What do you collect?

I used to collect Santas. I had over a thousand of them, ranging from nearly lifesize to one carved from a grain of rice. Finally, I lost the fire for collecting them and sold them. Now I have about five.

Knowing that I "don't know when to stop", I resist collecting anything. Except for dust. I seem to be a Grand Master at collecting dust.
 

jujube said:
I used to collect Santas. I had over a thousand of them, ranging from nearly lifesize to one carved from a grain of rice. Finally, I lost the fire for collecting them and sold them. Now I have about five.

Knowing that I "don't know when to stop", I resist collecting anything. Except for dust. I seem to be a Grand Master at collecting dust.
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Joke here: "You need a Dyson Vacuum Cleaner, they're apparently great at collecting dust as well!" Sorry couldn't resist.

Jokes aside, we'll be collecting a few pound notes with the picture of Queen Elizabeth II as they'll be replaced by King Charles' after his coronation on 6 May 23...
 
I collect other peoples pen’s & pencils -- especially at work. I kid you not. Apparently, I’m notorious for it. My desk is full of other people’s pens & pencils. Yet for some reason, unknown to anyone, I don’t seem to carry one around with me.

When I’m away from my desk I might ask to borrow one from someone so I can write something down in front of them, or record or sign something on a document. Then I don’t give it back to them & they don’t realise I’ve walked off with it. I’ve got more pens & pencils on my desk than I know what to do with. I haven’t got the faintest idea who they belong to. There might be a word for that kind of behaviour. “Thief” springs to mind.
 
I remembered I have a collection of mostly Leather Book Markers from different places Ive been to, Ive not looked at them for an age . After a while I decided to get Post cards instead and write down what my visit was like . I have quite a collection of those , They too have been packed away in Memory boxes not seen the light of day for yonks .
 
Magna-Carta said:
I collect other peoples pen’s & pencils -- especially at work. I kid you not. Apparently, I’m notorious for it. My desk is full of other people’s pens & pencils. Yet for some reason, unknown to anyone, I don’t seem to carry one around with me.

When I’m away from my desk I might ask to borrow one from someone so I can write something down in front of them, or record or sign something on a document. Then I don’t give it back to them & they don’t realise I’ve walked off with it. I’ve got more pens & pencils on my desk than I know what to do with. I haven’t got the faintest idea who they belong to. There might be a word for that kind of behaviour. “Thief” springs to mind.
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Reminds me of a certain relative I shared a home with. Beside the phone, Relative had a cup that was full of defunct pens and pencils. I put a working pen beside the phone, so at least one usable writing instrument would be handy.

One day, while talking on the phone, I needed a pen, but the working pen was not there. I looked across the room, and there was Relative, doing a crossword puzzle with the good pen.

Why would anyone collect numerous cheap pens that don't work?
 
Magna-Carta said:
I collect other peoples pen’s & pencils -- especially at work. I kid you not. Apparently, I’m notorious for it. My desk is full of other people’s pens & pencils. Yet for some reason, unknown to anyone, I don’t seem to carry one around with me.

When I’m away from my desk I might ask to borrow one from someone so I can write something down in front of them, or record or sign something on a document. Then I don’t give it back to them & they don’t realise I’ve walked off with it. I’ve got more pens & pencils on my desk than I know what to do with. I haven’t got the faintest idea who they belong to. There might be a word for that kind of behaviour. “Thief” springs to mind.
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NorthernLight said:
Reminds me of a certain relative I shared a home with. Beside the phone, Relative had a cup that was full of defunct pens and pencils. I put a working pen beside the phone, so at least one usable writing instrument would be handy.

One day, while talking on the phone, I needed a pen, but the working pen was not there. I looked across the room, and there was Relative, doing a crossword puzzle with the good pen.

Why would anyone collect numerous cheap pens that don't work?
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My huzz did this at work; all the other guys that worked there were always calling him the "pen thief", etc; he kept telling them "I didn't take your pens!" and then one day when cleaning out his locker, found 57 pens in there.
 
Used to collect antique primitives: advertising signs, dove- tail wooden boxes, wooden bowls,
old cloth bank bags church keys, all kinds of kitchen stuff from the 30's.
Trying NOT to collect anything anymore! Well, books, I guess, but I'm more discriminating.
 
hollydolly said:
I have a collection of Vintage Victorian Scraps , the kind we swapped when were little girls at school. highly collectible now..

I also collect Ephemera connected with the long defunct Concorde Airline . Onboard freebees mainly in new condition.. Pens, headed Notepaper... Vanity bags, and so on..

I used to have a large collection of Vintage telephones the majority of which, I had altered to suit modern digital times, so they would work on digital networks.. and sole them at great profit.. I don't do that any more because the Telephone companies latched onto the popularity of these original Vintage phone, and produced their own already for the digital age.. /.. so there was less of a market for the original ones that I had.

I've kept 4 for my own entertainment.. 2 from the 1920's and 1930's.. and a couple from the 60's and 70's...

I also have 2 large Scrapbooks filled with Postcards from all over the world...
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I am not familiar with Vintage Victorian Scraps. American here. Can you tell me what they are? Thank you!
 
Leigh4 said:
I am not familiar with Vintage Victorian Scraps. American here. Can you tell me what they are? Thank you!
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this is the sort of thing we swapped with each other as little girls

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Cat figurines, since I was a kid. I also have some deer figurines. These are all thrifted except for perhaps 2 or 3 cats that were bought new at the Halmark shop. I need another small china cabinet. I have a small one I've had for years.
 
I used to collect depression glass and teapots. I now have one of each. Moving 30 times and twice across country ourselves with 5 of us gave me the cure. I also had about 20 Hummels and donated them to a husky rescue for them to be sold in their store.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I used to collect depression glass and teapots.
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My mom collected Depression glass. That was back in the 1970s and 80s when it was a hot item and you had to pay top prices. She probably bought it with the idea it would be an investment she could leave to me, but now you can't give it away. This is my album of DG:

https://www.seniorforums.com/media/...-and-other-vintage-glassware-i-inherited.635/


I have a small (for me) collection of teapots. There's a thread about teapots here:

https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/show-us-some-weird-wonderful-and-fancy-teapots.63875/
 
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debodun said:
My mom collected Depression glass. That was back in the 1970s and 80s when it was a hot item and you had to pay top prices. She probably bought it with the idea it would be an investment she could leave to me, but now you can't give it away. This is my album of DG:

https://www.seniorforums.com/media/...-and-other-vintage-glassware-i-inherited.635/


I have a small (for me) collection of teapots. There's a thread about teapots here:

https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/show-us-some-weird-wonderful-and-fancy-teapots.63875/
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I collected at the same time as your mom. However, we would visit relatives yearly in upstate New York and they were much cheaper there. We bought some antique furniture that we tied to the top of our car for the 1k trip home.

When you have collections keeping it clean consumes a lot of time. I no longer want to spend my time that way and I am fussy about having a clean house. Even stuff in curio cabinets gets dusty. Now I am all about having a leaner look that doesn’t require a lot of upkeep. Plus I wanted to pass on the gift my parents gave us of not a lot to get rid of when someone dies.
 
debodun said:
How many do you have? I wanted to inventory mine one day and gave up after I counted 350.
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Deb, I don't know. I do have some in boxes because I need to put them out behind glass. Due to the real live cats. No where near that. I'd like to put them all together and take a picture some day

Here are a couple of pictures. I just took these, didn't arrange anything. I do have more. The cats are thrifted except that cloisonne one in the first picture. That was given to me. I just got those cute bunnies last week, 2 dollars for the set. First picture, bottom left.
catcollection.JPGcatcollection2.JPG
 

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