Any collectors here?

When I was a boy my father used to drag me all over the place in search of old bottles. Growing up where I did there was a lot of areas that had old family dumps from the 1800's where they would throw stuff and he was always in search of the "mother lode" hoping to strike it rich with some old obscure and rare bottle. He does have some rather valuable bottles but I care not for any of it. Then it became metal detecting. And he found a fair amount of silver coins and other old coins that has some real value but again I cared not for it. So I guess the collecting gene skipped me as I do not have the "passion" for it.

My mother collects little bells, the hand ringing variety and she has them displayed all over the bloody place in curio cabinets and it is a point of pride for her to have her pretty little bells displayed like a museum display. Again, I never saw the point of it.

I just wanted to go fishing or squirrel or rabbit hunting.

I've never been a hard-core collector. I keep what I like--so while I have had almost complete collections of several authors, I've winnowed those down, and other authors, by getting rid of any fiction book that 'I am unlikely to reread.' That has included some Heinlein, McCaffrey, MZB (I should get rid of more now that I know more of her personal predilections), Zelazny. I've almost completely switched over to ebooks for new stuff, although I still buy dead tree versions of authors that I really like (Martha Wells, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, others). I'm *trying* to get rid of hard copies when I have ebook versions, but it's really hard. Having ebooks has allowed me to get rid of a lot of duplicate books (backup reading copies).

Beyond that, I have a decent-sized collection of Japanese language textbooks, books on Geisha and Maiko, Japanese art particularly 20th century Shin Hanga (traditional woodblock print style like Kawase Hasui and Yoshida), and general cultural books. I have a small collection of books on WWII POW camps, particularly Japanese ones, triggered by seeing the A Town Like Alice miniseries in the late '70s, followed by reading the book.

I was a huge comic book reader as a kid up until I was 35-40. I got rid of a bunch when I moved to California, then about half when I was pregnant. I never speculated--buying issues because they might be worth something some day. I still get Usagi Yojimbo (Rabbit Bodyguard), an amazing story by Stan Sakai. A few creators are currently running new miniseries/followups. I've been reading those as ebooks and will probably get the graphic novels when they're released.

And I have a ton of miscellaneous stuff. I really need to do some weeding.

Just books. Mostly non fiction pre-1900s.?ÿ Being born in rural Maine, I am a natural junker.?ÿ It is almost painful for me to throw anything away. I think the Maine state motto should be, "You, ain't gonna throw that out ahh-yuh"?

It seems that I have a small collection of railroad "date nails" and a collection of "flattened" coins. The coins are of the "flattened" on a railroad track by me or the kids and quite a few of the ones "flattened" by those machines at various tourist spots. Friends and family have gotten me a few from various islands and other far away places they have been. Now I just need to figure out how to display them an leave room for more!

?ÿ

Found a collection at today's office:

What is/are that?

Monitors. The collection also extends about 20m (60ft) behind me (the photographer), and it's growing - yesterday it was about 3m (10ft) short of the monument.

That is incredible.

Richard, I gotta say, I have found monitors to be rather durable and rarely seem to go bad anymore and that is very likely an incredible waste.

I found this last week. I wanted to take it home but it's down a steep hill. I wish I was doing this job before the snow. It looks like there are all kinds of goodies under there and there are 3 dump sites on the property.

Gregg

I've slowly started collecting drums and drum parts.

Posted by: Just A. Surveyor

Richard, I gotta say, I have found monitors to be rather durable and rarely seem to go bad anymore and that is very likely an incredible waste.

You must be lucky, or we're unlucky, we have an office here of 6 PC's and over the last 10 years, I'd say we've had 10 monitors go bad. They're lying in the storeroom, perhaps I should add them to the collection. That photo was at the local technical college, maybe 500 students, and a quick calc suggests over 200 monitors. Most of them looked like Lxxxxx brand (sorry Lxxxxx), and if they weren't bad, they will be now as it rained heavy last night.

I collect broken tools.?ÿ Actually, I buy a working tool of some sort, my kid breaks it or takes it apart and loses some critical part(s).?ÿ I don't throw them away in case I find the parts or in case I might be able to fix them at some point.?ÿ But then a time comes that I need a particular tool for a project, but it's among the tools my kid broke, don't have time to fix the tool before I need to complete the project, so I go buy another of the same tool.?ÿ I use that tool once to complete the project and then the next time I need it, it's missing, broken, or in pieces.?ÿ So I stomp around, rant and rave for a while, then go to the hardware store and replace the tool again, use it once, then.....

I collect old bottle and can openers. They are cheap, don't take up much space and nearly every garage or yard sale I go to I find at least one I don't have already.

And you can still use them.

In reading the foregoing posts, it occurred to me that a graph might be drawn in which the value of collectibles is plotted in relation to the space they occupy. So I drew one.

It would probably be possible to write an equation relating these variables, but it would be a challenging task. The subjective value of objects is influenced to a considerable extent by the collector's level of obsession. And there is probably a complex feedback relationship between the level of obsession, the amount of space available, and the quantity of objects already collected. The marital status of the collector will also have a strong effect.

Nevertheless I would like to call this subject to the attention of our colleagues in academia, in fields such as economics, anthropology, and psychology, not to mention the blurry interface between them. There is enough material here for at least one landmark Ph.D thesis and half a dozen derivative works. And thesis subjects don't grow on trees.

I have a cigar box that is for bottle and can openers. It all started with a CocaCola bottle opener my grandfather gave to me.