What Should I Collect

Now that you have decided that you want to join the world of collectors you need to decide what to collect. The possibilities are truly limitless. You could collect coins, knives, classic automobiles, paintings, furniture, toys or bottle caps to name a few. How do you decide? Here are a few considerations, not necessarily in a particular order:

1. How much do you want to spend per item? If you want to spend no more than a few dollars per item this obviously eliminates art by the old masters but offers many possibilities. Determine a cost range you are comfortable with as you consider the possibilities. Remember, there is plenty of time to exceed you limits as you collect.

2. How will you display your collection? Another way of asking this is how much room will it require? A collection of tobacco tags takes up a lot less floor space than a collection of pool tables. Are you in a small apartment or do you have an empty full basement you have been thinking about utilizing? A pretty good sized collection of postcards can be kept in a couple of drawers. A nice selection of cut glass or pottery will most likely need a couple of display cabinets.

3. How much fun can you stand? They say the fun is in the hunt. If you want to be able to find something for your collection almost every time you go into an antiques shop then you should collect something plentiful like Depression Glass or Occupied Japan Figurines. Want a bigger challenge? How about handmade Folk Art Whirligigs or French Art Pottery? It is probably best to choose something which is not too difficult to find to start so that you won’t get discouraged immediately.

4. How broad or narrow do you want to be? Most people tend to collect a general area at first and then get more specialized. For instance you might start with Depression glass and choose to buy any pattern or color you find…which you will quickly find a daunting task. You might instead choose to put together a complete 8 place service of June pattern in crystal...more doable. You might want to put together a collection of depression cups and saucers in every pattern you can find. This would be easy at first and then as you are searching for fewer and fewer patterns would get more difficult.

5. What do you like? Your collection is something you will be living with so it should be something that you are interested in, something that helps define who you are. You do not necessarily need to choose something you know a lot about, to start with. We will be discussing your learning process in the next blog. Chances are that no matter how interesting you think your potential collecting area is now, you are about to find it more and more interesting in a very short time.

6. Don’t worry too much over this decision. Rare is the collector who sticks solely with their first collecting interest. Most of us find that one thing leads to another. Also you will find that, over time, your tastes will change. For example, how many of us would want the same posters in our bedroom that we had there as a teenager (apologies to any teenagers reading this).

If you are now collecting something please share with us what you collect and how you got started. What steps did you go through and what were your considerations? How has your collecting interest changed over the time you have been collecting?

My next blog is going to look at how to get started once you have decided what you want to collect