“Since 1987 or so, the 5.25″ floppy disk officially made its way into the backs of desk drawers, bottoms of bookcases, or boxes left in the garage, so they could make room for their smaller, hardback 3.5″ brothers which ironically died an equally quick death thanks to the advent of the CD.” VIEW âž²

“Kids love to collect things. With a little luck and a lot of effort, children might be able to build up valuable collections. There is no set age when collectibles become assets, but most are at least 30 years old before their worth increases. Some collectibles known as “investment-grade” can become very valuable if they are in perfect condition and in demand. MORE âž²

“I live in a tiny NYC apartment that’s full of cool things from all over the world. I simply love to travel and collect stamps in my passport. I’ve got Chinese menus galore, a zillion different bottle caps, scissors you won’t believe, spoons, paperclips, toothpicks and tons more. My favorite snack is popcorn and I collect all kinds of pictures and stories about corn…” MORE ➲

“First published in FEED online magazine, May 3, 2000: Jorn Barger is a collector, of a sort — though you wouldn’t know what sort, exactly, from gazing on his worldly possessions. A long-haired, thick-bearded former artificial-intelligence (AI) programmer in his forties, Barger lives in genteel poverty, sharing an apartment with roommates in Chicago’s scruffy West Rogers Park neighborhood. His bedroom once held a lot of books, but he had to sell them off some time ago; the principal fixtures remaining are a secondhand Macintosh with built-in television, a boom-box radio, and a bed. Barger spends his days in the bed, and there — sitting with the Mac’s keyboard in his lap and its monitor beside him — he collects: A color-coded map of the world’s language families. A discussion of the various titles Proust considered and discarded for Remembrance of Things Past. A National Enquirer article on “who’s doing yoga in Hollywood.” A BBC item on the evolution of cooperation among capuchin monkeys…” MORE ➲

“I have now 2777 items stored at my home, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a room called ‘Penguin Museum.’” MORE âž²

Yep. This is what Geocities is all about. Watch out for the embedded Midi audio, and also for all the penguins.

“For many years I did not think there was any particular reason why I collected the things that I did or that there was any connection to my practice. Mainly they were junk shop finds or things retrieved from skips or found on the ground whilst going about my daily business. Old oil cans, tools, brushes, tins, utensils, the kind of stuff people throw away during a spring clean. Then I came across my late father‘s razor.” MORE âž²

“Even now, after more than a half century, the Collyer name still resonates. New York City firefighters refer to an emergency call to a junk-jammed apartment as a ‘Collyer.’ The brothers are recalled whenever a recluse dies amid an accumulation of junk…” MORE âž²

“Lucas writes candidly about his own completist desires in collecting DVDs, but his post really could refer to any kind of collection. The reader responses also contain many insights. What makes people collect — a hoarding instinct? In my experience, the people who get extremely obsessive in this regard tend to be men. Why is that so?” MORE ➲

“People who collect things are called by many names. Some of their names are as unusual as the items they collect.” MORE âž²

A Copoclephilist collects key rings. I was a Copoclephilist when I was a kid.

“Glass insulators were first produced in the 1850′s for use with telegraph lines. As technology developed insulators were needed for telephone lines, electric power lines, and other applications. In the mid 1960s a few people began collecting these antique insulators.” MORE ➲

“Most of us who love paper and keep and store our journals, our family letters, etc. eventually must ask ourselves how we are going to preserve all of the material in a way that  keeps it all safe from deterioration. There’s a lot more to it than, ‘just look for acid-free.’ Just ask Don Williams. Williams is a Senior Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Materials Research and Education and the co-author of ‘Saving Stuff: How to Care for and Preserve Your Collectibles, Heirlooms, and Other Prized Possessions.’” MORE âž²

“On display are examples of pre-1870 surgical sets and Civil War surgical antiques, civilian amputation and surgical sets by some of the most famous American makers of the mid 1800s. The site contains hundreds of articles on instruments and Civil War medical topics using over 1500 photos. VIEW âž²

Cringe. It’s truly remarkable how long it took for surgery to even approach being humane. It was essentially life-saving (or not, considering the lack of knowledge about bacteria) torture.

That would be a group called the Kollectors of Nasty Old Ties. They are “enthusiasts and accumulators of vintage neckties. Do the adjectives obnoxious, ugly or annoying describe your neckwear wardrobe? Do you watch ‘Night Court’ or ‘Third Rock from the Sun’ just to see what goofy tie Harry Anderson or John Lithgow is sporting?” MORE ➲

“A collection of curiosities presented by the world’s most interesting persons. VIEW âž²

Includes the extremely popular (at least with me) “Unhappy Toledo Tourist Plate,” among other oddities.

From Pop Culture Collecting Magazine: “I’ve received numerous letters and e-mails from readers asking what types of things I collect. Some have asked an even bigger question: Why do we collect? There are various schools of thought on this topic. Here are some things I’ve noticed…” MORE ➲

From NPR: “‘Museum’ is probably the wrong word for this place, and ‘dirt’ might be the wrong word, too. In truth, the exhibit is a collection of found stuff, some of it earthen, some not. It’s on display at the Learning And Digital Media Offices of Jack Morton Worldwide, a high tech marketing firm in downtown Boston.” LISTEN âž²

I have my own museum of dirt. Although museum is probably the wrong word for it, dirt most definitely is the right word. It’s literally is a collection of dirt in small glass jars, collected from different U.S. states.

“Imagine you’re just finishing dinner at your favorite Chinese restaurant. The waiter drops a handful of fortune cookies onto the table along with your check. You grab one and crack it open, and inside you find this: ‘The greatest danger could be your stupidity.’ Not what you expected, is it? This site is a collection of fortune cookies like that: unusual, vague, weird, nonsensical, flat-out bizarre, whatever.” VIEW âž²

“‘What do you collect?’, you ask. Visit the six sections of this web site and you will see the major (but by no means the only) areas of our collections. We struggle constantly NOT to start another collection.” MORE ➲

Phillumeny. That would be the collecting of matchbox labels. VIEW âž²

“House a mess? Secret hoarder? Can never find anything you need? Then this is the show you’ve been waiting for. Welcome to The Life Laundry, the show that will literally change your life. Meet the host and organizer Dawna Walter and read her take on why people hoard.” MORE âž²

“When we realized all the money we had worked for had gone to stuff that we don’t even have room for, that’s when we really got scared.” MORE ➲

“Sometime in 1980 I was given my first uniform by one of my mother’s friends. I was so excited and I wanted to have more uniforms… At the moment my collection contains almost 600 different uniforms from various airlines worldwide.” VIEW âž²

This guy’s got more than 590 different stewardess uniforms from 269 airlines. Just like automobiles, uniformfreak.com shows how far our design sensibilities have devolved into blandness.

David Lance Goines: “The thrill of collecting entirely eclipsed any pleasure in owning. As soon as the quarry had been run to ground, it lost all its sheen and my interest turned toward the next conquest. I began to feel uncomfortable. I realized that I had unearthed and fed a part of myself that I did not much like, and I stopped my aggressive collecting…” MORE âž²

Personally, I think the collecting is bound to be more fun than the collection. It’s about adventure, not staring at things in a box.