collecting stuff
 

I was sitting on the floor going through my cigar boxes filled with 'stuff '

I am fortunate that my apartment is rather small, otherwise my magpie habits would over-flow into the hallway.

I love to collect all sorts of things, Lava-lamps..paper-wasp nests..fossils..
folding knives..cartoons...books..

When the apt. starts to get to full I enjoy giving away stuff to appreciative friends.

What kind of things do you like to collect?

Paychecks :D

deleted

???

Social wasps use paper (wood pulp) to construct their nests. The process is simple... a wasp collects wood fiber by using its mandibles (mouth parts) to scrape it from worn and weathered wooden fences, buildings, telephone poles, and other sources. Sometimes it collects fiber from man-made paper products such as paper bags or cardboard boxes. The insect then chews the wood and mixes it with saliva. This makes the wood fiber extremely soft and moist. After a period of chewing, the wasp adds the paste to the nest structure and spreads it out with her mandibles and legs. After it thoroughly dries; a type of tough, durable paper is formed.

Paper-wasp nest after the fact.

It resembles a high rise building with the honey-comb holes still intact and the structure left behind is a fragile paper-like material that reminds me everyday.. do I want the Red pill.. or the Blue pill?

Books. I have hundreds. I keep them in my bedroom, my office, the family room. I find it very difficult to part with a book once I have purchased it.

i am forever enlightened...

Books, like Jadast. I have a full bookshelf in the upstairs lounge, one in my bedroom, and one downstairs in the living room. And then there are still about six more giant Rubbermaid totes full of them in my garage...and another 10 or so cardboard boxes of books in my parents' garage. I have been informed that the books are not moving with my parents once they sell this house. The last two moves my parents made I had to move the books myself--no one else would do it. I could probably start my own used bookstore with all of the books I own. I should probably learn to check books out of the library instead of buying as many of them as I do. Of course, being in and around a university campus I have ways of getting too many books for cheap/free. Nothing delights me more than finding that a professor has gone through their books and left a stack outside their door for students to take. Plus, being in the English department, we have regular book exchanges--not that I ever give any away.

I also collect all kinds of little boxes. I love little boxes--specifically those covered in decoupage. I also have a nice box from Tiffany. They're great for holding all of the little treasures I have collected over the years--my clay cat whistle, a picture of my cat who died, a rose from a date in high school, a necklace my dad gave me, etc.

Somewhere in a box in my parents' garage I also have a significant collection of cool piggy banks. Some of them are actual piggy banks with various designs on them, one is an obese, sleepy pig, one is a lion, and one has Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it.

I also have a large collection of marbles, all contained in an old glass Kraft Mayo jar--one of the foodservice size jars. Some of the marbles are made of semi-precious stones, purchased from national park gift shops. Additionally, I have a collection of semi-precious stones, minerals, and fossils/petrified wood, left over from childhood along with my seashell collection (which includes a rather large conch and a tiny seahorse).

I think that's all. I'm a collector, but I try not to be a packrat. There is a fine line.

I collect molds, spores and fungus.

I used to collect rocks. Just small stones that I could put in my pocket. If I went somewhere with my family on vacation, was at a birthday party at the beach, visited a lighthouse, hunting, anything that I felt like I wanted to remember. I would look for a cool looking stone. Quartz were often a choice because of how the broken ones might glitter. I kept them in a quart jar that I glued a piece of rubber to the bottom of so it wouldn't slide. I could tell you where I got each one and what I did then. Unfortunately a roommate at college accidentally dumped the jar off my bookshelf and broke it. They didn't tell me until after they'd put it all in the garbage. They really didn't know it was anything more than a bookend I guess.

Only thing I collect now is Indian pottery. I have some from several different tribes. Alpaca, navaho, and one other tribe I can't remember at the moment.

Mostly what I end up saving now are school papers and art projects that my daughter has made. I have one small (TINY) pottery bowl that she made in Art class in Kindergarten and I use it for putting earrings or a ring that I take off by my recliner.

I used to collect little boxes too. Alas, when my parents split my box collection disappeared, and I have since stopped collecting them. My favorite was a set of 3 that my grandparents got in Mexico. *sigh*

The closest thing I have to a collection now is books, although I don't actively seek to collect them...I just never get rid of them once I obtain them.

I used to collect pencils, erasers, stickers. bouncy balls, rocks, and other random things. Now, I don't really collect much- I like to collect old and foreign coins I guess.

Despite getting one every two weeks for the last quarter century, I've yet to be able to collect many of them.

Expensive metal things that make loud noises.

Trucks, motorcycles, firearms.

I try not to collect anything anymore. I find that all collections just end up as more clutter in my life and I am trying to reduce that clutter as much as possible.

Lists.......it's a nightmare......

Look at you collecting organization!

Yeah, same here... I have yet to be able to just frame one. Turns out I gotta trade 'em for stuff like groceries and socks and alcohol in dark, smoky rooms.

Dust.

I can collect dust in my bedroom (or apartment) like a champ. I don't just collect it in a jar or something, either- I collect it all over the top horizontal surface of everything I own.

Kidding. :)

Yo-Yos


I have a little over 2,000.



And I'm always looking for more. So if any of you have a cool Yo-Yo you would like to send me. Let me know.

I can't stand clutter, so I don't collect anything. I grew up with a bunch of packrats and it drove me crazy.

well, I have a very small Coca-Cola collection but I won't let myself get anything else because it's just too much.

i used to collect more things, but now am more or less in the same place as charlatan.
but i do collect strange objects that make cool noises on a piano.
lots of them.

I keep old un-used prescriptions in the kitchen cabinet, first out of laziness, then later, it was fun to see the looks on my friends snoopy faces as they
started to realize just how many different mood stabilizers and anti- psychotic medications the Doctors had tried to get me to take.

These were all prescribed for insomnia and general anxiety.

I understand some people need these type of meds, I fortunately have found that a good diet, exercise, and orgasms have kept me relatively sane.

As I get older my collections have taken on a 'Quality vs. Quantity' theme.

It's too easy for me to collect almost anything. I still have my coin collection that I started about 50 years ago. I have a decent record collection ...as in LP's that play on a turntable. I have a pocket knife collection, but it's expanding into knives you couldn't fit into your pocket. Books?... if I get a book I can't possibly throw it away, that seems like a sacrilege. So almost anything, if it looks cool to me I save it. Every part I've ever taken off my car during the process of building it up to ~600hp and roadracing capability I still have in my garage and basement. I collect magazines for a while, but then eventually edit them out and only keep the really interesting ones; most I throw away after a few months of collecting dust, though the dust usually gets blown off and stays in my collection. Even after all this my house is not really too cluttered yet so I'm continuing on. And I figure it might be genetic, since my younger son, now 11yo, is a collecting freak; everything he gets he has to have in numerous quantities in every color, shape, etc. He almost never buys just one of anything, it's always bulk or at least one of each variety.

I collect ideas, and almost everything everybody's mentioned, except for firearms.

Ideas take up less space, but I value where they come from.
Hence, all the clutter.

One thing I used to collect was Wired Magazine. I had every issue. As I was packing to leave Canada, and getting rid of my "stuff", it was the one thing that I had the most trouble parting with.

I donated them to a library. They accepted. I still read the magazine and have to work hard to make sure that I pass them on to others when I am finished with them rather than let them pile up.

I think if I had an extensive magazine collection like that, that meant so much to me, I might look into getting them bound into volumes. There is a bookbinder here in town who does that kind of work for reasonable prices. But I'm glad that your magazines are now somewhere where lots of people can use and enjoy them.

i have a box full of comics in my closet. i don't buy that many, maybe 1-2 a week usually, but they build up over time

Like raeanna, stones are it for me. (sorry about your collection, rae)
I like natural or man-made polished stones, but if a stone has an interesting shape, or hew, I'll add it to my collection.
I regularly have 3-4 in my pocket.

I don't really collect books, just seem to have a rather large collection of paperbacks, and some hardbacks.

Also, WK's cool-factor went up another 20% in my eyes. :thumbsup:
I like a good yo-yo, too. Just don't have a collection.
I had a Yomega stolen from me at school back in the early 90's. Saddened me.

Best. Movie. Ever.

I collect knives and books. Thats all I can think of at the moment. but I hold on to lots of crap once I get it.

power tools. I am a power tool junkie. You should see the circular saw I got for Christmas and the big power drill I got for Mother's Day. That thing has levels, looks nifty, and sticks holes in almost anything. It's a real killer.

books. mostly mystery, a few romantic comedies, books on writing.

scents. I have a collection of perfumes. Also, I don't know if this is "collecting" because I use them up, but I have 7 different scents of dishwashing soap in my kitchen, a few scented lotions, a row of scented air fresheners. I'm not even going to go count the number of scented bath/body washes I have.

music. I have so many cd's I am thankful I can change them to mp3's now and get rid of the cd's. I finally parted with my large collection of 45's a couple of years ago, when I no longer had anything to play them on.

I can't seem to throw away back issues of magazines. Also I have boxes of boxes of Star Trek: The Collectible Card game I haven't brought myself to toss out.

World's king person, I had a friend who collected yo-yos, one had Mexican jumping beans in it.. I spose they are dead by now, oh well.

Not many people would say I'm more cool for collecting Yo-Yos.



My car was just broken into last week and one of my favorite Yo-Yos was taken. I try to always have one on me so I had it in my messenger bag. I left my bag in the car for the first time in years... I was more mad about then Yo-Yo then I was about my camera that was also in the bad.

instruments.........

2 acoustic guitars
1 electric guitar
1 acoustic bass
3 electric basses
2 drumkits
1 banjo
1 violin
and percussion instruments out the ying-yang.


never get rid of your gear i say........

geez, fly...you string players.
my brother's like this too, except for the percussion part (straight bluegrass player).


sorry to hear about the yo-yo theft, wk.
2,000 of them?
do you have a display wall for them?

how do folk manage these collections more generally?
do you have the stuff up for you (and folk who happen by) to see or do you keep them stored away?
do you classify objects?
how?
there's some indications both ways already, but i'm curious about this.

In my old house I had most of them on display. I don't have anywhere to put them in my house now so I have them all in boxes. Separated by style, brand and age.


I used to have a large collection of super balls. A little over 1,000 of them. I donated them to a local children's hospital... We dumped them off the top of a parking garage. It was pretty fucking cool.

dumping kids off the top of a parking garage does sound pretty cool.. :p

Um... Yes. But the super balls was really cool.

the funny thing is.......i'm a drummer to the core....i love me some percussion....i used to just mess around with the strings back in the day but,the last 6/7 years have been all about the stringed things......especially the bass.


it's nice to be able to pick up whatever instrument the mood brings eh.......


never get rid of your gear folks........:thumbsup:

i mostly collect jpgs and mpgs of naked women.

I don't collect things anymore. It used to be that I'd never throw anything away, but when it got to the point that I couldn't walk across my room without clearing foot holes, I realized that I never used any of it, anyway. Two years and dozens of 35-gallon trash bags later, the end is in sight.

Yeah.. I keep my collections small enough to handle now.

My new rule that works well enough for now is, if I see something I want,
I give away something else.

Collecting paper money from different countries doesn't take up much room.

I haven't been to a garage sale or flea- market for months now.
The books are the hardest to part with.

My fantasy was to have a library complete with rolling ladders.

I kept just a few of the finest blown glass items,on a south facing window so the light shines through them along with a big chunk of obsidian that must
weigh about 12 lbs. It glows a deep reddish amber color,especially as the sun is at a lower angle here in the top portion of the U.S. at this time of year.

Who was it that said something on the order of "the more stuff you have,
it ends up owning you."

I collect classic trance records, unfortunately I ran out of record money a while ago but someday I'll keep it going

I think W King's yo-yo collection sounds cool! Any photos?

I used to collect bells. Not on purpose. I bought two once because they were pretty. People assumed I collected them and kept buying them for me. I really didn't want to collect them, and finally sold them. Now I miss them...they each had a story of who gave them to me and when.

Picture frames! I have an extensive collection of picture frames. It sometimes takes me a while to put a photo in it, anywhere from a month to a year. Meantime, it sits on the shelf with the photo that came with the frame.

What do you collect besides spare change, pocket lint, and skeletons?
 

Yesterday I bought a painting by a NW artist (Lucinda Parker). It will remain on the gallery wall until the end of the month as part of the show so if I want to see it I will have to visit it. Anyway, I have decided I am going to invest in a new piece of original art 4x a year, quarterly.

What do you collect?

surprisingly, nothing, as my dad and his brothers are all avid collectors (by which I mean they have entire rooms in their homes devoted solely to their collections)

Lots of stuff here.

Dead hookers, buried in the basement. And coins.

Have you considered making jewelry with these, willravel? Bone and coin necklaces could make you a rich man, as well as hide the evidence.

I collect neuroses. Several of them are a direct result of willravel collecting dead hookers, but the less said about that the better.

I collect 50p coins (the ones with reverses other than Brittanica, such as celebrations of scouting e.t.c), sometimes £2 coins that do the same.

Lego, i have shed loads.

Orchids, quite a few of those too.

Other than that i mostly just accumulate stuff, nothing particular.

The results of most of my collecting now reside in the attic with the rats:

Of the top of my head:

boardgames
brains
rubber chickens
hats
bird skulls
smoking monkeys/babies
anything written by Robert E. Howard or Jack Vance

grey hairs. its a small collection but its getting there.

I've got one of those. I'm sure eventually I'll have more.

Comic books. Although unlike people who buy them in the hopes that they will go up in value I buy them because I like to read them *gasp!*.

I think the only reason to collect something is because you like it. That is the value of it.

Edit: Last night I had dinner with an acquaintance who told me he has 45 floor lamps in one of his upstairs room, as well as rugs that he has collected that he has never even unrolled. My ex has all of his school papers, including those from grade school.

Marbles and netsukes. I go to marble shows all over the united states.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...tknow/awe2.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...w/DSCN0102.jpg

Bills. I make a collection and then Collection calls me and i get rid of them and start over.
It's fun....


Dolls, houses, not dollhouses, tho.

Elephants. Trunks up only, please. (:

I collect ephemera. Paper things. I have boxes and boxes of paper. Some of it is sentimental, some admired, some found. I have pages torn from magazines, bookmarks, greeting cards of all varieties, photographs, prayer cards, artwork from my kids. Some of these mine, some found tucked inside of used books. I sold books on the internet for about 8 years and I compulsively collected the things I found inside of them. All of the above items, as well as grocery lists, utility bills, letters (even a few love letters), recipes cut from newspapers and magazines, obituaries, wedding announcements, place cards, business cards, award ribbons, you name it...basically if it's flat and useful for marking a place, people will stick it inside a book and forget about it, lol. So I've collected these things and I'm quite fond of them. I know it's weird.

I've also been known to be a collector of newspapers and magazines, but except for my Economists and a few Adbusters and National Socialist Reviews, I've gotten rid of most of those. Oh, wait, I still have a good size stack of NY Times Magazines, too. But in my defense, I haven't read all of those, yet. :shy:

I've also accumulated quite a few books in my day, but I'm currently in the process of thinning those out.

I do have the realization that if I allow this compulsion of mine to run willy-nilly over my life, then I could easily become one of those weird little old ladies you see on the 5:00 news being carted off to the retirement asylum because her stacks of newspapers and shit have totally overtaken her entire house, lol. So I try to keep it in check. :)

What interesting collections! I especially love those marbles.

- Angels. Some friends started giving me angels in 1998. I still like getting them. I have quite a few wall hangings, ornaments, statues, etc. I have admittedly thrown out several that were not to my liking. No senseless amassing - just keep them if I have a place and like how it looks.

- Journals. I'm a sucker for the ones with pretty paper. I write in them, of course, kept all of them from 2nd grade through present.

- Books. Started off with gardening references, French literature, and Star Wars fiction. Has morphed into quite a collection, thanks to friends who gave me what they had leftover from garage sales. I'll probably end up with an online bookstore at some point.

I collect pewter dragon figurines. I have about 50 of them. Here are a few of my favorites:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/...c95bcd.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2286/...091eff.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3011/...ef9989.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/...6feb89.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3009/...f736c6.jpg?v=0

I am collecting old magazines, although it's more a result of not throwing them away than it is having an interest in keeping them.

And Fotzlid, your pictures aren't showing. All I see is "myphotoalbum.com" filler.

*sigh

I'll reload them somewhere else...

Thanks

edit: pictures reloaded. are they visible?

not to me fotzold...unless in the earlier posts.

i collect pigs. go figure.

A woman I work with, collects these also, they have to be white with trunks up. I have no understanding.

Just as one probably has no understanding of me collecting rocks, but then I also cut them, cabochon them, facet them, wire wrap them and so on. And the ones I don't give away I may actually sell someday..... but then again, I have a hard time letting go of them.

My room is filled with my rocks.

emotional issues

I still pick up the old 8mm/Super 8 movie cameras from time to time. I even filmed a couple of vacations with them years ago when film was still available. But it was an expensive hobby. $25 and up for 3½ MINUTES of film!

Yes, today I use a digital camcorder. It's even an HDV camcorder too! Automated controls and everything! Still, I do miss the challenge of trying to get every shot right while using as little film as humanely possible...

We collect shot glasses from places we've been to. We try to find ones with specific activities or locations that we've been to.

I like to buy children's movies in local languages when we travel. It is a way I can sample the language in a simplistic form without extremely difficult and challenging subject matter. Most films today are produced with the idea they will be translated to local languages at the same time as US release. They can't be subtitled because most kids that age can't read, but they do understand their own language.

I have Rattatouille in Castillian/Catalan, Finding Nemo - Icelandic, The Incredibles - Urdu, Lilo & Stitch - Finnish, icelandic, Swedish, Madagascar - Finnish, Icelandic, Swedish

Trunks up signify good luck. The white would probably be a personal preference having to do with the fact that actual white elephants are rare and therefore can be seen as more beautiful.

I just collect them all. With the trunks up.

My friend Al collects skulls of all sorts.

Throughout my life, I've had a variety of collections. Occasionally I still add to these. I've collected marbles, seashells, rocks, stuffed animals, piggy banks, books, coins, and stamps. I have inherited some interesting collections from people. For instance, my dad gave me his awesome seashell collection, which includes a seahorse, and my marble collection is courtesy of my mom's first husband (he died). I like to add things to my various collections when I travel--for instance, a number of my semi-precious rocks and marbles were acquired from national park gift shops.

Matchbooks. Getting harder to come by as the smokers of the world die off. But somewhere in my storage I have a collection from six continents. They're easy to pocket, carry and take up little space in your luggage.

I started a knife 'n' sword collection, but that's limited to a Frank B. Italian stiletto, a few shitty $100- swords from when I was like 15, and a Japanese military katana from the early 1900s. I haven't been able to continue on account of my lack of money (spending it all on film equipment).

As a side note, I found this forum while researching Italian stilettos after being more than satisfied with my Frank B., so I suppose I got my money's worth.

Nice ideas.

Unfornately, I collect nothing but verses and thoughts of the abstract. It's never readily available though. I gotta be in the right rhythm.

I collect watches and musical instruments, and have far too many of both.

I collect gaming cards for some reason. Like I used to collect Magic the Gathering cards, but they have since gotten retarded and stopped. Now I collect World of Warcraft cards. I hardly every play them, I just like looking at them and sorting them out. I can sit there for hours and sort through them.

I also like comic books, like morpheus does, to read them.

And I suppose I collect guitars too. I wont ever part with old ones that I never play with, and I don't think I would ever sell one. Even if I am broke and it is just collecting dust I could never part with any of them. So far I have 4 electrics, 1 acoustic and 1 mandolin.
I want a bass or two, a few more electrics, a 12 string acoustic, and a banjo. Someday I suppose.

Mugs, and if I dont get it for me I buy them as presents for friends.

Uncle Jim collected stamps. In his basement he had trash bags full of international stamps, I mean maybe 12 packed to the brim - all interesting to look at and beautiful. The few times in my life when I saw him he gave me a small bag and allowed me to fill it with stamp for my own. I spent many hours looking at those stamps and dreaming. Seeing them inspired me to look at maps and then to find out more about certain countries, and then the world.

I somehow missed this thread when it was new. Hubby and I tried to collect pewter figurines years ago but we were poor and couldn't continue so we only have about 10 piece's.

I suppose books would qualify as a collection but I never really thought of them in that context. That said, I have hundreds.

We are extremely novice neumismatist's, not for lack of interest but because of affordability. We have also collected rocks and minerals for nearly 20 yrs. Hubby travels alot for work so we have an ever growing collection of shot glasses (jump started with my Dad's 20+ he passed down).

I'd have to say our most satisfying collection would be our houseplants. It's a horrible itch to have because it can never be scratched completely!

Ali

I used to collect those Marvel X-Men cards when I was little. For a while, I thought they might be worth a lot someday. I'm starting to think not. They are nice to look at though.

Today, I don't think I collect anything except maybe guitars. I don't have too many though. Two basses, 2 eletrics, and an acoustic.

Aside from Guinness pint glasses and traffic citations, I mainly collect Arsenal shirts from seasons gone by, as well as scarves.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2216/...381dda89_o.jpg


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/13...f5d6e4b0_o.jpg

Nope, not an obsessive or addictive bone in my body...

Let's see... as a kid I collected comic books and baseball cards. And random foreign coins. Nothing too extensive or noteworthy, and it's all just been a waste of my parents' money.

As a high schooler I was really adamant about collecting as much music/mp3's as I possibly could. Thank goodness for napster back then. I'm still always looking for songs to add to my collection, but I haven't really pursued this much post high-school/college. Probably because I've gone legit and download legally via iTunes.

I've been trying to collect all of the 50 state quarters through all of my cash transactions. Which has gotten pretty tough lately because I mostly use debit/credit cards and rarely use cash. So I've hit a wall with last year's and this year's coins. So I have an album mostly filled, but learned that it was obsolete last year when the Mint decided to make 5 more coins in '09 for various territories. Bah.

When I was really young, my great-grandmother let me take home a mouse statue that she had in her house. I lost it, and was in hysterics,so my family consoled me by buying more mice for me. Starting my mouse collection. :)

I collect electric guitars and old 78's (records) for the victrola that my grandmother left me.

Drum snares. Each one has its own tone, personality and style. Plus, you can always use them anytime as long as you take care of them.

Drum snares, or snare drums? I've heard of people collecting snare drums, but not drum snares!

Hah, snare drums. Over here for some reason we've always called them drum snares too. Totally incorrect, I know.

cars and memories. have had a few previous collections like stamps and reel to reel players.

Pocket Dragons (eee, cute) and tacky keychains from other states. I love them.

Memories....

my collections are mainly vinyls (78/45/33, no 16s yet or turntable for them) which are transferred to a much more convenient digital format when there is time. Might get somewhere noteable in that task before there are grandkids available to help...

And recordings from the Golden age of Radio - those are much easier to tranfer usually as most of my collection/new additions are tapes or CDs (and a few 33s in really good shape).
My goal is digitise and backup everything then never have to touch the physical media again.