<p>Cool collection. Staffa brings back some fond memories. Wife and I spent a week of our honeymoon on Mull with daytrips out to some of the smaller islands like Staffa and Iona. We were lucky to be able to land the first time out, but I very nearly slipped off the ledge inside of Fingal’s Cave (no guardrails at all.) What a fascinating little island, from the hexagonal basalt pillars to the sound the wind makes as it whips across the mouth of the cave - kind of like blowing into an enormous soda bottle.</p>
<p>Most of my collections are related to toys: antique German dolls by a particular manufacturer, antique paper dolls given away as premiums by coffee and thread companies, antique wooden blocks and miniature antique books. I also like postcards from the tiny town my grandparents lived in and heart-shaped rocks.</p>
<p>Dinner plates of the fifty states, circa 1940s and 50s., the kitschier the better. Vintage window decals of national parks and other American travel destinations (note: must have visited).</p>
<p>Bumper stickers from locations we have visited with our RV, applied to the rear bumper of our Geo Metro tow vehicle.</p>
<p>I have an extensive CD & vinyl collection, including some very valuable titles. I hate to put it as a “collection”, since all are for playing. However, when I see the prices some of these items sell for on Ebay, I’m very tempted to put them up for sale (would certainly help the tuition fund, but I know I’d regret it).</p>
<p>Unless someone says they collect cars, AFPrep wins for most gi-normous collection! Where do you keep them all?</p>
<p>bookiemom- I’d say that I also collect heart-shaped rocks, but have only found two :(</p>
<p>I do keep the nicer pieces of glass I find at a nearby beach – not the clear kind, but old pieces of broken china, some with pretty patterns. Our neighbor’s house used to be an Inn, and the men would head up the lane from their ships for food, lodging, and ‘entertainment.’ How plates and bowls ended up in the water I don’t know. Maybe romantic walks on the shore(?)</p>
<p>Audiophile-- I pretty much gave all my albums away back in the early 80’s. Most would be considered junk, but I also had some Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran records that were already quite old when I bought them. Same goes for my mother’s collection of Edith Piaf and other war-era recordings. Oh well.</p>
<p>Playing cards. Full decks only, but they don’t have to be unopened. My favorites are “Translation Cards” from Northwest Orient. Each card has a common tourist phrase and phonetic translations for three Asian languages.</p>
<p>My DS collects buttons/pins. It all started the first year we went to MacWorld and all the vendors were handing out buttons to advertise their products. My son stuck them on his sweatshirt. And there they stayed. Over the next 8 years we went to MacWorld every year (the one day every year I let him skip school) and he added more buttons to his sweatshirt (at some point in high school we had to take the buttons off the original sweat shirt & put them on a new sweat shirt since he’d grown a bit). Over the years the vendors at MacWorld stopped handing out as much stuff including buttons though this year there seemed to be a resurgance, though it was the first year my DS missed MacWorld as he’s away college. He asked me to wear his button shirt but its way too heavy for me to put on. But I did collect buttons for him and added them to the shirt. He’s also added any buttons or pins he’s received or that he’s bought. Iomega always had the funniest buttons. I imagine more than half the buttons on his sweatshirt are Iomega.</p>
<p>As I’ve read about these collections, I realized I have even more than I thought. I suppose it’s because I never thought of them as such.</p>
<p>I too have a depression glass “collection” which I got from my mom when she died. There are close to 1000 pieces, and she collected 5 colors (green, amber, yellow, pink & blue…there are a few white (not clear) pieces as well). She had a huge china cabinet that she would switch out 3 times a year in order to enjoy her entire collection.</p>
<p>And I have patches. That started in the early 1960s. My family (mom & grandmom) & I traveled extensively for business. Before I was 20 I lived in 5 countries and spoke 5 languages. Patches were inexpensive, and travelled light. At one point they were sewn to a Levi jacket, but I outgrew it and the patches are in a vintage candy box.</p>
<p>I love vintage anything, and if I could, I’d love to have a “shabby chic” home.</p>
<p>We’ve bought a pin or keychain at every college we’ve visited and plan to put them all on something (scarf,etc.) from the winning college. Except we didn’t get anything from Vassar or Goucher because the campus stores were closed, so only 18 of 20. Is there an easy way to get stuff like this on-line? Have to have a complete collection.</p>
<p>We actually have another “collection” which I didn’t think of originally. It is my husband’s, rather than mine, and it is a huge Lionel O gauge train layout dating from the early 1950’s onward. The O gauge trains are larger and less commonly seen than the HO gauge, which are often displayed on layouts with elaborate scenery. My father-in-law started to acquire the train set soon after his oldest child was born in 1949. It consists of an elaborate track layout on three 4 x 8 foot boards. There are freight trains and passenger trains that light up, and the engines have horns or whistles and one can make “steam”. There are many operating cars and operating stations which work such as a coal station, an ice station, a cattle yard, a lumber station, and a milk bottle station. There are gates that go up and down, a hand car, a snow plow car, a car where a policeman chases a hobo, a car where the man on top lies down as he goes under the bridge, among others. There is also a whole village with homes, stores, churches, a firehouse, an airstrip and hangar, a farm with lead animals, outhouses, etc., most with bulbs inside the buildings to light them at night. These are called “Plasticville” because at the time they were made, plastic was new and was a novelty.
My husand’s parents and grandparents actually used to set this whole thing up on Christmas eve while the kids were sleeping - it was done by “Santa”. I love the set, and it is good we have it (instead of anyone else in our family) because things always break and my husband has the ability and interest to fix them (when he has time), but it has been set up in our living room for many years, which is not ideal. It would take us several days to put it away properly, and if we did, we probably would never set it up again, so in the living room it stays, for now.</p>
<p>Ethnic music (now called “world music”), primarily Greek, Turkish, Jewish, Armenian, Balkan, French Canadian, some Scottish and some Scandinavian. My wife has collected baskets and teapots but both of us are findng that we just have too many “things”.</p>
<p>Berurah: if you collect hands, you should look into hamsas, if you haven’t already done so.</p>
Do you have a link, dos? Thanks! Guess I could just google it, huh?</p>
<p>edited to add: I just looked at some online! VERY COOL, dos! Thanks! It’s funny, when I go into jewelry stores, my eyes are typically drawn to the hands that are holding rings and bracelets and such, but they’re never for sale! <em>lol</em> :D</p>
<p>I have a wonderful collection of my Mom’s English flow blue china. </p>
<p>I collect fountain pens (and regularly use two or three), tarot cards, and turtles: figurines, jewelry…</p>
<p>My H collects books (his library is 5,000 and growing, the man doesn’t get the concept of borrowing books from a library), and also Haitian, Brazilian and African art.</p>
<p>I too have extensive an extensive sea glass collection – the results of many, many early morning walks on the beach. Also an impressive (if I do say so myself) collection of fossilized shark’s teeth from the years when my mother spent her winters on the west coast of Florida. Also striped rocks and round rocks and Cape May Diamonds – unless you’ve been to Jersey, don’t ask.
Nearest and dearest to my heart is my collection of corn cob-related items – again don’t ask – and corn maiden fetishes. I knew I had passed on an important gene when my college-bound daughter said the other day, “I’ll go crazy if my roommate doesn’t like all of my clutter!”</p>
<p>Does it count as a collection if I made all of the items? I have just shy of 100 wooden fishing lures and a larger number of metal lures that I have made. I only use a few of the wooden lures. It was way to much work to make them.</p>
<p>At one time I made knives. Some I just made the handles. Some I also worked the steel. I still have a large wall-mounted display. Then there are the replica blackpowder firearms and hundreds of metals and awards I won in competition. </p>
<p>I guess it is time for a new hobby so I can make more stuff to keep.</p>
<p>When I was young, I asked for dolls whenever people travelled. Many sit on shelves in dining room.
refrigerator magnets
baseball cards (MANY years old)</p>
<p>old Jazz records (need to donate)
star trek figures
garden gnomes</p>