Are you a collector?

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Do you collect anything? What? I could never get it together to actually mantain a collection of anything, so I am interested in hearing what it's all about, the thrill of the hunt and all that. I imagine a lot of people collect records and stuff, but I hope at least a few of you have eccentric collections, like robin's wings or Keds shoelaces.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:15 (twenty-two years ago)

you'd be amazed what moving a lot will do to collector tendencies (ie, squash them)

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

That's why I lived in my previous residence for seven years.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I moved pretty much once a year for a while there, which led to me throwing out a lot of stuff--perhaps seeds for potential collections!--because I got sick of moving them around and they never did much for me in the first place, anyway.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:23 (twenty-two years ago)

when i was in my early teens i collected street directories

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I collect 78s. I love those old records.

And - oh dear! - I collect novelty pencil sharpeners.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Novelty pencil sharpeners! That's the spirit! What are they like? What's your best one?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I've got hundreds of the things - from tacky plastic ones in the shape of household electrical appliances to die-cast metal ones in the shape of motorbikes (stick pencil up exhaust pipe to sharpen). I'm not sure what my favourite one is - possibly the one-armed bandit machine which really does work when you pull the handle.

A friend of mine collects those novelty pens which have things floating in them which move when you tip the pen to one side (does anyone know what I mean? I'm not explaining this very well!) so at least I'm not the only nerdy one:)

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

that's so cool!

i move every 12 months or so, so i never got a chance to build up much of anything besides records. i used to collect weird plants! i had about 50 of them

― geeta, Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I sort of collect cookbooks. I have about 45 now, half are retro.

At the moment I am into collecting the following types of records: the complete works of Barbra Streisand, musicals, and Israeli/Jewish records (as many versions of 'Hava Nagila" and "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" as possible!)

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i collect dust

― smoky topaz (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:09 (twenty-two years ago)

(Sub genre of musicals: stars and guest stars of Law and Order (Jerry Orbach, Paul Sorvino, Patti Lupone) and drunken Anglo-Hibernians (Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Richard Burton, Albert Finney)

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I collect airport postcards

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Gah, where the heck do you start on this...

Discounting the music stuff, I suppose I collect things that appeal to my certain sense of aesthetics. This could include, but isn't necessarily limited to things like old post cards, advertisements, retrofuture stuff, tons and tons of books, art deco, etc. but again the overriding factor is that aforementioned "a" word. So I won't necessarily buy a whole box of post cards, just a few that catch my whimsy.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:18 (twenty-two years ago)

records, crimplene frocks, fluffy kangol hats, gig posters.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Nope, nothing.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 05:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to collect matchbooks and matchboxes, like from resuatrants, cafes and bars. I had a huge jarful, even some cool ones from Japan my dad got me.

Then one time I ran out of ligters and sort of used half the matches up and the collections a bit useless now.

My ex flatmate used to collect his hair. In a jar. Like, the hair that fell off his head, he'd stuff into this small science-style jar with a rubber-seal glass lid. Uhmmm... yeah.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow my typing and/or spelling is shithouse today :/

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:29 (twenty-two years ago)

suzy collects catholic candles and snow storms. I collect model trains and cameras. Our flat is full of all kinds of collected junk, very important junk.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I collect all sorts of things, in that i have a lot of the same thing & actively seem it out. J collects trainers obv!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:49 (twenty-two years ago)

when i was a kid i collected smurf figurines, munch bunch books and stamps.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yes, I almost forgot. I also collect anything and everything to do with Wallace & Gromit.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 06:59 (twenty-two years ago)

significant stocks of cheese then?

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 07:04 (twenty-two years ago)

plastic things on pencils to show you I've been there

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 08:06 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was small, I collected my milk teeth as they fell out. I also collected stamps, train tickets, train timetables and badges. I still keep train tickets if they're for a journey I don't do very often, or I'm short of bookmarks. I also tend to keep gig and cinema tickets.

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Wensleydale is indeed a cracking cheese, Ed!

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm very wary of people who are collectors. Particularly philatelists, though I'm not sure if this was true before I got my current job or not...

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I had an extensive ceramic cat collection when I was a teenager. It's now at my parents'.

Around the house now I have things that remind me of Arizona where I grew up...woven baskets from the Tohono O'Odam reservation, a Navajo rug, a bunch of day of the dead fellows, tons of Mexican devotional candles, etc.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I have just started a collection of every UK No.1 single, in MP3 form. It is horrifyingly addictive and also very easy to do from one's office chair. I almost punched the air this morning when I found an MP3 of Lita Roza's recording of "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?"

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i used to be really into comix. now i just collect gig posters & photos of rock shows.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh when I was little I collected odd coins and rocks!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Nothing.

It used to be teddy bears, kind of, although it's hard to be a committed arctophile when you're 10 and spend all your pocket money on chewing nuts.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh my god, Tom, that's brilliant. I mean, I saw that other thread but wow.

Wait, unless it would be more fun to collect all the #2s...

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying, vaguely, to do it in order. It's not easy so I leave gaps but I'll get them all eventually (somebody's already got all the 50s-80s ones but he's generally busy) - poor old Winifred Attwell seems to have been forgotten by file-sharing history, for instance.

The #2s are just as interesting but I have the disadvantage of not having a big list of them!

Also: http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/popular.html (madness)

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, MP3 collecting, that's a whole other thing too--the easiest collection to move around from place to place, I suppose.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I gave up on collecting in a way that results in accumulating heaps of junk. Moving has been a good chance to clear out the last scraps.

So I collect books. Now we're getting a DVD player, I'll say films too.

Although, I do still have the last several years of train tickets from long journeys stashed around. I go to chuck 'em and suddenly associate a date with a memory of something significant or valuable. Bah.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess I collect books too, but not in any systematic way. I just have a lot of them. DVD collecting, while tempting, has never been something I could really afford--and if I have the cash I'd usually rather spend it on an album, because I'll listen to it more (I rent a lot of DVDs though, and borrow them from my friends who ARE collectors)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I despair for people who collect things. They are buying into the number two myth of a capitalist society. Ownership of stuff does not make you happy, and indescriminate collecting for the sake of completeness reduces the intrinsic value of the item being collected as just a piece of the whole.

Would you get the same thrill enjoying each piece one at a time?

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe it just doesn't make YOU happy!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I sort of agree with Pete. But it might just be a way for me to feel better about being skint.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, you know, owning something I actually want does tend to make me fairly happy. I only buy stuff that I want. The fact that it becomes a collection when there's more that, say, two of the things is strictly incidental...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

(And I'm skint too. Sadly, if I need to cnoose between a new item of clothing I need and a book I want very badly, the book wins.)

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I collect the dessicated genetalia of spoilsports.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

To what extent does your custodianship of a collection make you happy. I think Tom's MP3 one is particularly interesting because it does not have a physical representation. The idea that, if I wanted to, I could listen to every single Bob Dylan album if I so chose does not mean I need to own every single Bob Dylan album. Instead, I could save that money incase the whim came across me to listen to every single Billy Joel album.

Collectors - when was the last time you bought a book/CD/genetalia and took it home and just put it on the shelf. Didn't read it (though of course you can in the future) and didn't listen to it. Namely you did not use the object for what it was designed, you did it to display an adjunct of your personality.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm torn between deleting the MP3s I don't like after I've written about them or storing the whole collection somewhere.

I bought 5 books at once last night after we left the pub Pete - clearly 4 of them went straight on the shelf, though with all the genitalia theres hardly room.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, I will happily trade you something or bring blanks or whatever for a copy of them #1 singles in order on some discs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Does buying an original Tigermilk when I already had a well-played copy of the reissue count? I have listened to it, once, as a kind of reward for my vastly ridiculously expensive whim, but since then it's just sat proudly on the top shelf of my sitting room unit.

― Mark C (Mark C), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Does it count - it writes the bloody book.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think he was talking to you dude.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

And I gotta say I dispute this idea that you know exactly what can make any given person happy or not. Maybe all collectors are miserable, their unhappiness compounded by the weight of their tchoschkes, but I'm sure many others get something out of it, if perhaps not a perfect state of revolutionary joy.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't say I collect CD's, coz I have no specific plan for buying CD's or completing back catalogues etc. So, I would say I accumulate CD's. Same with comics, though there is a little more forward planning here. I randomly buy stuff like Transformers and Star Wars Lego.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

What book would it write? Twee To Be: You & Me ?

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I have fair to great amounts of records, comics, and drums, but all because I like to use them, and after awhile they add up. So I guess that would be a no. Although, when my girlfriend or I buy a dvd or box set, the first thing I do is put it on the shelf to see how pretty it looks among the rest.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I've accumulated a ridiculously large arsenal of shit musical instruments; keyboards and percussion shit mostly, but also plenty of stringed things and things you blow into and even some other stuff where you push buttons or wave your hands around sensors and shit.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been despaired for twice today by Pete, hurrah!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

what jel said.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

If I buy a book, I intend to read it. Apart from some books from childhood, I have maybe two or three (out of... quite a lot) that I haven't yet read. Only a complete tosspot would buy a book purely for its display value.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Hunters & collectors -- yay! We're a cool Aussie band!

Anyway... I collect, damn it. I collect keychains, and ticket stubs from movies I've seen (or at least I try to), and DD paraphernalia (I have a large scrapbook that's about half-filled, and numerous books and vinyl and cassettes and CDs and videos), and when I was a preteen and young teen I'd collected stuff on/by Gloria Steinem but slowly started getting rid of it when I stopped being a "fan" of hers (though I still have three of her books I can't get rid of), and I'm starting to collect business cards. I'm a collector.

― Just Deanna (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

caitlin - i still have a little container with my baby teeth inside!

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't collect anything. I have clusters of things I like and will certainly get more of sometime (books, cds, plants, china, pictures) but sometimes I pass on the ones I dont want anymore (or can't be bothered moving).

And I dont have an idea of the set I am working towards - which is what I think defines a collection?

In the course of my work I collect information relating to certain things. And I curate it. And ocasionally gloat over it. This satisfies my collector urges.

― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The books and music I don't consider a collection so much as a necessity. But the amount of silly toys I have is pretty sad. But I need Spike, Giles and a Catbus.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't collect in a formal sense. I do however amass stuff. I have probably well over a thousand records built up over the years but I will eventually sell all I can. I keep all sorts of things to do with my son eg bus passes and tickets from days out. I also have a lock of his hair (from the first time his hair was cut) between two pages of my London mini A-Z. I will keep all those things until I die, but not records or books or anything like that.

― David (David), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Giant movie posters. Er, of the movie, "Giant" not, you know, large posters. Oh and editions of Jane Eyre.

― Texas, Biyatch! (thatgirl), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I have things around.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Cult tv stars.

http://www.duffzone.co.uk/framegrabs/babf01/03052002191605.jpg

― The Collector (Leee), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

i was a bill collector & a repo man...oh wait, forget it

― kephm, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

seven years pass...

i wish i wasnt so ocd about collections of things

― Lamp, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 05:50 (fourteen years ago)

like i was looking at the list of nyrb classics upcoming titles and theres this monstrous voracious part of me that just has to have all of them even the ones i clearly dont want to actually read

― Lamp, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 05:51 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/nyrb-classics-1-300/

― caek, Tuesday, 23 August 2011 06:43 (fourteen years ago)

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