What do you collect? Rocks, stamps, dolls, cars, lint, sea glass, Sears & Roebuck catalogs?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

Answers

I have a half-ass collection of Barbies and a few Hello Kitty things. I mostly collect old needlework books and old books concerning "ladies' interests". I have this way-cool one that tells you how to be a good housewife the way Jesus wants you to.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

Always my favourite question. Especially since I like to talk about myself and my stuff. I collect videogames, toys, scary toys, other people's photographs, various paper products including postcards, stickers, old posters, old catalogues, old encyclopedias, old books, anything that is printed off-registration. Candy packages, strange educational stuff, fisher price little people and adventure people, plants, appliances, games, religious iconography, shells, rocks, sand, RECORDS, polaroid cameras, strange products, donut paraphernalia... Lots of things. But I have standards.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

G-force is the most insane collector I've ever known personally. Her apartment is like a museum. In a good way, though.

I half-assedly collect toys; I don't really have any specific criteria, though. Lately I've been getting a lot of PowerPuff Girls merchandise.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

I also collect Barbies and Tiki glasses from Hawaii. But not just any ordinary Tiki glasses. Orchids of Hawaii surfer chick ones. I was going nuts buying up all the ones on eBay for a while, but I think I haven't bought any since September. Maybe it's time to start looking again. I love tacky stuff, but I can't really spend much, and yes, sometimes the coolest tacky stuff can be expensive.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

I want to see the Jesus-approved housewife book Gwen. Sounds like a good one.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

Archie comics, Strawberry Shortcake stuff, fine aaahtworks, blue glass bottles, exotic fabrics (which I always vow to make into garments but never do), shoes, 1950s pinups, general kitsch.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

My kitchen cabinets don't go all the way up to the ceiling, so I've got it in my head that I need to collect old bottles or teapots to put on top of them.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

Eeyores. I don't know, is that interesting?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2000

Dead Bodies

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Those "Carmen Miranda" bottle-cap people, 7" singles, vintage fabrics and fat cells

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Tea cups with saucers and tea pots... Love really old ones.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Betty & Veronica comics. Antique mirrors. Vividly coloured old glass jars and canisters. I would collect vividly coloured dead bugs if I had any money.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Gwen, I have a health book from the 1940's or 1950's which talks about how it's always bad news when women decide they want to enjoy sex, too. Or something like that. It was at my father-in-law's, and my husband took it off the shelf and showed me how he'd highlighted all of the sexist passages. There are a lot of them.

I would collect Hello Kitty stuff if I had access to it; as it is, I've only got bits and pieces that my friend Jen has purchased for me, and some stuff I found at a cheap-ass store here. I love Japanese stationary, and plan to fill a suitcase with it when we finally go to Japan.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Shelly, I'm right there with you - LOVE the bottles & teapots on top of the kitchen cabinets. Got rid of most of the bottles when I thought we were going to move, and packed away most of my teapots...so now my cabinets are bare and I have an excuse to collect more. They have to be ultra inexpensive thrift shop finds to make it more fun too. My hubby says, "I think we can afford to buy a *new* teapot." But that's not the point. The satisfaction comes from finding a cool old beat up copper pot for a buck at a garage sale, and polishing it up when you get home.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I keep wanting to collect clocks, but never do. Y'all don't tell anyone, but I'm kind of obsessed with White House history and sometimes stay up late on eBay and Amazon auctions, buying tell-all books by Mamie Eisenhower's maid, the chief usher under the Truman administration, and stuff like that. Long story short, Jackie Kennedy was a complete bitch. And I like to pick up rocks and seaglass from interesting places around the world. I should figure out some way to display that stuff instead of leaving in the bottom of the desk drawer.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I collect vintage kitchen stuff, Depression glass, cocktail shakers and swanky swigs, hammered aluminum stuff, basically any old housewares. BTW, I swear I started collecting old bar ware before drinking martinis and the whole Swingers thing came about. I wouldn't want y'all to think I was trying to be trendy or anything.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Mock, do any of those books talk about Richard Nixon's bowling alley? I collect Watergate books/paraphernelia and the one question no one seems to cover is RN's bowling skills.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Eeyores ARE interesting. Y'all rule. I wish I could collect more stuff.

I'll quote passages from the Jesus book in my next journal entry. Jackie, you put some of the health-book stuff in yours and it'll be like we did a special themed collaboration or whatever.

Chrissi, are you at all into children's tea sets? I get sad when I think about how cool and popular those used to be, but now you can only find chunky teal plastic "kitchen sets" at Wal-Mart.

Where do y'all display your stuff, and how often do you dust it?

(Gayla, I'm scheming a way to get to your house with a camera as we speak.)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I collect sea glass and rocks. When our friends helped us move into this apartment I labelled my box of rocks as "books" because I didn't want the friends getting pissed about lugging around boxes of rocks.

I'm totally addicted to garage sales, where I usually buy tacky old cookbooks and books on ugly crafts and interior design. I can't resist the old knitting brochures either.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Cate, you can never have enough recipies for Klops!

Paula, cool! I need to hit the antique shops (or early attic, as my mother likes to call them) in the little towns surrounding mine. But first I need to redo my kitchen.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Mock: If you haven't seen it already, look for Lillian Rogers Parks' "My Thirty Years Backstairs At The White House", which was then adapted into a book called "Backstairs at the White House" and then adapted again into a TV mini-series in about 1980.

I collect candlesticks, and wooden boxes, and, unintentionally, dust.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Depression glass, Russian lacquer boxes, Victorian and Edwardian jewelry, antique needlework tools, Victorian furniture.

I don't think my books count as a collection, but, damn, they're taking over the apartment.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

If you looked in my purse, you'd think that I collect ballpoint pens, ATM and gas pump receipts, and wadded up foil gum wrappers (ooh, shiney!).

Step into my house, you'd first notice the abundance of books, then make your first Strawberry Shortcake sighting. It took me years to become truly engrossed with collecting Strawberry Shortcake, since the local antique shops only had so much to offer me every so often. But soon enough, the Online Gold Rush gave birth to Ebay, and that evil beast fed the flames of my disease.

When I first discovered that there were droves of folk like me who collected and traded Strawberry Shortcake stuff, well, I lost my shit... Went completely and utterly bonkers with the whole bidding thing. I was worse than Grandmas and Beanies, Soccer Moms and Longenberger baskets... Nothing could stop me from bidding on anything having to do with Strawberry Shortcake.

Except when I became broke. Goddam landlord, always wanting rent. Goddam stomach, always wanting food. So, because I am a pretty sensible sort of girl, I cut myself off and realized that there is more to life than bits of plastic that smell vaguely like fruits and flowers. As of today, I've been Ebay-Free for over a year. I'm so proud of myself. And I haven't bought any more S.S. stuff since last October, when I got the cherry little S.S. tin that is perfect as a purse.

So, since my days of indulging my Inner Child are pretty much over, I've gone back to collecting books, much to my boyfriend's dismay. He thinks that we have enough "kindling" in the house as it is.

Bastard! =)

My Blue Heaven ...better safe than sorry.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

The Strawberry Shortcake one always interests me because they came out right when I was at the height of my tomboy period. I just remember seeing the commercials and yelling "That's so stupid!"

Of course, I've come full circle with the Barbies and the HK since then. And the Powerpuff Girls.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

In November I started collecting Pochacco stuff from Sanrio. I just got a Pochacco cell phone case last week. I know you are all jealous.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I collect boxes, all shapes, sizes and materials. The cool thing about boxes is that you can hide stuff in them, like money, buttons, pennies you pick up when you vacuum, broken parts that you can't identify, lint, wrappers...and a lot of the other stuff that you all collect! My larger boxes hide: bills which I don't pay until the shutoff notice comes; jewelry -- mostly single earrings with no match; old, tacky scarves I never wear; photos, ticket stubs and kid's homework I can't part with; seasonal decorations that don't get into the right box before the box goes in the garage (like the stray Christmas magnet or plastic Easter egg you find behind the couch three months after the respective holiday).

I also collect cobalt blue glass in all shapes -- bottles, pitchers, marbles, etc. And pretty soon, I'll be collecting dishes, full sets, just like my mom and grandmother who are both obsessed with china. It's a family disorder.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I collect pink Sharon Depression Glass and Russian nesting dolls. My husband is an obsessive collector although he's starting to cool it. He collected antique radios for a while (try carring a floor model Zenith up three flights of stairs), Elgin pocket watches, old oil lanterns, and bricks from old houses, buildings and roads. Yes, you read that right. When we moved to our current house, there was no hiding the bricks in a box marked books (although I like that idea Cate). No one will ever help us move again because we made them move boxes of bricks.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Moira, don't forget your man's cameras!

The box-of-"books" thing cracks me up.

Nicole, we have a Nokia that isn't even activated, but I'm considering buying a Hello Kitty case for it, anyway, and carrying it around with me.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Gwen, you should get it! That way at the end of the month we can have coordinating cell phone cases and look way cool together.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Oh, good plan! Okay, I'll try to get one. Hey, and maybe I'll go so far as to reactivate the phone and FIND OUT OUR PHONE NUMBER this time! Then we can phone each other from the same room and stuff.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Hey, Moire... Now that you're not collecting SS anymore, you'll be wanting to sell it, right? Right?! (No, I don't have any shame. Why do you ask?)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

i have a collection of dead spiders in heat-sealed plastic baggies hanging on my refrigerator by magnets. one of them is even a black widow, my friend gave it to me as a pet but it died because i was too scared to open the jar to feed it.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I'm all about "have nothing that is not beautiful or useful" or however it goes. I can't bring myself to collect anything simply for the sake of collecting it. This probably is a result of living for 18 years with my mother who the worst packrat I have ever met. She collects: children's toys, alien stuff, and celebrity magazines. Her house is filled from floor to ceiling with such things as furbies, alien head lava lamps, and every People magazine since 1974. To a lesser extent she collects magnets and santa clauses, and she is also caretaker of my grandpa's coin, sheet music, and postcard collections. Oh yeah, and she has several hundred video tapes full of music videos and awards shows.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

When I was little...(gradeschool) I collected novelty erasers. I have over 200 of them. YAY cause what the hell am I going to do with a huge coffee tin full of weird and smelly erasers?? They sit on a shelf in the basement collecting dust. Alot of it. Occasionally I take em out and look at them. But the really do nothing for me. Sometimes my MOther is her, pre-alzheimers stage of retirement buys me erasers to add to my collection. WHAT? Umm thanks Mom, I haven't collected erasers in like 20 years...but I'll be sure to add and catalogue it on my chocolate note pad with my smelly grape pen. :-)

One more thing....the spider collection? too weird. I mean I have things in my freezer...but come on! That's too creapy for me man.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

hey- the spiders aren't IN my freezer, they're ON the refrigerator. the freezer is reserved for my years-old collection of terribly artistic easter eggs (decorated by talented friends, i couldn't bring myself to toss them) speaking of freezers, don't make me tell you about my dead hamster story. btw, i really am not creepy.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Ooh, children's tea sets! Remembering having tea parties with my grandmothers bring back so many cool memories. I have to ask my mom if she still has my tea set.

Moira, I wish I'd had a chance to see your house last summer, because all those collectibles sound extra-cool. I eventually told my friends about the rocks they helped us move, but I waited about a year, because I was hoping that -- like they say can happen with childbirth -- our friends would have forgotten the pain of the move by then.

Shelly, you know you can never have too much Klops!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Cate--I hear ya.

Do y'all ever watch the appraisal shows on PBS and HGTV? I love those shows. Yesterday, I was watching one and this lady had three of the fugliest mantel clocks I had ever seen. Turns out they were worth $150,000. So keep those collectibles in good condition.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I love it when the people get on with some vase or something they got for $12 at an antique shop. They think they're all crafty coz the vase says "TIFFANNY" or something in permanent marker on the bottom. And then the appraiser's like "Yeah, that's worth about thirty-seven cents." D'oh! And I like it when old people have the family history surrounding their antiques. "My grandmother dated General Santa Anna until he made her mad by sending her yellow roses instead of peach."

Um... it seems like I was gonna say something else...

Oh, yeah... how do you kill the spiders, jupe? You don't just leave them sitting around in jars, do you?

(Cate: "pain of childbirth" -- HA!)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I collect costume history and sewing books. I love the 1940's wartime ones that tell you how to recycle, making your husband's old shirts into panties for your daughters, turning his suits into some spiffy outfit for yourself...I bet a lot of those service men came out of uniform to find that they had NO CLOTHES left!

I also seem to be collecting vintage lace, becasue I keep buying it at garage sales. I need to learn more about it so that I can hang with my costuming frinds, going "Oh, that's Ayershire work, and this one's a 19th century machine made imitation Brussels".

My husband collects die cast metal cars, which are not interesting. I try to make him keep them at his office, but they keep insinuating themselves into our home, there are 11 of them on the shelf over my head. I also insist that they be pronounced with the proper Cockney glottal stop: Li'le Me'le Cars.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

I used to collect those "Lordy, Lordy, Look who's 40" ads in the paper. Then I had so many, I had to stop. Everyone worried about me. I have a whole entire photo album full of birthday and anniversary greetings boxes from various local newspapers. My favorite one is "Lordy, Lordy, Wee See is 40." He's Asian. His picture's in it. No kidding.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

gwen- i don't actually kill the spiders, they are ones found already dead. mostly from the warehouse of an old building i worked in. some are HUGE - pretty cool, you can get a good look without having to be scared. i'm scared of the live ones.

doesn't anyone out there collect pez holders? i love pez.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

I collect strays (see online romances). Also really cool refrigerator magnets-like the one that has a 50's looking wife in a kitchen and it says "Hell yes I'm good in the kitchen-I can eat for hours!" I also collect piano sheet music from the 20's-40's. I have my grandmother's and a bunch of my mom's. The arrangements are beautiful.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

I collect lotion and deodorant. All of it takes up 2 shelves in my hall cabinet. My husband thinks I'm addicted. I think I just like things that smell good. Oh, and also I have a collection of the extra buttons that come with my new clothes.

(I'm also the one who collects food, see "Irrational Fears") I also probably have every Cosmo magazine printed for the last 20 years, that's the magazine I can never throw away. When my hubby makes me clean them up, it's an all day, re-reading chore and it makes me cry. (He collect Rolling Stone)

And I guess we collect dog hair, it's everywhere. We've talked about knitting it into a blanket.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

1950's cocktail stuff. Swizzle sticks, tikis, frosted highball glasses with palm trees painted on them. Basically, if it looks like something that would be at a BBQ where Ward Cleaver was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and smoking his pipe while flipping burgers, I must have it.

Vicki, an extension of this is the 1950's style magnets.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2000

Have you guys visited www.fridgedoor.com ? They have a whole slew of magnets, including the 50s looking stuff. Some of that stuff cracks me up and I always want to order a bunch of them, but then I look at my refrigerator and realize there is no room for any more magnets.

Hey Gwen, I still have that first postcard you sent me with the huge armadillo on it and it says "Everything is bigger in Texas" on my refrigerator.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000

I collect snowglobes, in a half-assed way. I got a "Night Before Halloween" one that has bats flying around inside and lights up, and decided I wanted to collect them. Then I got the Fargo promotional one. I wanted to stipulate that I only collect unusual or incredibly cheesy ones (because I often get them as gifts), but my boyfriend's mom doesn't understand and so I also have some with kittens and flowers. But she tries, and that's what counts. If find that the Disney catalog has the best and most creative snowglobes. Too bad I don't really like most Disney movies or characters.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000

I have a collection of Very Strange People. (Hey, I work in a bar in the Greater Los Angeles Area...whadaya expect?)

I also love old tintypes and daguerrotypes, ancient cookbooks (I get off on the "healthy" ways to cook in them!), 80s music and music videos, 80s movies, and if I ever win that &*%$&^*(& lottery, I'll begin collecting photography equipment, both old and new. Oh, and junk having to do with Oklahoma City, since that's where I grew up.

And books...and lots of dust...

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000

Nicole: cool! I wonder if Sharon still has the one with the spooky crab. Sharon, you'd better have it tacked over your bed with a rosary or you're not my friend anymore!

Kim: aw! It is nice that your bf's mom tries like that.

Y'all rule. I was just having a conversation with someone about how not too many gen-x people get really into decorating their homes with collections and stuff. I'm so glad to hear otherwise.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2000

I collect rubber bouncy balls. I have a 2 gallon glass tank filled. I buy one everytime I go somewhere I want to remember.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2000

I had a friend in high school who collected keychains. She linked them all together and the whole pile was the size of your head and it only had about three keys on it! She carried it around everywhere! You could hear her coming a mile away with all that crap jingling together. It drove up all insane. We would hide it from her sometimes which would make her absolutely nuts. I still see people around today who carry around a pile of keychains like that and I have no idea why.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2000

Kim, I feel your pain. I also collect snowglobes. It started as a joke- "you're going out of town? Bring me something tacky! Bring me a snowglobe!" And they did. Again and again and again. And again. I currently have about 70. I have a few "real" ones from people that didn't understand, so I hide those behind my Spam and Elvis snowglobes. The tackier, the be

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Jupe-- my best friend collects Pez dispensers, breathe a sigh of relief. ;) I am the primary contributor to her collection, having gifted her with a set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Chewbacca, and Dino, among others. Her dad gave her a really nifty porcelain Pez elephant limoges box for Xmas last year. The porcelain ones are way cool-- they look just like the plastic ones, but they're glass. You can get them on eBay if you search for "porcelain pez". New, they're like $25, so most of the ones on eBay are bargains.
I myself am content with my paltry ("selective"!) Pez collection: Batman, Spiderman, Yoda, Leia, Luke, Boba Fett, Darth, and the piece de resistance, my Tweety Bird pez given to me by *drumroll* Adam Ant. Yup, you heard me right. Really, would I make that up? :)

Kim, you said you collect only unusual or cheesy sno-globes-- well, kittens and flowers in a globe are pretty darned cheesy in my book. :) I think you're staying within the specified limits. *grin*

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2000

oh, for fucks' sake, I forgot I just bought a set of Simpsons Pez dispensers! and they rock most heartily. :))

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2000

scrnwrt! You share my obsession! I feel a powerful bond with you already. The only thing I know about that bowling alley is that it was built during the Truman renovation. Maybe Nixon re-renovated it and that's why it's known as "his"...?

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Gwen: Didn't I just read in your jounal that you are coming to Toronto in a week? I live in Toronto. You're invited for a visit if you want to see. I love having people over to see stuff. I once wanted to have a museum where people could come and actually play with the toys and stuff. Wing Chun knows me so she can vouch for me as not being a crazy, psycho nut. Or maybe not. Ha

I used to collect erasers when I was a kid. I had a jewellry box that was a plastic chest of drawers and each drawer was a different colour of the rainbow. I filled it with erasers that I mostly got from the vending machine at Towers. I also had a huge sticker collection. I still have most of that one but the erasers are long gone. I can't keep everything.

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2000

cat hair and cigarette butts

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

I collect old cookbooks/entertainment books. Also, old cocktail booklets from the 50's & 60's. These booklets (brochures from liquor companies) talk about how to throw a cocktail party and they give recipes for appetizers such as "Bologna Boats & Ham Balls", etc... YUM! One entertainment book from the 40's talks about how to throw a "gay little supper party"! I don't think it meant the same thing back then. These are fun to read and give me a laugh!

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2000

Stacey, my mom has a cookbook from the 60s called "Saucepans and the Single Girl." It tells you what different types of meals to cook for whatever type of guy you are dating i.e. navy-bean soup for a military man. Ha! Some of the recipies were pretty good though.

My roommate and I collect Sanrio stuff. I like the new hot pink Indian-style HK stuff with ribbon on it, I have the cell phone case, and the neck-keyring I always wear at work that makes the pre-teen girls envious (I'm a children's librarian.) We also have the Badtz Maru comforter which we keep on the living room couch because it brightens up the whole room. I used to carry a Badtz Maru handbag and would feel so silly when I went shopping at the Sanrio store toting it around. Kind of like when you're wearing a band t-shirt and buying a cd by the same band whose shirt you're wearing, if that makes any sense.

I started collecting Tarot cards because I would buy a deck thinking, here's one I could use to learn how to read them. But now I think learning how to read them might be a little beyond me, so I just collect them. They are the only thing I ever succesfully bid on on E-bay. I keep them on the bookshelf. Wasn't there a Hello Kitty tarot deck available somewhere?

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2000

Yeah, there was a guy selling HK Tarot decks from San Antonio, but I think he had to take down the webpage advertising them. It's worth looking for him, though. I remember that he was in SA and he also drew comics. He might have been into the anime scene.

I have that deck and they are super, duper cute. And only 12 or 15 bucks.

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2000

Mock, I think Nixon built a new one. I know Bebe Rebozo paid for it and got in big trouble over it, and that it had the most godawful wallpaper I've ever seen. I had a dream the other night in which I met Nixon, and immediately asked him who was responsible for that wallpaper, and he said Pat picked it out. Nixon also filled in the swimming pool at the White House to give more room for reporters covering WH events, or because he was grossed out by all the naked swimming LBJ did in it, depending on who you ask.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I wasn't going to get in on this til I saw Jupes question about the Pez Dispensers. Yes, I collect them, and I carry them in my purse and offer to them to people with a little smile.."Pez?"...hehehe

I also collect all things Pepe Le Pew, tropical fish (live ones, mostly Bettas), and all things related to aquaria.

Some of ya'll are just downright strange collectors! LOL

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

When I was a kid, I used to collect stamps. I'd spend hours pouring over them, filing them carefully into albums, examining them with magnifying glasses, looking them up in the stamp books to see how much they were worth (usually, not much). May have been the last time I had any organizational skills to speak of...

Now I collect WWI-era sheet music, the cheesier the better. My current favorite is for a song titled, "You'll Have to Put Him to Sleep with the Marseillaise and Wake Him Up with a Oo-la-la." The cover has this sassy French dancing girl being kissed by a rather dorky looking doughboy. I'm also a big fan of the "You Gotta Be a Football Hero (to Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)" fox trot.

Unintentionally, I collect dust, cat hair, paper and random boxes. My house is a total fire hazard.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Well, for one, I collect pictures. Mostly cut-outs from National Geographics, but I saw these really well done black and whites from the 20's of this woman and her family in an antique store...thinking of getting those. Also started collecting gemstones (my mother's fault, i swear) and am particularly proud of a tanzanite I got for cheap. eBay is wonderful. mwahahhaa...

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Oh man I recently got into collecting stamps. I have proper stamp books will little slots for the stamps and have managed to fill 2 already. I'm sure none of mine are worth a dime though. I just love the designs. I don't mind the organizing cause I can do it while watching tv.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Nurse stuff and Coca-Cola magnets. And invalid feeders.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Toys! But I'm choosy. I also note that I tend to gravitate towards things I was discouraged (Barbies--well, any doll that wasn't a bald baby doll, which I loathed, having zero maternal instinct) or forbidden (LEGOs--don't know why, maybe mom stepped on one in her bare feet?) to have as a child.

I have to choose: either I'm poor and happy because I have new toys but sad because I am in debt...or I'm slightly less poor, have no toys and am sad because my inner kid is being denied something fun. Toys are stress relieving. I highly recommend LEGOs. We have a LEGO train on our dining room table.

Also have a gajillion Barbies but am seriously thinking of thinning the herd. The point was to sew costumes and do customizations, and I quickly saw how I'd be spending weeks on one re-root/re-paint/sewing project, then not give her up because of the effort and attachment involved. I sewed some costumes and got praise for it and I suppose they look pretty good, but I'm not interested in wasting more time dressing Barbies if I can't see some sort of profit to make up for the expense involved. I'm a completist, so I got all the Great Eras and most of the set with 'City Style', etc. I still salivate over some of the new ones--it's not fair that they are coming out with dolls I'd make myself if I had time, like Wonder Woman. Make Your Own Barbie at www.mydesign.com also lured me in, and I requested a custom doll or two for gifts and got one for myself.

I've been very good the past couple of years--have only bought three. Prior to that, I might buy up to four a week, depending on price.

They aren't being displayed properly (except we have Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in the living room).

I was into stamps and coins because my father had collectiosn to build on. Aced geography as a result.

Have some frozen four-leaf clovers in the freezer.

Have random Sanrio stuff. Have the Avon Powerpuff cuddly toy set.

Other than that, have not bought any toys for myself in a while. I don't feel I can afford it, and we have no place to put it: my living situation is unsettled because our landlord is terminally ill, and most everything superfluous is still packed away.

I still buy books, music and useless cosmetics rather compulsively, though. So I'm still not a responsible adult by any means just because I am not adding frantically to my toy collections.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Oh yeah--ditto on the cobalt glass. I'm not compulsive or dedicated, but most of my bathroom and household glassware is cobalt blue.

My mom collects crabs and apples (but not crabapples). She used to collect Hummels, which I find ugly, but that's a bit expensive for her to do these days.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I collect old fifties posters,records,books on paranormal phenomenom,anime,guitars

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Yes, I collect any and everything Hello Kitty. I have about five thousand dollars worth of Hello Kitty Stuff. I even have a hello kitty tattoo on my lower back. She is the best.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001

I collect dolls but not the new expensive collector dolls, more like generic porcelin. Also state plates from places I've visited but I've run out of room to put them so now buy state magnets. And fabric for quilting. I have enough to open my own fabric store. Recently I've been buying Longenberger baskets which are so expensive but I use them all.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2001

oh, I also collect the nesting dolls from Russia, Poland, and Germany. And bunches of other stuff; I think I've got too much stuff.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

I collect the skulls of my many victims and I feed the rest of their corpces to my pet goldfish, Darren the fish.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2001

It's spelled "corpses", for future reference.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2001