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

Hey, *that's* an idea! You can do that as well where I live (Frankfurt/Germany). But it's quite expensive...

It's not cheap over here, either. Adoptions start at £25 per species for a small animal like a shrew or lizard, and go up from there. Top price is £3000 for a Sumatran tiger, Asian lion, pygmy hippo or sloth bear. Penguins go for £350. However, you can buy a 'share' in a species for £45, which is stil quite a lot.

Hmm, makes my £20 in a share of a great white shark look pretty good then...

Mmmmh - I got lots of friends in a forum who know about my birthday, which german author Walter Moers called "World Penguin Day" (11th November); maybe they could collect for this present then? I'd love them to do that!

Funnily enough I collect giraffes. I prefer to collect asthetically pleasing ones but sometimes that gets sidetracked by the help of others but thankfully not often.

My mother collects owls and my man collects dragons. My father, my dsughter and I were all born in the year of the dragon with Mini-he being a little golden dragon so he did wel collecting us.

My brother-out-law (not married) collects ducks and has them from all over the world from various postings (ex-airforce)

Ythika

I'm a dragon, too, and a scorpio, which led to my best tattoo. But, as I said: born on World Penguin Day!

'Not very committed'!! Huh! back, I've spent hours looking for the perfect companion for Stan and Olly.

I wasn't telling the whole story. I'm a gatherer - can't go to the beach without picking up shells or pebbles, or on a walk without coming back with a piece of the scenery. But the house is too small, I'm trying to be more discriminating.

In addition to the trilobites I have a small collection of mahogany wood carvings and Noritake camel china. The first because the wood and the lines of them are beautiful and the second because the colours are glorious and the idea of painting camels on fine porcelain is just so...inappropriate.

I also have a growing collection of frogs in the bathroom because other people think I collect them. I don't! I won one in a raffle - now I have tweny one.

Biggest problem with collecting is when to let it go.
Waz

Just remembered the shoebox full of post cards from the last 15 years or so. Must be a 150 or so cards. My husband also uses them for painting practice.

Now I know what the sponsorship for a penguin will cost per year... EUR 200...

Hello, next birthday!

Sorry Wazungu - I guess at one point we all only had 2 of our "things"

I was away yesterday and I am just catching up with things now. Thanks for all the posts. I shall be putting a "collecting" guide entry together soon (definition of soon =???)

Also forgot that I have a collection of Hostas - 43 in fact + 3 doublers.
I prefer the glaucus ones because the colour's more attractive. Unfortunately, the slugs love them too.

Scatter egg-shells round your hostas. Slugs don't like crawling on egg-shells, apparently - at their size it's like crawling on broken glass.

Tried all the usual deterrents - must have a breed of SuperSlugs!

Don't like using slug pellets willy-nilly because I have frogs in my garden and don't want to harm them.

The most successful method to date is - keep the plants in large pots, remove the top 3 inches of compost every year, put some slug pellets in, cover with fresh compost and cornish grit. That way the pellets aren't where birds or frogs can get at the dead slugs.

Have you got a Maeshowe in your collection?

Not personally, but Richard has one on a ring. Does that count?

Got a brooch and earrings myself!

Reading through this thread I was amazed at the number of things I actually collect!

My first response would have been manatees. I've loved them for years, but since I live in the midwestern US they're not exatly "native", and thus impossible to find. There is one shop that I know carries dozens of different kinds, but it is in a small town about two hours away so I only get there once a year or so. I probably have just over a dozen, and I keep most of them in my guest bathroom which has a "sea-side" theme.

Then the second obvious thing that came to mind was shot glasses. I'm particular about them though, I only like the tall ones, not the traditional short ones. I collect them from places I visit when I travel mostly, but also commemorative ones from special events. Some are displayed on shelves in my kitchen, but I also meant to mention to Psychocandy that wall-hanging spice racks are an excellent way to display shots. They can be easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and take up no counter or floor space. I have two of them so far, each holds between 8 and 12 shots, and I've paid $1 total for both.

As I was reading through I also was reminded of all the little collections I've accumulated: things in bathtubs (a bear, a baby, a bunny, and a Santa so far), bunnies (5 or 6), candle holders (a couple dozen, although I've never really considered this a collection before now, dunno why), books, frogs, and birdhouses. Wow, I can't believe I thought of that one LAST ... I've got more than two dozen all in my kitchen, my largest collection of anything, and the one thing I receive most often as gifts.

This is getting rather long, isn't it

No one in my family collects the same things I do, but everybody collects something.
Hubby collects eagles and NASCAR model cars
Mom collects Precious Moments figurines
Sis collects lighthouses and Star Wars stuff (she has an enitre room devoted to her collections of Star Wars and Legos)
Grandma collects owls
Son collects YuGiOh cards

Storage is the biggest problem, especially with the cars... although he has between 100 and 200 on display, there are still just as many if not more stored in boxes in the basement.

Ooh! You've just reminded me. Richard likes candle lanterns, particularly the ones that take tea-light candles. He doesn't really collect them, but there are 9 of various sizes plus two 'lanterns' we bought in Egypt that are probably really for burning incense. They do look nice with a candle inside, though. We also have an old-fashioned candlestick and three small candle stands.