The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: Is there one specific thing you’ve collected, or have thought about collecting over the years? If so, tell us about it.
Talk about it….
Bottles and cans.
This is the big one! I’m comin’ Elizabeth!
Money
Guns & Gold
Moss
I have a small collection of decorative eggs. Also I have collected are distinctive wine & champagne glasses…makes my drink seem extra special 🙂
Spores, molds, and fungus
… “I’m a big fan of money. I like it, I use it, I have a little. I keep it in a jar on top of my refrigerator. I’d like to put more in that jar.”
I have books, books, and more books. I read all of them and wish I could live long enough to read them all again. Some I’ve had since my teens. Then I got hooked onto Star Trek when it first come out. Now I have a small ton of ST stuff. I stopped collecting that but still add to my books from time to time.
I try to collect money too but it sometimes goes out faster than it comes in.
Maybe buy a book about collecting money…?
I used to collect ashtrays from just about every place that had ashtrays with their name on them. I don’t have very many of them anymore, they were taking up too much space, and nobody smokes anymore. I kept one ashtray from the El Papagalio Mexican Restaurant and Bar, I think it used to be on Oak Grove and Treat near Wells Fargo. I also have a huge collection of matchbooks from all over, they’re so old that the matches won’t light when they’re struck. Some of them are so old the striker is on the front of the matchbook. Remember them?
The only thing of value that I’ve collected is a bunch of old coins and dollar bills when they were silver certificates. I will give them to my granddaughter, maybe someday in her lifetime they will be worth something.
I also have a refrigerator full of magnets.
Uh oh, I just realized the question asked for one specific thing, and I posted several. Oops!
I collected matchbooks from some of my favorite hang outs in San Francisco, most because I have memories of a good time or a special date. Here are some: Perry’s, Mulherns, Silhouette’s, Cadillac Bar and Grill, Savoy Tivoli, Lily’s, Royal Exchange, Hamburger Mary;s, a few more, but I forgot, places south of Market that was hot in the late eighties and early nineties.
Ancestors
Me, too. One of those collections that doesn’t take up much space … as opposed to collecting progeny.
My collection sure seems to take up a lot of space on my hard drives.
Older interesting revolvers.
Pennies. Pre-1982
Simonpure~
My Hubby collects pre-1982 pennies too.
Years
Debts
New car sales brochures… The kind you get from the car dealers showroom. I’ve been collecting them for 50 years since a kid… So I have the original brochures for many of the 1960s cars. Chevys, Ford’s, Chryslers Cadillac & Lincoln. It’s really neat to sit down and read thru them once in a while. Real transport back in time!
I often accumulate things, but I try not to collect them
Lest the things I own, own me
Magic cards. Got way too many old ancient ones I might need to start selling, they seem to increase in price more than any other investment i do.
I don’t collect, but I do sell rare books.
But, people collect everything, latest I heard was old Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets which sold for $150 each on EBay.
108RS
Empty Amazon boxes.
… WC Art & Wine Festival glasses
Randy~
We have a few too, but a bunch more from Alameda Festivals.
Milk glass, and Blue Willow China. If I had more room I’d collect green glassware too!
I have lots of collections,… mostly vintage pre 50’s, the Shabby Chic Style stuff. But as of the last 2 months, reducing it by 1/2 or more. Yard Sale coming soon,…. 🙂
Wow, good for you Roz! It’ll be nice to have more space and turn that into.. well, something nice! I’ve never had a garage sale, and I’ve sometimes regretted it. But by the time I get to clearing it out, I’m always just ready for it to be gone. I’m not too organized.
Dust
I have duplicates of several types that you might like marinemom. I’m willing to let some go if you’d like to make an offer. Bargain basement cost, and I’ll help load. I have not taken the time to separate the pollen from the bird dander, or the finer particles that the gardener blows in from next door. (the latter may contain dust from his cannibus garden, so I don’t want to be too hasty in letting that go.) If you’re interested, I could include dozens of nic-nacs and thousands of books. They collect dust too.
Coins. Lots of very old Chinese coins my grandfather collected during his time there, and a bunch of domestic as well. Any Claycordians know of any coin dealers in the East Bay who might appraise/buy some of these? (I called that place on Buskirk, near Best Buy, but they mainly deal in the metal value, not collectible value)
If you google norcalcoinshows.com they are starting again coin shows in January where there should be multiple dealers from a wide area and you might get better information and quotes. The only local one I would trust is called Jeff Brody but he probably does not deal in enough volume to help you at all with the international coins. He has occasional hours in a shop in Orinda.
Contact Alex Akin at Bolerium Books in San Francisco, he does Chinese coins.
Thanks T.D. List and Jeff…I’m going to start with a visit to Jeff Brody Collectibles tomorrow!
Notches on my bedpost since 1974..
When I first got my ranch I collected cows. When I got dairy goats it was goats. When I got ferrets, it was ferrets. Still have a few cows, about 100 goats and 150-200 ferrets.
.
Broken hearts.
.
Electrical test equipment and technical books from 1930s – 1940s and pinball machines from late 1940s thru 1980s.
You still looking to add to your collection of test equipment? I ended up taking a truck load of stuff to the recyclers a couple years ago when I couldn’t give it away at a ham auction. Trashed a nice 1950s vintage military 2″ wide tape recorder, VHF/UHF signal generator, etc.
I used to do a lot of work in Silicon Valley, so I liked to stop in at the Weird Stuff Store in Sunnyvale. It felt like more of an electronics museum than a retail store, but they always had a bunch of really old test equipment.
Used to collect stamps until they went self-adhesive. If you ask my wife, she’d tell you I collect junk … and she’s probably right.
I try to collect my thoughts………….sometimes it works…………..and………….oh, yeah,……………I have a almost full quart Mason jar of my clipped toe nails, but doesn’t everyone collect theirs?
I currently collect stamps. I have an old coin collection, worth their face value, which is why I did not include these on the “found treasure” discussion. Would like to collect gold coins, but the premium on them is absurd.
Great memories! And succulents and fridge magnets from different places!
Unicorns 🦄
Assorted Buddha’s(My house is very very Asian) , Raider things, Monkee & Paul Revere and the Raiders Memorabilia (I still love Micky Dolenz & Phil “Fang” Volk). And we won’t get into art & craft supplies
I like to read and have a nice collection, although sometimes I recycle them at Half Price Books. I have a very nice music collection, almost every kind of music, however, my most extensive is Jazz and Rock and Roll from the sixties. Jazz collection I have several live recordings from the Montreux Jazz Festival especially 1975 through 1977, Oscar Peterson, Count Basie and many others, also have several live recording from a Copenhagen Jazz Club, Montmatre that I use to frequent as a teen ager and in my twenties, most are Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster.
When I was a child, if you gave me three of anything, I would have to collect the whole set – cards, stamps, coins, posters, anything.
But, over the years, I have been freed from the need to collect things.
It’s very liberating.
Food for my pantry and Turkey feathers 🪶 that our wild turkeys 🦃 leave behind. I try not to collect (hoard) anything else. I love space!
I have complete set of James Bond movies and also collect assorted Bond memorabilia. Same with Beatles albums: complete set and other Beatles stuff..
Also collect boxing memorabilia, from gloves and signed photos to books and fights on DVD – and still have some older ones on VHS.
Hot sauces- I have over 150 with a nice 60 of my favs in custom case on the kitchen wall.
Vintage mics- I have a nice collection of 50’s era mics on stands.
For the most part I’ve had to stop collecting things. I’ve collected more art supplies than I could ever use. I also used to collect mineral pearl and shell beads, and bone and glass and whatever other interesting pretty beads that are made by the hand of nature, but same thing there. I can be tempted by bottles, glassware and nice pieces of glass, and stuff that’ll look nice outside in the yard, but I exercise a certain amount of restraint and don’t get into much trouble there. Now I’ve got my collecting down to occasional rocks and small boulders for the outdoors and small minerals and crystals of no real value to anyone but me. Luckily there, I don’t have much opportunity to do that now. I’m just about all collected out!
I have been collecting vinyl records for a long time.
Bobfished, As mentioned earlier on this site, a friend of mine that passed away had a huge vinyl collection, his sister didn’t want to deal with it and left it to me to do whatever I wanted. Let me know if you are interested, lot of sixties and seventies rock and roll.
Most recently I collected Hot Wheels for decades. Still have a ton of them in the garage.
When I was a kid I collected a number of different things, bottle caps, matchbooks, Sports Freaks stickers, Wacky Packages, Star Wars Cards.
I have a few Waterford crystal and a full toasting set for 2000. I have a few pieces of Wedgwood including plates minted for the bicentennial in 1976. I lived in the DC area at the time so I wished I kept my “I’m not a tourist, I live here” tee shirr. I have a few leather bound, gilded edged, books from the Franklin Mint including Moby Dick, Plato, etc. .
I used to have over 3 years, all inclusive Superman, Batman, Superboy and all related comics (Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, et al) but my Mother threw them out because I didn’t read them anymore. 30 years ago I recognized a Batman comic on the wall of a comic shop. The once 10 cent comic was valued at $40-. (sigh)
For the last several years I’ve been collecting Flamingos! I started by merely buying some Flamingo decorations for placing around my campsite (because isn’t that kind of fun!?) and they’ve migrated into my house! I have delicate glass ones, objet ‘d’art metal ones, ornaments, lights, a variety of wind chimes and stuffed animals. They’re great fun! My latest purchase is a small wood print with the saying, “be a FLAMINGO in a flock of PIGEONS!” 🙂