h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Most people like to collect things. I myself have a collection of over 200 ornamental cats. My sis likes to collect pigs and a friend of hers is mad on teapots.

Do you have a collection? If so what is it, when did it start and do people now know exactly what to buy for you on birthdays and holidays! I might even do a league table on this and write an entry to the guide.

I used to collect coloured bottles. Now, pretty much any glassware, but especially coloured/patterned shot and cocktail glasses, and champagne flutes.
It's not even a habit anymore.... more a compulsion... have to buy glasses....

Records, books... and penguins of all kinds...

Sometimes it seems I collect used hankies as well, but...

Dragons - but not just any dragon. The dragon has to be 'aesthetically pleasing' - i.e., nice to look at, but there's more to it than being pretty. I've seen plenty of dragons that are nice enough to look at, but I wouldn't necessarily want to own them.

The most readily available that I collect are the cute green 'Pocket Dragon' range. But even here, I don't collect them all. I pick the ones that reflect some aspect of my personality or remind me of a friend or family member. For example, for Richard, I have a dragon holding a screwdriver - Richard loves to tinker; my mother-in-law made my wedding dress, so she's 'represented' by a sewing dragon. Most of them represent me, like the despondent dragon standing on the bathroom scales!

I bought my first dragon when I was about 20. I was given my first 'Pocket Dragon' about 8 years ago. When it comes to birthday presents, I tell Richard which ones I want and he tells our families. I do have one duplicate, the result of my mum *not* checking which ones I'd already got.

Thanks so far - excellent answer Cheerful Dragon (dragons - it figures!)

I feel a guide entry coming on...more info please.

Do you go to fairs/boot sales/on-line auctions to increase your collection?
Do you know how many "pieces" you have?
Do you know the value of your collection - are there any "rare" pieces that you know are worth quite a bit?
Do you display your collection?
Do your partners/parents/friends share your enthusiasm or think you are mad?
Are you in a collectors club?
Do you ever plan to get rid of your collection/sell it to another collector?

Thanks!

Leaving out books and records - here we go:

1. No
2. Not at all
3. I don't think so
4. In a way - they are kind of scattered all around the flat
5. Neither nor - he just gives me penguins as a gift, not complaining
6. No
7. Never ever!

You're welcome, skugga

To answer your questions:

1. I regularly visit ebay online to check for pieces, but I often find that the prices rapidly exceed what I'm prepared to pay. 'Pocket Dragons' are *very* collectable - one rare piece (not a limited edition, as such, just not available for very long) recently went for more than £1000! Interestingly, the limited edition pieces often don't go for much more than they cost new.

2. No - never counted. 2-3 dozen, maybe.
3. No, although I do have 3 limited edition pieces and a few that were 'club members only'.
4. Yes - no point having it, otherwise.
5. My family accepts it, only my mum really understands. But then, she's a dragon too!
6. Used to be.
7. No way! Richard can sell it when I die.

To digress slightly (or maybe not), Richard reckons that I'm not a collector in the way some people are. I have a collection, but I'm not fanatical or obsessed. I've read about people who have every Pocket Dragon that was ever produced. I couldn't do that, largely because I don't like all of them, and partly because I don't have the space to display them. I'm also not crazy enough to pay silly money for a piece, no matter how much I want it. I recently saw a mint-condition mug go for nearly £50 (including postage) - a mug I bought for about £7 including postage. (Mind you, mine isn't mint 'cos I don't see the point in owning a mug and not drinking out of it. It's not chipped or cracked, just used.)

I have a fairly sizeable collection of books and records. Occasionally I'll use eBay or Alibris, etc., for out-of-print titles. Otherwise I get most of them from used bookstores and the local record exchange, as well as yard sales and such.

About 15 years ago, I began collecting movies on video, and have in excess of 600 at the present. I've gotten quite a few of them through Half.com or eBay, or from video stores which closed down, as well as receiving many as gifts over the years.

I also have a large collection of shot glasses- I've got about 250 or so right now, most of which I picked up while traveling. Shot glasses make excellent souvenirs, as they're fairly inexpensive and take up little space in a suitcase. Friends and family also bring them back for me from their vacations, and I often pick them up at thrift shops, flea markets and yard sales, if I see something unusual. They are on display on the top shelf of the china cabinet in my dining room. I built a sort of tiered stand for them, kind of like steps, so that they can be displayed in rows.

Thanks again Cheerful. I am an eBay addict! I have to limit what I buy but have been known to 'splash out' on one or two 'must have' pieces! One particular cat was £77 and another - a Royal Doulton flambe cat was £90! I am not obsessed with my collection but it does seem to be taking over the lounge! I want a really nice glass cabinet with mirror shelves and halogen lights - alas my boyfriend can't even build a sandcastle! Ah well!

Keep the info coming - this will prompt me into writing my first ever guide entry (other than my PS) - I hope!

I collect Coca Cola bottles from around the world. On a basic level they are very interesting when they come in different scripts in different languages. I beleive there are perhaps 10-20 different scripts around the world. I probably have about 30-40 or so bottles.

I recently went to Coca Cola World in Atlanta GA, just in passing really, but it was interesting. I beleive there are many, many collectors of Coke memorabilia, but I just stick to empty bottles.

None of them are worth much, because they were all free - unless you count the air-fares to get some - but I almost never travel around the world just to get Coke bottles.

I collect comics from DC Comics (the folks who publish Batman, Superman et al) and cast recordings of musicals (though only on CD). I dread to think how many I have of either. I don't often get them as gifts, as people are never sure what I've got.

I don't go on ebay for things (but might some time), but I do love having rummage at CD fairs and in the 50p boxes in comic shops. I've found some gems in both places, including a recording of Blondel, and a charity comic where Batman, Superman and Lex Luthor (!) fight against famine.

David

I collect dust, perhaps I should move about a bit more to prevent this happening...
Used to collect (with not much entheusium), stamps, but gave that up when was very young...
CDs, vinyl loose change...

I've been collecting frogs for years - ever since that Life on Earth series by David Attenborough when I realised there were more than just the bog standard wee green chaps.
I don't like 'cute' or anthropomorphic frogs - they've got to look realistic.

I don't know how many I have - we moved house and I'm waiting to get some decoration done before they go back out on display. I too would like a glass shelved, mirrored, halogen lit type thingie!

I have some beautiful silver, pewter and stone frogs - but my best favourites are the Lalique ones I bought myself as a treat - £57 each but they're gorgeously tactile.

To answer your questions:
I haven't been to any sales - but everywhere I go I always check for frogs. I'd love to find a Japanese netsuke in frog form.
Probably have about 24 - got rid of the ones I didn't like a few years ago.
Don't think any of them are worth that much - except the Lalique and one or two of the silver ones - ? £20. Most only cost a couple of £.
I will display them once I get this awful house organised.
My friends and family think I am mad - but I know frogs are very popular with other people.
I'm not in a collectors' club.
I'd never get rid of my collection - each frog reminds me of a place or a person.

I used to collect demi-tasse coffee cups and saucers - but stopped at about 20 because they take up quite a bit of space - and gather dust!

Good luck with writing the guide - great idea.

I collect T-Shirts, I didn't really realise I was collecting them until it struck me I was buying them on-line from the States, purely because some of the ones I 'needed' aren't availaible here, so in answer :

1. I go to charity shops and buy on-line from overseas.
2. Roughly one hundred (good grief).
3. Not a clue, some 'Stussy' T-Shirts I have are worth twice the buying price now.
4. (this is terrible) They have their own dedicated wardrobe, in colour order, and MUST be hung on identical wire coathangers.
5. I'm quite mad. My girliefriend likes to pick one out to sleep in and I have be bite my tongue when she picks one that I value and will not wear out.
6. No
7. Losing my T-Shirts would be like losing an arm

I feel I should admit I have a problem, and once (drunkenly) attempted to buy a T-Shirt from some one in a club, swap shirts and £20. I was turned down.

I collect 'wish I could's, 'what if's and 'why didn't I's. Want to swap for your dust collection 2legs?

I also collect trilobites, but so far I only have two, Stan and Olly. It's difficult to find another that I can be sure will get on with them both.

Recently I have been much of a collector except occasional notes and papers that keep piling up on the table. But seriously, I used to be a big collector of magazines as a teenager. Every magazine that I used to buy (mostly it was 'Just Seventeen', 'More' etc...), I used to keep them in my room. I still have all the magazines dating back to 1988.

MacDonalds tray-papers from different countries.
The rules are : when visiting a "new" country - have a Big Mac, eat in, date and keep the tray-paper.
Yeah, sad, innit?
(Got a bit vague in recent years, since the kids started mocking me. Think it might be 22 at the last count)
Pin *wanders off to perform an audit*

2legs, I'd like to swap some dust, too - or do you swap hankies as well?

Nobody with spare penguin around?

Dragons - Statues, pictures, jewellery. And now a tattoo. But like Cheerful Dragon, they've got to be aesthetically pleasing to me. And I don't really display them anywhere. I don't have a cabinet for it or anything like that. I just buy them when I can afford them, or accept them when people offer them to me as gifts. I've never bought any from ebay, though I might one day. Depends what's on there and what it'd cost.

Penguins - Stuffed, statues, pictures again. I'm gonna get a penguin tattoo somewhere, one day. Maybe on my ankle. They're just so CUTE! Pingu and BadTZ Maru rock my face. Seriously they do.

And I also collect anything else that finds its way into my bag/ purse/ bedroom. I'm a chronic packrat-type hoarder. I have all kinds of useless crap, simply because I can't be bothered to throw it all out.

When describing my collection I forgot to mention my jewellery. Most of my dragons *are* ornamental, but I've managed to collect 1 pair of earrings, 2 brooches, 2 bracelets (one's a 'kind of' dragon, but I still count it as one), 1 pendant and 2 rings (one matching the 'kind of' dragon bracelet).

I also have an inflatable dragon (souvenir of Chinese New Year 2000 in London's Chinatown area) and two paper dragons on sticks (ditto), a fluffy red dragon hand puppet (from Wales, where else?), a Beanie Baby Scorch dragon, a wooden 'self-assembly' Chinese dragon (must paint it one day!) and a pierced metal dragon that takes a tea-light candle. Oh, and my mobile phone fascia has a dragon on it.

Does my soft toy Torosaurus count? Probably not!