Answer for question 4178.
Jan. 4th, 2015 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calzephyr[Error: unknown template qotd]Oh geez! Collecting was a large part of my life for some time, but now that I'm almost 40, being childless and having a small house has shaped what I collect.
Until I took a class in material culture, I never really understood why I collected, so here's some tips for anyone reading this. I had often heard that people collect things to fill a void. A collection may be one of the few things someone has control over in their life, so naturally they put a lot of effort into collecting and maintaining a collection.
Collecting involves a consumption cycle, from the acquisition to disposition phase. It's the acquisition phase where people get the most satisfaction, or the thrill of the hunt. You may spend a lot of time preparing the space for the thing to be displayed in, or reading about it, or imagining and sharing all the feelings and hopes you have for this object. Then, once said object is acquired, it's on to the next thing of great desire. I realized that it was this part that I really enjoyed too.
There's also a social aspect - if you collect something, you're bound to meet other people that share your passion. Hurrah for the Internet!
So on to the things I collected - stamps (very accessible for a young person), model horses, My Little Ponies, Kinder Surprise toys and books. All those collections have tapered off. I'm actually in the disposition phase of collecting model horses. Scarcity of collectors meant that they used to hold value - and acquiring a discontinued model horse required a laborious back and forth process involving snail mail (remember, long distance prices were $$ back in the day). Thanks to the Internet, the bottom fell out of the market. Now I have a hard enough time giving them away for free, or practically free!
I still see a lot of fun things that I would like to collect, but I stop myself and just admire online pictures instead.
Until I took a class in material culture, I never really understood why I collected, so here's some tips for anyone reading this. I had often heard that people collect things to fill a void. A collection may be one of the few things someone has control over in their life, so naturally they put a lot of effort into collecting and maintaining a collection.
Collecting involves a consumption cycle, from the acquisition to disposition phase. It's the acquisition phase where people get the most satisfaction, or the thrill of the hunt. You may spend a lot of time preparing the space for the thing to be displayed in, or reading about it, or imagining and sharing all the feelings and hopes you have for this object. Then, once said object is acquired, it's on to the next thing of great desire. I realized that it was this part that I really enjoyed too.
There's also a social aspect - if you collect something, you're bound to meet other people that share your passion. Hurrah for the Internet!
So on to the things I collected - stamps (very accessible for a young person), model horses, My Little Ponies, Kinder Surprise toys and books. All those collections have tapered off. I'm actually in the disposition phase of collecting model horses. Scarcity of collectors meant that they used to hold value - and acquiring a discontinued model horse required a laborious back and forth process involving snail mail (remember, long distance prices were $$ back in the day). Thanks to the Internet, the bottom fell out of the market. Now I have a hard enough time giving them away for free, or practically free!
I still see a lot of fun things that I would like to collect, but I stop myself and just admire online pictures instead.
