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I started this thread to see what weird things Hatrackers collect. (Besides OSC books, of course!)
I'll start:
I collect bottle caps -- but not the metal ones, the plastic ones that come on bottles of soda. I have just over 2000 of them right now. I have never found anyone else who collects these.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I used to collect frogs. Anything that was a figurine, stuffed animals, pictures of frogs, posters of frogs, just about anything. I even ended up getting a pet frog.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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As a very young child (until I was four or five) I collected elephants. Sophomore year of college my roommates started a trend of giving me penguin-themed gifts, and to this day an item with a penguin on it is more likely to get my attention than one without. I don't think that's too odd, though, because I know of at least one other person who collects penguins.
Posts: 3801 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I collect Pez dispensers. I've got hundreds and hundreds, all different. But I hate the Pez candy. I either throw it out, or bring it in to work. Halloween is coming up. If you come to my door, you'll get a roll of Pez candy. When the kids ask about getting the dispenser, too, I tell them to go away.
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Plastic and china horses in 1/9th and 1/32nd scales, mostly Breyers but some other brands, I have around 200.
Tea sets, like little kids ones, there are three sizes on my shelf, little teeny dollhouse scale, the cute little size, and the size that three year olds can actually drink tea out of. I really like blue willow ones. I haven't bought (or recieved) any of these in several years.
Rocks, well I'm almost over that one, but usually on vacation I pick one up that looks relatively native.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I have a small toy collection (mostly stuff from my youth and the occasional thing that catches my interest now). I also have a decent sized collection of magazines, running the spectrum from Game Developer to EGM to CGW to Toyfare to Wizard, and so on. When I say decent sized, I mean it covers all the shelves in my closet at home, two bins at home, and a sizeable portion of my shelf space here. Yeah, it's awesome.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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Yeah that's why I'm breyerchic, though the ice cream isn't bad, at the time i made the sn I was on lots of model horse message boards that it was expected to have a similar sn. Now I've had it so long (five years on AIM) that I can't change it, everyone knows who I am.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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You know the little bits of cardboard (long ovals with a semicircle on the top) that are punched out of packages so they can hang on metal rods instead of lying flat on shelves? I have an old lunchbox full of them- when I was little I would collect them and look for exciting new colors.
My brother and I also used to collect straight pins- we'd find them on the floor at the mall and compete for who could get the most. The green ones were the rarest and best, the whites were next, and the silvers were everywhere.
I collected buttons, too... come to think of it, I used to just accumulate junk constantly...
Posts: 60 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I collect books. not a good idea when you move as frequently as i have. i do consider it relatively productive, though.
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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I used to walk around places like Dillards and JcPenney and pick up the little plastic round "size" things that go on hangers. But I would always take them up to one of the checkout counters and give them back. I only have a few now, that got left in a pocket or something.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I collect chickens. My first husband's only talent was to cluck like a chicken and my family thought it was hilarious. They bought us some chicken things like cookie jars and figurines but he thought they were stupid (he had no sense of humor to go along with his lack of talent), so when I booted him, I kept the chickens. My family kept buying them for me so now my whole kitchen is chicken themed. I knew when I met my current husband and saw his set of chicken dishes (completely coincidental) that we were destined to be together.
Another strange collection is my two and a half year old daughter's. When I was pregnant, my very eccentric mother-in-law got on a stuffed raccoon kick and we got a cardboard box ful to use when decorating the nursery. The baby GIRL's nursery, mind you. Most of them she had found at thrift stores and none of them were in great shape; some of them were downright stinky. I threw most of them out (and regretted it later) but now my mom thinks it's funny to buy my daughter raccoons. So now she has cute raccoon beanie babies and books and stuff. VERY strange indeed.
My aunt collects dishes with stars and things that say Joy.
My cousin (her daughter) collects palm trees and things that are pink and fuzzy.
My uncle (her dad) collects goofy monkey figurines; the uglier, the better. No one knows why; we just buy them.
My father collects golf stuff (and the reason is obvious) and his little throne room is completely filled with it since it is the only room in the house my mother will let him decorate.
My mother collects mouse Christmas decorations. Her house looks like the Christmas section of a department store.
My grandmother collects red hat stuff since she is a member of the Red Hat Society. We were thrilled when she joined since we never knew what to get her but now she has told us in no uncertain terms that she has ENOUGH now. So now I have no ideas for what to get her for Christmas.
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I collect coins still, off and on. I don't actively collect them though, it's both too much work and too much money to buy individual pieces, but I do try and pick up mint sets from the US Mint whenever they are offered.
My main collecting passion at the moment is United Cutlery reproduction swords from the Lord of the Rings movies. I just bought Sting, Legolas' knives, and the Gud Daedaloth, the knife that Celeborn gave Aragorn at Lothlorien. I'm saving up for several others.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'd have to say books are the only things I haven't been able to part with of all the stuff I've collected over the years. I have interests in lots of other things -- watches, antique radios, old cars, old clocks -- but my interest does not extend to the point of building a serious collection. For one thing, I have never had the money to get more than a few of any particular type of item. For another, maintainence costs become a serious factor with most of the things I'd be interested in acquiring. When fixing a watch costs as much or more than the watch did, for example, it puts serious limits on the number of watches one could reasonably collect.
I have to say, though, that my collections have given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people. For example, there's a guy in Orlando who fixes old radios and knows more about antique electronic devices than probably anyone on the planet. He's a hoot to hang out with and quite well known in his circle.
There's a watch guy in Texas who similarly can teach you more about old watches in an hour's chat than you could ever get from books. Sadly, the last time I saw him, he was robbed later that evening and never returned to the antique show in my area. I think he was so soured by the experience that the fun has gone out of it for him.
The guy who fixed my old clocks is a University professor who decided to do this as a hobby. He's an interesting and fun guy to talk to as well.
That's half the fun of collecting, I think; meeting the people who have serious expertise.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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This just reminded me, I know of a man in Virginia who has a renowned collection of miniatures of women's shoes. It apparently numbers in the 1000's and is world renowned.
I also met a guy who makes miniatures of old weapons. His metalwork is supremely detailed.
Met a guy who makes wooden boat models for a living and, on the side, hand carves tiny musical instruments that work! He showed me a small violin he made for a friend. It was tunable! He made a miniature bow for it too. Real hair!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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I have over 1,100 CDs now. It's not that weird, but I guess it is a collection.
I used to have a fairly hefty stack of LPs as well, but I've relieved myself of most of them over the course of several moves.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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Anime dvd's... Tolkien books, multiple versions of Sil and LOTR... Those fleur de leis things on top of iron fences... Silver rings...
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Vintage purses. Oh, who am I kidding. Vintage clothing, period. I just love it. Also tons of books and yarn. I can't resist unusual yarn, even if I don't know exactly what I'll do with it when I buy it.
Posts: 74 | Registered: Oct 2005
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As soon as I have space to keep them I'm going to start collecting glasses and cups. Right now I just walk through stores and antique malls and lust.
I guess I also collect yarn, though I don't think of it as a collection so much as an overpowering desire to spend lots of money. Looking around me I have bags full of yarn sitting around my desk. It's slightly depressing, actually, since I've been working on the same project for 3 months and am just barely halfway done.
I collect music boxes, which I guess is slightly unusual. My aunt gives me two every year, and by now I have a huge collection.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Boon
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I collect clutter. My husband and children do not appreciate my collection, as they frequently have to clean it up and put it away...but I always manage to collect some more.
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I really, really want a collection of something. The closes thing I have to one is my bookshelf of science fiction books, none of which are rare. When I was around 9 I used to go to this comic book shop and pick out a random comic book that looks cool and I saved all of them, hoping they'd be worth alot soon. Now I know that none of them are worth more than 5 bucks and probably won't be worth anything for about 200 years. I'm looking hard for something I could start a collection with, hopefully I'll find a cool idea for myself in this thread.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I used to collect cool erasers when I was little. In the past I have collected: toy horses (grand champion/breyer) coins from every country (I think I made it up to about 60 or so) beanie babies Pogs (I think that is what they were called-those cardboard disks that kids traded) plastic animal figurines
right now I do not really collect anything besides notes from all my classes that I have taken...and that doesn't count
Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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we never traded pogs, we hoarded them, then played them with a plastic one, it was pretty dumb, and i was just young enough that I thought I had to have them though I never could make them work.
I still have a ton of beanie babies, sadly and I think I missed the market.
Blacwolve, we must go antiquing sometime, I'm sure we'd spend way too much money though.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Back in 1978, the pop machine up at my summer camp started having cans with the current type of pop-top. Up until then, it'd been the pull-tab thing. I hated this new kind of tab, and still do. So I made a habit of taking it off before I drank. I bend it back and forth until it comes off.
I started to keep the tabs on a string I'd tacked onto my shelves at camp. I don't remember when I stopped collecting the things. But I still break the tab off every time I open a can. Unless it's on Shabbat, that is.
I used to collect comics. I still do a little. But it's not really collecting, the way people collect stamps and rare comics and the like.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I collect elephant stuff now Lindsay. I have many stuffed ones, and many little figurines. My best friend currently lives in Asia, and I got the biggest box FULL of elephant stuff after she visited Thailand. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I first collected pennies and a few other coins when I was a kid. I eventually spent most of them. I kept the silver coins and I still look for them and keep them if I find one (haven't seen one years though).
I do collect now, but they never amount to much (especially compared to others). But they are collections anyway.
Legos. Books. James Christensen artwork (most of it as postcards or whatnot--only a few prints). Some old computer stuff (C64, Amiga--nostalgia). Oh, and the real odd one is hard disk platters. They make such nice ornaments.
And I collect files. Every time I get a bigger hard disk, I manage to fill it. Right now it is around 150 gig.
When I started my current job as a lab administrator I began collecting floppy disk covers as students would constantly leave them inside the floppy drives, I think the most I found in a drive at one time was 3 (the drive was toast).
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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When I was a kid I collected butterflies. When I was about 17, I decided I didn't care to kill things any more, so for a year or two I bred butterflies. For a period in Mexico my best friend collected beetles. We went on a school vacation together, collecting butterflies and beetles together.
I still have a few -- about 40 -- of the better specimens from those days. I treasure my collection of butterfly and moth books.
Also when I was a kid, I collected butterfly stamps. Each of us in the family collected a theme of stamps: my dad collected map stamps, my mom bird stamps, and my sister flower stamps.
Sharpie and I discovered that we are both magpies. I collect bits of stuff that catches my eye. I cannot explain what each item has in common with the others, except that it appeals to eye or touch in some way. A little toy car, a rock, a feather, a foreign coin, a bit of a broken hubcap, a marble, a seashell.....
I collect words. This is useful, as I play Scrabble competitively.
I am hoping to collect story rejection notices, and maybe some acceptances, too.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I've always wanted a collection of something.
I don't have one thing I collect, and of the things I have very small collections of, I don't really want anymore.
I have an altoid tin full of foreign coins, from Amsterdam, France, Switzerland, Canada, and England. It's not a big tin.
I have a shelf of about 6 or so (empty) bottles and cans collected from various trips. It includes a tiny can of Sprite from one of my plane rides, a can of Irn-Bru from England, and a bottle of Orangina from a reunion party we had with the group I went to France with. And a few other bottles/cans like that. My husband bought a big keg-shaped can of Heinekin for a bit pot of chili he was making. He rinsed it out to put with my bottle/can collection, since it looked cool.
I used to have about 3 or 4 stamps as a kid. That collection never grew at all. I might still have them.
I guess you could say I collect altoid tins, there are probably about a dozen around the apartment. But they're all over the place.
I love to read, but I don't really collect books. I have lots, but not nearly as much as the average hatracker, I'd bet. Many of them are books (not textbooks) I've had to buy for class. I have more OSC books than ones by any other author. I usually check books out from the library.
If I were to start a collection, it'd probably be of miniature wicker chairs. I have a cute wicker couch, with two bears from the Hard Rock Cafe on it.
OH YEAH! I collect Hard Rock Cafe stuff. I can say that is definitely a collection. My rule is that I have to have physically been to the Hard Rock in that city in order to have items from that store, so no gifts from friends or relatives. Not that anyone has ever tried to give me a gift from there. I have shirts, keychains, pins, bears, hats (maybe just one hat), and I think that's it..
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Actually I could think of a collection. I have a huuuge collection of basketball cards and a moderate one from all of the other major sports. Alot of them came from my grandfather, who loved sports and had lots of cards, but I also bought a ton myself when I was younger. I also have a decent collection of memorabilia sport cards, like autographed cards, game-worn jersey cards, stuff like that. I don't collect anymore though.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I've been collecting bottle caps for the past eight or nine years, usually from beers and sodas consumed by the gang on gaming nights.
My hope is to use them a few years from now as a decorative motif on a gaming table or bartop in our home. Should look pretty interesting, or so I hope. I'll just lay the caps with the colored sides up on the bartop, arrange them and then cover the mosaic in lucite.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote: My first husband's only talent was to cluck like a chicken
That statement is hilarious on so many levels.
I've accidentally started a collection of copies of The Secret Garden by Francis H. Burnett. Does 3 count as a collection?
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Collecting things that are actually valuable or nice is sort of cheating, to me. For some reason the collections I find most endearing are the ones where the item collected is cool but useless and free. I love the idea of collecting the little punch out things from stores.
I have a mild compulsion to collect small identical plastic items. They're sort of like little blocks or something, to me. They are just fun to have, like some huge bin of legos. I've thrown out most of them, though. The only one I have left is my collection of Tide scoops, the little platic scoops that come in the detergent boxes. I just stack them up on the laundry table. I find them pleasing, for some unknown reason.
I have a lot of books, too, but those don't count for me as a collection, because they're useful for their own selves.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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After googling the lyrics I would be surprised if you didn't know it already. Apparently the Grateful Dead did a version of it, but the one I'm familiar with is Peter and Gordon's.
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Most of them she had found at thrift stores and none of them were in great shape; some of them were downright stinky. I threw most of them out (and regretted it later) but now my mom thinks it's funny to buy my daughter raccoons. So now she has cute raccoon beanie babies and books and stuff. VERY strange indeed.![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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