You collect, I collect. We all collect.

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3 years ago

5 August 2021, Somewhere in the Metaverse - UplandDood (@Just1Dood)

Want to hear something surprising? We all like to hoard. You will need to swim against the tide to fight this strong desire to hoard. That is why YouTube is full of tips and ideas on how to de-clutter and how to be a minimalist.

Without checking, I am quite certain some of these clips have millions of views. But would you like to know the truth? Watching and knowing all the tips and steps are one thing; acting on it is another thing altogether. I've watched them. My thought after watching these? It's like asking me to eat one meal a day after I've been having three all my life. It's a near-impossible task. It's near-impossible because there are always the outliers who can achieve it. I'm not one of them.

If you are in the same boat, fret not. I have learned to look at the bright side. You should too.

I revel in the satisfaction that I'm a collector, not a hoarder, even though I have a room and a few closets full of ... errr...hoarded stuff.

I am a Collector

I can't remember at what age that I have started collecting. It could be during my early school years. I believe it was around the age of 12 years old that I have started this hobby. It was around this time that I have begun drawing. I remembered quite clearly that I was good at it. I wish that I still have some of these earlier masterpieces. All these were drawn on drawing paper using colored pencils.

The only thing I remembered collecting before that age was probably postage stamps. Some of you from the future may not know what that is for. It's for what some call snail mail. No stamps, no mail. It's the cost of delivery. I still have albums of these.

I collect Comic Books

It was around my secondary school years that I got bitten by the comic books bug. I started devouring and collecting comic books. Each month, I couldn't wait to get the next issue to find out what happened to Peter Parker, or Matt Murdoch, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, or Bruce Wayne! These were my buddies. I care about them. I want to know how have fared against insurmountable odds and onslaught from all manners of evil. With them, I get to escape into another world. And I make sure that after reading, I took good care of them. This was the beginning of a long relationship. One that carried into my university years.

I collect Toys

It was also around this time that another collecting bug had bitten me. I'd started collecting some Star Wars toys. I have no idea why I collect them. Given the chance, I'll still collect them now if I have lots of BCH to spare! I think it could be due to the tangible touch and feel of the movie magic in my own world. I could have an X-Wing fighter in my hand. Or an AT-AT on my desk! It's magical. I still have some of these toys. Unfortunately, again due to numerous shifting of house, I've lost some of them. Thinking of that made me sad.

Everything is Collectible

During my university years, I had started another collecting habit/hobby. There was no explanation for this one. It just happened, if you can believe that. (Here's a tip: there's no such thing as "it just happened" when a collector tells you that about his collection).

This time, it was "old" cameras. How this came about was that during weekends, I love to go check out other people's junks. There was one time, I saw a vintage Nikon camera on one of these flea markets. I'd asked the seller how much he wanted for it. He said someone had already "reserved" it. I was pretty pissed off. What? My money isn't good enough? Not sure if that had imprinted in my mind an angry response to that slight. I started a vintage camera hunt in flea markets. Though I have never come across another vintage Nikon camera, I did however managed to find a few vintage Polaroids and a German-made camera. All these have lenses that pop out like an accordion.

I collect Sponsors

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These are my most precious collection right now. I learn so much from each of them and many of their articles inspire me to be better and challenged me to get out of my comfort zone.

Wouldn't you want to have such a collection too? The good news is that I too can end up being in their collection. And you can too. We collect each other. Isn't that fun? LOL.

[End of commercial]

A period of non-collecting

After university, I had stopped collecting. Things have changed. I have other priorities. Work was more important.

This was an extended period that I did not collect anything. It was all about work and more work. Well, not exactly. I did start collecting some CDs and DVDs briefly. Remember those? Those were more of a distraction from a hard day's work than anything else. It's not unlike someone looking forward to a chillax evening watching Netflix. There was no Netflix then. The closest thing was DVD collections to binge on.

The Return to Collecting

Have I mentioned that it is hard to get rid of the collector's bug? Well, let me say it again - it is hard.

Not many years back, I had started collecting again. This time it was ... wait for it ... of all things - coffee-related stuff!

I love coffee. I love it so much, I must have at least a cup each day. I know it doesn't sound like someone who loves coffee a lot. But I need to be careful not to upset my stomach. Sometimes I push the limit to two cups and very rarely more than 3 cups per day.

I love coffee so much that at one point in time, I had thought about opening a ... not a cafe but ... again, wait for it ... a Coffee Museum! Hahahaha...

It started innocently enough with a coffee grinder. Then it speedily spiraled out of hand. I have many coffee grinders (mostly manual ones) and some coffee brewers in my collection. One dating back to the 1800s but not enough for a Coffee Museum. LOL. Epic fail. It's expensive to collect vintage and antique grinders, so it stopped. I'm now stuck with these grinders. Anyone wanna buy and start a collection? LOL.

Once a Collector, always a Collector

Though I have not collected anything in a long time, my fear is that one day, I'll get bitten by another bug. Who knows what it will be then.

You know what? As I was typing the above sentence, I was corrected by myself. I have been bitten again. It's the NFT bug. I have lots in my collection. Although a few are worth something, not much but something, most are junk that's worth diddly.

It's in the blood. Call it DNA, call it a bug, I can't escape it. Once a collector, always a collector.

Fortunately, these do not take up physical space.

What can I say? I'm a collector. How about you?

Now, excuse me while I search for a YouTube clip on how to de-clutter my virtual world and live as a minimalist metaperson.

[Edit after publishing: I'm adding this as a writing prompt. The topic is: I am a collector].

Sources:

Header: Unsplash.com - Mick Haupt

All other images are my own.

Thank you again for dropping by. Have fun with English. Remember to share your experience in the comment section.

Do drop by to say hi at my following addresses. I promise I'll be at home :)

NoiseCash: UplandDood

Twitter: UplandDood

Publish0x: UplandDood (link takes you to site. You'll have to search for UplandDood to find me)

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3 years ago

Comments

I think my first collection were letters and notes from high school lol! I do have boxes of them still stored before. Then stamps when writing a letter is still a "thing." I also had collection of coins and some of our commemorative notes. Then I started collecting books. Then CDs, VCDs, DVDs. I started collecting toys too. And finally photos. Most of my photos were stored in CDs or external drives. All those went up in a smoke :D I don't know what will be my next collection but I have a lot of plastic containers from take outs and food delivers lol!

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3 years ago

Wow. You are a collector of so many things too. lol. You can probably still write about them.

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3 years ago

Oh do you have any Uncanny X-Men collection by Jim Lee? I like comics drawn by him. :)

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3 years ago

Hmm...good question. I do have some Uncanny X-Men in my collection. Not sure if any are of Jim Lee though. Now I'm curious to check. LOL. Do you collect comic books?

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3 years ago

My brothers did. I just read their comics. Haha.

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3 years ago

I see. Lucky you! hahaha..

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3 years ago

I will definitely write my entry on this prompt just wait for it mate

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3 years ago

Yay! Looking forward to it.

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3 years ago

see for it mate mweheheh

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3 years ago

collecting headache right now.. hahaha sneaking a read and noise break to declutter that one..

I collected books... now that we've gone digital I still collect both books and the digital format.. lols .. as for toys.. i have groot and snoopy planning to add eeyore there and donkey and puss n boots.. hmm a lot of others but no rush

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3 years ago

Share it for all to read. Yay.

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3 years ago

LOL I can't imagine how your room looks like with all those stuff. Maybe you should build that museum. Name it, Epic Fail Collection.

I'll join this prompt. I collect too, but not to the point of hoarding.

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3 years ago

LOL. Sounds like a great idea. That would be a decent-sized museum. Hahaha... I can't wait to read what you collect. Oh, by the way...I had forgotten to mention, I collect lots of dust too. Hahahaha...

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3 years ago

LOL dust collects itself from the most obvious spaces to the most unreacheable. I don't like collecting dusts.

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3 years ago

Lol. Yeah, true.

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3 years ago

I used to collect comics, pocket books, Time magazines etc before.. I have collected transformers like optimusprime, bumble bee, drift etc for my kids☺️

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3 years ago

Nice! Do share. I've updated my post with a writing prompt - "I am a collector". By the way, you may be interested to check this Optimus Prime that I mentioned in my noise post (https://noise.cash/post/17v8xjg3) but you can also check out their website. - https://robosenstore.com/pages/optimus. If you look at some of the YouTube unboxing, you'll be blown away.

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3 years ago

Wow my kids would love to see that.. I'll let them watch it with me.. Checking that noise post of your too.. Thanks for the info😊👍

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3 years ago

Once a collector, always a collector. ❤️ Totoo to! Since my elementary years, I love to collect bags (Kahit anong bags) and will display them all over my wall. Until today, I still love collecting bags ❤️ It's like a great satisfaction for me if I get to add one again to my collections.

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3 years ago

That is interesting. Do share. I've updated my post with a writing prompt - "I am a collector".

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3 years ago

Soonest 💗

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3 years ago

It's good that your collecting lots of things, some collectors considered it as an investment. Maybe you can earn money from it when someone I willing to pay huge amount of money for the collection that you had. In addition, collecting NFT is good investment because you can earn if you sell it on higher price.

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3 years ago

You are correct. With collecting, it's a willing buyer, willing seller market. If it matches, definitely can be lucrative. $69M is such a case. LOL.

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3 years ago

but the most profitable collection now is NFT, if you have rare NFT then you can sell it on high price. Atleast you've collected lots of things and you gain something on it.

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3 years ago

Yes, that is true. If it's good NFT, may be good to HODL.

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3 years ago