What do you collect?

[tsptalk]

I have been an active collector of art for the last 20 years, mostly local artists but also some bigger names.

Owning an art and antiques gallery, I started to collect a few things: I like old gambling stuff. I have an old slot machine in my office, tons of old poker chips, a 100+ year old card table, old casino stuff, etc.

I like old coffee items like hand bean grinders, old coffee pots, old coffee cans, etc.

I also started collecting Marilyn Monroe stuff, almost by accident. I found a cool poster of her that I ended up hanging in my garage, and one or two other things. When people saw that, they started to buy me Marilyn stuff as gifts assuming I was a collector, which now I guess I am. I don't have a ton of stuff, but I like the older things like old photos, etc. Not so much the "repops" (reproductions).

So, what do you collect?

 

[rktect1]

Im big on collections. My primary two are coins and olympic pins. I really like liberty nickels. I also collect wine. Yes wine. Its kind of weird though, every once in a while, like nightly, a bottle leaves my collection. But by the end of a week i own more bottles then before.

the coin thing is. Bit weird too. On this site we try to make one dollar into more dollars. But i have turned hundreds of dollars into just one nickel.

 

[nnuut]

Im big on collections. My primary two are coins and olympic pins. I really like liberty nickels. I also collect wine. Yes wine. Its kind of weird though, every once in a while, like nightly, a bottle leaves my collection. But by the end of a week i own more bottles then before.

the coin thing is. Bit weird too. On this site we try to make one dollar into more dollars. But i have turned hundreds of dollars into just one nickel.

I'm a WINE guy, but only red wines you know the stuff with the tannins. I can't seem to collect any, guess it's because I drink all of them!:laugh:

 

[tsptalk]

I have the same problem with my wine collection. I do save the corks to remind me how much money on blew on it, though.

 

[nnuut]

I have the same problem with my wine collection. I do save the corks to remind me how much money on blew on it, though.

I have 15 gallons of corks, can you sell them?

 

[EricDeLee]

I collect all sorts of things.
My most recent adventure for the past year or two: antique fans.
I found one about 5 years ago, and lugged it around from office to office. It's an old Govt issue Emerson Desk fan (metal blades that can dice fingers like cucumbers. Then I got to looking around flea markets and stuff and found some really beautiful ones with brass blades. I also like to restore them, and clean them up a bit. I can usually find some lord ones, get a $15 price tag from the flea market, drop a new cord on it, polish it up a bit and then sell it for $75 or more.

But it prior to that... I collected Atari games. Lol. Yes... Strange but true. I have a huge atari collection with prototypes and crazy stuff. I wouldn't mind learning about grabbing some silver and gold as well. I heard it could be a great way to beat inflation. Lol. I am going to swallow the pill some day and grab a 100gram bar of gold. But I'm hoping te price goes down sometime soon so I have more buying power! Silver seems cheap... Maybe I can go that route and hope it pops up $10 or $20.

 

[tsptalk]

I've seen it all, EDL, so Atari is not strange at all.

The fans are very cool. I watch American Pickers all the time, and they always grab old fans if they can get them at a good price.

When I find old stuff, the dilemma is whether or not to clean it up, restore it, or leave it as is.

 

[tsptalk]

I have 15 gallons of corks, can you sell them?

15 gallons. :laugh: Wow! I'll bet you can make a few of these and sell them...

 

[tsptalk]

Im big on collections. My primary two are coins and olympic pins. I really like liberty nickels. I also collect wine. Yes wine. Its kind of weird though, every once in a while, like nightly, a bottle leaves my collection. But by the end of a week i own more bottles then before.

the coin thing is. Bit weird too. On this site we try to make one dollar into more dollars. But i have turned hundreds of dollars into just one nickel.

We don't carry many coins in our store, but we probably should. People are always asking for them.

 

[polarbear]

I collect a lot of things. I retired in December, so I will eventually write my retirement essay here. I am also something of a pack rat, and the wife wants me to declutter. In my time frame, that may happen by and by. I collect some low-value art works by not famous artists. West-Pac stuff from the 70s is in boxes and on display. I bought three pencil sketches for $3 each from a young European artist in the Shiboya train station in Tokyo 1979, framed, we enjoy them, name Betak, seems to be a famous European artistic family, but I don't know more specifics yet. I collect books and records, and old family stuff, like an old camera, Dad's old cast-iron (steel?) level, pat. 1896, Stanley of course, also a 2.5 foot wooden Stanley level, pat. 1906, I bought at the Chula Vista flea market 1979, Dad's Eastman Studio scale, Dad's Zeiss camera, stuff like that. You will love this, I have four wooden office bucket chairs on coaster wheels, three in good shape, plan to refinish them! Still have one bicycle, the Motobecane Grand Touring I bought at the bike shop on Grand Avenue in PB in 1972 along with add-ons it came to about $115. When my cousin and I were clearing out my aunt's apartment in Slovakia in 1999, we found a very old rolling pin from probably the mid-1800s because it's solid, no axle, red spruce. When my cousin found it, she called out to me, This is old! This must be from your great-great grandmother! Still have my old stamp collection, it needs TLC. May start collecting coins by and by. Hoping for a monster pullback next week. Come, pullback, come! Speaking of West-Pac, I've got a Pioneer SX 1280 I bought at the Exchange in Yokusaka in 1979 for $440. Still haven't taken it out of the box. An audio nut at work nearly passed out when I told him that. Need to wire it up with speakers and a turntable and so on. Another to-do item.

 

[parsox]

I collect guitars at this time. Prior to that is was G1 transformers (80s toy) and video games from Nintendo forward . Alas those two collections have been sold off as they are much to difficult to care for when PCSing.

 

[MrBowl]

I used to collect baseball cards when I was a kid. Never got rid of them. I think I have 50,000+, mostly from the 1980s, but not exclusively. I've tried to sell them a few times but the bottom fell out of the market in the early 1990s. The same goes for my old comics and hotwheels/matchbox cars. Just never bothered to get rid of them. These days I collect some coins, but not aggressively. I have 300-400 CDs, mainly of classic rock.

These days my wife says I collect x-rays and MRIs of myself

 

[burrocrat]

I have 15 gallons of corks, can you sell them?

i don't want to be disrespectful, but i wish buster would come by and post that funny cork soaker video. i started a watch collection because of him. i still only have one, a seiko field watch, but i wear it during business hours mon-fri all the time.

 

[tsptalk]

I collect a lot of things.

Sounds like you need to open a store too.

Beside American Pickers, I get a kick out of the Hoarders show. I cannot live that way, but having an antiques gallery, we just put everything there and it seems normal.

 

[tsptalk]

I collect guitars at this time.

Any particularly good / rare ones we should know about?

I used to buy and sell a lot of guitars on ebay while looking for the perfect one. I bought a brand new, gorgeous Les Paul Custom but didn't really like the way it played so I sold it on ebay for almost what I paid for it. That's one good thing about good guitars. They tend to hold their value. Currently I am down to a Fender Strat Deluxe and a 1983 Martin acoustic that I love.

 

[tsptalk]

I used to collect baseball cards when I was a kid. Never got rid of them. I think I have 50,000+, mostly from the 1980s, but not exclusively. I've tried to sell them a few times but the bottom fell out of the market in the early 1990s.

I got caught up in that too. It seems like once Mcguire was hitting 70 home runs, they saturated the market with all different brands so they weren't as rare. After that they peaked and fell.

Combining two posts into one, I once traded a guitar for a Wayne Gretzky rookie card. A guy won the guitar on ebay from me and asked if I'd take the card and some cash instead of the full price. That was in the mid-90's I wish I remembered where I put it.

 

[k0nkuzh0n]

pokemon cards!

 

[nnuut]

Any particularly good / rare ones we should know about?

I used to buy and sell a lot of guitars on ebay while looking for the perfect one. I bought a brand new, gorgeous Les Paul Custom but didn't really like the way it played so I sold it on ebay for almost what I paid for it. That's one good thing about good guitars. They tend to hold their value. Currently I am down to a Fender Strat Deluxe and a 1983 Martin acoustic that I love.

I have a 1997 American Strat, it's perfect, an Ibanez acoustic electric, and a Luis Aparicio classical guitar I bought in Spain.

 

[EricDeLee]

I got caught up in that too. It seems like once Mcguire was hitting 70 home runs, they saturated the market with all different brands so they weren't as rare. After that they peaked and fell.

Combining two posts into one, I once traded a guitar for a Wayne Gretzky rookie card. A guy won the guitar on ebay from me and asked if I'd take the card and some cash instead of the full price. That was in the mid-90's I wish I remembered where I put it.

I sold my card collection years ago... Right at the right time. I used to collect mainly Nolan Ryan cards a lot. I still have all of his from 1968-1985. Those I keep for memories. I have a 52 Bowman Mickey Mantle I'm considering selling though. Nice card!

 

[tsptalk]

Well, now that it seems we all have way to much stuff, maybe you should put some of it for sale in our new Classifieds section so the rest of us can add to our collections.

If anyone is looking for something in particular, let me (us) know. I may have it and post for you to look at.