What Else Do You Collect/ Hobbies?

Hi,
I was reading another post inquiring about members age. It has been going for a couple years and it was very interesting. Some people added their other hobbies and interests which I enjoyed reading about. I searched to see if we had a post specific to that and I could not find one. So I will go first.
I am 55 and have collected stamps and covers since I was 7.
I have collected Sports Cards and Die Cast toys in the past, but I always come back to stamps.
I am like a lot of you, a collecting junkie. I have old cameras, records, comic books, really anything that catches my interest, but stamps have always been my "base collectible".
I enjoy old cars and motorcycles. I currently have 3 MG's, a 1958 MGA,(in pieces), 1977 Midget and 1978 MGB. I also have a 1991 Dodge Stealth and a 1982 Honda Goldwing Aspencade, (you would be suprised how many stamps I can get in the trunk of the bike). None are restored or worth a lot. I drive the Midget and the bike the most. It has been years since the MGA or MGB have even hit the road.
I am a "certified master gardener" and I really enjoy relaxing in the garden.
.....my wife is very tollerant of all my crap!

Over the years I have "collected" a variety of things.
I have and continue to add to my blue Bubble Depression glassware and Blue Willow china made by Royal China of Sebring OH.
I collect "odd" dolls (ones that catch my eye) and also metal doll houses and furniture.
I started collecting red wooden handle kitchen utensils a few years ago.
As a retired librarian, I collect book marks, pencils and old desk accessories. Also old children's books!
But...I really love my stamp collection which I have worked on over many years.
That's all I can think of right now.

Lesse..

First collection I can recall was a Penny collection, in one of the blue folder things. This was around 1971, so older ones were still around. Lost interest about the time I got the 1943 steel pennies. Don't recall every 'buying' any - just got whatever I came across, and the 1943 steel pennies were a Christmas gift.

Next was FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, being a big-time monster kid. Childhood collection long gone, but have replaced all and gained a lot more. If yer a monster kid, you'll understand. If not, don't know that I could explain it. You kind of 'had to be there' for FM. Still keep this one going.

Stamps joined in when I was 13 in 1977. Rich kid friend converted me, we went to the stamp store together, mailed off a few first day covers, bought what little I could. High School, guitar/garage band, girls and trying to keep my grades up took over soon, but Stamps is one I kept coming back to through the years, through the ups and downs.. Lost almost all during a dark time, working on a 'good' collection now, looking for quality where I can. So this one is definitely live :) (Good thing, being on this board).

As stamps held their own, I found a used record store that led to my next two hobbies. I found that old (as in early 60's) albums and 45's were (a) available, and (b) not so ridiculously priced that I couldn't afford them. Life long fan since I was 9 years old of The Beach Boys, and found I could get tons of their original albums and singles cheaply. That collection is still going, but about complete - all I'm missing there are some of the 1970's singles on Warner/Reprise that sold about 10 copies each. Hard to find, and expensive when found (with LOTS of bidders!). Have all their albums, tons of bootl....um.. 'auxiliary' recordings, both studio and live, and an album autographed by all (and got to meet them on June 4, 1979 on official 'Beach Boys Day' in Los Angeles!).

The other thing this store (which was still there, last time I visited 'home' back in 2006) had was movie posters or current and recent films. Remember me being a 'Monster Kid'? Well, in 1979, you still couldn't get 99% of movies on VHS, that was still a few years away. I had some of the old Super 8 movies that were silent, black and white and 8 or 13 minutes, but that was it. But now, I could buy the actual posters! I went nuts at that place, between Beach Boys records and horror/sci-fi posters.

As mentioned, Beach Boys records and memorabilia, still owned, but not actively doing much as .. well, they aren't exactly 'active' anymore. Movie Posters? Kept active off and on, like stamps. More on them in a bit.

About the same time as FAMOUS MONSTERS, I gradually got into Marvel Comics. I bought a lot of those at the same time I was into stamps, but the comics kinda petered out when all the High School stuff started (and they also doubled in price about every 3 months around then!)

That was the basis before 'life' took over. Some popped up, some died away, some stayed buried for decades and came back later. Graduation, college, marriage at 20, divorce 9 months later (no kids, thankfully. She apparently thought the best man really WAS the best man...), joining the United States Navy for 4 years (around which time I turned my love of sports in to Baseball, and ordered lots of autographed photos of Hall of Famers and such), found a wonderful lady, got out of the military, she was killed by a drunk driver which pretty much took me 'out of it' for a decade or so.

Around 1998, job moved me to Dallas, and lots of disposable income got some hobbies started and other invigorated. Now I could get DVD's of my movies, so I went hog wild with that. ebay made it possible to regain my FAMOUS MONSTERS collection, so that's when that happened.

Met another wonderful lady, and got married again in 2000. Good income allowed me to add to (a) dvd's, (b)movie posters, (c) stamps sporadically. Along came my son in 2002, and a lot of that expendable cash vanished (imagine that!).

To the current - we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this past May, our son is in the 5th grade and is a bigger baseball fan than me now. he's also getting into stamps with me ;)

Due to PNC bank defrauding us to the point of taking our house away, we are in the process of moving (about 80% done, but lots more to do!). Don't really mind, don't intend to retire in Fort Wayne. Nice enough, but don't like the cold winters (I'm still a Southern California guy at heart), so just as well not making house payments. Moving from a big house with basement to a not-as-big house with no basement. So one thing that was obvious is some of my collecting was now out of space. DVD's are easy enough, store them in paper sleeves and put the art and inserts in binder sheets for reference. Stamps, not a real space problem (at this point at least). The movie posters, however (a) were a DEFINITE space issue, and (b) were my one collection worth a LOT of money. Horror/Sci-fi posters are very hot right now. Soo, took a break from moving a couple weeks back to get all my posters collected (boxes, tubes, etc.) and packed them all up and shipped them off to be auctioned off during the Halloween Auctions by the biggest dealer in the US. Hoping for a very nice haul, but realistic it might not be as big as liked.

So, after all that...
I collect Stamps (US, and Worldwide 1840-1964)

I 'aquire' DVD's or Blu-Rays of genre films for my collection. Can't really say I 'collect' them, as I just get the ones I like.. However, with over 5000, I guess my standards are pretty broad

I collect anything new that comes around from Brian Wilson or The Beach Boys (though a new box set around $140 with only a few unreleased tracks is making me pause.. maybe if my posters sell for a ton).

I'm collecting more and more gray hairs all the time (gained a lot thanks to PNC over the last few years.. thanks a LOT, guys )

And that's about it - most of my other collections are ancient history (pennies) or replaced by modern methods (cheaper to read comics in trade paperbacks when the mood strikes). FAMOUS MONSTERS stopped publication back in 1983, sputtered back around 1990 in a much-publicized debacle, earing a deserved death around 2000, and is now back in a version much closer to the original, but without Forry Ackerman to run it, it's not the same, so my 'collecting' is down to the original 1958-1983 run.. and that is pretty much all done when my younger brother flies up here from California in June and we'll drive to Pittsburgh for a classic horror convention called the MONSTER BASH and I'll be sure to have my FM want list there

OK, I guess I've wasted enough pixels here. One things for sure, when I get to my 50th post, nobody will be able to say I got there with a bunch of 'yup' or 'wow, that's great' posts!

I collect U.S. Silver & gold Coins, Lincoln Cents, "Indian head" Cents, WWI. & WWII. Bayonets and Stamps.

Stamps were my first collecting venture and still is. Later I started collecting coins. I have also gathered a few banknotes, although I don't actively collect these. You can view my complete collection on the link below.
Like, "I Love Stamps", Lincoln cents is one of my favourites and I nearly have the complete collection. I hope to add a 1914D and 1931S by the end of the year and that will complete year/mint set.

Steve

Off topic a moment- Triggersmob-You have a 1909 S VDB and the one from the 40's that only a few thousand was made too? I have them all but those 2

I Love Stamps,
I have an 1909 S VDB. It is not anywhere near mint. I got it back in the 60's. I had started to collect pennies as a kid,and a friend told me that was a penny I had to get. So, I bought it from a dealer. He also was big on the 1955 double die. I never got that one. I lost interest in coins very quickly and my penny collection is nowhere near complete. They are in those blue Whitman folders. All of the pennies are circulated and worn. I still find wheat pennies in change from time to time. I throw them all in a tackle box. Every once in a while I get a book from the library and find that most of them are very common. I do have one penny from 1985 that missed the plating process. I took it to a dealer and he said it was likely chemically altered, yet he offered me $5.00 for it. I have saved it along with all the others for my kids.

I Love Stamps, no I don't have those coins, but I consider them to be varieties. I don't collect them, I just want one from each year from each mint. I have 1909 S and 1909 VDB, but not 1909 S VDB.

Steve

I have some coins and a penny collection my dad and I started when I was a kid. But with what I spend on stamps, I can't afford to collect anything else.


-IBFS

At my age and circumstances, my other hobby is collecting days! LOL

I collect stamps with monkeys and apes, also FDCs and MCs, and some associated items like phonecards and some coins (if I can afford them). I was always interested in animals and in my work involved with behavioural studies of monkey, so I started a collection of monkey figurines, always trying to bring one back wherever I went. Then one day my parents gave me this (really rather poor quality) sheet of 16 monkey stamps and I was hooked. I now have a very good collection of monkey stamps etc and enjoy the hunt for new issues (I prefer to be my own hound to subscription services) and also have used the collection in research; for instance, presenting a poster on which species have been depicted, by whom, and how often, making the argument for raising local awareness of endangered species thru stamps. I have framed some issues for use in fundraisers and enjoy using this forum and post interesting issues and hear from others.

The figurine collection is still there but I have reduced it, keeping only those with sentimental value and the few more valuable ones - trawling ebay and other sites from time to time to look for others.And to enjoy living with them, some antique prints of monkeys on the wall.

Those are my main interests but having been owned for many years now by a succession of Manx cats (they are the ones without a tail) I also have a collection of Manx cat stamps. Small indeed, because they are rarely depicted.

Well, now you now a little bit more about one more mad collector.

Happy hunting all!