I once collected comic books DC and Marvel. Had the original Fantastic Four issue original Spiderman as well as other first issues of DC and Marvel superheroes. Had approx four hundred comics which my father dumped into the garbage bin when we moved. Did it without my consent when I had been absent.
I visit a lot of yard sales and flea markets. I'm always on the lookout for old books. It doesn't matter what it is really as long as it's fiction. I was trying to get my son to listen to an old book of nursery rhymes yesterday, unsuccessfully. lol. What do you collect?
Feel like....I answered this....eh.. "Holy" books are what I collect. Reading up on cultural ideas of divinity intrigue me.
I've collect most of the works of the twentieth-century humorist H. Allen Smith. Always on the lookout for a few more, but not to the point where I buy them from Biblio. For me, the joy is in the hunt, not the acquisition.
NBA Jerseys! I’m a massive basketball fan and I love the aesthetics and artwork of jerseys, especially limited edition or alternate ones.
I suppose this is for those that don't already know. I collect medical paraphernalia (new only). So everything from uniforms, instruments, and gloves that vary in length, color, and material (no vinyl though). Also other things like furniture, other disposables related, and stuff like that.
Video games for discontinued systems. Mainly Dreamcast. It's not like they're retro games, just games I loved or wanted to play in my youth. I've started a YouTube gaming channel playing them with friends to justify the cost to myself.
I'm all about that house plant life. My girlfriend says we don't need anymore but I always say "we don't have one of these yet." I just think they're radical and make people's places look good. My girlfriend collects music boxes, but we don't have a display area or anything so there's just plants and music boxes placed haphazardly around the apartment. We pretend it's by design. Edit: If a place has a Zoltar machine, for reasons I don't understand, I will invariably give it a dollar and keep the little ticket it gives you.
Every time I go to an anime convention, I just HAVE to buy a blind box from a very specific series of little anime robot girls. Just got another one yesterday (so the other two have a new friend). I'll throw a pic up when I get home. I also collect books from various pen and paper RPGs and wargames. My collection is fairly modest but by god if you want to play a game I can throw up just about anything. Actually met a guy who just finished writing his game and got a booth at this convention, so I bought a copy of his book. It's an easy to learn general purpose type game; the total opposite of what I am writing.
Oh, I have to be very careful about 'collecting,' because I like so many different things. I could easily get overwhelmed with stuff. I've got quite a few things I like, such as fancy wooden boxes, Tonner Tyler-Body dolls (a variety, and I make vintage-style clothing for them—although I stopped buying more of them several years ago), unique Christmas tree ornaments, Ukrainian Easter eggs, BOOKS (although these get used rather than admired), RevereWare cookware and JaJ pyrex ware—both of which still get daily use, even though they date back from the 50s and 60s. I also 'collect' stamps. I'm not a fanatic. I don't spend any real money on them. I just go for ones I like from many different countries, and I'm not fussed if they are mint or used as long as they look good. I love looking at and thinking about what various countries like to put on their stamps. A lot of cultural attitudes get reflected in stamp designs. I'm especially intrigued by stamps that depict folk legends and stories. LOVE these, and can't pass them up. I don't collect photo stamps, or painting reproduction stamps (the USSR was really big on those!) but rather I prefer the designs that were created specifically for postal use. Especially the 'commemorative' stamps that depict important historical events, etc. I'm not a huge fan of head stamps ...kings, queens, leaders, etc. Nor of the Olympic designs which most countries churn out every 4 years. Sports stamps, in general, don't interest me much. I especially love tiny etchings that were produced in a single colour, most of them before 1940. I have a huge collection of USA commemoratives up to around 1984. I also love stamps from Canada, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia before they became part of Canada, Greenland, British commemorative stamps, most of the Scandinavian countries, the Czech republic (gorgeous stamp designs!), Poland, Hungary, Romania and ...Mongolia! The Mongolian stamps are a hoot. Colourful, large, and unabashedly culture-proud. Postage stamps had about a 100-year heyday which has already come to an end. Now it's all franked strips and/or stamps produced for 'collectors' and not really intended for use. It's an era that has come and is rapidly going. I get really excited when a letter arrives for me with actual stamps on it. Of course they get saved! My dad was a postie/mailman, so I guess that's where my interest comes from. I have confined my collection to one large plastic bin ...no more. When it's the dead of winter, after Christmas, etc, I often open the bin, get out the books, add in new stamps I've collected over the year, and play with them. Lots of fun. And I've learned a lot as well, by going to the atlas and figuring out where countries are, etc. It's a hobby that has opened my eyes to parts of the world I would not otherwise have thought much about. Anybody who ever catches me counting perforations can take me out and shoot me.
My buddy and I have something like 30,000 Magic the Gathering cards that we've collected and pooled between us over the years. One year I got bored and sorted all of them by set, color, card type, and mana cost. And then I alphabetized them. I realize that makes no sense unless you play Magic, but if you do, imagine how easy it would be to find any card you were looking for. Or to find a three cost blue creature with flying to fill in the mana curve. I just turned 41 by the way.
Nice thread bump I’m going to get back into hoarding silver bars. Because they look cool, fun to handle, and a hands on way to save money. This time around, concentrate on hand pours bars, or minted by odd or extinct mines, or stampers. Also, my daughter loves to play with Jenga blocks or dominoes. She stacks them or organizes them how her 3 y/o mind sees fit. She might even put them into organized rows. I plan to replace all that with silver bars. I’d say upto 50 of them. Great way to get her engaged with interesting ways to save money, and play with cool things.
Your collection is definitely the coolest so far! I'd love a vintage house, and I do plan to period-decorate my future home, so I am very jealous! I've mentioned this many times before, but I will never pass up a chance to mention that I collect DOLLS! Porcelain dolls! I've sadly lost count of them, but I have just over forty. I've always been fascinated by them and I've never found them creepy. So far, my collection only consists of what are known as "Waldas": mass-produced imitations intended for collection that depreciate in value over time, which is how I've been able to afford so many, but it's always been my dream to get some real antiques (which can go for hundreds, if not thousands). It's fascinating to see all the different things that people collect.
Trust me, I've had that mentioned to me more than a few times. (I'll post pictures once my new stand arrives and I've got the last one up on display.)
