Featured How did this happen ?

That is a sweetie, Drew, nice find.

 

Started collecting at an early age, maybe age 3-4? Collected rocks and other natural things at first. Collected bird nests and eggs too. Still have my rock collection that has been continuously added to over the years. At age 13 my grandparent's had passed and their home was liquidated via auction. Most of the furnishings actually dated back to my great grandparents. I kept a few things including a couple antique etchings. This was the beginning of my art collection. The Oliver typewriter I recently showed on the typewriter thread was one of the items. I also picked up an old spool bed in pieces that didn't sell. It was my first refinishing project and I still have it. By age 18, I was buying some and re-selling for profit a little here and there.

Over the years I have collected various things. A large padlock collection was consciously stopped and liquidated about 20 years ago. My radio collecting has also stopped, though I still own a couple dozen. I once had a pretty good collection of toy ray guns, though most were sold long ago. My pottery collection was pared down to my best pieces from over 100 pieces at its height. I have a pretty good collection of arts and crafts period metalwork and occasionally add to it. Still have a small collection of art glass and would probably add to it if good pieces were not so darned expensive. My art collection has grown to over 300 pieces and is my primary collecting interest these days. I have a lot of antique furniture but, besides a few family pieces, it has always been to use. I own more lamps than I could possibly ever use.

The line between collections and inventory has always been a little blurred. I often live with things for awhile and, later, move them on. I am sure I have some things that could be considered a collection, though I can't say that I have consciously collected them. Folk art items would be an example of this. I sometimes just buy things I like. I have quite a bit of Native American and Mexican pottery. Not sure that it is entirely inventory, as there are a few pieces I would not easily part with. I also buy things for potential profit that I have not really tried to sell as of yet. I have a pretty good collection of MCM glass that fits into this category. While I have some penchant for it, it is not really what I would call a big collecting interest for me. My dozen or so lunch boxes and some toys I still hold would also fall into that category. I have quite a bit of jewelry that I pick up for cheap but it has always just been considered inventory by me. I do not wear any jewelry at all.

The issue of what we pay for things is an interesting one. I find that I will definitely pay more for something that falls within my collecting interests. I have paid more for pottery, metalwork, and fine art than anything else. Have paid a bit for mineral specimens and fossils. Other things need to be a bit of a bargain.

I used to say that my grandfather was the chief packrat. I am sure that I have surpassed him. My mother was a collector of glass and china. My siblings collect a bit. All of us have antique furniture. I don't know if collecting is genetic or learned behavior. Maybe, like a crow, we are just attracted to that shiny object instinctively.

 

I may be a collector, but I have things neatly arranged in china cabinets so it isn't hoarding. At least my version of hoarding is when everything is spilling out all over the place and you can't walk through the house.

 

I have collected a lot of things over the years. Coins, perfume bottles, art glass, neodymium glass, depression glass etc.....Mostly have settled on glass now. But when I see a perfume bottle I know is good, I'll still snag it.I don't buy as much as I used to or would like to, but if I like it, know it's an underpriced good piece I'll buy it.

 

So let’s say $5 pocket knives are what you can afford. You buy 20 $5 pocket knives over a year or so. You have a nice collection in your price range. They are all worth about $5. They are a luxury but you love them. You are just getting by in life, making your bills but don’t have much more than $5 extra every month of so to buy a $5 knife. Then one day at a yard sale you find a pocket knife priced at $5 that’s actually easily worth $2,000. It will obviously be the best piece in your collection and you’d love nothing more than to keep it. However since you could make $1,995 profit off of that knife and put that towards rent, fixing your car, saving for a house, kids college fund, whatever, even though you want to keep the knife you cannot really afford to keep it. That profit margin is far more of a need at the time than having the knife in your collection. So you’ve bought something you typically couldn’t afford, but can’t really afford to keep it. It was a throw away comment that I guess I didn’t make clear. Still have the knife you took that cash outta moms purse for?

I buy a lot of things that have a lot of potential profit on them. I really want to keep them for my personal collection but I bought them so well that it would be irresponsible to keep them at this stage on my life. The profit would be much more practical for me than the object. It’s a constant battle deciding what to keep and what to be practical about. I bought two items that belonged to JFK unbeknownst to the auction house that sold them. They still have the 1998 Guernsey provenance with them. The auction house just totally blew it and threw the items in a cheap lot. Someone at my stage in life, in my income bracket really shouldn’t be and can’t afford to be buying JFK owned memorabilia. That’s kind of for a higher tier of collector. Yet I was able to buy them for like a fraction of a percent of their value even though I typically could not afford them. They’d be amazing to keep but it would be irresponsible of me to do so based on my finances. They would be better served being sold to someone well off and me using the cash to advance my position. I hope that sheds some light on that comment. I really didn’t mean it be a thing. In essence I was agreeing with you.

 

Got it !
& I agree since my mantra has always been.... " Buy the best , you can afford ! "

I lost that knife , when Mom did a clean up before selling their 1st house....

 

I'll just add , that a serious collector will occasionally sell off lesser parts of their collection , to afford better & higher value items, growing the collection in stature and value !

As my main credo has always been ,
" In this life ,
you can have anything you want ,
but you can't have everything you want ! "

 

I think this comment distills the issue perfectly well.

I'll only add that I'm also trying to calculate, for a few precious items, what might be the future market value.

 

That’s what I typically do. However it would be more responsible and practical to sell the best and keep the worst. I just love the stuff too much so many times keep the best and sell the worst and middle.

 

I have a file box full of old stamp albums and packets of stamps. My brother (ten years older) collected stamps and I got his collection when I was about 11. My mother worked at the Harris Stamp Factory and brought home packets. When my brother was in the Air Force in Germany in the late 50s during the Cold War he sent home stamps. I wasn't as enthused as him, but now in my declining years I've opened the Pandora's box of stamps. As if I don't have enough things to side track me! Should be fun.