Things you've "collected" over the years

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I collected the usual kid things like china dolls, hockey/baseball/basketball cards, and rocks.

My ongoing collection is a stamp collection I inherited. I'm in the process of organizing it. I estimate the whole collection has a value of $1500.

I have a bic lighter collection (well over 100, and they are almost all full). Also, I have a bunch of old comic books... I would like to sell them one day, but most probably aren't worth anything.

Vinyl record albums (until the record companies pretty much stopped pressing them)

Then Cds

Now MP3s

I'm talking thousands of each here, not just a handful here and there.

Various action figure series - primarily Batman and Superman, but ultimately whatever strikes my fancy. Comic books, been a fan of Vampirella since I was 11...

Betty Boop memorabilia...only interesting stuff not the common mail-order crap...

DvD movies. Lost my collection of over 800 VHS movies in a divorce...so just switched formats and started replacing everything...

books...I can't bring myself to get rid of a book, even if I didn't care for it. It seems sacrilegious somehow...

oh, and tattoo flash art...

I would have to say that out of all the forums I've read so far while learning about everyone, this one made me laugh the hardest.

I've never drawn a connection between my "collecting" and my grandfathers "pack-ratting".
Or to to the fact that my brother has a whole room in his house filled with memorabilia of our local sprts team.
When I thought of his obsession it didn't seem anything like my collections - at least they're diverse...

When I was in grades 5 and 6 I had a teacher that was really open to creative things. He allowed me to tape pictures to my desk. Soon the top of my desk was completely covered in images I had collected.
He would also take my desk out into the hall every few months and have me sort through all the random junk I had collected. Rocks, notes, erasers, CLEAN sheets of paper - usually in note books, buttons, pencils... He would just tip the desk upsidown onto the floor and I'd have a go at it.

As a teen I become a bit more organized in what I collected.
My best friend has the same sort of collection fetish as I did and we really fed off eachother.
Candy wrappers, movies tickets, drawers full of notes and short stories collected over the years, a massive amount of posters that covered every inch of my walls - most of which were of my favorite musicians or actors of the time, cosmetics was a big one, software, newpaper clippings... I think that it didnt really seems as though I had a lot of stuff because everthing always had it's place.

As a young adult my focus on what I collect has become more refined.
I thew away most of the meaningless junk I collected over the years when I moved out of the 'rents place, although my Mom will still call me to tell me she has found someting of mine tucked away in her house.

Now my collections consist of a large amount of rocks and gems (I love rocks), an absurd amount of pens and pencils that I accumulated while working at a business supplies store for 1 1/2 yrs, art supplies like paints, papers, glues, knives, erasers, felt pens, markers, tapes...
I'm quickly growning a collection of plants.
I still have a big obsession with collecting cosmetics, which I was recently reminded of when I had to replace my stash. Hundereds of dollars later I still dont feel like it's complete and I hardly ever go out to use it...

With all the AS collectors and collections there should be a WP trading post.

I have kept (and never will get rid of) my Legos and Star Wars toys as a kid.

I have collected posters and T-shirts over the years (mainly sci-fi).

I think I have over 300 music CD's.

I love games; I have a fair number of board and computer games.

Over the years...

Stuffed animals
Rocks
Postcards
Sugar packets
Bottles
Newspaper articles about a favorite sports team
Coins
Old pictures and text for use crafty-type stuff
Mugs

Have always been a packrat drawn to small objects. Once, when I was very young, my mother made me go through a box of my things, with the idea that I would throw out what I no longer needed. I sat in my room for about two hours, went through everything, and when she came back, the "keep" pile was huge, and only thing in the "toss" pile was a stray used tissue....

cold war memorabilia

CD - Civil Defense is cool!

Z

bones , feathers and shells, and the occasional cool rock or lock of hair.

I wish I still had my baby teeth . . .

Wow, so much of this is just like me, my husband, or our son.

My husband has collections of his childhood star wars toys (that our son now plays with and collects), comic books, computer books that he's never even opened, and computer parts that I can't stand.

Son's collections are marbles, toy cars (I haven't even counted, but I would guess well over 200), Spiderman ANYTHING, action figures, little trinkets he gets from the school counselor, video games, loose change, and I'm sure a bunch more that I can't even think of. He used to collect used tin foil.

I collect:
Pens
Markers
Paper -I love a fresh, unused notebook or ream of college ruled binder paper!! ! Even better is a notebook of paper designed especially for me, maybe with my name at the top. Only 2 ppl in my life have done that for me: my aunt and my husband (we were only dating then -- is it any wonder why I married him!?!?)
Coffee mugs
Shot glasses
Magnets (all types! I was soooo upset when I lost my hard drive one that my dad got out of a computer for me when I was 12.)
Nail polish, even though I hardly ever do my nails
Makeup and makeup related products ( compacts, brushes, etc., and I only use Mary Kay, so that can get pricey.)

I'd like to add snowflakes and maybe snowmen to my collections, but I just haven't yet.

_________________
~ Carrie
It's just me and I'll find a way to make it (Blue October/It's Just Me)

Yes! I'm a very big picker-upper, I'm afraid. I have a compartment in my purse that's usually full of little things...sequins and confetti, buttons, little bits of machine parts, ribbons and bits of jewelry. I stick a lot of it in my art journals.

The biggest thing I ever 'just found' was a guitar in a trashcan at a boot fair (US people, that's kind of like a swap meet, where people sell stuff out of the trunks of their cars). I took it home, but it had gotten warped with the damp and I couldn't play it, so I took the strings off and kept it to make an art project out of. Still have it somewhere. I've also found (and worn!) a hat, scarf, and a pair of Hello Kitty shades. And I have a journal I found - clean and mostly empty, apart from a scribble and a swear word written inside the front cover! - in the public restrooms in Volunteer Park in Seattle. (I filled it with my own stuff because I always journal when I'm traveling and as luck would have it, I'd just completed one!)

However, if we're talking about just general collecting...I've acquired a huge range of junk. Among it, the following:
Books, both the kind I buy to read, and old ones, like dictionaries, kids' primers and ABC books, 'housewife' type guides...I like to cut them up and use them for collage, but I also flick through and read some of them - can be quite amusing. And old medical books, which have gorgeous artwork.
Magazines, programs and pamphlets
Postcards, old envelopes, telegrams and similar ephemera
Catholic votive cards (I'm not a Catholic, I just like the artwork)
Beads, buttons and shiny things
Rocks, shells, fossils, crystals
Dolls and bits of dolls
Tarot cards
Magazine cuttings
Art and craft materials generally...rubber stamps and especially stick-on lettering
Stickers
CDs
Anything Seattle related
Buttons with amusing slogans (I have them all up at work)
Anything connected to Nirvana

TrueDave, I couldn't resist keeping the wisdom tooth I had out the other year, and the oldest thing I've kept (from my life) is probably my baby shoes, which I still have in a bag somewhere...

I collect computer equipment, I try to keep it to things I will actually use and even sold most of it off at one point (I was broke). It is a pretty broad range of stuff, as long as its nice, I will scoop it up..... presently I have my own 50's era aluminum server rack, a slew of server grade gear (switches, servers, a router, etc) and other such garbage.


I love books, collect them and CANNOT throw them out.


I am also a huge media whore, had I enough hard drive space, or the money for a new storage server I would easily be at 10TB+ of warez, sadly I am not made of dough

I spent my childhood in France, where you can get a free timetable sheet on each bus route. I used to collect them.

I collect a great many things, and many of them may be seen as odd. The "weirdest" thing that I picked up in the past two weeks was at a thrift shop. Where I live many restaurants have plastic food displayed on a table outside or in a glass case so you can see what they serve. While at a thrift shop I saw one of these plastic pieces and I immediately bought it (it was about 5.00 USD). But, instead of being an elaborate plastic dish with various plastic food it is a plastic two feet long by one foot wide by one foot deep slice of meat. It makes me laugh every time I see it.