Some of the things I collect are.....

[Good Buddy]

Let's see I collect hardcover true crime, mostly about the Mafia, mostly.
Hmmm, I also collect those razors that our grandfathers shaved with, the kind that twist at the bottom and open to load a paper thin blade onto. I started with my grandfathers and started to buy them when i saw them. I probably have 12 or so. Oh yeah, and un-opened airline playing cards.
I used to collect those free character glasses like from Mcdonald's and the Welch's jelly jar glasses. I had hundreds but kinda lost interest. I do pick up one's I see from time to time. I'll be writing an extensive article for our online magazine on character glasses.

[kokomomo]

As I said in another post, I collect fabric. I am a quilter and love to find pieces of interesting fabric when I thrift.  Sometimes I wonder what the original owner made with the fabric before that piece was donated to the thrift store.

I also collect old sewing patterns. I have found some really neat patterns for baby clothes, aprons, and stuffed toys. Those kinds of things never go out of style.

I collect embroidered patches.  I have a "patch jacket" that I sew them on, but never wear it. I just like having it.

I  also love rhinestone jewelry. I have some really interesting bracelets and pins that I found in thrift stores.

Karen in Virginia Beach

[Cookie]

Karen, you're gonna have to fight me for those old patterns!  I love collecting those, too.  I found a great one for a stuffed lamb that I made for our nephew.  I love the artwork on some of the old pattern envelopes, and I collect them just for that if they're only 10 cents or something.  

I'm also collecting cake decorating books.  I've got some Wilton ones, and I like those the best.  I'd love to get the full collection someday.  I don't even know how many books are in the collection it's so big.  I just started collecting wedding cake toppers, too.  

Other stuff I collect:  Belly dancing records, old perfume bottles, and cute stuff pertaining to kittens and cats, like  little figurines, paintings, anything that Good Buddy approves of.  Can't have it overly cute in here or anything.  On top of the desk where this computer is, there's a small plastic white kitten pushing a baby plastic white kitten in a pink stroller.  Day after day, it sits inches from Good Buddy's head.  For some reason, he tolerates this.

[ChrisMiss]

Since we sold our house and started living and traveling around the country in our RV I don't have a lot of room to collect anything.  But I do love to read books so I will really stock up at the thrift store when I find books for a great price and they have a large selection.

I also love to look for clothes for my kids, grandkids, parents, hubby and myself.  I find some really great clothes that I just can't pass up.  I enjoy it and it gives me a lot of pleasure to give these items to the family and they express such appreciation for them.  I've found brand new, still with the tags on it, name brand clothes, in the thrift stores and I've bought these items for a dollar or two.  It's just thrilling to find bargains like that.  

I also love to look for older dishes, especially the pieces that most people never got around to buying for their sets, like the soup tureen, soup bowls, egg cups, etc.  If I find these items I'll make an exception and buy them.  I can store them under my bed until I get to my storage facility.  Someday, I'm going to sell these on ebay and make a lot of money.  

[ChrisMiss]

Hmmm, I also collect those razors that our grandfathers shaved with, the kind that twist at the bottom and open to load a paper thin blade onto. I started with my grandfathers and started to buy them when i saw them. I probably have 12 or so.

My daughter used to have a boyfriend that collected all kinds of shaving equipment also.  He had his whole bathroom decorated with antique shaving equipment.  It really was interesting to look at the collection.  

Do you display your collection?  If so, how?

[Good Buddy]

Chris,

Cookie and I live in a house that has concrete walls throughout. It's really too hard to hang much of anything. I used to display my razors on a shelf in the bathroom, just neatly arranged diagonally.
You know those display wall hangings for little souvenier spoons? I'd eventually like to make something similar for my razors.

[ChrisMiss]

Chris,

Cookie and I live in a house that has concrete walls throughout. It's really too hard to hang much of anything. I used to display my razors on a shelf in the bathroom, just neatly arranged diagonally.
You know those display wall hangings for little souvenier spoons? I'd eventually like to make something similar for my razors.

That sounds like it will be a nice display.  When I lived in a house I collected pewter.  At Wal-Mart I found an inexpensive display case with glass doors on it.  The doors really helped to keep the dust off of the items inside.  So you might want to put some glass or arcrylic (sp) doors on your display case so that rust and dust doesn't get to your collection.

[Josie Rosy Posy]

I found a Family Creative Workshop book at a store one time. It's called "Beachcombing to Bottle gardens" and I am pretty sure it part of an alphabetical set. I haven't ever found any more, and I honestly haven't looked very hard, but I would like to find more someday. It has the coolest, craziest craft projects in it from how to make your own leater belt to potatoe stamps and bottle cutting.

I basically collect anything from the 50''s, 60''s, and 70''s but who doesn''t these days? My apartment is somewhat of a hippie haven, complete with a peter max-is 4'x6' painting above my couch and a floor-to-ceiling, three-tiered, capiz shell lamp. It makes a spectacular sound when the breeze blows through my window.

This is not my lamp, but it looks similar, only without the shade at the top. Oddly enough I do have a shade like that on a different lamp!

[Marion]

I love that lamp!  Wow! -- Marion (Cohen)

[ChrisMiss]

I used to have one of those lamps too, back in the 80's I think it was.  It was nice too, but hard to keep clean.  Your picture is really great of your lamp.

I recently saw a lamp that was soooooo ugly at the thrift store, so of course I didn't buy it.  Later I thought about repainting it and getting some different bulbs, etc. for it and it would sell for a lot of money. But it was gone when I went back to the store to buy it.

I saw one on ebay like it that sold for over $300 and I could have bought it for less than $10.  Live and learn is what we thrifters do.

[wabi-sabi]

I collect lots of things, but nothing else is as prevalent in thrifts as
vintage vinyl.  I love things like Moog music, and soundtracks, and
I'll even buy records purely for their wild cover art. Nothing transports you to another time like music.

[Cookie]

Josie, we have almost the full set of the Family Creative Workshop books!  We are only missing #1 and #19.  We found almost the whole set at one Goodwill in West Palm Beach when we were down there for my great uncle's wedding.  I have a piece of paper in my wallet reminding me which ones we're missing for future thrifting expeditions.  I love, love, love those books!  Keep looking, I'm sure you'll find them.  I've seen a lot of stray volumes when I've been thrifting.  It comes with an index volume, too.

[Cookie]

Wabi-sabi, I also will buy albums for their cover art.  I've found a lot of really cool belly dancing records with great album covers from the 60's.  Sometimes the music is good, sometimes not, but it's worth $1.00 to me to find out.

[Zed Simon]

Oooh, records! That's usually the first or second thing I look for. I can't tell you how many hundreds of records I've found over the past couple of years alone. Rarely do I buy any for their covers, though. It's all about the music, and for me, the worse, the better. In fact, I just found one of the all-time worst albums EVER last weekend. At a flea market, which I guess is a thrift store by extension, but still. I HAD to shell out a buck for an album by...


ED McMAHON!!!


The only thing that sounds worse is Ed telling you that you didn't really win the $10 million.

[Cookie]

Zed, I would love to hear Ed McMahon warbling his heart out about whatever he feels deeply.  I'm so glad you found that album.  We have one by Cheryl Ladd that isn't bad enough to be great.  She's a decent singer and doesn't hit any sour notes, so it's just a boring record.  Recently we've gotten in the habit of buying old trucker records for our neighbor who's a trucker, and those are some of the best crappy albums I've ever heard.