For some reason this kinda feels like a confession. “Hi, my name is Alona, and I’m a collector”.

So just when does an interest in something suddenly turn into collector status? I figure if you have 1 or 2 items in your collection, it is an interest. Item 3-5 … there’s twinges of a collector starting, 5 and after … admit it, you are a collector. And after 10, you’re a die-hard.

Some people seem to have more of an affinity for collecting, others probably start because of a certain something. Me … well I’ve sort of been a collector for a long time.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a collection as:

“a group of objects of one type that have been collected by one person or in one place”

I guess my parents encouraged it by buying me Mr Men books and Smurfs when I was little, so I had quite a collection of both back in the day.

I remember that back in primary school I used to collect stickers, and I had a whole book with them stuck in. There was brand stickers, places I’d visited stickers, slogan stickers and so on. I was proud of my sticker collection, and yet I have no idea what happened to it.

Then I had a rubber collection (note: that’s erasers for my US readers). It was quite a collection, as I had probably over 50 of them. And I had pretty much every novelty one that you could get. Again, I don’t remember what happened to that. But I do remember the excitement of going to the city, and going to my favourite shop and looking for more.

Another thing I collected was sew-on badges. You know the ones you buy at the petrol station as you drive through a town, and then sew on a blanket. Well that was the plan, but as I dropped out of girl guides after just year, and figured out that camping is just not my thing, I had no need for a blanket with sew-on badges on it. Yet, funnily enough I do still have them.

Then there was the my old glass bottle collection. When I was in primary school my family moved into an old house which came complete with lots of leftovers from the previous owners, and that was fun discovering all the old stuff they’d left behind. Sadly these had gone elsewhere.

I was one of those who did the whole stamp collection thing. Actually I started in a small way, and then inherited my aunties collection which spurred me on. So I then proceeded to be regular visitor at the local stamp shops, adding to my collection, checking the value of them, and making sure they were stored correctly and so on. I do still have the many, many folders of stamps. And while I am not doing anything with them at present, I’m not ready to part with them either.

More recently I’ve been adding to two newer collections … Smurfs and badges.

I know I mentioned Smurfs earlier, and yes, I’ve recently got back into them. But this time I’ve limited myself to collect ONLY the convict ones! Still I have probably over 25 of them, so I’ve done well. And recently I’ve been good, and even resisted buying some that I’ve seen up for sale on ebay.

my collection – 20 so far!

However my newest collection is one that didn’t set out to be one, but seems to have become one, and that is historical badges. But not just any old badge, I collect those relating to my hometowns of Gumeracha and Cudlee Creek. And thanks to ebay, my little collection of these has now grown to five.

I wrote about my first badge here, together with the history lesson it gave me. But since then I’ve found a few more.

it’s growing …

You don’t need me to tell you that people collect anything. When cleaning out a family member’s house, they had a collection of old Redheads match boxes, not to mention the shed full of old Women’s Weekly magazines. And I have an auntie who must have the world’s biggest collection of postcards, and a friend who has an amazing collection of dragon figurines.

Old toys and games, coins, cans, signs, keys, bottles, tins, matchbox cars, adverts, wooden boxes, cameras, radios, records, beer coasters, model trains, dolls, action figures, weetbix cards (do you remember those?), and of course any movie memorabilia. You name it, people collect it.

So do you, or anyone in your family (past or present), have a collection?

Please note: for this post I’m excluding both my book collection, which simply breeds anyway, and my entire genealogy collection (paperwork, genie mags, books, ephemera, photos, heirlooms and so on). In my opinion, both are collections everyone should have!

Last week was very exciting as I added to more convicts to my family … woohoo, yippee, happy dance 😉

Well it was almost as exciting as that. Last week I received two more convict smurfs to add to my collection, which now brings my total to eight.

Back in my childhood, when Smurfs they first came out I was a collector, and from memory I had about 30 or so, I’m really not sure what happened to that collection.