Friday OT - Pick It Up As You Go Along

Angie

Tugboats and arson.
Staff member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Mar 27, 2006
28,168
12,837
113
IA
What kind of collections do you have now, or have you had in the past? How did you begin the collection? Do you share the hobby with someone special?

I have a small record collection, as I've lost several over the years, they've accidentally thrown out, etc. So I keep starting over.

Less intentionally, and to my great amusement, I've sort of had a Willow Tree figurine collection thrust upon me. They're the little doll things that are carved out of wood and none of them have faces, largely white-ish grey clothing. I've never bought one or asked for one, but there is something about me that must give off the air that I enjoy them, because I've been given approximately 12 of them as presents over the years (usually for important occasions). I keep and appreciate them due to the personal reasons that people have given them to me.
 
I have a collection of three kids. I feel that is enough even though my wife would have preferred to add to the collection at first, that that is enough. Even if I trade my wife in for a trophy wife, I won't add to that.

I have a few old coins and money collection, nothing fancy, just stuff that I accumulated over time. I have a bunch of bicentennial quarter and half dollars because my mom would save them and when she hit a hundred bucks in quarter and around fifty in half dollars for each of me and my siblings, she handed them to us. I haven't had the hear to cash them in yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Angie
Books. I have a lot of books. And Records. Books and Records are what I collect.

I have a pretty robust collection of books from about pre-2008 or so, but I have switched over to Kindle just for ease. I somewhat regret this.
 
We have about 3000 CD's (about 2500 are my wife's).

Football card collection from the late 70's to late 80's.

Three tall bookshelves full of books (also halted by Kindle).

ISU memorabilia (Signed piece of the Hilton floor (Fred & Johnny), Seneca signed jersey, Johnny Orr signed basketball, full team signed BB poster from about 2008?, Austin Arnaud signed football, a framed letter from Jamie Pollard in response to the possibility of a Johnny Orr statue, team-signed basketball from 2016, and tons of random ISU stuff)
 
Last edited:
Got around 30 Dale Earnhardt 1/24 and 1/18 scale collectible cars, also have a couple boxes of football, baseball and basketball cards from the mid '70s. Wife does the willow tree figurines along with refrigerator magnets of places we've been to either through work or vacations.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Angie
I have a few stamps. My mother used to be a mail carrier. She got some stuff occasionally through work. I haven't kept a single one myself. Just have the ones that came in a book that were a gift from my mother. And one of bugs bunny that came by itself.

I didnt even know I had them until my mom sent me home with my box of things she kept as I was growing up. Mostly junk.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Angie
I wouldn't call it collecting, but I've bought a metric **** ton of music over the years.

I guess my wife and I kind of collected pint glasses from every brewery we visited over a 5-6 year stretch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Angie
I wouldn't call it collecting, but I've bought a metric **** ton of music over the years.

I guess my wife and I kind of collected pint glasses from every brewery we visited over a 5-6 year stretch.

For a while when I was traveling a great deal, I'd get Janny shot glasses for the NCAA teams in every state I'd visit. (Mostly because it was one of the only useful gifts I could find in the airport gift shop, and sports are always a solid pick in our house.) I think we purged them all.
 
Lots of sports cards collections. As I look back now I see it as kind of a waste of money. Not sure i have any of those super valuable cards that would bring any money. So I basically spent alot of money for something that now really just takes up alot of space in storage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Angie and Buster28
Lots of sports cards collections. As I look back now I see it as kind of a waste of money. Not sure i have any of those super valuable cards that would bring any money. So I basically spent alot of money for something that now really just takes up alot of space in storage.

When a relative passed, I got his old collection. It's currently in a giant tote in my garage to give to @Jeremy when I next see him, I think (unless he already has it - I honestly forget). I think that it takes a ton of time and organization to research the value of each card!
 
I collect a lot of different stuff that I find personally interesting:

*1700 CDs, 800 LPs, 800 45s, 250 12" singles, 200 CD singles (closing in on finding every US release [album or single] by Barbara Mandrell, just a few 45s to go).

*~3000 baseball cards - mostly Giants and A's, but also a lot of favorite individuals; nothing of particular worth to anyone but me because I tend to want to spend a little money to get a lot of common cards instead of those which are supposedly "valuable." Gives me more to look at (and to have to remember when I visit a card show).

*old road (and other) maps of states, cities, counties; also, raised-relief maps of California, Sonoma County, and Point Reyes that are framed on the wall.

*going along with the music collection, I have a large selection of Joel Whitburn books, which chronicles the music charts from Billboard magazine. I find these to be a must-have if you're a fan of music trivia and history.
 
As a kid, I collected beer cans. My mother used to get all wadded up when we went on trips, because at rest stops I'd be rummaging around in ditches and trash cans looking for good ones. I sold them all years ago.

Also collected sports cards by the thousands back in the day. I still have several hundred different Brett Favre cards, many on display in racks I made in my mancave.

And I, too, have lots of books.....many first editions, hundreds of paperbacks. Both fiction and non - Stephen King is a favorite, as are Joseph Wambaugh's cop novels. Lawrence Sanders. True crime books (the vixen thinks I'm a little weird on that one), sports books, etc.

I really haven't gotten into Kindle. I guess I'm old fashioned (Guess?) because I'd rather own the book, because I have re-read so many of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oldman
As a kid, I collected beer cans. My mother used to get all wadded up when we went on trips, because at rest stops I'd be rummaging around in ditches and trash cans looking for good ones. I sold them all years ago.

Also collected sports cards by the thousands back in the day. I still have several hundred different Brett Favre cards, many on display in racks I made in my mancave.

And I, too, have lots of books.....many first editions, hundreds of paperbacks. Both fiction and non - Stephen King is a favorite, as are Joseph Wambaugh's cop novels. Lawrence Sanders. True crime books (the vixen thinks I'm a little weird on that one), sports books, etc.

I really haven't gotten into Kindle. I guess I'm old fashioned (Guess?) because I'd rather own the book, because I have re-read so many of them.

It took a lot to get me past the idea of not owning physical copies of books, but I received a Kindle as a gift, and once I realized that I could carry 40 books with me on a plane, I was sold. It's nice as I've gotten older that you can adjust the font size, and also, since I read every night before bed, being self-lit is very nice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCyclone
It took a lot to get me past the idea of not owning physical copies of books, but I received a Kindle as a gift, and once I realized that I could carry 40 books with me on a plane, I was sold. It's nice as I've gotten older that you can adjust the font size, and also, since I read every night before bed, being self-lit is very nice.

I am even lazier - I just installed the Kindle app on my phone, so I read from there. You're correct - it's just more convenient to have a book in my pocket at all times. I popped it out and read yesterday while my daughter had a dentist appointment.

The downside is that my young children have no idea that I'm sitting there reading rather than zoning out on my phone, so it doesn't give a great impression to them on the importance of reading.
 
As a kid, I collected beer cans. My mother used to get all wadded up when we went on trips, because at rest stops I'd be rummaging around in ditches and trash cans looking for good ones. I sold them all years ago.

Also collected sports cards by the thousands back in the day. I still have several hundred different Brett Favre cards, many on display in racks I made in my mancave.

And I, too, have lots of books.....many first editions, hundreds of paperbacks. Both fiction and non - Stephen King is a favorite, as are Joseph Wambaugh's cop novels. Lawrence Sanders. True crime books (the vixen thinks I'm a little weird on that one), sports books, etc.

I really haven't gotten into Kindle. I guess I'm old fashioned (Guess?) because I'd rather own the book, because I have re-read so many of them.
My brothers and I collected beer cans as kids. There are approximately 700 stored in boxes in my parents' attic. Nothing less than 40 years old.

I also have a ****-ton of books. I can't leave a bookstore empty handed, and I probably have more right now than I will ever be able to read.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCyclone and Angie
I am even lazier - I just installed the Kindle app on my phone, so I read from there. You're correct - it's just more convenient to have a book in my pocket at all times. I popped it out and read yesterday while my daughter had a dentist appointment.

The downside is that my young children have no idea that I'm sitting there reading rather than zoning out on my phone, so it doesn't give a great impression to them on the importance of reading.
aqTQzjeP1k0auYleKraPOBJ3nwA=.gif
 
The usual 1950's and 1960's boy stuff, coins and stamps. College boy was beer cans.

Aging worker me started putting banana stickers on the border of my computer monitor. Top boss thought it was weird but she was a no humor civil engineer totally missing the point that that was the whole point of it! After retirement banana stickers started getting pasted to my kitchen bar counter. When it gets to unkempt looking I transfer them to some paper sheets. I like it cause it's sort goofy and they have fun images. My niece sent me a picture from Montana where my 3 year old grand niece is now pasting banana stickers to their counter. ;)

banana stickers cropped cf scale.jpg

And these only take up that much space in the recipe drawing in the kitchen. FTW clutterwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: baller21

Help Support Us

Become a patron