Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Jan 18, 2024 21:03:09 GMT
I think it's sort of like those crazy-ass guys who spent years building houses with stairs going nowhere. it's something to do. it feels important while you're doing it.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Jan 19, 2024 10:33:47 GMT
I think that, broadly speaking, there are three types of collectors that I like to call Obsessives, Hunter Gatherers and Sumps. I'm guessing that the guy (it's almost always a guy) who has the Star Wars stuff in the first picture is in the first category: some movie/group/genre/niche interest overwhelms them or touches them so deeply that they want to own everything - including knowledge as well as stuff - they can that is associated with it. There's often a touch of neuro-divergence about them: my 15-year-old autistic/ADHD grandson, for instance, is a collector of/expert on military helmets and webbing.
The second group is exemplified for me by a guy who, 15 years ago, handed over just under £1000 for 14 or 15 of my singles: he had decided to collect every Tamla/Motown/Gordy single released in England (first on the Oriole label, then Stateside, then TMG) in demo form, and I happened to have a few of those. When I asked what he would do once he had got them all, he said he would find something else. It was clearly the hunt itself that drove him, rather than the quarry.
And then there's the Sumps, in which I include myself: people who get interested in something - records, books, comics in my case - and follow their interests down whatever rabbit holes appear in front of them, on the lookout for new stuff, restlessly moving on, with stuff that has been consumed (listened to, looked at, read) accumulating in the wake of their burrowings.
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Post by adamcoan on Jan 19, 2024 10:51:33 GMT
Oh, guess I am a sump.
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Post by DarknessFish on Jan 19, 2024 13:53:03 GMT
Yeah, I'm a sumpleton, too.
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Jan 19, 2024 16:10:17 GMT
I don't think I was ever obsessive enough to be one of the 3. I mean I accumulated a lot - records, silver age comics, bubble gum cards. I liked them and enjoyed having them.
circumstances have made us part ways. it's all up HERE (I point at my sadly mishapen head and smile with clenched teeth)
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Jan 19, 2024 16:22:39 GMT
I don't think I was ever obsessive enough to be one of the 3. I mean I accumulated a lot - records, silver age comics, bubble gum cards. I liked them and enjoyed having them. circumstances have made us part ways. it's all up HERE (I point at my sadly mishapen head and smile with clenched teeth) The whole point of the Sump category is that it's non-obsessive: 'accumulative' more or less defines it.
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,546
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Post by Sneelock on Jan 19, 2024 16:33:49 GMT
okay then. sounds about right!
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Post by DayoRemix on Jan 22, 2024 6:58:05 GMT
Curious what the pictures actually show..They do not show up on my feed..
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Jan 22, 2024 8:38:34 GMT
Curious what the pictures actually show..They do not show up on my feed.. not showing up for anyone now, but here is the link
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Post by DayoRemix on Jan 22, 2024 9:33:07 GMT
Some of those are not Lego (The Action figures and a few of the ships). That's a pretty decent hall of Star Wars. (I've seen larger collections) The construction time it took for the ones which are Lego must have been crazy. I see Lego the same as the people who use to put together model cars and such. It's busy work with a purpose. Hell, it would seem Lego would be even more difficult to get right than the model cars, so a modicum of skill is involved.
I have no issue with collecting things. I have a decent collection of high and low art. If it makes people happy, who cares? As long as their obsession doesn't hurt others or hinder their lives, it really doesn't matter. And one shouldn't judge the Star Wars person here too harshly. The days of nerds and weirdos in basements surrounded by toys is long gone. There are some pretty "Normal" people who collect and yes, obsess over pop culture items. Is it really so different from those who used to collect toy trains and set them up in their homes (Which is seen as perfectly normal) or, dare I say, MUSIC OBSESSIVES (Vinyl collectors especially), book collectors or Film completests?
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,798
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Post by loveless on Jan 22, 2024 11:49:34 GMT
I feel like anything I say here should include video of me typing my remarks while sitting in front of my music collection (heaving shelves of LPs, 45s, boxed sets, etc.).
My oldest is 18 now. Autistic, ADHD, and...in advance of every birthday and Christmas, his list (which we and other relatives draw from) is all Legos and video games and the like. Has been since he was probably 6 or 7. Part of me thinks "Surely, he'll reach some age where Legos and games seem secondary to other pursuits and interests and talents (to wit, he's not a bad drummer)", but...I don't really know that this is a remotely assured outcome. And, so goes it that every birthday or holiday season is followed by a period of days (during winter or summer break) where he'll fritter away in his room, building these enormous models in seemingly record time. He's very methodical - there was this piece he got from grandpa this past Christmas (2899 pieces - more or less a detailed model of a multilevel structure) where, rather than burning the candle straight through, he put in a concentrated series of hours for three days straight, building a tier to completion and then coming back to it the next day. Something about his deliberate choice to savor the experience and spread it out in a logical fashion seemed...it felt like something I could personally aspire to (cause...that's not my M.O. at all).
Anyhow, with regards to the OP...I'm so used to all this shit, and it's so normalized to me, that I might not bat an eye at seeing a heaving display of models and ephemera like that. Shit - I remember when my youngest was...I dunno 7, 8, etc. and the other parents would bring their kids over for birthday parties and pumpkin carvings...what I'm getting at here is that I absolutely remember a few of the moms looking at my/our record collection (it's difficult to miss) sort of sideways. Maybe as any normal person would do ("How/when the fuck does he intend to LISTEN to all of that?").
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