Author Topic: Collectible Things  (Read 2493 times)

TheGrimSqueaker

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Collectible Things
« on: July 18, 2018, 01:11:02 PM »
Has anyone besides me noticed the insidious, nefarious pull of Things To Be Collected?

I take shameful advantage of my annual national parks pass. Now that the Venomous Spaz Beast has enough service dog skills after a year of training, I've been taking her along. But I'm fighting a desire to get her one of those national parks passports and have it stamped everywhere we go somewhere new. Although I haven't made the purchase yet I'm already feeling a desire to visit all the parks, even the ones I've been to before. That would be a multi-year, very expensive undertaking especially where quarantine is involved in Hawaii.

This isn't the first time I've had the urge to collect something and it seems to me to be a very effective marketing tool. Does anyone else have this compulsion? If so how do you fight it?

Sibley

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2018, 01:30:21 PM »
Recognize that it's silly and distract yourself with a less silly shiny new toy. At least, that's what I do.

honeybbq

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2018, 01:56:32 PM »
Can you make your own passport book? Doesn't have to be fancy and could still scratch that itch.

FireHiker

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2018, 02:42:39 PM »
I don't have a passport book, but I do have a life goal of visiting all of the National Parks. I'm currently at 30. You may have some trouble bringing your dog to the ones in Alaska that require bushplane transportation, American Samoa, Dry Tortugas, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Or, maybe quarantine is an option for those? Can you tell I've been looking at NP trips a lot lately? There's an amazing (NOT cheap) trip to Katmai to watch grizzly bears in the wild; it's one of my husband's top bucket list items. It's crazy stuff like this which is why we're both still working as we've hit bare bones FIRE if we were willing to move and downsize now. But I digress...

My guilty collectible is fridge magnets at National Parks. I don't actually have them for all of the parks I've visited, but several. I come from a family of collectors/borderline hoarders, so I try really hard to be more minimalist and keep it in check. The amount of money my mom has spent on collectibles over the years is absolutely horrifying.

mrcheese

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2018, 09:38:26 PM »
My guilty collectible is fridge magnets at National Parks. I don't actually have them for all of the parks I've visited, but several. I come from a family of collectors/borderline hoarders, so I try really hard to be more minimalist and keep it in check. The amount of money my mom has spent on collectibles over the years is absolutely horrifying.
I have a terrible compulsion to collect coffee mugs from all the places I travel to.  And yet I also insist on only ever travelling with a carry-on back pack so I'm always cramming a fragile bulky souvenir into an already full bag and then lugging it around with me... but I can't stop...

Raymond Reddington

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2018, 09:49:36 PM »
I was just talking about this with my wife a few days ago.

Want to upsell someone who wants a thing? Make others like it, and label each "# of #." We were thinking about this as we cleaned out our house, the amount of "collectible" items we have, and the way it encourages people to buy more things than they would, just to complete a set.

Ironically, these are often things of little utility that are just aesthetic.

Norrie

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2018, 09:52:54 PM »
I had never understood the desire to collect things until I fell in love with one certain maker of antique china teacups. I started collecting them about eight years ago and have ended up with more than I really want (nowhere to store all of them). That said, I do actually use at least one every single morning for my tea and my daughter uses a second one.

But overall? A slippery slope that I feel is best to be avoided.

Davnasty

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2018, 06:55:23 AM »
Pabst Blue Ribbon used to print playing cards on the inside of their caps. I collected a full deck. When I finished the set my first thought was "yes, got the last one". My second thought was "aww, no more excuse to buy beer".

thesis

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Re: Collectible Things
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2018, 10:18:46 AM »
I wish I knew what it was in the human brain that makes us so susceptible to this. It simply doesn't make sense to me. When I was a kid, I collected a lot of hockey and pokemon cards. It was awfully fun, so I can't say it was a waste, but it was definitely a money drain. Every last one of those is gone now.

For the outdoorsy types here in Colorado, it's collecting 14er summits. This is at least free, but it's pretty obnoxious when everybody has "the list" and people are always sizing themselves up by how many they've hiked. I find 14ers quite tedious and prefer other hikes.

Collecting travel locations is probably the most expensive thing you could do, but I'm talking international travel. National parks may not be a bad thing, but I kind of feel like you should want to go to those individual parks for good reasons, not just to check the location off of a list.

 

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