A Collecting Life

Collecting has been a constant in my life since early childhood. There hasn't been a time period where I haven't had at least one physical collection going. My collections have varied drastically in terms of size, longevity, intensity, investment, seriousness, and function. However all have served in providing happiness, and a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment. From the thrill of the hunt to the enjoyment of looking upon a collection displayed, I’ve always found fun and inspiration in collecting.

On a psychological level, I've always had an internal yearning for detailed, organized, completeness. The notion of taking a physical representation of a passion of mine and setting out to obtain a complete collection is somehow embedded in the fiber of my being. From making lists, doing research, going on hunts and acquiring new pieces, to cataloging, organizing, and displaying, I gravitate towards that entire process. The struggle of course lies in the impossibility of the desire itself. Short of having unlimited financial resources, most collections can never be completed. That fragile balance is indicative of my life. On a personal level I’m always striving towards greatness and perfection, but often find myself resigned to mediocrity. As with any of my professional and/or hobby-based pursuits, age and experience has grounded and humbled me. In my twenties my music career did not yield wealth and fame, but in my thirties I stopped viewing that as a failure and began simply enjoying making music for fun. I discovered that the reward and value was almost greater, most of the time... The same can be said for a physical collection. Sure, there will always be pieces I want that I don’t own, but life is short and better spent enjoying the pieces I do have, the process of collecting them, and the people I meet and interact with along the way. In a sense I feel I view life itself as being comprised of multiple intangible collections (i.e. achievements, experiences, friendships, women slept with, good deeds done, etc.). Every day we love, share new ideas, help people, try something new, or even just stop to watch the world around us, we are collecting the moments and memories that make up life. Okay, enough of the philosophical.

Much of my inspiration regarding collecting came from my father. My dad had various collections from childhood up until the day he passed away. As a child he had an extensive collection of baseball cards from the 50’s that sadly my grandmother threw away went my dad went to college in the 60’s (the entire family gets sick thinking about what that collection would have been worth…). Later in life he got back into cards (baseball and basketball), both for fun and as a hobby he could do/share with my brother and I, as we were both card collectors at the time. His music collection spanned his entire life, changing mediums with the times of course. My dad loved to put on a pair of headphone and simply sit and listen to his music. He’d close his eyes and just get lost in whatever he was listening to. It’s from this I feel I gained an appreciation for truly taking enjoyment in your collection. However, the pinnacle of my father’s collecting was his stamp collection. This was a collection he started in childhood and actively continued for decades until ultimately selling it after retiring. His stamp collection was impressive in every facet of collecting categories. It was handled, cared for, displayed/presented, cataloged, priced, organized, and built with utter meticulousness and passion. Obviously the majority of his stamp collecting years were prior to the internet and sites such as eBay, so stamp and coin shows were key hunting grounds. My dad had dealer contacts up and down the east coast. I’d often go with him to stamp and coin shows and just watch how he hunted and interacted with dealers and fellow collectors. Those experiences were invaluable when I started going to sports cards shows in my early teen years. Despite my age, dealers and adult collectors always took me seriously because I knew and understand the language (albeit only with the tiny budget of a kid my age). Overall I took away so much from watching my father collect stamps. It’s truly how I fell in love with the process.

My earliest collections (and many of my later ones), were not as involved and dedicated as my father’s stamp collection. Even as a child I would use product packaging and the promo books inside, and toy catalogs to make lists of what was out there, what I had, and what I wanted. Sports cards were the first collection of mine where I invested time in money in things other than just the collection itself. I would pay entry fees to sports card shows, buy hard cases and hard slides to protect the cards, pay for Beckett price guide subscriptions, etc. I would sell and trade in order to obtain cards I really wanted. And I formed relationships with shop owners, show dealers, and other collectors. With my sports memorabilia collection, mainly my Michael Jordan collection, I learned at a very young age that the worst that can happen is someone can say “No” when you ask for something. In the early 90’s McDonald’s and Upper Deck came out with a collection of basketball cards only available at McDonald’s restaurants as part of a big trip giveaway. The McDonald’s by my house had a big cardboard display with Michael Jordan on it. I asked the manager if I could have it, and he told me that if I came back after the promotion was done he’d save it for me. Granted it typically only works with store display type pieces, but I’ve been doing that ever since, and it’s yielded some amazing free pieces. My first experience with a hardcore collection-focus within a larger collection came with my music collection. I’ve always had a large vinyl and CD collection featuring multiple artists in multiple genres. When Tupac was killed he had a plethora of songs that had not been released. Underground albums of these songs started circulating and I went on a frenzied hunt to track them all down. I would comb the shelves of every used record store in every city or suburb I found myself in. Ultimately though, my Star Wars collection became the equivalent of my father’s stamp collection. I’ve written articles before about the history and progression of my Star Wars collection, but long story short, it’s the pinnacle of my life of collecting. My Star Wars collection is the largest collection I’ve ever had, the collection I’ve invested the most time and money into, and the collection that I’ve spent the most time cataloging, organizing, and displaying. It’s also the collection that best represents everything I learned and experienced from both my father’s collecting and all of my previous collections.

Almost all of my prior collections have all been sold or given away at this point. Sadly, most of that happened prior to digital photography. I’ve always thought about how cool it would be to have photos of every piece from every collection. I do have some photos from the last of the items I sold or gave away, but they’re a far cry from a complete representation.

To date I’ve had thirty two different collections.

Here’s a look at the collections I’ve had over the years. I have a spreadsheet with a much more detailed and thorough breakdown, but since this blog doesn’t import spreadsheets well, here it is in list form.

Novelty Erasers

Time Period: early childhood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Coca-Cola and Diet Coke Cans (from around the world)

Time Period: childhood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

*I’d collect the ones from the US, and my Dad would bring me back cans from all over the world as he traveled quite extensively for work.

Novelty Decks of Cards

Time Period: childhood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

LEGO

G.I. Joe (Toys, Memorabilia & more)

Masters of the Universe (Toys, Memorabilia & more)

Batman (Toys, Memorabilia & more)

Toy Guns & Weapons

80’s and 90’s Action Figures & Toys

            *Transformers

            *Voltron

            *Thundercats

            *Army Ants

            *MUSCLE Men

            *Army Men

            *Cowboys and Indians

            *M.A.S.K.

            *Go Bots

            *Rambo

            *StarCom

            *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

            *Battle Beasts

            *Super Powers Collection

            *others

Time Period: childhood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Trading Cards

            *Garbage Pail Kids

            *Michael Jackson       

            *Batman

            *various others

Time Period: childhood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Sports Cards

            *Baseball

            *Basketball

                        -Michael Jordan

            *Football

Time Period: childhood and teenage years

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

The Simpsons (Toys & Memorabilia)

Time Period: childhood and teenage years

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Michael Jordan Memorabilia

Chicago Bulls Memorabilia

Georgetown Hoyas Basketball Memorabilia

1990’s Basketball Shoes

1990’s Basketball Jerseys

1990’s New York Yankees Fitted Hats

Sports Memorabilia

            *NBA

            *MLB

            *NFL

            *NCAA Men’s Basketball

            *Ohio State Buckeyes Football

            *New York Mets

            *New York Yankees

            *Minnesota Vikings

            *Allen Iverson

            *Randy Moss

            *Adrian Peterson

Time Period: childhood to early adulthood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Skateboards

Skateboarding Memorabilia

Tech Deck

Time Period: childhood and teenage years (Tech Deck in adulthood)

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

1990’s Urban Wear Clothing and Accessories

Time Period: teenage years

Current Status: all but a few pieces sold or given away

*I still wear the few pieces I saved to this day!

Hip Hop / Rap Music (Vinyl, CD & Digital)

            *Tupac

Music (Vinyl, CD & Digital)

            *Michael Jackson

*R&B

                        -Amerie

            *Rock/Metal

                        -10 Years

            *Jazz

            *Blues, Pop, DC Go-Go, various

Time Period: childhood to current

Current Status: have entire collection minus cassette tapes which were sold or given away

Manifesters / Versifier Memorabilia

Time Period: 1996 to current

Current Status: have entire collection

Timberland 6” Premium Boots

Time Period: teenage years to current

Current Status: only have a few pairs remaining

Toothless (from How to Train Your Dragon) Toys

Time Period: adulthood

Current Status: entire collection sold or given away

Winter Beanie Hats

Time Period: adulthood to current

Current Status: have entire collection

Penny (from Big Bang Theory) Toys & Memorabilia

Time Period: adulthood

Current Status: have entire collection

Star Wars

Ahsoka Tano

Time Period: childhood to current (adulthood for Ahsoka as she did not debut until 2008)

Current Status: have entire collection

Collections I still own currently:

Ahsoka Tano

Early this year I made the decision to focus solely on my Ahsoka collection. I am adding new pieces to the collection weekly.

Star Wars

Due to my decision to focus on my Ahsoka collection, I no longer add non-Ahsoka Star Wars pieces in bulk. The only new non-Ahsoka pieces I will add going forward come from a small list of items I need to complete various sub-collections.

Penny from Big Bang Theory

This collection is very small and just for fun. I don’t actively collect, but will grab a new piece every so often if/when I see something cool.

Winter Beanie Hats

I no longer add new hats to the collection, which currently stands at forty one pieces. But living in a state with six to eight months of winter, I definitely get a ton of use out of them.

Timberland Boots

I no longer actively collect Timbs. But as Timbs and casual dress shoes are my primary footwear, I like to keep three to four pairs of Timbs on hand at all times.

Manifesters/Versifier Memorabilia

This collection is an archive of the history of my music. 

Music

I no longer buy CDs or vinyl, but occasionally add new digital music to the collection.

So essentially, the Ahsoka Tano collection is the only collection I currently obtain new pieces for with any consistency.

Over the past three or four years my wife and I have been on a huge kick of ridding ourselves of physical possessions. As a collector, that’s somewhat contradictory in nature. Aside from my collections we’ve adopted a “realistic-minimalist” lifestyle. Being a true minimalist doesn’t seem logical. I don’t use a hammer every day, but I also don’t want to go out and buy a new hammer every time I do need one. At the same time, I don’t need more than one hammer. So we shed things we no longer use or duplicates of items we don’t need more than one of. Collection wise, I have a room in our new house solely to display the Star Wars and Ahsoka collections. And since the Penny collection is so small, that is just displayed on my desk. The winter beanie hats all fit inside one box in my closet. Technically I could get by with just one pair of Timbs, but I like a little flavor, and they don’t take up too much space. The vinyl, CDs, and Manifesters/Versifier memorabilia are all in plastic bins in storage. One day I’d like to finish transferring all the music to digital so that I can sell the vinyl and CDs, thus shedding more possession.

My goal with the Star Wars and Ahsoka collections is to have every piece photographed. When the time in life comes to sell the collection I can then have a book of photos made. That way, for the rest of my life I can still look at the collection, but only have to own one physical item to do so. I’ll probably do the same with the Manifesters/Versifier memorabilia as I highly doubt the Smithsonian will come calling for it. Haha! However, we do have a handful of pieces in the University of Minnesota’s “Minnesota Underground Music Archive”, so at least some of it will forever outlive me.

I know this article was a little all over the place. Bottom line, collecting has been a great part of my life for about thirty seven years. Collecting has helped expand my knowledge on things I’m passionate about. For every type of collection there is a history, a culture, techniques and advancements in manufacturing, technology, marketing and sales, and countless stories. To me, learning about all of the history and inner workings are just as exciting and interesting as the collecting itself. Through collecting I’ve met incredible people, been new places, traveled, and had experiences that I may not have had otherwise. I could draw a parallel to playing competitive sports in the sense that in addition to having fun playing a game one is passionate about, one is simultaneously learning valuable life-lessons and gaining additional experiences and worldly knowledge along the way. Maybe collecting doesn’t quite offer that to the same degree as competitive sports do, but there are some similarities. Having played competitive sports from early childhood through college, I can definitely say there is a value-add in both.

Lastly, all of my personal collections have given me a deep appreciation for other people’s collections. I absolutely love looking at others’ collections, be it in person or via photos/videos. Even if what is being collected is not something I’m into, I still enjoy looking at what was collected, how it was organized, and how it was displayed. I’ve always loved museums for that fact, even as a child. Often the subject matter did not entice me, but the display and presentation always fascinated me.

Collecting truly can be an art form.

To see some of my Star Wars and Ahsoka Tano collections, follow The Prides of Nexu Museum.

Twitter @PridesOfNexu

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