Thread: Collecting vs. Accumulating

COLLECTING vs. ACCUMULATING
A short post about getting stuff and what folks do with it.

Most of us have some things that we have enjoyed and bought, received or traded for. Some of us get into a period of interest for a pastime where we enjoy something enough to buy a few of that item. Where the problem arises is that we soon have enough of the item that are not inventoried and too much / many to start an inventory now.

And, Folks, that is the accumulation part of getting stuff we like.

Now contrast a buddy of mine that collects. He found a couple straight razors at a low cost and decided that he wanted to collect razors. Being a very methodical person he paper sticker numbered each and every item right after he purchased it and wrote down in a notebook, bought for that purpose; the date, price, general condition and features. Also he has a column for the location of the item. He also added a column for the average 'Bay “sold listing” price of that item after the 'Bay started having that information.

Now, this gentleman has a few over a thousand razors plus Barberalia(?). That my friends is... collecting

Another important factor about the accumulations of items, collection or no, is “how do we keep them?”

I am one of those people that has to be able to see what I have. I make and / buy or re-purpose and install shelving and display cases, racks, and so-forth to make my collection visible and shareable. I really hate to open a drawer and find I already had one of something I just bought!

The buddy above is the same way, He has a room / den in which he built display cases and shelving and hanging rails with hooks and he made many very nice shadow boxes which each hold about seven to twenty razors for viewing. The basement rumpus room is also full of displays. He made a glass topped coffee table that holds and displays a hundred of his finest. He is fortunate to have a wife that collects ceramics. They enjoy together the displaying of mugs and scuttles as a displayed collection. He makes shelving for her favored pieces also.

Another gentleman I know also has an inventoried collection of about 2000 razors last I knew. He is of the collect for profit point of view. His collection, other than a very few (6) favorites displayed in one mirror backed knicknac shelf, is wrapped in razor rolls which are sequestered in an environmentally controlled locked vault.

Another gent I know is of the passion to buy and simply tosses the new found item into a drawer or someplace when he gets tired of moving it around his computer desk. How many things he has, I don't know. I do know that he can't find most things when we talk about a trade. He knows he has them but not as to where they are scattered.

A gentleman, or few, I know that post here on SRP are of the idea that their stuff goes to someone that will enjoy it when they have a better copy or no longer will use or want the item. "Pass It Forward" in a big way.

I do know a gent that has junk storage full of stuff he bought to keep anyone else from having it. Not a friend at all.

Why did I write this? We are all, in some ways, a combination of all of the above folks. Depending on state of mind, we may do some of the above actions. We are very able to do a particular set of buys and then change style as we become more knowledgeable.

And... no matter how many we have of what...there is always someone with more, better, newer, older, or fewer of that which trips our trigger! Enjoy the chase... there is always another razor!

~Richard