A PSA about collectors

[SkylineObsession]

If someone has a hobby that involves collecting things, its not hording.
It's not a waste of money in their eyes, if it really means something to them.
If you think less of them for collecting all those things, or spending all that money - its not a them problem, its a you problem.
If they're a bit tight financially, don't suggest to them to sell some of their stuff to help the money situation, if they're REALLY desperate they will, otherwise they'll first try find different ways to get more spare money.

People collect almost everything. Toys. Books. Shoes. Merchandise. Hats. Cars. Games. Movies. Coins. Stamps. Ornaments. Board games. Trading cards. Pens. Plates. Cans. Gnomes. Rocks/stones/gemstones. Lego. Soft toys. Alcohol. Motorbikes. Trucks. Posters. Cutlery. And so on.

If it means something to them, they should be allowed to spent, collect, trade and sell whatever they could possibly want without prejudice, judgement or being told they're wasting money or hoarding too much, by anyone.

This genuinely isn't directed at anyone in particular, its just based on what I've seen, heard, read and been told over many years and after reading things over the past few days I've finally got the urge to say something.

You do what makes you happy, don't let others put you off collecting things that have real meaning for you.
Most importantly, if your collection/s mean a lot to you, don't be bullied/pressured by anyone to sell any of them just to make them happy.
Doesn't matter if its your partner, family member, friend, neighbour, workmate or a random stranger. Their opinion doesn't matter, if its negative.

As long as you are happy, keep doing what you do. 😎

 

[seanX70]

Well said. And I agree wholeheartedly!

My problem is I like collecting different types of things. And some of them aren't too cheap. So I have to pick my battles...but sometimes my battles get the better of me, lol.

 

[VBR]

If you think less of them for collecting all those things, or spending all that money - its not a them problem, its a you problem.
If it means something to them, they should be allowed to spent, collect, trade and sell whatever they could possibly want without prejudice, judgement or being told they're wasting money or hoarding too much, by anyone.
Doesn't matter if its your partner, family member, friend, neighbour, workmate or a random stranger. Their opinion doesn't matter, if its negative.

People are allowed to have opinions and express them. Whether you like them or not is neither here nor there.

 

[TB]

People are allowed to have opinions and express them. Whether you like them or not is neither here nor there.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying if you don't like it, don't do it and leave him alone for wanting to do it. Your opinion has no bearing on what he chooses to do.

 

[SkylineObsession]

You're right, people are allowed to have opinions. But when they get nasty about it is when it is unnecessary and disrespectful. I recently had some nasty things said to me after buying a couple of rare magazines from the 80's and 90's, from a family member...

It's fine to say something like "oh, that's not something I'd do, but okay" or "i don't understand why you're collecting them, but as long as you're happy", but when you call a family member a f&@#!in idiot for buying something to add to your collection, that's going way too far.

And with the GTA VI launch, there's been a significant amount of people making fun of or belittling those who'd prefer a disk version. Some are wanting the disk to share or sell later on, but others want it for nostalgia because they have every other GTA on disk.

Opinions are fine, offensive, disrespectful and belittling ones are not.

 

[wfooshee]

Agreed that collecting isn't hoarding. Hoarding is simply never throwing anything away, because "you might need it someday," or "you never know when that will come in handy," or even "I simply can't bear not to have it."

Before my mother passed, her house was literally a warehouse of boxes stacked against the walls and on the furniture. There were pathways through the rooms, and only on or two vacant chairs to sit in. When she passed, we had to go through that crap because there was NO indication of anything actually being filed, like insurance papers, deed to the house, banking information, etc. we had to go through every box just to ensure we didn't throw away something we would need from the estate. She had tax returns for nearly 40 years! I think she printed and boxed every email she ever sent or received. We found a camera that she'd stolen from me. My dad gave me his first camera back in my first year of college, a Voigtlander folding rangefinder, and one day I went to take the camera out for some shooting and it was nowhere to be found. Everybody in the house claimed to know nothing about it! I suspect Mom of taking it because she thought of it as hers when Dad gave it to me, although she'd never used it and had no clue how to use it. In her mind, it was old and therefore valuable, and therefore hers. She had no use for it but was unwilling to give it up, just like the hoarder that she was.

The point is, I am agreeing that collecting is not hoarding, and trying to show what hoarding actually is. I don't collect much, but I do collect and build model kits of racing cars, especially 1/12th and 1/20th scale Formula One by Tamiya and others.

And for cameras, I keep three currently usable Nikon digital SLRs and several lenses to go with them, and I've collected four (so far) classic film cameras; two from my dad, and two that I salivated over when I was younger but could never afford. Finding them on eBay in working order gave me great joy and justified my prior salivation!

So i collect, I do not hoard. My house is clean, and when something is done with, it's gone. I can't produce an RS-232 printer cable from a junk drawer that I kept because I might need one someday! Records are kept in a file box or electronically, and aged out as appropriate. But if you have some old camera gear in working order, I might be interested!

 

[seanX70]

I will say that I have a bad habit of holding onto boxes for extended periods. There are a few that I can, and should, throw away.

So i collect, I do not hoard. My house is clean, and when something is done with, it's gone. I can't produce an RS-232 printer cable from a junk drawer that I kept because I might need one someday! Records are kept in a file box or electronically, and aged out as appropriate. But if you have some old camera gear in working order, I might be interested!

I used to keep paperwork (receipts from large purchases or payments on accounts/bills/credit cards/etc., tax records, pay stubs) in a file box. At the end of each year, I'd put everything in a large envelope, write the year on the outside, then store it. I stopped doing that when I started doing everything digitally. Now, I just download the receipt and put it in the appropriate folder on my computer. And at the end of each year, I take that folder and transfer it to an external USB drive and a USB thumb drive (redundancy). Then that folder gets deleted from my computer. Now I don't have file box taking up space nor do I have a bunch of large envelopes taking up even more space.