What Do You Collect?

I've got a bit of an obsession with collecting things, so I have lots of collections. Mario stuff (mostly Yoshi), rubber ducks, mushrooms, gnomes, peace signs, and Coke glasses, bottles, and memorabilia. My favorite and most dedicated collection is my Matchbox and Hotwheels ambulance collection. I'm always digging through the Hotwheels and Matchboxes to find the ambulances.

 

I collect records and books, books only because I intend to offer them to my children to read someday (and friends, too) and I reread some of them as well. A lot of my books are of a philosophical, religious, alchemical or sociological nature and so they are kept for cross reference as well (for personal knowledge, I'm not studying anything for school). I also have some chemistry and astronomy books which I treasure.

While my record collection spans multiple decades and genres, it is primarily seventies and early eighties synthesizer music, synthfunk, disco, Berlin school krautrock, ambient, &c. I'd say that at least half of my collection contains records that are individually valued at around $50, and about 1/3 over $100, so almost every one of my records are very special to me and nearly impossible to replace. If I were interested in being a dj, I'd be able to trump a lot dj's and producers in the north east save for a few key figures who collect in the same vein. Most of these albums comes from overseas (Europe and Japan primarily) but a a decent amount of them were found here in the US at thrift stores, antique stores and flea markets for mere fractions of the resale value. If I took them all down to a record store that was operated by someone who really knows his trade, I'd easily get a lump sum of at least $2000 I'm certain, and if I were to sell them individually online as many people do, I'd probably be able to quit my job for a few months

 

I collect nothing just for the sake of collecting stuff. To me that's something boring people do to make them look more interesting.

 

I'd think a 90 year old would have SOME sort of collection.

 

No collection of something I collected for the sake of collecting it.

 

I'm gonna collect salt & pepper shakers when I'm 90. Seems fun, I always come across such ridiculous ones..especially at antique stores.

 

I never understand people who collect things for the sake of it and they simply have it on display. It's weird.

I like that John collects records and books because everytime I feel like listening or reading something it's most likely there.

 

It's all on the internet as well. And much more.

 

I would say that collections are usually more fun and unique, and the items in the collection will have a certain theme going on (a certain animal or whatever). I think saying you collect records or books is like saying you collect food or clothes. People have a lot of food and clothes but those are more necessities to life, in a way.

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this or if I'm explaining it well or why I'm trying to explain it. I guess, just because someone has an abundance of something doesn't necessarily make it a collection.

Collections are usually random things that you realize bring some sort of delight to you and it becomes a game..when you're out somewhere at a flea market or online, you will actively seek whatever you collect. And it's usually something more challenging to find. Music and books aren't difficult to find. Pretty much everyone has music & books.

 

I collect insights but since there's limited storage capacity I have to get rid of some everytime I gain more...

 

I collect aliens. I capture them and then have the bodies taxidermied, then hang their heads on the wall as trophies.

 

No kidding?


I think music sounds better on vinyl. I also like the album covers, pictures and all that fun stuff.
And I can’t read a novel or anything too long on the computer. I get very distracted with everything else I could also be doing. I’m also a fan of pretty book binding and illustrations. It's so fun to go to bookstores, even if it's just for the visual experience, the same goes for record stores.

Lately I've been considering that buying a kindle or something like that because I seem to always destroy books when I carry them in my purse with me and that makes me sad.

 

In fact, a number of the records I have are not, nor are they mentioned online, nor have I ever seen them on Soulseek. I don't buy records that I can listen to online unless they are among my very favorite albums, then it becomes a matter of sound quality. Some of these records are now online, on Youtube and such, and it's because I put them there. I'm not trying to show off (although I am proud of my collection, simply because of the amount of luck going on instinct and countless hours spent digging through garbage to find great music that apparently very few people know about) but I do have a peculiar taste in music and the specific sound I am most attracted to is not nor was it ever very popular, so it was 'underground' by default.

 

Yay for soulseek :cheers2: I can still find every obscure album on there I have been looking for! Yes, I collect digital music I also buy vinyl occasionally but that collection is far from impressive. Although I only buy stuff I really dig so my tiny vinyl collection has an extremely high quality (subjective yes yes)

 

Yea, I have found some obscure gems on soulseek, mainly under the jazz umbrella, but some disco stuff too. I found this once and tried to share it around elsewhere, I uploaded my favorite song from it to Youtube as well. Such an awesome album, made by an awesome guy who has released countless records under various names, too many to count and I doubt all are known as his.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uy6cOUwWAo"]Eric Vann - Space Face - YouTube

 

Sometimes it is even difficult to learn of the existence of a book or a record, let alone to find them))

 

And then the internet crashes and you end up reading the side of a cereal box.

 

Yes, if the internet crashes all we can do is read cereal boxes....
It saddens me a little that the internet made people such unresourceful zombies.

 

Yes, and that is no joke.
I have spent many sleepless nights trying to connect record labels, artists and producers, cover artists &c trying to discover obscure music.. The amount of amazing albums that the world has not recognized are in the hundreds of thousands and most were released independtly, never leaving the country of origin or even a small circle of artists or friends. And some of these have proven decades ahead of their time, and have ended up being among my very favorite records. The same can absolutely be said about books, only I am not as deep into that world as I'd like to be (for now..)

 

I found stuff on soulseek I wish I could share with a youtube video but it isn't on there (yet).