Collect Something

When I was a kid I collected two things: Star Wars merchandise and comic books. Every birthday, Christmas, straight-A report card or other accomplishment or event worthy of reward or gift would net me a stack of comics or a new toy featuring one of my favorites. I went through a few other toy lines or interests, like G.I. Joe or Transformers or baseball cards, but Star Wars and comic books were my go-to collection standards.

Nowadays, I can get on the Internet and see that the $3 Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures I pitted against each other (using toothpicks as lightsabers after their original weapons had long since disappeared under the be or in the couch cushions) are now worth about $300 each. I have seen comic books that I distinctly remember holding in my young hands like Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8 (the first appearance of Spider-Man in his black-and-white “Venom” suit) listed online with values in the five-figure range.

Oh, well.

I didn’t collect those things for their value. I collected toys to play with them. I collected comic books to read them. The idea that they might someday be of value never occurred to me. I put a bunch of future Hall of Fame players’ baseball cards in the spokes of my bicycle just to get that cool quasi-motorcycle click-click-click sound as I patrolled the neighborhood.

The value of collecting is not the price tag on that rare holofoil first-issue cover. It’s the joy you get from the act

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of collecting itself.

I still collect things, only the cool thing is that I don’t actively collect them.

It’s more of a “passive collecting” if that makes sense. I talk to my family and firends about the things I like and drop hints here or there about what I’m into or some cool new thing that just came out, and come my birthday or Father’s Day or Christmas, I get a new collectable to add to my workspace or my “shelf of things” in my office.

I don’t think there’s any real cash value to any of the things I currently have out on display. There’s a cool Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees mask, an 18-inchtall Boba Fett figure from Star Wars, a Joker bobblehead done in the style of the old 1960s Batman TV show, a little diecast figurine of professional wrestler Sting, a pair of plush Bert and Ernie dolls from Sesame Street, and a set of Atlanta Braves Mardi Gras-style beads, just to name a few interesting items.

What are you into? Any interest can become a collecting hobby: a favorite sports team, old records, paperback books, memorabilia from a TV show you liked as a kid. All of the above. Something else, just start collecting…

Photo by Ralph Hardin