As a kid I only collected comic books until around 1962.
My collection was very important to me and I had emotional excitement at the release of a new comic--but--I made a date with 2 girls
on the same day and didn't have any money! (Not thinking it through, you see :)
So, I sold my comic book collection at two cents a piece. (I allowed the robbery by agreeing to it.)
The whole time I was out on those two dates I was miserable (in mourning for my comic books:).
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Fast forward . . .
I began collecting record albums (LP's).
They were mostly movie soundtracks, but I noticed I had a rather strenuous devotion.
This was about 1964.
By the time I was in my early 30's searching for and buying new albums had practically overtaken my life!
Sounds silly, huh? Nope--I was dead serious. I had to (HAD TO) buy an album every single day.
I finally admitted I had a "problem" when I bought 20 albums at one time and took them home and didn't play any of them!
I was able to break this habit (with a closet filled with albums I never played, but surely hoarded) when I sold my
first LP on Ebay.
Like magic--the collecting "bug" immediately vanished, as if by magic!
I had shlepped those records back and forth across the country, rented U-hauls to transport them, treated them like stacks of gold bars!
Then: NOTHING.
The year my collecting fever broke was circa 1999.
Fast forward . . .
About the age of 40 I began collecting books which Isaac Asimov wrote (not the science-fiction) on topics of science, astronomy, physics, history, literature, etc.
He wrote over 400 books, ya know!
In 2006 I gave all of them to my youngest son.
I had switched to collecting movie soundtracks on CD!
I virtually replaced my entire LP collection with CD's. Ohhhhh nooooo.
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I had a crazy Aunt Florence who became a hoarder in her later years with stacks and stacks and stacks of . . . well, you know it goes. It took over her life and her house.
My previous wife turned into an obsessive hoarder as well. By the time we divoreced, there was no room in our house to even walk in a straight line.
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In the last two weeks, I bought a folding knife on Ebay.
Now, the craziness is back again. I've acquired four more knives and I can't seem to escape the curiousity of watching "knife reviews" on YouTube.
I gave away two of them as gifts--but, still . . .
The question is this: HAVE I ALWAYS BEEN NUTS?
Is collecting, hoarding, obsessive devotion of any kind simply mental illness?
If not--what the hell is it?
DO YOU COLLECT THINGS?
How bad/good is it?
