Collecting, what's that about?

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When i was 8-10 years of age i had a strong desire to collect something.

The thought at the time was to collect postcards or keyrings, not because i liked them but i had to collect something.

Another time i purchased a Carltonware teapot as a gift, the seed was sown in my head to start collecting these teapots, i did not,and with hindsight it seems bizarre.

Throughout my life i have had these thoughts, but why?

Has anybody worked out why we have a need to collect things?

Once when I was about 7, I kept accumulating stuff to take to heaven with me. I had two big boxes of stuff. I kept addingg to it, and most of it was pointless stuff, or stuff that I felt emotionally attached to even though I never looked at it... I just had to know I had it and that it was safe and that it wouldn't be harmed.

Some of the things I collect, I do so partially because each one is unique and I am fascinated with the variations among so many of the same object...and also the effort and attention to detail that has been put into them.... That is partially why I do it.
The things I collect for those reasons are
handmade quilts
Raggedy Annes and Andys
Homemade toys
(divided into sub categories of crocheted toys, sock toys, dolls, pillow creatures, clowns ect)
vintage toys
(i also make these things to some extent myself...especially the sock monkeys)

I used to have a huge vintage hat collection that got destroyed..in my teens I was completely obsessed with vintage hats and also vintage clothes...
my hat collection was really impressive....It ranged from the 20's to the 70's.....I even had a real flapper dress and jet beads at one time.....I have always felt really connected to the past for some reason.
The drama department at my high school would often borrow pieces from me....

I also collect
wigs
costumes
(I collect those for utilitarian reasons..I often go on stage in costume and also like to be prepared if other people need costumes)


Flakey collects things too....children's books....graviatation games (there are so many different ones..he eventually wants one of each...or multiples of the same)...toy instruments....noisemakers.....He has a sort of more-the-merrier attitude about collecting.
He used his toy instruments and noisemakers for a festival he used to put together every year called "Horrible Noise"...now we use our stuff in our Audience participation noise band, "the Annoysters"

collecting things runs in the family. After my grandfather died, in multiple sheds all over his property, we found boxes and boxes of old yogurt cups, and toilet paper rolls and numerous versions of the same item over and over agian. In his car, there were likesay, 20 umbrellas, 30 cans of Off (he was obsessed with erradication mosquitoes) stuff like that....

Theres collecting for the action of collecting.. which is often considered a form of controlling your environment to make up for those things in your life you cant control.. theres collecting for the creation of a set.. you have a teapot but want the cups to go with it for completion.. then the plate set that matches then the napkins that go with it then the dinnerware, etc.. and then theres OCHD (obsessive compulsive hoarding disorder) which is the collection of objects usually because "I might need it someday" but someday never comes and you cant bring yourself to throw it away no matter how implausible the reason you might someday need it might be (such as keeping dead alkaline batteries in case someone invents a way to recharge them).

I'm the same way, collecting mostly Transformers. I think I have about 1,070 now.
For a while it extended to things besides toys, like novelty banks and radios, but for monetary reasons, even the non-TF toys had to stop.

It may be OCD for some people, but I once tested as a personality type that has to have a "perfect internal world". This most likely means a personal mental fantasy realm to retreat into, but collecting representations of certain elements of it may be a necessary way to organize and explain it to others. I get uneasy when something breaks or white plastic turns yellow, and feel the need to replace/repair it.

I also collect movies, and have an intense desire to own any that are extremely rare or obscure, probably because I see myself as an archivist preserving them for future generations.

I've recently found I'll collect any comic books that are so ridiculous I can't believe they exist. My most ludicrous finds of late are "Crazyman!", a comic where Gumby and Pokey go down to Hell to rescue Santa Claus (the back cover also features a tribe of Amazons spit-roasting Pokey), and the Planet of the Apes/Alien Nation cross-over, "Ape Nation".

I'd really hate losing my collection, so I guess it's technically a form of materialism, but I see absolutely no point to status symbols, collecting only that which means something to me.

Oh yeah...I also collect arts and craft supplies...and I have a tendancy to not throw anything away because I might use it later..and though it causes me to have a massive accumulation of stuff....I do actually use alot of it....eventually.....

I often have better connections to inanimate objects than I do people...and when I am not drugged out and distrcted by my horrid addiction to bright glowing screens with pictures on them...all I think about is different art and sewing projects.

I feel bad about throwing stuff away. I just came across a big musty bag of fabric...on one hand...I don't need it....it reeks of mildew....on the other hand...it is just gonna go to the landfill.
I need to find a utilitarian purpose for alot of the stuff that I hoard because I have such an aversion to throwing it away

The only thing I collect are neurosis. No you don't!! Yes, I do!! See what I mean?

I collect Routemaster replicas.

i collect rocks and sportscards i think we collect because we have no human contact on a regular meaningful basis? i dunno.

I collect stones (different types of jasper), small transparent clocks that have liquid instead of sand inside, little glass figurines of cats and occasionally some other animals, certain soft toys I like, tangle toys, and various photos of animals and landscapes. My strong desire to take photos of different natural objects could also be thought of as an urge to collect, I suppose - I always want to take more and more pictures of new flowers, berries, insects, leaves etc., and I love having them printed and arranging them in various ways in an album.

I think I'm doing this mostly for the esthetic enjoyment that comes from these things. Things like the jasper stones or the nature photos give me an acute sense of awe at how diverse and beautiful nature is (it's a simple feeling, but very difficult to describe), and it's something I value a great deal. So these objects have a significance all of their own which seems to become greater the longer I have them. As for the other things I like collecting, I simply like to touch them or look at them, as it is pleasant and relaxing, and gives me a sense of emotional warmth.

I'm not sure what were my motives for collecting when I was a child. I collected lots of things: matchbox covers, badges, coins, stamps, candy wrappers, the pictures that used to be put under the wrapper of certain types of bubblegum ("Pembo" and "Love is" were my favorites - I had heaps of these, literally, along with various candy wrappers, and even made special small books out of polyethylene bags in which I could put them in a special order). There could be other things I don't remember at the moment. Why I did it I don't know - perhaps I had a passion to collect things for their own sake, or I also liked looking at them.

Usually it is hard for me to throw things away but at certain moments logic gets me and I see I will likely never need any of that stuff I accumulated around me. I spend quite a bit of time organizing things, not because of things but because of organisation...

I used to collect model airplanes but my collectionism (that word might not exist) also includes, movies I never watch, computer software I never use, music I never listen too and easily extends to books I never read. Oh wait, I also collect tools, recently acquired a fascinating torque-driver I do not need.

I collected TY beanies in my teens and will buy them everytime I see them in second hand stores or at yard sales. If I have money.

I also collect key chains. I buy them everytime McDonalds has them for Happy Meal toys.
I also collect old Happy Meal toys but they have to be what I like, my taste like Hello Kitty, Disney, Barbie.

I decided I want to start collecting Benny & Joon posters and memorabilia.

I am thinking about collecting those old jack in the boxes but then where would I put them all and they are expensive too.

I can feel a low but existent desire to collect things if there is more than one kind of the same thing or more than one thing made for the same purpose or more than one manifestation of the same idea. Not having everything would feel incomplete and like a lack of control.

I would feel a bit more comfortable emotionally if there would not be many things for the same idea. But those are faint and distant emotions buried deeply inside anxiety control. I think I never really had that desire taking control of my doings but I understand and can feel why some people feel like having to collect things, especially at times of great uncertainty.

I get attached to things in my possession and have real trouble throwing stuff away, even if it's useless/not needed.
As a kid I collected Keyrings, Scoresheets from things like lazer quest and tenpin bowling, and a few other things.
As an adult I collect films/dvds. My wrestling collection is growing nicely and i have a huge collection of martial arts films and a near complete collection of Jackie Chan films from 1978 onwards. I also collect Final Fantasy games and some lines of paraphinalia.
Some of the films I own are due to them being directed by someone whose work I collect, even the crap pieces.

I have several collections & I'm quite obsessive with them:
American Girl Dolls
Japanese Lucky cat figurines (AKA Maneki Neko)
Coins... & money from foreign countries
Buffy the Vampire Slayer stuff (I have books, comics, collector plates, dvds, t shirts etc.)
Stitch Plushies... I Love Stitch!! ! & also plush kitties!

I was going to say I collect nothing...I'm the anti-packrat. I throw away everything!

However, I do collect code and scripts for programming, mostly HTML but also some other stuff.