An online collaborative art project.| What
is it about collecting that gets deep into your psyche and becomes an
addiction? Does it start out when we're small children,
gathering
blocks into a pile, or digging through Mom's flowerbed for different
colored rocks? Some collectors do start young, probably
influenced somewhat by their parents' habits. But others take it
up later in life, possibly as a way to hold onto things that represent
a life speeding away at an ever-increasing rate. As for myself, I
think I fall into the latter category. The only thing I ever
really collected before I was over 40 years old (which coincidentally
was when I became acquainted with eBay). I have to qualify that
with the fact that I did amass a large collection of phonograph
records, but that wasn't really driven by wanting to collect for
collecting's sake, but rather to be able to listen to a particular
piece of music whenever I wanted to. When the internet came along, I suddenly had the ability to look at things that I could only see in books at the local library before. I remember reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about collectors of antique radios and thought that sounded pretty cool. So, I visited eBay and discovered hundreds of different models for sale. My favorites were the streamlined plastic models from the 40's and 50's, probably because I remembered seeing them when I was growing up. That's another important aspect of collecting: attempting to recapture our youth. Nostalgia has always been important in the field of collecting. Who cares about the stuff we have today, look at this: remember how they used to be made? Weren't things a lot cooler back then? Why, you look at it hard enough and it's almost as if you were back there in those simpler times when life was easy. Well, it wasn't long before I had half a dozen cool looking plastic radios from the days when my parents were newlyweds. Some of them even worked, although hearing modern-day music coming from the dusty loudspeakers sort of ruins the mystique. Eventually, I moved on from radios (and they moved into the attic) to other things. I had brief romances with all sorts of eBay categories: fruitcrate labels, pinup art from the 1940's, railroad memorabilia, Hawaiiana, tobacco silks, soda pop bottles, rubber toy cars, 60's psychedelic concert posters, stereoview cards, stamps and probably some things I've forgotten (see my attic for further details). Most of these fixations lasted for a few months, long enough for me to acquire some examples of the collectible in question, learn a little about them and realize that the primary enjoyment came from discovering that these objects were still around (or existed in the first place in a few cases) and looking at them. I can't explain it to my wife, but I actually gain pleasure from wandering through antique malls piled high with decades-old castoffs. I remember when walking through one such store I came across a rack of metal and canvas shopping baskets like those that the local Woolworth's Department Store used to have. They were the kind that looked sort of like a picnic basket. You would pick one up at the front of the store and carry it around, putting your purchase in it as you went. I hadn't seen or even thought about those baskets in over 30 years, but here they were, looking brand new. It was such a simple thing-seeing them again, but it actually felt good. There's gotta be some sort of scientific explanation for the pleasure you get when you dredge a memory up from so deep. I predict that in the future, one of the entertainment/pleasure options we'll have will be some sort of device that helps us remember things from our childhood that we don't even know are there to remember. The pages contained here are an attempt to share some of that pleasure with you, the curious, the collector, the nostalgic, whichever you are. |
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| + Barbed Wire + Casino Chips + Cigars & wine + Classic Cars & Trucks... + Hawaiiana & Surf Culture... + Matchcovers... + Antique Radios... + Pin-ups & Girlie Stuff... + Online Price Guides... + Petroliana (Gas Station Stuff)... + Robots & Space Toys... + Soda Pop Collectibles... + Toy Cars... Antique & Collectible Exchange Antique Barbed Wire Society Auction Services - PayPal Auction Services - Andale Artrock.com Breweriana Zone Button and Eddie's Classic Ford Truck Stop Christie's Collecting Channel Collector Online Collector's Universe Concertposterart.com Crayon Collectors Museum Deco Echoes Devil's Rope Barbed Wire Museum eBay Hula Dolls - Collectibles in Paradise The Internet Antique Shop Kansas Barbed Wire Museum Krause Publications - Collectibles Corner The Labelman - Fruit Crate Labels Lenox Collections Lunch Box Museum Motel Americana My Typewriter.com New Mexico Route 66 Association Peacerock.com Concert Posters Plan 59 Classic Advertising Art The Pulp Stand Comics & Pulp Mags Roadside Architechture Roadside Peek Rock 'n Art Sotheby's Souvenir Metal Ashtrays Tavern Trove - Breweriana Teardrop Trailer Research Pages View-Master For Sale Volo Antique Auto Museum & Collector Car Sales |
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8 Track Tapes
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Antique Automobiles
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Antique Dolls
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Antique Radios
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Beverage Bottles
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Candi Girl Dolls
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Classic Motorcycles
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Clocks
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Clowns
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Disney Pins
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Ford F-series Pickups
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Hard Rock Cafe
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Hot Wheels
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Jukeboxes
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Lighters
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Matchcovers
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Monopoly Games
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Oil Cans
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Paper Dolls
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Photographs
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Postcards & Ephemera
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Pottery
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Slot Machines
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Teddy Bears
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Tractors
Questons? Comments?