The Collector's Bug

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Collecting CDs is a habit that many of us find irresistible, but for some us the collecting bug can go just too far.

It started around 1960 or '61 when, thanks to to the generosity of my parents, I began collecting the weekly-part encyclopaedia, Knowledge. Originally intended as a 192 part work in 16 volumes, it eventually exceeded that and ended up as 18 volumes in 216 parts. I collected the lot, and only parted with them some 25 years later. By then, I had also collected Everyman's Encyclopaedia as well.

Every time a part-work magazine is issued, I want to collect it. I even collected the Titanic wooden model kit in this way (100 parts), but gave it away only half finished. The Great Composers, The Great Operas DVD series were others I collected and wished I hadn't. Naturally, when Novello announced the Complete Elgar Edition, I had no option but to collect it, and 36 years later it continues.

Then there was the complete set of 30 Penguin Scores.

Now I'm collecting the complete works of the Yorkshire artist and writer, Marie Hartley.

Will it ever end?

[gradus]

Collecting CDs is a habit that many of us find irresistible, but for some us the collecting bug can go just too far.

It started around 1960 or '61 when, thanks to to the generosity of my parents, I began collecting the weekly-part encyclopaedia, Knowledge. Originally intended as a 192 part work in 16 volumes, it eventually exceeded that and ended up as 18 volumes in 216 parts. I collected the lot, and only parted with them some 25 years later. By then, I had also collected Everyman's Encyclopaedia as well.

Every time a part-work magazine is issued, I want to collect it. I even collected the Titanic wooden model kit in this way (100 parts), but gave it away only half finished. The Great Composers, The Great Operas DVD series were others I collected and wished I hadn't. Naturally, when Novello announced the Complete Elgar Edition, I had no option but to collect it, and 36 years later it continues.

Then there was the complete set of 30 Penguin Scores.

Now I'm collecting the complete works of the Yorkshire artist and writer, Marie Hartley.

Will it ever end?

Probably not.

[Pulcinella]

It started around 1960 or '61 when, thanks to to the generosity of my parents, I began collecting the weekly-part encyclopaedia, Knowledge. Originally intended as a 192 part work in 16 volumes, it eventually exceeded that and ended up as 18 volumes in 216 parts. I collected the lot, and only parted with them some 25 years later. By then, I had also collected Everyman's Encyclopaedia as well.

That's where I got a lot of my knowledge from, too!

[umslopogaas]

I can relate to this thread, because I have always collected things - I am now 67 - and I suppose I always will. There is a strong urge for complete sets, series, whatever. When I was young it was stamps. Slightly older, it was LPs, Then in my overseas years it was tropical timber and seashells. Now, in my rapidly approaching dotage, its LPs again. Also CDs, but I make a fine distinction: I collect LPs, in the sense I amass them methodically, but I merely accumulate CDs, there is no guiding principle.

I probably would collect seashells and tropical timber again, but since there are no sensible sources here in Devon, I doubt I ever will.

[french frank]

Is it a bloke thing? I might assemble a set of four (or so) things e.g. CDs, to ring the changes when I feel like listening. Or is it just me that's odd?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is it a bloke thing? I might assemble a set of four (or so) things e.g. CDs, to ring the changes when I feel like listening. Or is it just me that's odd?

Back in March 1983, I too had 4 CDs!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is it a bloke thing? I might assemble a set of four (or so) things e.g. CDs, to ring the changes when I feel like listening. Or is it just me that's odd?

Not necessarily - but probably a vestige of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

[cloughie]

Not necessarily - but probably a vestige of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

That's what I'll tell Mrs C when the next few padded envelopes land on the mat!

[Ferretfancy]

Does anybody remember a Time Life set of hardback volumes on the history of the Wild West? I collected all of them and was thus entitled to a free storage cabinet which is still in the hall full of LPs. I can't for the life of me remember what happened to the books, but I'm pretty sure I didn't read more than the first few!

[teamsaint]

Does anybody remember a Time Life set of hardback volumes on the history of the Wild West? I collected all of them and was thus entitled to a free storage cabinet which is still in the hall full of LPs. I can't for the life of me remember what happened to the books, but I'm pretty sure I didn't read more than the first few!

I've still got plastic boxes full of Dinosaur magazines that I subscribed to for my younger son. Almost impossible to unsubscribe.

My other lad worked for a publisher of Partworks magazines. consequently I have dotted all around the house a collection of wrist watches from places like the Apollo missions, the Italian army in WW2, etc, as well as any number of replica James bond cars and Batmobiles.

[BBMmk2]

Could say that I think it could be a bloke thing. MrsBBM, can't stand clutter, and she includes CDs in that category!!

[gradus]

Yes it does seem to be a male pursuit. I think the trick with collecting is to maintain some sort of order accessible to others, as well as the collector.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've still got plastic boxes full of Dinosaur magazines that I subscribed to for my younger son.

Ah, that reminds me. This one even predates my collection of the Knowledge encyclopaedia.
In the 1950s, when cereal packets contained flimsy freebies, Shreddies had a collection of 20 plastic dinosaurs. I still have them, all unbroken and in a steel safe (even though they're probably worthless).

[vinteuil]

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... is there a distinction to be made between this 'easy collecting' (part-works and the like), where you just have to sign up and wait for the things to turn up (even for many years, in Alpie's case, respect ) - and what I wd consider the more demanding 'quest' collecting - where you are trying to complete sets which are no longer readily available?

In the days of many good second-hand book shops, I got great pleasure from the hunt for the 'missing volumes' I needed to complete sets - this of course became much easier (tho' perhaps less thrilling... ) with the advent of the interweb and agents such as abebooks.

O the feeling of triumph when a particular set was 'completed'! - in my case this included the Walpole correspondence, the Howe edition of Hazlitt, the Coleridge Notebooks, the Proust letters, the Henry James in the Macmillan pocket-size editions. Happy, happy days....


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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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... is there a distinction to be made between this 'easy collecting' (part-works and the like), where you just have to sign up and wait for the things to turn up (even for many years, in Alpie's case, respect ) - and what I wd consider the more demanding 'quest' collecting - where you are trying to complete sets which are no longer readily available?

Yes, indeed. My recent collecting has been of the more challenging nature - hence the Penguin Scores and Marie Hartley books.