Did you have or still have a collection? We all do actually. Whether it be small or large or isolated or vast, we all collect something. For some reasons there are stereotypes or ridicule directed at those who collect certain things and that is unfair. We all have a collection of something. Even if you don’t respect or fully realize it yet, look around your house, find a theme or pattern and there’s your collection. If not, although I’m sure you do, you need more love in your life.

When I was a kid I collected baseball cards. Until the last year or two, it was never about the value of certain cards, it was about having little pieces of info about my favorite team and players. Before the internet, these cards were the source of information about players if you didn’t get to a game and purchase a media guide. So I would actually read them. I loved the stats and little stories on the back and every player had one card each year, 2 if they were all stars. There were four companies and nothing all too special except the style of the borders. I still have mine, although you won’t find any past the mid-90′s in my collection. The industry made it all about perceived value and money and creating so many dame special rare insert mini sets it became impossible to collect specific things. $5+ for a pack of 4 cards due to limited quantities and rare possible “insert” cards took the fun out of it. Once it became about the “investment” I stopped completely. Still, I have most of them still and there are times I miss the excitement of picking out a few packs for a few bucks and hoping my favorite players were inside.

Comic books are probably the most popular kind of collection. They also come with the largest stereotype of all of them. I never got into them although I enjoyed reading some of them from time to time. I guess I didn’t live close enough to a good source and I was consumed with the sports cards and all those stats. I’ve never met a comic book collector I didn’t like. Something bout the passion for story lines that have passed through a couple generations that I admire. I feel like it’s something I could pick up or start at any time and enjoy it. Even share it with my kids because they appeal to everyone and anyone. Disney didn’t buy Marvel to gain a more “masculine” customer base. Besides, reading is reading and that’s a good thing. Right?

I get this trait from my parents. My Dad collected records as a kid, movies as an adult, and eventually started collecting baseball cards right along with me. It was a bonding thing looking back and that was pretty cool. My Dad really had no interest in sports expect big games and that was only limited to baseball and hockey games. He and I shared a bond with music, movies, and our bizarre sense of humor. My mom though, she’s ig into collecting things. She has a wonderful depression glass collection, a few plates, but her current passion is ornaments. Hallmark ornaments to be exact. She starts buying them in July but gets the new catalog in June and is known by name in the store. We often tease her they’ll end up on eBay someday but I can assure you not all of them will. Seriously, she has so many that she needs to anchor her tree to the wall or the weight will pull it over. They look good though and I admire her for this collection because she does it with passion. She doesn’t do it because they’re an “investment” rather because she enjoys them and takes pride in arranging them every year. I admire that.

My wife is not much of a collector so she thinks. She might think I’d say she collects bags or shoes, but she doesn’t. What she collects is a sign of the times, she collects TV shows. Not on DVD or anything, she hardly watches anything on a DVD unless I put it on. She collects hers on her DVR. Again though, I admire the passion to which she has her recording list optimized and tuned for the favorites in her collection and although she never watches an episode twice, the DVR is never not full. Shows that get canceled get replaced with new shows and there is always a constant stream of things to watch. None of these shows are soap operas either, all sitcoms, dramas, drama-dies, comedies, and realities. As much as I tease her for this new kind of collection, I admire her passion for it.

These days I don’t really collect much other than music and I guess movies looking around. I wouldn’t say games because I cycle them out after time by trading them in for credit towards new ones, but music brings me the most passion and in return I am passionate for it. I would enjoy collecting art I think but I can’t afford it nor do I have the wall space to properly display it. So tell me, what do you collect? What brings you enough joy that you’ve developed a passion to collect it? Doesn’t matter what it is, I will admire you for it. Collections are formed out of love and are often nurtured and continued by love to the beholder. It’s not about the material things as things, but the emotions that get stirred as you explore the subject of your desire. It’s that passion and emotion that I admire in any collection.