by Sasha Milena
The Young Collector
I believe there is a collector in all of us. To collect according to the Webster Dictionary is to "gather together, acquire as a hobby, or regain command of (oneself)". As children we have a natural tendency to collect because certain things became valuable to us at a certain point and we realize the more we have the better. I would collect Barbie dolls because the more dolls I had with matching Barbie mansions and Barbie cars meant that I could show off my dolls to the neighbor girls and hopefully impress them. Other collections I had were more personal, like my coin collection. The idea was not to show everyone my collection but it was more about opening up my little white cardboard box, holding each foreign coin in my hand and envisioning the foreign land where this coin had come from. As a child I really had no clue of the actual monetary value of the coins and I simply didn't care. Having the coins was about personal gratification and the hunt.
Street Sign Collection via Neatorama.com
The Hunt
The hunt is when you go out to search for items to add to your collection. As a child maybe you collected baseball cards and the hunt meant you gathered with other friends to compare collections and if someone had that hard-to-find card your goal was to get them to trade. The hunt as an adult does not differ much and many people add items to their collections by going to stores, attending auctions or checking online if somebody has what they are looking for to add to their collection.
Babe Ruth Baseball Card via http://baseballcardpriceguide.blogspot.com/
Current Trends
There is a very strong interest in antique and vintage collection. Not only interest but in recent years there has been incredible demand! Certain pieces of furniture can sell for thousands, even millions and more rare items become more valuable over time.
Collecting For Years To Come
The items we collect now may be very different from items we personally collected in our past and probably very different than items people collected in the past. Although the type of items we collect have changed the desire to collect will always exist.
Notable Collectors
Books written by Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson:
- Third President of the United States
- Book Collector
- In 1815 Congress purchased 6,487 books from Jefferson's 10,000 book collection after the British burned down the Capitol and the Library of Congress
Michael Jackson:
- Pop Star of the 20th and 21st century
- Collected unique and bazaar antiques for his Neverland Ranch
- He loved to collect anything Disney
- Read the story about Michael purchasing a Zoetrope from one of our stores in the early 1980's: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e54ed0407288330120a526e43a970c
Strange Collections
Check out this post on the 25 Strangest Collections from Neatorama.com Collections range from napkins, Soviet Calculators, sugar packets to street signs
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