What junk do you collect?

[rob62521]

Live and learn, I guess!

[Bookie]

Books. I buy books, but I also sell, donate and give them to friends.

Where I really fit into this discussion is with my classical music collection. That's off the scale. I bought my first CD in 1982 and never got around to stopping. Worse, for about 15 years I wrote CD reviews for a trade journal and got to keep the discs I reviewed.

After almost 25 years, you can imagine what my collection looks like. Last time I did a serious weeding, I donated over 400 titles to the Music Department, and I'm gearing up for another go at it.

[kealina]

Originally Posted by vsjhoc

I have never understood why people buy lots of DVDs. They take up space, they are ugly, and most people don't seem to play them more than once or maybe twice... but to each his/her own.

i actually kind of agree... that's why we never paid more than $5 (even when DVD's first came out) for a DVD from a yard sale...now we rarely pay more than $2... we watch them at least once, and then the ones we can't envision watching again we resell to get back our money... those that we will watch over and over through the years we keep... so far we have maybe 40 DVD's but we have watched and let go of way more than that... as for the space i think VHS takes up more space so i don't mind the DVD's as much....

Also regarding the DVD's, rental is like $3.99 so if I can find some the day after Thanksgiving for $5.00, that I like, I will buy them. I never actually purchased any of them to be a "collection," but when you have more than one of somethng I guess that is what you have. I have looked at the library, but haven't ever found anything that interested me, and also am concerned about what it could do to my machine, like rental videos can possibly dirty up your video player.

I must say I also love a lot of the director's commentaries and other special features on DVDs.

[Snoopy2645]

Well dh has a dvd collection I estimate he spent $3000 on it & probably would have spent $200 if he just waited I have a precious moment collection & most were gifts from my relatives or grandma who just passed away think they are not really worth anything but cost a lot new. I also have a disney globe collection that was almost free I get them every year day after thanksgiving at pennies only bought one from our disney store it was $5 when the store closed down.

[Kris10Leigh]

I don't really collect anything anymore. But I still have my collection of Cherished Teddies. I love them, even though they are not worth much. Most of mine are holiday related, so I only see them seasonally. Otherwise, I think I would get sick of them. I do not like clutter.

As a child, I collected (and I'm about to show my age ) cabbage patch dolls! I had at least 12 of them. Now they are collecting dust in my basement waiting for that little girl I am likely not going to have.

[kealina]

looking at these post i am reminded of some things i used to collect... i collected cherished teddies, the plush kind, but 2 years ago i donated them and my other stuffed animals (2-3 garbage bags worth) to a toy drive that a group i was in was collecting for... and i collected precious moments as well... i had at least 20 or 30 pieces collected over time and mostly from yard sales... when i moved to a smaller place i decided they had to go and gave them all back to my mom (who bought them for me), who decided she would ship them to my other sister who collects them...i only kept a set of 4 pewter figurines (the four seasons) that i really like...
i also gave my stamp collection to my sisters... my sister who scrapbooks took some and my other sister (the Precious moments one) got the rest... i also got rid of a doll collection my mom tried to start for me that i never got into...

i actually used to collect a lot more when i was younger and had a bigger room... but as i got older and my space shrunk i've gotten rid of things i no longer use or value... l

lol, now if only i could figure out how to stop using/valuing cute clothes

[PrincessPerky]

IMA, have you loo9ked into a drop sell place for the hummels and beanie babies and gift cert? they have places you can take your 'stuff' to and they will sell em..prolly not the highest price, but if they make a percentage of what you make they do want high prices....and you don't have to know how to ebay. they do it for you.

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by Kris10Leigh

I don't really collect anything anymore. But I still have my collection of Cherished Teddies. I love them, even though they are not worth much. Most of mine are holiday related, so I only see them seasonally. Otherwise, I think I would get sick of them. I do not like clutter.

As a child, I collected (and I'm about to show my age ) cabbage patch dolls! I had at least 12 of them. Now they are collecting dust in my basement waiting for that little girl I am likely not going to have.

Just out of curiousity, and you can tell I'm showing my age as well, did you or your family have to fight to get in line for those Cabbage Patch Dolls? I remember the news stories about the fights and the huge lines when stores would get a stock of them.

My mom has one she's held on to thinking it would be worth something. Somehow she hasn't gotten the idea that having it in a smoking household, although it's in a box, would lessen it's value even if it had some value.

[Kris10Leigh]

LOL! Yes, my grandmother was actually knocked to the ground! She went to the store before it opened and was in a crowd that stormed the store. She got knocked to the ground and a little boy cabbage patch doll fell to the ground right into her hands! And I still have him. She was lucky she was not seriously injured! I was eight years old at the time. His name was Bartholomew Whitmer. They had such bizarre names! And I don't think they are worth anything at all! That and all mine are well loved, not at all in new condition. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

[Ima saver]

I had a hard time getting a cabbage patch doll, I had to drive about 50 miles to get one. I finally gave her to my granddaughter when she was little. Princess, I don't know how to sell on e bay. I think when I move, I will get in touch with a antique place and see if they will offer me anything for my hummels, my mother's china and silverware. (never used)

[cptacek]

I collect a shot glass from every state that I go to. That is the only souvenir I ever buy when on a business trip... < $4, so I don't think that is too bad.

I also collected books, but when I moved I took them to Half Price Books. There were over 100 books, nice, hardcover, best-seller type books that I had read once. I got $25 for them! that was waaaay below what I thought I should get. So, me and my new library are going to get to be great friends.

[vsjhoc]

I have saved every personal letter, card, note, and postcard that has been sent to me since 1979. I use one ziplock bag for each year. The bags sit in storage boxes in my attic. Once in a while I'll pull out a bag and take a trip down Memory Lane. Ever since Al Gore invented email, the volume in the bags has decreased.

I don't know why I keep saving them except that I always have. But recently I decided that there's no reason to keep them. I don't want to share them with anyone else and it's probably best if someone doesn't find them. So I'm going to periodically pick one year, read all the mail, keep a very few (if any) for sentimental reasons, and toss the rest. Is anyone else a correspondence pack rat???

[jodi]

Guilty of all of the above. I am a pack rat. I too have saved nearly all my correspondence. Up until a few years ago, I had every greeting card I ever received (even a get well card received from my kindergarten class when I had the chicken pox!). I forced myself to get rid of a good chunk of those and saved the meaningful ones.
As a child I collected everything: bears, dolls, knick-knacks, dogs, perfume bottles, postcards (at one point literally covering all four walls of my room), etc. Now I still hang on to some collections: old porcelain dog figurines (50 years+) - some may be valuable, I don't have a clue, Puffkins (came just after the Beanie Baby craze - total waste of money as they are not worth anything now). I was given a large quantity of old Reader's Digest magazines when my aunt passed away and subsequently started a collection. Now I have several hundred dating back to 1917 that I am trying to get rid of.
DH has a collection of several hundred records - probably worth something, although not a whole lot. We have decided that most things are not worth the time or money to collect unless you get some personal pleasure from them (like he does with his records).

[Ima saver]

Yes, all the stuff we collected has really not gained much in value. I had a coin collection when I was younger and I really enjoyed it. Maybe cause I was collecting "money"

[Kris10Leigh]

vsjhoc, I used to collect postcards. In fact, in college, I painsteakingly tacked each one up on the wall as a border around the room. It was pretty cool actually. If you have a mudroom or some out of the way room like that, you could do that with your postcards. I have a philosophy that if I'm not going to display it, then I'm not going to keep it. Another thought is to pull out the ones that are most special to you and make a collage of them in a picture frame.

The hardest decision I had to make was on a dog collection left to me by my great-great-great aunt. I loved her dog collection as a kid! But when I received them after she died...not so much. They are actually rather hideous and there are many, many, oh so many more than I had remembered. So I pulled out my favorite ones and the ones that looked very, very old and I have them displayed in the house. The rest I actually threw away. That was very hard to do, but I could not see putting them in a box in the basement because I do not ever intend to display them. And believe me, they held nothing but sentimental value. I still have the ones I kept to remember her by.

[vsjhoc]

Originally Posted by Kris10Leigh

The hardest decision I had to make was on a dog collection left to me by my great-great-great aunt. I loved her dog collection as a kid! But when I received them after she died...not so much. They are actually rather hideous and there are many, many, oh so many more than I had remembered. So I pulled out my favorite ones and the ones that looked very, very old and I have them displayed in the house. The rest I actually threw away. That was very hard to do, but I could not see putting them in a box in the basement because I do not ever intend to display them. And believe me, they held nothing but sentimental value. I still have the ones I kept to remember her by.

Kris, at first I thought you meant REAL dogs ...

[joeswife]

i collect books. im a huge book person. my husband hates them. but ilove to read..lots of books. many ever month. the other thing i collect with a passion is my cdg collection for kareoke. i love to sing. .and i have over 160 cdgs in my collection..or over 1800 songs. its a huge thing. i lvoe it. and it costs me alot of cash every year. lol. but i keep doing it.

ericka

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

I had a hard time getting a cabbage patch doll, I had to drive about 50 miles to get one. I finally gave her to my granddaughter when she was little. Princess, I don't know how to sell on e bay. I think when I move, I will get in touch with a antique place and see if they will offer me anything for my hummels, my mother's china and silverware. (never used)

Thats the thing about a drop off place you don't have to know, you just drop off the stuff and pick up a check later.

[creditcardfree]

I seem to collect my DD's artwork. I save a several pieces from each year. Beyond this I can't seem to justify the space, the money, or time dusting and moving any collections around. I feels like freedom to be without these for me.