Morning STW...
So after reading through the Airfix collection thread.. And currently attempting the task of sorting through my late Grandfarthers multiple collections (Trains, tools etc). It got me wondering what other people collect, why they start, and what they plan to do with it?
I personally would say I invest in a collection. With a small amount of studio and broadcast equipment, which I am hoping will raise in price, while also being nice to own.
So... What do all you guys collect?
Is 7 a collection? If so then bikes.
Music, films and video games too
If 3 counts then aircraft instrumentation too 8)
Niggling Injuries
Got a bit of Lego. A few traditional drums and percussion instruments (and a fair few electronic instruments). Quite a bit of music on vinyl and CD. Probably 40+ cookery books. Wouldn't call any of them collections though, not just accruals of stuff connected to some of my interests.
Only thing I think I actually collect would be interesting (rather than expensive or exotic) pens and pencils. Probably got 80 or 90, most of which get used on an ad-hoc rotation basis. I am an art teacher, so I guess obsessing with writing and drawing equipment is OK...
EDIT. Just seen kayak's post. I too have loads of stones and pebbles from various places - I'm just not organised enough to have written on them where they come from...
Slot cars.
Travel books.
and most recently models kits. 1 72, WWII and Cold War era stuff.
5 1/2 bikes isn't really a collection, but it cost multiple times more than the above 3.
Resentments.
Ok esselgruntfuttock what are they?
Owls
Regrets
Moss
Gotta say the hockey pucks is a cool one to collect.
I don't tend to collect anything really. Although we do seem to be collecting a fair number of the beatrix potter 50p coins in silver at the moment and some of the other nice ones
Women's magazines are a great place to find handy hints that out Viz ,Viz.
Someone wrote in saying how much she had always admired those bloody awful decorative plates that old people collect.
She then went on about how she couldn't afford them so she simply cut the pictures from the adverts.
There was even a picture of her standing proudly in her hallway with all these cut outs blue tacked to her wall.
Apparently all her visitors commented on them!
ps do I win Star Letter and a £25 voucher?
Souls
Nowt really, closet thing is probably tools as i've got 3 large tool cabinet/chests, one for bike stuff, one for car stuff, and one for "other stuff". I doubt even that could be termed a collection as the contents get used frequently.
Don't really do any other collections as i hate clutter/shite lying around and every few months have a clearout, I stay in a 1bed bungalow so space is at a premium and i have very minimal other stuff, my entire life at age 45 would fit quite comfortably in a small transit van. (apart from my tool cabinets)
Oh...just remembered - I collect reg numbers of vehicles that either cut me up/endanger my life on the bike and when/if i get the chance to pull them up about it at some future point i am quite polite about broaching the subject with them, what i do next is dependant on their reactions.
Souls
It's spelt 'Shoes'...
Limited Edition silkscreen gig posters..
If i put them all together in a pile it would come up to my waist.
I collect murano glass, and glass paperweights.
Alasdair Gray screen prints has proved to be a costly collection.
At the moment, air guns.
Diana 52 sidelever sleeved down to 22mm and short stroked. To be assembled at the earliest opportunity.
Diana 430 underlever lightly modified for smoother firing cycle.
Sterling HR81 underlever. Great gun with iron sights.
Heavily modified Crosman AS2250XT with HPA and multi-shot breech.
Wrecked Hatsan 60.
Crosman 2240 pistol with carbine stock.
Westlake S2. For teh lulz.
Wanting to get a proper PCP, regret selling the Falcon Prairie CM for a friend.
Failed relationships?
I used to collect graphic novels and, unintentionally, books. Those have mostly gone now as I attempt to de-clutter.
Debt
Currently colds. I've just got my second in a row and fed up with the constant runny nose and phlegm! And why always on a double bank holiday!?
Souls
It's spelt 'Shoes'...
Soles?
Half finished things, can't get enough of them.
Money
Junk.
And then I never get round to chucking it out.
Bikes and bike stuff could be considered a collection but I don't intend to collect the stuff, it's just stuff to use and a load of worn out replaced junk I haven't thrown out.
I used to collect DVDs (films). Had 400 at one point. Then I found I don't have the time / energy to watch them any more and on top everything went HD so I refuse to watch films in SD but I can't be bothered replacing the collection (and wouldn't have time to watch them anyway. I've got dozens that I had replaced on Blu Ray years ago and not watched them).
If space allowed, I'd have a collection of retro computers. At present I just have a ZX81 and Spectrum. I want a BBC Micro again at least, maybe others. But then again, if space allowed, I'd have a lot more bikes.
Regrets
Regrets
+1.
...I've had a few...
KOMs 😉
Or actually miniature orchids, small plants with tiny flowers. Though "collect" could be taken to mean "try and sometimes fail to keep alive"
Failed relationships?I used to collect graphic novels
Comic books, dude. Comic books always do that.
Nothing physical. My mum used to collect ornaments and tat, which just seemed like a lot of junk and dusting.
Outside of that, uh, browser tabs and games on Steam.
I suppose bikes count, but if n+1 gets over four I get pretty brutal about selling them.
whisky, memories- though I lose a lot of them, vinyl, films, books on abandoned places, Mike mignola comics
Lessons unlearned.
Nervous twitches.
Broken dreams
I've got a few airguns:
BSA R10 Airtech tuned with 32mm dia. Carbon shroud/silencer. Stupidly accurate.
Steyr LP2 Compact PCP match pistol.
1980s vintage Gamo Center under lever pistol
1990s vintage BSA 240 Magnum pistol.
Gamo P25 CO2 pistol with 16 shot mag' and blowback "slide". Much fun.
If space allowed, I'd have a collection of retro computers. At present I just have a ZX81 and Spectrum. I want a BBC Micro again at least, maybe others
I've got a Speccy, an ST and an Amiga. I should actually do something with them at some point...
Outside of that, uh, browser tabs and games on Steam.
I'm brutal with browser tabs. I go on a mad closing session once I've got so many open that there isn't space to show the icons any more...
I have 181 Steam games. I've probably played half a dozen of them.
Muscle fibres, a very good investment for later life.
Nothing, having a father who collects everything is a good education
Arc'teryx jackets it would seem, much to the wife's annoyance.
Retrobikes and old cameras. Trying to thin the bike collection down a bit though(this mostly happens in my head). Haven't bought any cameras for a while either.
I've limited my book buying considerably and try to borrow or use the library as I have boxes and boxes full of them. CD's and records are really just gathering dust now I've been using spotify. Magazines still slip through the net though, I must have most Singletracks and a few older mountain bike ones.
I have been trying to stop gathering stuff and getting rid of a load is very cathartic as I try to declutter.
EDIT: its actually worse than I thought, I've boxes of comics somewhere, first day covers, spoons(yes really), and coins.
Oh and bags for life. Possibly Scotlands biggest collection.
Slot cars , particularly vintage that I can tweek/repair.
1/72 ww1 model aircraft , looks of despair from my wife.
Flesh wounds apparently, and 26 inch front wheels
Marbles.
Wanna play?
Animals.
14 chickens, 4 cats and 2 dogs.
The bins
Other peoples nail clippings..............none of them know 😉
DE razors - although I've not added to them for ages (since having kids!). In fact I've been meaning to sell off sone of them for ages, just not found the time (motivation really)
The tears of my enemies.
Bits of prostitutes.
The unintentional things I seem to have collected:
Bikes - mtb/cx/road types
Airguns - rifles and pistols
Gillette DE razors - adjustables & non-adjustables
The intentional things I have collected:
Whisky - various
1st edition boxing books.
Thunderbirds models, the 1966 series figures.Theyre not puppets.
Wine.
Sadly its as expensive as collecting bikes
Britains Deetail Figurines. They are not toy soldiers 😉
Other things...
Archery kit.
Model aeroplanes.
Joel model diggers.
And of course mountain bikes.
And anything that looks useful from fly tips I ride past.
Arc'teryx jackets it would seem, much to the wife's annoyance.
I've got as far as all the Atoms, although I sold the LT Vest.....
Dead bits of bicycle
Aches and pains as I get older.
Hunter Thompson first editions - currently got 11 I think (although one's cheating - it's the first paperback edition, but I think that is the first UK edition so I'm counting it).
Started by accident - got a couple of (then) recent things in one of those remainder book shops that were a lot more popular 20 years ago than they are now. Then my other half came up with another one from a charity shop for peanuts and then I saw volume I of the thing I had Volume II of, and then before you know it my 40th birthday present came complete with HST's signature and I'm a collector.
Recently diversified into Ralph Steadman rare prints (courtesy of the wife again, buying me a signed artist's proof that I really must get framed) which seems like a good companion hobby to the HST thing, but with much more potential for ruinous spendiness.
and inner tubes.
"Fat"
Mostly round my middle & chins 🙁
My love of cooking, food & wine have spelled disaster for my weight.
The unintentional things I seem to have collected:
Bikes - mtb/cx/road types
Airguns - rifles and pistols
They do seem to have a similar tendency to just impose themselves in your life. I have a near complete Peugeot UO8 I got for nothing and I literally got given the Sterling as it was going to the armistice box otherwise.
What do you collect?
For practical reasons:
1. Gillette DE razors or any well made ones.
2. Chef knives but I also want to start machete/survival knives collection.
3. Cooking utensils ... 
Use to know a real strange guy who use to collect pubic hair from the ladies toilets where we worked, he kept it in a large matchbox.
Broken computer screens and Lasers.
Oh, and failed dreams, obviously.
Oakleys. Pretty much packed it in now due to various reasons. Not quite reached 60 pairs
Dust.
Started collecting 50p's for the boy. Got the royal mint insert books, the lot!
I am even seriously considering forking out a (good) few quid for a kew gardens 50p and the original olympics collectors book. I figure that they aren't going to decrease in value, maybe worthwhile for him in 20 years.
Wrecker, I don't want to piss on your chips, but my dad did similar in mine and my sisters birth years (85 and 88) . They're currently worth....
...nothing.
Nothing lost if that's the case though tom!
Small Capacity two stroke motorbikes.
Yamaha RD 200
Suzuki GP100
Aprilia RS125R Extrema
Aprilia RS125 Exrema
Aprilia RS125
Aprilia AF1 125
Aprilia Pegaso 125
Two of them run, one of them is on the road*, the rest are projects!
Should be up to 3 running and 3 on the road in the next few weeks.
Interesting collections... I think best we call ourselves collectors, other wise it's not good..
things we have more than a normal number of: Motor bikes, push bikes, cars, engines, bike, car and aircraft parts, tools, books, wheels - stacks of bloody wheels!
2. Chef knives but I also want to start machete/survival knives collection.
Well, I've got a folding machete that was issued to US paratroopers during WW2, and a Kukhri from the same period, both of which belonged to my dad, but as he died when I was thirteen, I never found out exactly how he got them.
However, he was an engineer with the RAF in Singapore, and was there when it fell to the Japanese, thus becoming a POW in Changi, and there were Gurkha guards there, I guess he acquired them when Singapore was liberated.
I've no plans on acquiring any more, though, and they aren't leaving my possession either.
Jugs!
Cloth badges. The sort you get in touristy areas mainly, you know, 'keswick', 'the lake District' etc. Started when i was a scout and it seems a shame to stop now as it makes a pretty good record of places I've been. Still sewing them onto the same blanket my grandad gave me.
Just about everywhere in france has them so have quite a few from uni summer holidays spent bumming around on the bike out there and you can usually find them in most places, just head for the shop most full of tourist tat.
My mum found an old swimming towel with my 50m etc badges on a few years back, they all dutifully got transferred over. Got a festive 500 and bear bones 200 last year as well!
I used to collect Minichamps 1:12 die-cast ((MotoGP/WSBK/BSB) but stopped around 2007 as their prices got silly.
I have some of the rare Rossi models including 2004 test bike and original 2001 Mugello.
When I started the models retailed at £39.99 but now cost £100 each! Minichamps got greedy with success so put a lot of keen collectors like myself off as it was no longer financially feasible to keep up with their new releases.
GPX tracks. They don't take up much space, though they can be hard to acquire.
Similarly, maps old and new (they take up more space).
I also have a collection of The Ride Journal, which is satisfying because it's complete and won't need expanding ever (probably).
And a box of Simpsons figures in the loft from when I was younger.
Student debt
RC gliders. I haven't flown any of them for about 2 years, so was surprised I appear to have about 11. Including some monster 4m wing span scale DG that I'm not sure I've ever flown.
When I'm too old to ride, I'll rescue them from the rafters. At least there won't be new 'wing standards' to worry about 😉
This is my fav tho, flown that loads
[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5030/5602985063_76ec50e549_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5030/5602985063_76ec50e549_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/9x7LfK ]Simprop L33[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
I collect watches. Mostly old ones. If you think bikes can be expensive, I recommend not going down ths particular rabbit hole.
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