Some do it out of loyalty to their team, town, or country, others might be driven by the prestige that comes with ownership; either way, people like to collect. And the fields they’re interested in can be interesting, to say the least.
So in order to show you just how cool, strange, and even creepy this hobby can be, we at Bored Panda put together a list of the most unique collections we could find on the internet. From pharmacy pills to exit signs, and beyond, continue scrolling to check out the stashes.
My Hand-Painted Food Rocks
I Got Sober During Covid, So All Of My AA Meetings Have Been By Zoom. My Chips Are Mostly A Random Collection Of Round Objects I’ve Found On My Daily Walks. I Just Celebrated 7 Months
Dr. Andrew Dillon, who is a V.M. Daniel Regents Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, says that once humans gathered more resources than they immediately needed, they were able to break out of the continual hunting mode and start to trade.
Combined with our abilities to plan and count, collecting emerges as a natural disposition that is subject to the influencing forces of economics, social structures, education, fashion, and personal history.
“In treating collecting as routine, we can view the range of collecting behaviors as expressions which might vary across layers but reflect the shared basis of human motivations underlying our emotions, identity, value, and desire for connection,” Dillon explains.
Authentic Geological Map Of Scotland
I Spent 4 Years Trying To Grow Salt Cubes At Home. Here Are The Largest And Most Transparent Crystals I’ve Managed To Grow So Far
I’m Painting A Collection Of Memes. Here’s The Progress So Far
While collecting might be an innate tendency, Dillon believes it’s culturally and environmentally shaped. “Nomadic peoples were limited to items that were transferable or storable, but a surplus of food and materials of importance suggests that even from earliest times, people collected,” he says.
“Changes in the means of production altered patterns of consumption, and the spoils of conflict and resource control exercised through power created a distinct type of collecting for desirable goods, giving us era-specific records of what was deemed important or valuable to different cultures even before the emergence of museums and galleries.”
This Man’s Collection Of Lost Apple Varieties
After Years Of Collecting, Problems With Arcade Bylaws, And A Pandemic, I’ve Finally Quit My Career In It And Opened A Pinball Arcade
January Sea Glass Haul. I May Have A Problem
My Father-In-Law Just Moved To A New House. His Record Collection Required Its Own Move And Two Trucks
In more recent times, the cabinet of curiositiesemerges around the discovery of the Americas and the expansion of people’s understanding of place and space, tying collecting to self-presentation of worldliness and forward-thinking.
The Industrial Revolution led to the emergence of a consumer class that sought goods previously unavailable to them (and created a wealthy class that bought items to reflect their emerging status, sending their offspring on grand tours to polish their education and obtain all sorts of historical artifacts to embellish the family’s legacy).
This rising middle class, in turn, engaged in this most human behavior of acquiring and keeping objects of desire to the point where phrases like “Everyone is a collector” were also born.
My Coleus Collection
Helped My Mom Unpack Her Uranium Glass Collection And Install UV Lights
My Collection Of LEGO Pokémon I’ve Built
Tools Of My Trade (Hand Embroidery) Turned Into A Small Collection
However, as collecting is increasingly recognized as widespread, Dillon says we still have little data on people’s motivations, their reasons, and self-explanations for their hobby.
“Individual case studies or small sample surveys provide some insights, but most of the research is suggestive and leans to inference from market activity,” he explains.
“[But] it is sometimes assumed that the primary motivation for investing in artworks or antiques is financial, the belief that such works, by nature of their rarity, represent a distinctive form of investment.”
My Wall Mounted Rotary Phone Collection
My 9-Year-Old Nephew Has Found Over 1500 “Lucky” Four-Leaf Clovers And Keeps Them In A Big Binder
A Collection Of Little Monster Toys I’ve Made
“What We Find In Your Tires”
There is, of course, a monetary consideration in major purchasing decisions, but financial returns might be a primary motivation for only a minority or niche group of collectors.
Depending on which study you look at, there’s some evidence that the share of collectors who are in for an investment or possible profit can be lower than 10%.
Rooftop Next To A Schoolyard
What An Impressive Tie Collection He Must Have Had
My Grandpa’s Vintage Prank Toy Collection
Years Ago I Told My Mom That I Liked To Collect Coins. Unfortunately, She Passed Recently, And Upon Cleaning Her House, I Found This
On the other hand, Dillon says there are innumerable accounts and case studies of individual collectors that explain these people’s actions by appealing to their emotional experiences, insatiable appetites for security, and even erotic ties to material objects, typically rooted in their unsettling earliest life experiences.
My Multilingual Calvin & Hobbes Collection
Over The Years, I’ve Collected Other People’s Collections That Have Been Thrown Away. Anything People Collect Will Be In These Boxes, Including The Boxes And Drawers
My Grandpa Kept Almost All Of The Rabies Tags From His Dogs
My Collection Showing The Evolution Of Portable Data Storage Over The Past 45 Years
“A more contemporary view of people’s relationships to material objects comes from social and cultural studies of consumption by the general public,” he explains. “Looking beyond the business analysis of what we buy, some researchers have asked why we buy and how do we treat or use the objects we accumulate over time? In studying these phenomena, people are often conceived as continual consumers on a scale, with collectors at one end and disposers at the other.”
“In this paradigm, an individual’s choice of goods is conceived as a reflection of their identity or their desire to be seen by others as part of a group, with their consumption and retention patterns representing a form of expression that signals particular lifestyle values and choices.”
My Dad’s Banjo Collection
Some People Collect Stamps, Others Collect Fancy Cars. I Collect Thrift Store Ski Jackets. Here Are Some Of My Favorite Finds
Abandoned Collection Of Over 175 Classic Cars In North London
Anyone Here Collects Vintage Monster Masks? Here Is A Small Bit Of My Collection
Clearly, there is a strong relationship between human psychology and the desire to collect, one that mediates personal identity, a sense of place in the world, and a desire to form networks and build community.
#30
This Car Is Full Of Bumper Stickers That Say Bumper Sticker