[What] Do You Collect?

[jdurg]

What do you collect?: I collect the elements on the periodic table, Topps Baseball Card Complete Sets since my year of Birth (1980), NY Yankees yearbooks since my year of birth (1980), Coins from the year 1880 and any type of coin currently in circulation (I have a sample of every single year and mintmark of Roosevelt Dimes including the proofs. It's the only one I have that's 'complete').

 

Why do you collect them?: I collect the elements on the periodic table because I love chemistry and in my younger years I collected coins pretty heavily. I also liked making certain compounds where pure iodine was needed. One day, while looking through my coins, I saw that I had silver, gold, platinum, copper, zinc, etc. all in a pretty pure form. I then found E-Bay and realized I could get a bunch of different elements and wondered what it would be like to have a collection of the elements. I then found Theodore Gray's website (which I am a contributor to ), and some other collectors I met through E-Bay. I now have a complete collection of the elements (well, as complete as reasonably possible) and just upgrade samples every now and then. (A picture can be seen in the periodic table section of http://www.chemicalforums.com).

 

For the coins, I just thought it was neat seeing all these old coins in circulation and seeing the different designs and metal compositions. There's no way I could/can afford the really expensive coins, so I decided to just collect the ones in circulation (Lincoln Cents, Jefferson Nickels, Roosevelt Dimes, Washington Quarters and Kennedy Halves). Some of these sets will still cost a lot, but it's neat to look through my book of dimes and see that I have every single Roosevelt Dime, including proofs, that they've ever made a version of. For the coins from the year 1880, it's neat seeing how they are 100 years older than I am, and all of the coins are completely different than they are today. Back then, silver was used in coins as was gold. It's neat holding onto a 100+ year old chunk of gold and have it look as fresh today as it did when it was first made. In addition, many coins that year were made in mints that are no longer functional today (Carson City, Nevada; New Orleans, Louisiana).

 

The Yankees yearbooks came along because they had them at a grocery store when I was about 12 and thought they were neat so I picked one up each year. Since getting each year since they were made is next to impossible, I decided to just start with the ones in the year of my birth (1980) and move on up. As a Yankees fan, it's a fun thing to collect each year and see how the team has changed.

 

I've collected Baseball Cards since I was a young lad. It was always fun going into a store, spending 50 cents and hoping you'd get a good card. I always liked the Topps cards and tried to get a set completed each year. Then in the early 1990's the companies got greedy and started jacking up the costs of each pack. They also made these 'uber-rare-super-special' cards that were next to impossible to find, but caused the packs to dissapear into the hands of the wealthy. I wasn't going to let the card makers rape me like they did everyone else, so I stopped collecting. I just decided to buy the factory sets each year and that's it. So I now have a complete set of Topps Baseball cards starting in the year 1980 and moving up. I'm in the process of putting them all into albums so I can look at them as I want, but 25 years worth of cards is a LOT of baseball cards.

 

One minor collection I have that is nowhere near completion and probably never will be since I don't plan on ever adding to it are Spiderman comic books. I collected those because I liked Spiderman, but it soon got too expensive to keep up each month with the five different comic books you'd have to buy.

 

What makes you keep adding to your collection?: For the elements, I keep adding if there's a form of an element that is just interesting to me, or if there's a way of storing the element that keeps it fresh looking and 'new'. I'll add to a sample if I think the sample I have isn't big enough or in a good enough condition. Eventually, all the air/moisture sensitive samples will be sealed in a glass vial like my halogens are to prevent them from oxidizing away.

 

For the Coins, I add to my collection if a new version of an existing coin comes out. That's pretty easy to do because all I have to do is buy the mint sets and proof sets put out by the US Mint every year. For other coins, it's all a matter of how much money I can afford to spend. (Which lately has been zero. )

 

With the baseball cards and yearbooks, I continue to add because I see no reason to stop. It's only one purchase each year so it's something I can easily afford to do.