What do you collect? How did you get started collecting?

The wife and I collect stretch pennies from our trips and excursions. Other than that, the only thing I really collect is music and books. Oh, and cats. =^..^=

I ‘collect’ music as well and just buy it as I feel, that tends to mean a few CDs every month. As for my current row of smarties tubes…I think my parents think I’m mad but I just have a few on my window ledge, pretty useless, uninteresting and valueless. All the same, it funny.

I collect cameras. I just started buying old ones on ebay I guess? But my collection serves me well, as I am a photographer. I wouldn’t ever collect anything that didnt have some use for me, I don’t think.

i collect currencies from all over the world. it started when i fell in love with foreign countries and started traveling a lot. if someone i know goes somewhere that uses a different currency, i get a few coins or notes off them. i also collect the special canadian and american coins (states, olympics, 2000 quarters, etc…). every year at high school, we had penny war where you have to bring in only pennies (no other change) and it gets donated to charity. i would stay behind and roll the coins and there would be $20,000.00 +/year worth of pennies, so there was bound to be some foreign change in the mix.

jones soda bottles! im a very nostalgic person when it comes to material posessions so i keep random things all the time and jones bottles are just too cool to only collect one or two so now i have almost 100!
i also have a collection of lizard shit that i started in like the 3rd grade cos they are my favorite animal. :)

Maladies. I’ve got quite the collection and it’s still growing.

I collect several things: antique baby cups (pewter, silver and tin)...if they’re engraved, all the better, miniature chairs of all types, old/antique educational books (primers, encyclopedias, etc), decorative birds (stone, metal, ceramic), and the letter “N” (for my last name).

@aneedleinthehayy: One of my daughters collects jones soda bottles, too.

I would say CDs, but I think that should not count (sorry Skyrail!) as a hobby ‘cause everyone NEEDS music! When I was a kid, I did collect wine and liquor bottles. It was a messy affair dumpster diving for all those, and one day I destroyed ‘em in a rage. If I had counted to ten like I should have, I’d have saved a very long and tedious clean up!

I collect a lot of things…

-Glass bottles. How I got started? They’re pretty. =)
I also collect bottle caps.

-Paperclips. Why? No idea.

-Dreamsicles, because my grandmother got them for me when I was little.

-Angel ornaments, just because my parents decided that I did.

-Knowledge. I store lots of random facts/trivia in the back of my mind, and remember most of the things that I learn.

@ needleinthehay You have a collection of lizard shit?? Why would you collect shit?

Music.

Star Wars toys.

coins, sea shore pebbles in various colors, native American art, crafts (carvings, pottery, etc), european toilet paper circa 1972, science fiction, science fiction authors’ autographs, every letter I’ve written or received for the last 35 years, every bill and tax return for the last 24 years or so…

oh, I’m a librarian—untrained. I come by the profession via personal predilection, I guess. Can anyone guess why I think these things are all useful to me? Or maybe to others?

I’ve been trying to collect money, but I haven’t been doing a very good job lately. I think I’ll collect more very soon though.

I collect teddy bears. Not the stuffed ones that you can get for $10 or $20. The handmade ones, jointed, made with different materials, and cost upwards of $100. I usually go to a Teddy Bear festival/rally every year where there are countless booths of bears – mostly handmade. I didn’t get to go this year. So, I will have to buy two next year!

i also collect montreal canadiens memorebelia such as autographs, photos, flags, pucks and sticks. recently, ive started collecting elephants. that started when i got a few as gifts from my aunt.

Recently I have started uncollecting. Too many possessions and too much dusting. Now I look for zen-like empty spaces and the younger generation to strip the place almost bare.

I was going to (half-) joke that I collect mental disorders, but Chuck had the same sort of idea and beat me to it…

Oh, I forgot to mention that I collect keychains. =)
But I don’t just collect them willy-nilly or anything. I collect one from each place that I, or someone else, travels. I have keychains from all over the country, and all over the world.
All keychains from outiside of the U.S. were from someone else’s trip, because, sadly, I’ve never been out of the country…

Gail and I are in the stage of life called “de-acquisitioning”. I’m
selling whatever I can bear to part with. The only things I wouldn’t hand off to my kids are cash and the cat.

Being the book fiend that I am, I collect bookmarks. Every time I buy a book I usually buy another bookmark because unfortunately my collection is all over the house. I keep forgetting to take them out of my books, or one of the cats steals them, or my daughter “borrows” one, or one of the kids dumps something on top of one…..

Dust. I collect dust…

I collect Native American jewelry, geodes, display specimens of minerals, rocks, fossils and semiprecious stones, writing instruments, walking canes, Murano glass, cobalt glass and crystal, art glass figurines, carved stone figurines, clocks and watches, neon signs and all types of art with a particular nod to bronze statues.

Several years ago I had to “retire” from my job due to a worsening health condition and became a reluctant homebody. I felt it appropriate to thoroughly spoil myself so after attending to maximizing my comfort, I decided to surround myself with beautiful things. I redirected my energy to collecting which I found both interesting and challenging. Well, I didn’t merely fill my home with beauty, I overfilled it to the point that I’m restricted to yard art additions only.

@wtf: I was sorry to read of your health issues in an earlier thread today, and hope you are doing well. I think it’s a wonderful idea to surround yourself with comfort and beauty…more of us should do so, whatever our circumstances may be.

I collect trolls. Carved in wood, ceramic, or dolls, like Dam-trolls…..I just find them adorable!

@augustian…thank you for the kind words. Actually, I’m doing great, but may want to reconsider if I indeed switch bodies with Dr. Stephen Hawkings, here. On the brighter side, this is the third time on fluther the names whatthefluther and Dr. Stephen Hawkings have been mentioned in the same breath!

I collect ladies head vases from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. My kids refer to them as my decapitated heads. I didn’t know what they were at first, but picked up a cool-looking deco headvase at a garage sale for 25 cents. Now I have around 125 of them.

Everything. Well, not quite, but anything I think is cool or like the look of or think ‘it’s a waste to throw it out, I might need it later’... I’m a magpie. I have boxes and boxes of toys and junk from when I was little that I just don’t want to throw out for nostalgic reasons. I have a hundred upwards stuffed toys that live on one half of my bed. I also collect spoons from places I visit. I used to collect stamps but not so much anymore.

Instruments. I forgot that before. I’ve got all kinds of instruments around the house; the latest being a shawm. When people go overseas, and ask what I’d like, I always ask for instruments. I have no idea how many I’ve got, but I promised to learn the shawm—a double-reed instrument, which is something of a challenge for me.

i collect salt and pepper shakers and patches from police depts., fire depts., and patches from places i’ve been to. i will also pick up a magnet if i go someplace i want to remember. i am into souvenirs and mementos from my travels. i have always bought children’s books, you can usually pick them up on the bargain tables in bookstores.

SHARPIES!!!!!!! and monkeys

I collect interesting decks of cards. I also seem to have acquired a fair number of combs, though I don’t think that counts as a collection because it was unintentional and I only recently discovered it.

Recently, I have started to collect the typos that make me laugh or groan, plus the definitive list of misspellings for “definitely.” I am hoping to submit that one to Guinness. You’d think that there are only so many ways of rearranging 9 letters (not factorally but logically), wouldn’t you?

@gailcalled – defiantly! (I’m kidding…)

@autumn; too late; that one’s taken.. But thanks for trying. :-)

Uh…does no one think it’s odd that Daloon collects “european toilet paper circa 1972”?
Really? Just little ol’ me?

I think it’s odd. And I’m glad you do. I’m surprised it didn’t get a rise out of anyone else. Sigh. There’s a reason, in case anyone is interested.

[raises hand]

me, too…spill it, daloon!

So, in 1972, when you’re travelling throughout Europe, there is a suprising variety of toilet papers.

The funniest one, which got me started, although, ironically, I dont’t have a copy of, is the tp in British Loos. At that time (and for all I know, perhaps it still does) the words “Property of Her Majesty’s Government” was written of every sheet of these little pieces of waxed paper that were supposed to be useful.

The whole idea that we were somehow, illicitly soiling Her Majesty’s tp just tickled me to death. WHy would she want it? Of course she wouldn’t. But why would she put her name on every piece? Who made that decision? It was just too ironic for belief.

Then, as we were travelling throughough various countries, I started keeping samples. THere were all kinds of textures and colors. Some like sandpaper, some like rice paper, and some ridged and some softer. The Hotel Bisanzio le nice has pink, double-plied paper that we would consider very rough, but for those days, was pretty soft.

The Basel Kunst Museum in Switzerland provided something like a brown paper towel. The Zeehotel Zellan, Austria was ribbed and almost salmony in color. Hotel Weisses Kreuz, Switzerland… a kind of smally ribbed, sandpapery salmon paper.

My god. I’m getting waves of nostalgia reading these names. I don’t know why, the Hotel Wiesses Kreuz stands out in that I actually remember the name. I didn’t remember the other names. I wonder if something interestng happened there?

Unfortunately, not every piece is labelled about its source.

Anyway, I got caught up in this—even in those days I was a data collector (if not analyst). The whole family started helping me. I see my brother’s handwriting on some of the sheets.

SO that’s the story. Back then, there was much more variation in tp than we see today. Besides which, the Europeans weren’t all hep on white tp. Have a party! Try some colored tp!

@daloon, That’s an interesting collection! I once saw a book with samples of toilet papers from around the world. I can’t remember the name of it, and I’m sure it will eat at me for a long time.

@daloon…By 1972, I certainly outgrew it (I graduated high school and started college in 1972), but I can only imagine what a wonderful accent your collection would have added when tp-ing someones house and trees (I occasionally see neighbors fall victim to this practice so it appears this adolescent prank lives on).

Dal: Love it.

It’s funny. That collection sits in a drawer in a desk like this one (though not as nice) I’ve had since childhood. The lower left drawer held the collection. Nowadays that desk is a computer desk for the laptop. So, as I was answering, I could reach out, pull out the drawer and look through the collection for the first time, maybe, since it was collected. Ah, memories.

We drove through most of Europe that summer. We’d been in England the year before, where my father was on sabbatical. We rated every hotel and restaurant we stayed in or ate at. We climbed lots of mountains, and found cool garnets in Austria (I have those, too, to remind me of the scree we were digging in).

For me, collections are for memories. They remind me of all the trips I’ve taken, or other things, too. It’s like a souvenir, except more so, because I have put effort into gathering the items. I haven’t merely bought them.

What fun!

@daloon: What a nice story!

@augustlan: Nice for you, maybe. You weren’t the one with that stuff in your mouth! LOL!