I find that most people in my life have at least one “thing” they are collecting. It is often an insight into their personality and it is fun to hear people talk about something they are passionate about.
I collect magnets of places I’ve visited. I have two collections: one is upstairs on a magnetic chalkboard and it’s only amusement parks (along with my scratch-off map of parks) and the other is downstairs on the fridge and it’s a random mix of cities, states, countries, and attractions.
Boarding passes. I fly a lot as part of the job, and in the beginning I kept them so I could register the air miles if they didn’t tick in automatically. Then it became an archive of every air travel. Then it became a stack that I just kept adding to. It is now ~15cm high.
I wouldn’t call it collecting in the sense of owning them all, but I’ve been building up my game library on GOG and archiving all the installers on an external hard drive. It at least gives me more of a sense of ownership than my Steam library does, because if GOG went away tomorrow I’d still have my games.
House and techno vinyl records - got about 800 or so and always on the lookout for more.
Also, home shirts (and some away) for my football team, Dunfermline Athletic - got every home top going back to 1986.
What’s your favorite record you have, and is it “Baby Wants to Ride”?
Ha, it’s not, although I do have it (two versions actually, one where it’s the b-side of Your Love)
Favourite record is a tough one. Impossible maybe. One I finally got a couple of weeks ago, that I’ve wanted for ages, is Go by Moby. Probably still not my favourite, but I was delighted to get it :-)
Actually, make that 3 versions - just bought a 12" with remixes including the wonderful House of Trix mix, my favourite version of the tune.
I started collecting shot glasses when I was in my 20s. Somewhere in my 30s, I stopped. Now I collect shirts from 5k runs that I participated in.
I started collecting knives which evolved into balisongs which I love to flip
Knives. I don’t know why.
Misery. I collect misery.
As a kid, we were so poor, it was scary. I remember living in a car, having to choose between going hungry or eating food that was past its prime, and learning Santa wasn’t real too young (I couldn’t understand why my friends got expensive dream gifts… I thought I had been good)
After going through all that and my mom overdosing, I started collecting things that would accumulate value or were an investment. Comic books and figurines are my go to, but I’ve also got machines for creating cosplays (as that’s my career now). I won’t buy anything that I can’t pawn off in an emergency to survive, or use it to make money. I really should have been collecting coins/gold/silver, but I picked what was fun.
Also, shoutout to my elementary school’s lunch lady, who noticed a tiny, thin girl using the free lunch program, and offered her seconds, after everyone else had been served. I don’t think she knows how much she touched my life.
Houseplants. Equipment for various methods of brewing coffee. Ebooks.
I’m with you on the houseplants, starting to branch out (lol) into hoyas now.
Ah, I hope you find it to be fertile grounds for a new hobby. Some passionate people into hoyas, they can even rival rose aficionados at times.
Would digital collection count? I’ve been collecting completed TV shows.
I seem to be collecting vintage lenses. I stared by getting an adapter for my mirrorless camera and I just fell in love with the lovely character their ‘flaws’ give them.
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An ex had a collection of anime figures that cost him around 15,000 usd in total. Actual worth?
I’ll give you three fiddy.
Steam library
Too accurate.
Those damned Steam sales and humble bundles…
^ This. I have 3,225 games on Steam and I’m always finding more that I want to try out.
No need for game pass when I already got a collection already.
I have a lot of small bottles and vials waiting to be filled. It started decades ago when I found a quaint little glass tube with a stopper in an antique shop at my favorite beach town and thought it’d be nice to take home some sand from my favorite spot, thereafter becoming a tradition for subsequent visits. Now I pick one up whenever I see one to have a cache available for any future adventures.
Thats a really cool idea! Like a science lab of memories. Might have to grab a vial if I see one thrifting/antiqueing
It’s super easy to just collect then when you see them (even at craft stores and plant shops) and then it ends up kinda encouraging you to think up adventures so you can fill them.
I’ve got some with sand, dirt, ocean/lake water, gravel, some with just air (captured a cloud/fog while high atop a mountain), tears, paper, burnt campfire wood, etc.
My secret sauce is that I don’t label them so I have to try to call up the origin story in memory and I get an excuse to tell a tale whenever someone asks me about one.
