[ATMachine]

Hasn't been a thread like this in a while...

Simple question: What do you collect? What oddments have wormed their way into your houses? What holds a special place on your shelves?

Though, we talk enough about the games we hoard in other threads, so I'm making that the one subject Not To Be Mentioned™. Anything else is fair game.

And it wouldn't be nice to inflict this thread upon you without participating meself, so...

I happen to have the complete Aventures de Tintin series (in the original French) sitting in my bedroom. And I do mean complete. Not just the current standard versions, but also the black-and-white editions of the first several adventures. Plus, facsimile editions of the original color printings, which basically duplicate the albums as they were before editors and politically-correct police got involved. Not to mention a copy of Le Temple du Soleil (Prisoners of the Sun) which replicates the original newspaper printing, with several extra sequences not seen in the final album form. And of course, a copy of the English Tintin in the Congo, which contains a page Hergé originally drew for a Scandinavian edition to replace an "offensive" scene in the French album (not involving the stereotyped Africans, mind you, but rather an exploding rhinoceros!). (Finally, sitting reverently on the shelf next to all the French volumes are some very careworn copies of the English translations of Tintin, the source of my interest born some 15 years ago.)

All that cost a pretty penny, to be sure. But I was flush with money from graduation presents a year ago, and the Tintinophile in me was begging to be sated. Funny that the albums arrived in pristine condition while Amazon.ca has trouble sending me Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone without mauling it.

(And of course I can't help noticing the differences between the facsimile editions and the current French printings. For example, Hergé originally drew the flag of Francois de Hadoque's ship as a white ensign with six gold fleurs-de-lis. In the current French edition some hack artist recolored the white to blue, and redrew the lilies to make them almost unrecognizable. The original flag was accurate for a ship of the French king's navy, but the new flag is totally wrong for a ship of the line!)

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Do emotional scars count?

[Squinky]

Bodies.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Emotionally scarred bodies?

[Spiwak]

just started a CD collection recently. Hopefully one day I'll take that to vinyls. Already have some vinyls but they were all my parents', so I would say that doesn't count.

Also, got a small movie collection, about 250-300 or so.

[rlpw]

I seem to be collecting old PCs here lately. Or, as Mrs.R refers to them, stupid out dated pieces of s**t. Of course, she has over 400 frog items.

[stepurhan]

Books. Definitely books. Not a patch on my wife though who is a serious collector of children's stories, particularly of the Girl's School Story variety. She's even going to a convention of them this weekend. She's been responsible for putting together a booklet of folk songs that appeared in the Abbey series of books by Elsie J Oxenham.

Comics as well to a certain extent though I'm not buying much new at the moment. I do have a complete set of trade paperbacks of Neil Gaiman's Sandman which set me back a bit. Also I have a complete set of Grant Morrison's stint at Doom Patrol (the original comics this time) plus a slew of miniseries (Death, the High Cost of LIving for example. I'm talking to you Squinky )

[Kolzig]

CDs, movies, books, every damn crap there is available.

Or at least I used to, lately I've been lucky enough to get rid off some of the stuff but there's just too much of everything still left.

[Dasilva]

I collect Music CDs & Singles as well as DVDs.

[Jazhara7]

Cats sitting in the traditional Egyptian style.








I made the white cat (it's carved from a block of plaster of Paris) and the Lego one myself.


It wasn't a conscious decision, they just started accumulating. I guess I just like that style of cats sitting. I always was interested in Ancient Egypt, too.



Oh, and most things related to dragons, as long as it is not kitschy.


Oh, and books. I love collecting books. Especially old, beautiful ones (I have a penchant particularly for old fairy tale books. You know, the ones that have not been toned down. They can get positively creepy. "The girl without hands", "The Tinderbox", "The buried Moon", and the original version of Sleeping beauty where the evil queen has to dance to death in red hot iron slippers.), but I also collect newer ones, of course. And it has to be a subject I'd read, of course.


Also, I am kind of collecting toy tops, though most of them I have made myself on the lathe.


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[bulldog]

Nice cats Jaz, I love cats too.

I collect old coins, and coins and paper money from other countries. I go to Flea markets and look and I also look on line to see what I can find. I have been collecting coins since I was about 5 or 6 years old.

I also collect pig figures. I don't know what it is about a cute little fat piggy but I have about 75 or 100 pigs. I know it strange but they are so cute.

[Giligan]

I collect military antiques, as it were. Although, to date, my collection doesn't contain more than 20 items, I'm getting there. And I seem to have picked up some old glass Pepsi and Coke bottles along the way, but they do little but get in my way. I should really throw them out.

[stepurhan]

Actually, just thought of something I sort of collect. Beer!

I don't actually stack it up round my place but I'll generally try a beer I haven't seen before over one I'm used to, either in a pub or from an off licence.

[Jeysie]

Hmm.

I suppose you could technically say that I collect books... I have over 200 of them... over 300 if you count my encyclopedia volumes, which are themed ones with volumes on separated but related topics instead of Britannica-type ones.

However, I never buy anything in the sense of buying something solely to have it on display, or just to have a complete set unless I plan on using/reading/watching everything I buy at least once. I don't really "believe" in buying something that's meant to be used and never using it.

The closest I've come to "typical" collecting, as a result, is comics and t-shirts. Because I read too quickly, I generally only buy media tie-in comics, just so I can stare at the artwork. So while I only have a small number of comics, the ones I do have are a pretty quirky bunch. (I even have a set of Sliders comics. )

As for t-shirts, I used to like buying souvenir t-shirts whenever I went to an event or on vacation, but since I've moved into a smaller place I've had to give away almost all of them. Sigh. I did actually wear every shirt I bought at least once, though.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[lumi]

I suppose I collect ski movies. I have ever since I started skiing, although I'm not buying as much as I used to because I need to save money for other things. I'm much more likely to buy a ski movie than a real movie.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

CDs, DVDs, guitars, percussive instruments, and I used to collect synths (still have, but haven't expanded the collection for years due to lack of use).

[Davies]

I have probably thousands of books in the house, but they're not a collection, just a whole crapload of stuff to read.

I do collect antique medical books, but my collection only has four so far, unless you count Victorian ones as well. I bought my first one over 20 years ago (Salmon's Praxis Medica, translation of Sydenham, 1707) and it's still my favourite. William Salmon was a man after my own heart. I'd love to have more of his books, but they're always very pricey when they turn up.

As an occultist, I have a lot of serious books and things, but for fun I also collect really rubbish fortune-telling stuff. It's not organised at all, but I know I have various "throw the crystals" kits and "find your fortune" books and pseudo-Tarot-type cards and so on. I'd never pay much for anything like this, but they turn up cheap all the time in remainder shops, secondhand shops, and the like.

[XXJ]

I collect books & horror comics.

[Aj_]

Without trying I seem to be able to collect: cables to various electronics, old computing books, keyboards, and dust. I've started a war on "clutter", just as unwinnable as the wars on poverty, drugs, and terror. I don't like to keep things if I don't think I'll ever use them, I'd rather give them away to someone who needs them, or to chuck them out.

[DustyShinigami]

Thinking about it now, i don't really collect that many things. Apart from "those-that-shall-not-be-named-in-this-thread", music CDs and DVDs (we have somewhere around two-hundred-and-something). I sometimes collect figures which i use for decorating around my monitor.

I have been thinking of collecting all Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, i've started reading The Colour of Magic and if enjoy it enough i may buy more. I guess i should find some more things to get into and collect but for the time being i've got loads of "those-that-shall-not-be-named-in-this-thread", music CDs and DVDs to collect.