least one of it. It has to be cheap. Dirt cheap or free. I like Mickey Mouse but I’m not going to pay $1000 for one cell of his first cartoon. I have original Hires Root Beer syrup in little bottles from when you could by it to make your own soda with. (Free. Value? I dunno. It’s nice to smell now and them.) Over 20 years ago I got a Master Violet Ray and thinking it to be valuable now, discovered that there are so many around that it’s worth $25. (Not much of a gain, since I paid $5 for it way back then.)

I Have A Brownie Starmight Camera, in the box with all attachments. Value? I dunno, but with my luck, there’s a truck load of them out there and it’s probably worth only $5, which is about the original purchase price.

Then I have a brass fire cup and fork, used by Pilgrims to carry hot coals from a neighbor to their own fireplace to relight their fire. Value? I dunno, but it’s pretty when shined up. (Oh yeah, I don’t like the ‘aged’ look that collectors rave about. I clean copper and brass. I love the look of polished, reddish copper and bright gold brass.) I have a couple of original Brass pump hand extinguishers and I keep them shined up real well.

But some people drive me nuts, like those who fill their home with thousands of collections, spending gosh knows how many hundreds of thousands on them just to look at and finger. Some collectors are scary to talk to, for they live for their collections and I have no idea how they can amass enough money to buy what they seen to must have.

30

I don’t know why some people collect and others don’t. My family is a bit of a collector group (well some of us) My collection consists of:

Porcelain dolls About a doezen of them. I got most as presents (the first one I got I bought because I thought her pretty and others decided to give me more)

Coins Mostly stuff I picked up places. A couple from Thailand sent by my Uncle and Aunt when they taught there for a year. Several 50 cent peices, a few American coins, a couple of Mountie Quarters and some of the new collections sent out by the Canadian Mint. Also a few others but I can’t remember what.

Stamps Ones that caught my attention… like a few Winnie The Pooh ones a couple from Australia that type of thing.

Books Just ones I enjoyes and read… most of them are second hand and my Grandparents want me to not buy as much as well as get rid of some since ‘they take up too much space’ heck I could have waaaay more then what I do.

Um thats about all I can think of though I do have some figurines but not many. I try not to keep the cheap ones though some of them are nice… just not many. I really want to start collecting Swords and Dragons though. Maybe when I have more money. (and my own place)

31

Oh yah I forgot to tell about my Dad… he has a bunch of old cars that he played with as a kid (Matchbox I think) and they are worth about $100 each. He also has a Batmobile with Batman and Robin sitting in it. The flame moves in and out as you push it and it still moves. I can’t remember how much that one it. Then he has an Esso truck big enough for a little kid to sit and ride on. (Like under 3 type size) Its worh about $500 or so. These were all toys he played with as a kid too.

32

I collect a few different things, for different reasons. First, books–I read and reread the good ones. I’m a compulsive reader, and I read so fast that the supply of new books just doesn’t cut it.

Second, musical instruments–especially unusual ones. I collect these because I enjoy learning to play them. I have a closet full: a didjeridoo, several different bamboo flutes, harmonic flutes, ocarinas, bodhrans, and a bamboo saxophone that I made for myself.

Third (and the only real collection in the sense of the OP), pewter fantasy figurines. I have a curio cabinet full of these little things, set up in various scenes (“Have fun storming the castle” and the duel between a bard and the “Ungrateful Dead” all-skeleton rock band are my favorites). I made no real effort to collect these things; most of them were given to me over the years. I made a few of them, just to learn how to do metal casting. I think they’re neat-looking, but I can’t fathom anyone obsessing over them.

33

Why do I collect? I suspect the real reason is that I’m mildly obsessive-compulsive. As soon as I develop an interest in a subject, I want to know everything about the subject.

Example: There’s never been a major league baseball player whose name begins with the letter X. But not long ago, there was a guy in the high minors whose name was Joe Xavier. Hmm, I wondered, were there ever any other minor leaguers whose names began with X, or was he the first of those? Now I have a baseball card or picture of every known professional baseball player whose last name begins with X (four of them).

Example: I’m a comic book collector, and the author of one of the books I collect, Starman, mentioned he was going to feature an old sci-fi character called “Space Cabby” in an upcoming issue. I got curious about Space Cabby, then about DC’s sci-fi heroes in general…and now I’ve got a pretty big collection (thanks, EBay!) of DC sci-fi comics from the 50’s and 60’s.

34

My husband collects limited edition bottles of whisky. Why does he collect them? Umm… good question! It probably started out as just buying one or two, and then feeling the desire to have more. I can’t really give you an answer better than that. He loves whisky, but he’d never drink it. (He jokes he’d never be wealthy enough to open one.) Some have gone up in value quite a bit, but he’d never sell them. I know he eventually wants to have a “Scottish room” dedicated to his whisky and heirlooms (no doubt draped wall to wall in tartan with ‘Braveheart’ playing endlessly :)), but for now they remain safely stored away.

35

I have a theory about collecting. (I feel I can generalize about collectors because I’ve given a lot of thought to why my mom and I are collectors in need of a 12-step program.)

I feel that, for many collectors, collecting answers a certain anxiety that can be found at the intersection of nostalgia and control.

Take my mom*. She collects a great many different things that don’t have any apparent similarities: old phones, Val St. Lambert crystal, dolls, etc. But it occurred to me one day that she is surrounding herself–cocooning herself, even–with things that remind her of happier and safer times. When she was a child (when she lived at home under the protection of her parents) phones were black and they rang (unlike the demented tweeting of today’s phones), and of course the dolls have a obvious association. And she once spent a vacation in Belgium as the guest of an extremely wealthy family friend, and ever since she’s collected Val St. Lambert crystal: to try to recreate that experience of wealth and luxury. (I could go on, but then you would all come to know my mother better than you do now, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.)

My mother collects as a way to exert control over the physical objects that make up her surroundings.

I’m much the same way, although I’ve recently gotten a bit of a handle on it by having to reduce everything I own to what I could pack into the smallest damn car you’ve ever seen in order to move it from Chicago to Seattle. For example, I used to obsessively collect books: thousands of books, often hundreds of dollars a month on books. I loved books as physical objects; they were almost a fetishistic extension of the experience of reading. The experience of reading, of course, is often an exercise in imagining yourself in a different world. And even when it’s not–when I’m reading a book on evolutionary theory–a book can allow me to escape into my mind, away from the mundane reality I must return to when I put it down. Holding a book became associated for me with this experience, so book as fetish wasn’t really much of a leap. And my need to own rather than borrow a book was a subconscious acknowledgment of the fetish: recirculating a book that I had had such a relationship with would have been a failure to honor the intensely personal and private nature of that relationship.

But I reduced my entire library to two cartons a little over a year ago, and I’m a regular fixture at the public library. This has been a revelation for me. Suddenly the collection of books I can choose from has grown exponentially, and the strain on my budget has lifted entirely. True, I no longer have the beautiful walls of books I once had, but I do have the physical experience of holding a book whenever I’m reading it, and I have freed myself from the subconscious need to honor the fetish by owning the object that represents the experience. And though I spend just as much time reading–slipping away from the world for a time–there’s a subconscious but very real feeling of community I get from reading a library book rather than a book whose future has been reduced sitting in the dusty dark awaiting some little scrap of attention from its jealous owner.

To add to the spirit of this thread, now that I’ve addressed the letter of the OP, I currently collect:[list=A][li]funky flowerpots, with a focus on unusual hanging pots[/li][ul][li]sticking with my new philosophy of only collecting things I use. I have a new office with lots of light and lots of desk space, so I’m starting to accumulate plants, and as a frustrated artist I must find the perfect pot to accompany each plant.[/ul][/li][li]porcelain aquarium ornaments made in occupied Japan, specifically those that are made to look like coral, not castles or mermaids or anything.[ul][]I stick ‘em in my flower pots, among the plants. Very effective. :D[/ul][/li][li]snow globes made to resemble aquariums: must be rectangular and contain at least one free-floating fake fish.[ul][]In keeping with my new philosophy of only collecting things I’m going to use, except for snow globes made to resemble aquariums.[/ul][/li][li]Hermes animal ties, with a focus on rabbits and fish[ul][]I wear ties at work (in Seattle, this makes me a nonconformist. Go figure.), and there’s just something about an Hermes tie, and there’s something about rabbits and fish as graphic elements.[/ul][/list][/li]
[sup] Please.[/sup]

36

Excuse the bump; I was hoping for a reaction to my Theory of Collecting.

37

I collect stupid things, because they amuse me. None of them (except a few of my diecast car collection) are worth anything, but I like them.

  1. Unusual NASCAR crap, including:
  • An empty, cleaned package that once held Rusty Wallace Beef Jerky, because I thought the idea was amusing. (As an acquaintance once said, “Considering Rusty Wallace is a participant in a sport that tends to end up in drivers hitting walls and turning themselves into beef jerky… that just seems WRONG. Or else very, very right.”)
  • An empty box that once held Cheez-Its. It’s got one of my favorite drivers on it, looking cute.
  • A Jeff Gordon stuffed beany thing that looks like a fetus, and screams when you hit it.
  • A tin car-shaped box from the Cracker Barrel 500 that plays “Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES” when you open the lid
  1. Guitar picks (I play, but I rarely use a pick; I just think they’re cool)
  • One from House of Blues New Orleans and one from House of Blues Orlando
  • One from a Dixie Chicks concert
  • One that I found on the ground outside of Wal*mart, it’s got a hole in it, so sometimes I wear it on a necklace
  • One from the music store next door to where I work

I’m always looking for more guitar picks. (I have quite enough NASCAR crap.)