It's not a collection - it's an archive...
I have pretty much every issue of Vogue back to 1978, World of Interiors back to 1997, the first issues of Wallpaper and many, many more. It comes from a hippy childhood deprived of any form of popular culture - no tv, newspapers, sweets, anything. Now I get a visceral thrill from opening a glossy magazine, and keep them in neat piles and shelves all around the house.

For years this was just a millstone when moving house and an annoyance to various boyfriends. Til I started working as a picture researcher - now I get paid really quite a lot of money to sit there with a cup of tea and trawl through my personal collection looking for just the right image. *smugs*

It's the perfect excuse to buy even more, and I'll probably never throw away a magazine again. One day I'll be trapped by a major landslip from the tottering piles in my living room and die of thirst, unable to reach the kettle.
(sticks Errol flynn in female form, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 22:51, Reply)

Swords
My friends made the mistake of buying me a samurai sword for my 20th in October, that started a rather unhealthy obsession.

I’d always liked swords, but never knew were to get any, not unlike girls. Finally bothering to Google it, I started looking for some swords to buy, eBay was an obvious choice, but the swords I got weren’t of great quality, so I found a better website to buy from, which doesn’t disappoint.

My most expensive blade is a rapier that cost £55, its blunt and just a replica but the quality is good.

My most recent purchase was a 2 handed sharpened war sword. Its size is impressive, the blade alone is about 40”, with another 10” for the handle and pommel. I also got a pair of daggers with it, that I keep on my belt when in the house. Makes me fell like a big man.

Owning swords leads to damage, its inevitable, even if the swords I own aren’t actual weapons, they still are pretty dangerous. And being a student, I tend to act the fool. My friend threw a shoe at me, while I was holding my samurai sword, which I managed to chop out of the air, leaving a very small cut along the bit that covers the toes, luckily the owner didn’t notice. Later that day, my friend threw a potato at me, which wasn’t so easy to get out of the air, and really hurt when it hit. I started to get frustrated and swung very hard, and success! The potato was cut in two, unfortunately, the blade had hit the ceiling, leaving a huge gash along our rented property, which may come back to haunt us!
(Mong goose, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 22:34, Reply)

Ahhahahh! One I can join in on...
The things I collect (or 'Hoard') tend to have practical value, rather than 'just because', and others prolly aren't going to find them in the least interesting but here we go...

Retro computing: Acorn Atom, Electron, Beeb B and Master, Archimedes... 3000 I think. Speccy +3, C64. There's a boxed ZX81 (hopefully) squirrelled away in my parents' loft.

I own emulators on the PC for the beeb, the Commie and the speccy (as well as Amiga, The atari 2600, and even the old Vectrex thing that I lusted after when I was about 4). I have a large... No that doesn't do them justice. I have a laaaarge collection of disk/tape images for the beeb, spec and C64. All legal too.

DVDs. Don't get me started on DVDs. I had to catalogue them when they got to being floor-to-ceiling along one wall of my bedroom. The ones I've unboxed and put into folders now number over 800. The remainders (and these are complete sets/series we're talking...) (Bond, Who (old and new), Will and grace, South park, Scrubs, Galactica (old and new), Terrahawks, Prisoner, Queer as Folk, Bab 5, Crusade, Trek Films and Original Series, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Simpsons, Futurama, Dune, LoTR, Blakes 7, Buck Rogers) number around another 200-300 and are still on the mantelpiece.

I've got pretty much every Dr. Who VHS ever released, and I have my own turned aluminium sonic screwdriver and cast TARDIS key. I also have every X-Files on VHS.

I go through sessions of downloading vast swathes of MIDI music off the internet. It helps my local Am-Dram group when their pianist has no idea what tune the elderly director lady is warbling, as it's normally from the 20s.

I have been in the same job for eight years, and have yet to delete an email.

Wire. I never discard cable, and now posess four large moving boxes of audio, computer and 'other' cable. To be fair, I normally have to go ferreting through them for something about every month or so.

Clocks. I have a 'thing' about knowing what the time is, and I get disturbed if there isn't a clock around. I can see three from where I'm sitting, and that's without calling up the task bar on the computer, or looking at the video.

This is getting a bit freaky now...

Hats. Mostly Ski hats, about 15, but I do have a fibreglass firemen's helmet from a London brigade in the 1980s. I'm not even sure how I got that...

But my major collection? Porn. Listing WMVs in my download directories bigger than 20MB gets me 845 files. File size: 140GB. And I' *know* there's at least 10 Gb in AVIs and probably the same again in MPGs. That's a lot of naked bottoms. A lot a lot.

For interest I checked the files between 2MB and 20Mb. 613 of them, amounting to another 5GB, but they have a higher percentage of 'Stuff I downloaded' rather than 'Naked People'

And having just watched the Windows search go by for the past 15 minutes, I also apparently collect defunct Windows installs. 6 of 'em.

I think I've embarassed myself enough for one evening...

Length? Ah, hell with it. 7", cut.
( moogthedog, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 22:33, Reply)

I collected Beer mats..
when i was 7 years old, because of irish heritage and my journeys there i used to have tons, and could find nothing better to do with them than carpet my action bases with them.
I was the coolest cat around. Then Diana died.
(alwyn Professional Whittler since:, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 22:30, Reply)

pigs that fly
when i was younger i made the mistake of telling various relatives that i quite liked pigs. Thus from the age of 7 until about 17 every year I would receive about 10 to fiteen various pig related articles. Calenders, china ornaments, soft toys. Once I reached puberty I was a little sick of all the pigness cluttering my room. I tried to warn them that i didnt like them anymore but alas they did not listen...
well anyway, after an argument with my sister one day i threw a bit of a tantrum and threw every single breakable pig in her direction. Breaking them all. Yey. Pigs flew.
(i_mustnt_panic, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 22:10, Reply)

Useless Crap That eBay Would Spit Upon
Upon counting, 28 beginnings of scripts that I've started writing thinking 'this is an amazing idea!' and then realised they weren't, and yet haven't discarded (just in case...).

70+ mp3 files of me trying to record covers of songs I like, fucking up a note on guitar or forgetting the words, emitting a loud expletive exclamation, and ending the track.

Too many de-postered Kerrang! magazines for my own good.

Nearly 3000 mp3s of the most random eclectic shite you could ever expect a 19 year old to own.
(edit: Testament to this is the fact iTunes has just shuffled Dillinger Escape Plan's 'Panasonic Youth' next to S Club 7's 'Bring It All Back'.)

Argh...
(I R Tomsk pyromaniacs will only inflame the situation, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:47, Reply)

Records.
For about a year.
Until this Christmas just gone, I didn't and had never owned a working record player.
Yes, I have a fully comprehensive list, and yes, I alphabetise them every night when I put them back into their box.
*sighs* apologies for lack of hilarity.

However, when I was younger I'd collect the little plastic coffee stirrers from trains. They were Mr Sticky, Mrs Sticky, and if I broke one, they were all the little Twiglets.

In year 3 I'd pick up interesting leaves in the playground and keep them in my desk beyond when they went dry and fell apart.
My teacher eventually got tired of finding bits of leaves in my books, threw a strop and emptied them all into the bin :(
(and now for someone completely different, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:36, Reply)

A large comic book collection
Nearly every issue of Preacher (missing 4), every issue of 100 bullets, about 400 batman including a full set of Knightfall. I'm working on my Boys collection now. I also have a really rare set of Indiana Jones comics brought out with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.

I've got lots and lots of AC/DC memorabilia, lots of rare vinyls.
(Himjim died a little more inside on, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:29, Reply)

When I was about 14
I collected Fruitopia bottles...


I still don't really know why.
(Lifesize cnut, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:27, Reply)

hmmm
well I do have at least one of every Gameboy ever made, also every album by led zeppelin, although tahts no great feat, hmmm, Sobe bottles (they ferment nicely when left on the shelf for a few years ive found), ooooh and National Geographics, oldest one is 1962 I belive, have almost all of them since, My grandad used to colelct them and when he died i inherited it, and his subscriptions, witch i just keep renewing.
/shrugg
( Arsonade is saving up for a new box of hummus, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:15, Reply)

Shot glasses
I am not really much of a drinker. When I do drink it tends to be whisky, though this is usually in a tumbler over ice. So quite why I have an entire shelf full of shot glasses doesn't quite seem to be apparent. I think it started a long, long time before I reached legal drinking age, buying shot glasses with those oh so funny slogans on (the type that only a twelve year old wouldn't have previously heard - but that's the age I was, so I think it's okay).

Friends and relatives started bringing me back shot glasses from holidays, seeing as I had a fair few and they didn't know what else to get me. As I now had some with place names on I started bringing my own back from abroad, just as a souvenier to say I'd been there. By this point all sorts of novelty and abnormally sets were coming in as birthday and christmas presents (beats a Lynx gift set, I can tell you).

Alas, now they are just sat on a shelf, obscured by other junk that I have no other place for. I should probably get them all down, give them a wash and put them on display properly somewhere, but I really can't be bothered.


If anyone ever fancies a drink with me then you can rest assured that I have ample amounts of vessels to contain it.

You'll have to supply the booze though.



Also, I now have 33 of the original series Doctor Who DVDs (with more preordered) and both new series. It makes me smile but my bank balance cry.


And my girlfriend doesn't think much of it either.
( shovelboy This is bad - Two minutes to Belgium, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 21:09, Reply)

Cookbooks
I collect several specific things, but nothing as passionately as cookbooks.

I have just under 800 cookbooks. My last count was 745 and that was a few months ago; with recent aquisitions, I'd put the current number at around 780.

The collection consists mainly of community cookbooks, vintage(pre-1975 only) and antique cookbooks, and handwritten recipe collections. The oldest positively-dated published book is from 1870, though there is a handwritten book that has a possible date of 1850.

The recipes themselves range from delightful to downright bizarre; among the latter are pork cake(spice cake with ground, cooked pork added), 'breakfast cookies'(like chocolate chip cookies with crumbled bacon instead of chocolate bits), acid phosphate whey('suitable for invalids') and numerous recipes for animals like squirrel, possum and raccoon.

I have cookbooks from Africa, Alaska, Australia, Lebanon, Italy, Tibet, the Netherlands, Japan, the former Yugoslavia and many other countries as well.

The pride of my collection is a recipe box whose contents span forty years in the life of one woman. Tucked inside were old cards, bits of newspaper, bills of sale and so many other things that I was able to put together a fairly detailed portrait of the woman who had created the collection. I'm tempted to make a book out of her recipes; each and every one has been a success.

The only room in our house without cookbooks is the bathroom, and if damage wasn't an issue I'd put up shelves in an instant. My husband doesn't object since I'll cook him any recipe he wants but he does admit that after I die, some research library will be getting a massive donation as he won't even begin to know what to do with them otherwise!

As to why I do it, I blame my love of history. They're a wealth of information and more often than not, a glimpse into the secret, everyday lives of women. Sometimes, recipe collections are the only evidence that these women ever existed at all, and preserving what I can of their lives is deeply important to me.

I inherited my grandmother's cookbook and recipe collection after she died, and I think part of it stems from that -- always having her with me in the recipes she wrote and the notes she made makes me want to salvage the voices of all the otherwise forgotten women in my books.
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:59, Reply)

The TARDIS
I must have some form of mild OCD.
It's not necessarily collecting stuff, but just doing stuff, to almost exhaustion. I don't annoy people with it, or get obsessed with a rubik's cube for hours at a time or anything, it just means that this thing is my 'thing'. Basically I get interested in things. However this story is an example of my nature to hoard (then have huge purges, but mostly just hoard), get interested in things, not want to change things, and basically anything and everything that goes on inside my head.

The reason the story's called 'The Tardis' will come apparent later in this story of love, betrayel and revenge... sort of. Anyway, I had a locker at school, a nice red locker. I put stuff in this locker, and never took it out (I think we start to see where this is going), I must have done this for about 3 years. If I got a sheet of paper, it went in the locker, if a folder split in the locker, it stayed in the locker. Food ended up in that locker; stuff that really shouldn't even exist ended up in that locker. The locker became this wonder-structure, so intricately held together. I knew every sheet, every book that I could or could not touch without the contents of the locker spilling out alles über der platz. Eventually, just to put basic things such as folders into the locker I had to argue with it for minutes at a time. A vicious fight, yet a bout of perfect harmony; the union of man and school locker in a dance of beauty. We understood each other; we respected each other.

In short it was effectively my school collection, not an obsession with school, but seemingly an obsession with collecting stuff from my school and leaving it in my school. [Can you really blame me for wanting to leave it there?]

Anyway, the time came for some of the lockers to be emptied... they got the wrong lockers. Mine was one of the ones to go and I didn't know it. I came into school after the Summer Holidays to find my code changed, and when I managed to get the code the locker was empty. I was confused and somewhat angry. How dare they go through my locker like that, how dare they intrude upon the Frozen_Banana... my thought-map (for everyone agreed it was essentially a picture of my mind), my thought-map was gone! Well I had to go and get the stuff from my locker, in a plastic bag.
'It's there', the teacher said, pointing under a desk.
So I walked over, took the bag with my locker number and walked off.
'And the others.'
I was bewildered. The others? There's a huge black bag in my hands and he says the others? There were others, two others to be precise. A biology teacher came up to me; he seemed amazed, he had seen Doctor Who [so his words went], but he didn't know that the TARDIS was a possibility. Now he was truly happy, for he had truly seen the very laws of space-time twisted to allow three times the content of a school locker into a school locker.

Thinking about it now, it's probably why they let me do A-Level Physics. None of them were too wanky about it either.

So here concludes my story of how, through three years of on the edge insanity, I managed to drive the laws of the Universe themselves insane and create such an intricate, complex, tormented, Tetris-like creation that no University will ever accept me to do Engineering.


Also REALLY happy to see 'Reply to this thread' coming soon. Lovely to hear that our pleas are being answered.
(Frozen_Banana Shaved against the grain; thoroughly unrewarding., Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:49, Reply)

Books!
Loads of books! Mainly Tom Clancy Novels, I own every single book he has ever published, even the ones which he co-writes with other authors. It's an entire bookshelf of hard-assed American Literature!

Another thing is blades. I have several sets of Japanese swords, blades in the shape of dragons, scorpions and stuff. Screw the knife amnesty! Some of this stuff is rare and worth a mint. Tis good to know if anyone tries to break in, they'll have Kamikaze Spluff coming at them with a big long object in his hands. And I wouldn't be afraid to penetrate either!
(Spluff McDuff You Love It. You Slag!, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:43, Reply)

Aaah, one I can actually answer...
My family seem to either not have something at all, or have it in abundance. Take books. They line every room. They trip you up on the stairs. They fall on you when you walk in the front room. I think we have more than the British library. Then recently, we started with DVDs. Last count 200+, probably nearer 300 now. I also have vast numbers of Airfix kits and model railway things from when I was slightly smaller (and possibly nerdier).
Outside, my Dad and me collect vintage machinery-old barn engines, 1960's mopeds, 3 battery trucks and even a railway engine.
As if that wasn't enough, when my older Brother died, we wound up with a large collection of manga books/DVDs/action figures in the loft. I honestly didn't know so much existed.
( Greenbat, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:32, Reply)

Must be a record breaker......
since the tender age of 14, starting on my birthday, I have, ritually, spluffed off over vintage porn every day into plastic cups.
I now own five thousand, eight hundred and seven of spluff filled cups (with varying degrees of crustyness, based on the years passed), and I can tell you, the smell is much, much worse than a rotting corpse of a pig.

*WINNAR*
( Tesco Quality 60.825659, -0.788337, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:27, Reply)

I collect oxygen.
Mostly its for breathing.


Not really. I just steal everyone elses.
(littlenipple hate's bad grammar, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:25, Reply)

I have nearly all, barr 2, Fabulous Furry Freak Brother comics, yay!
I'm an obsessive Isaac Asimov fan and have a shelf devoted just for his books at home. Only have about 50 so far and he's written over 200 I think, so someway to go.

I also have an unhealthily good memory for crap jokes, huzzah!

FFFB comics are my pride and joy however. As for why, I used to read them as a kid at an alternative bookshop that friends of my folks ran. Thought they were real funny, even though I didn't get most\any of the jokes at that age. Reread them when I grew up some more and thought they were the dogs danglies, so started collecting them.
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:10, Reply)

Every episode of Futurama.
And hats.
( The Coast Of Yemen, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:07, Reply)

AAAs
I keep all of my AAAs pinned to a board from shows I've worked on. My best? I've got 4 Status Quo ones. Fear me.
( shadyron, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 20:03, Reply)

Whenever someone I know goes on holiday,
I ask them to bring me back a pebble. I now have many pebbles from all over the world.

I don't quite know why. It started when someone asked me what I wanted as a gift from whatever country it was they were going to (like I should know what's going to be in the souvenier shops!) so I asked for a pebble. Since then, whenever some one goes away I automatically say "Bring me back a pebble!"
( Fluffy elephants, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:58, Reply)

Got every "Family Guy" on DVD
plus every Star Wars (even the shit ones), a shedload of Hong Kong Classics, plus loads of real odd ones too. Stuff like

this, that and the other, even though the last one's banned :)
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:49, Reply)

Every issue of Q Magazine evah!
Oh the shame :(
(Cunto Something something something on, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:46, Reply)

Stargate
I have EVERY episode of Stargate on DVD, up to season nine. As you can imagine, they take up an enormous amount of space on my shelf.


The collection has grown a bit since this picture was taken.
( Squiggy Alloria makes theme parks., Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:39, Reply)

I collect womens under garments.
Used, of course. My special collection room is nearly full.
(barrycounty, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:17, Reply)

Dead relatives watches
Seriously, it all started when I was about 15 and my great aunt died. I was given her 25 year of service to Marks and Spencer watch.
About a year after that, some obscure great aunt 3rd removed or something died. I got given one of her watches too.

I now have about 8 watches from dead relatives. But it doesn't stop there, because I have so many watches, everyone now assumes I collect them purposely. For my 30th I got 3, for Xmas this year I got 2 and I occassionally get the odd watch from other people. I've got about 25 of the fuckers now. And never wear them, ever!

I also have an extensive Betty Boop collection which takes up most of my storage unit.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:01, Reply)

loads of 80s videos
Ive got around 500 VHS videos of 80s movies. Now they are all but obsolete and take up masses of space.

Damn you DVDs!!!!!
(barronshark, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 19:00, Reply)

Every Issue of MacFormat and MacUser
From 1993 to 2004.
And the ones before May 1995 I brought off ebay.

Edit: Ok should stop exaggerating. I have a few missing :/

Never was the collector type me: I had a load of rubric's cubes and next door's kid started slobbering and chewing them all one day when he got into my room.
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 18:58, Reply)

Wives
I collect wives just like Papa Lazarou does.
(Skellers, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 18:41, Reply)

The missus has got about 100+ stuffed elephants
I'm sure they're fucking breeding. I get home from work somedays and there's a few more, looking at me. They're fucking scary.

So just to piss off the missus, when I get plastered I play "Dumbo" and throw them around the living room shouting "Fly Dumbo, fly!"

I've also warned her that if the impending baby doesn't like elephants, I'm gonna torch the feckers. Hehehe...
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Thu 11 Jan 2007, 18:34, Reply)