Re: [tips] Collecting
On 31 October 2010 Mike Williams gave us My 2 cents on collecting […] Thanks, Mike, for all that interesting insider info on collecting (as against hoarding). (More like $2 worth!) I hesitate to mention horses again, but you could say this was straight from the horse's mouth. :-) Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org -- [tips] Collecting Mike Wiliams Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:48:30 -0700 My 2 cents on collecting. I have a rather long comment because I have been a collector ever since I started a coin collection when I was 10. I now have a large collection of Japanese woodblock prints, original news photographs, original props and costumes from Star Trek and books and other ephemera related to the works of JRR Tolkien. I even maintain a website devoted to collecting, Tolkiencollector.com. I have interacted with numerous collectors and dealers through the years so I think I have a unique perspective as a semi-professional dealer and collector. First, there actually is a difference between a hoarder and a collector. Hoarders generally keep everything in their lives of any value because they want control over their domestic environment. There are no more hoarders who are collectors than there are collectors among the general population. A collector is usually motivated by desire to posses objects that represent an emotional connection between the object and the original experiences of the object or associated experiences. The dealers and auction houses refer to this as recognizable emotional value. Objects are associated with positive experiences and the object are desired. This is not hoarding. However, collecting can become a psychological problem when the collector becomes obsessed with being a completist. This is a collector who wants to have an example of everything possible and becomes far too involved in obtaining them. This kind of obsession is still not hoarding. Obsession is indicated when people run out of money during acquisition and when collectors can't sell their items. Ebay has actually reduced obsession by increasing supply. If I can't buy something this month, I know that it will eventually be available again on Ebay. Great collections are built by buying and selling. If a collector can't sell something, then obsession is likely. When it comes to gender, I have known many women collectors, and many women who are obsessive about collecting. However, my best guess is that the ratio of men to women is about 60:40. There are many women collectors ( watch them at the auction real life shows) but many more men. The content of their collections are different but there are many areas that overlap. For example, probably the most well-known Tolkien collectors are a husband/wife team, Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond. They have a collection that is amazing because they started early. Christina Scull edits a very detailed newsletter on Tolkien collecting and is presumably as involved in collecting as her husband. The point is that many collecting domains are shared by men and women. In my experience, men usually have larger collections than women. I associate this with a general interest that men have in objects and they also collect manipulatable objects, such as cars, motorcycles, calculating machines and cameras. Women tend to collect fine china, glassware, jewelry and dolls. These differences mirror the gender differences in the population. That being said, there are still a fair number of jewelry and glass collectors who are men. Although many of the Star Trek collectors are women, women tend to collect costumes and men tend to collect props. I have a theory that collectors are often interested in history. If you think of the great collections in museums, most take an historical perspective. Many collections have an historical time frame to them, especially coins and stamps. My collection of news photographs clearly stems from an interest in history. Finally, the person who mentioned that he has 15 guitars and she has 50 pairs of shoes, neither person is a collector. I have seven guitars but I don't collect them. Anyone who seriously plays guitar realizes that you need at least 5 to have a chance at mastering the instrument. Women need more shoes than men for the same reason that a guitar player needs more than one guitar. There is more fashion variability among women. Now, if she was collecting a pair of shoes from women leaders of the world, that would be a collection! Here is a link to part of my Star Trek collection. I generally focused on medical items. My key item is the blue lab coat of Dr. Beverly Crusher. The History channel did a documentary of the Christie's Star Trek auction. It was so popular that I had to buy tickets to the preview. While waiting in line, a crew from one of the New York TV
Re:[tips] Collecting: [Was: A change from horses]
This is a great study waiting to happen ! Someone needs to encourage a student to do it. Annette tay...@sandiego.edu (nancy, you can use this email, I have a hard time with lots of replies from my cellphone) Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone William Scott wrote: I have two pairs of shoes and 13 guitars. My wife has ~50 pairs of shoes and no guitars. Both of us see one of these collections as reasonable and the other as a waste of time and money. My wife points out that I only have two hands and therefore can handle only one guitar at a time. I point out that she has two feet (only) and can wear at most two different shoes which is why I quite reasonably have two different pairs myself. Bill Scott Allen Esterson allenester...@compuserve.com 10/30/10 1:35 AM Stephen Black writes on the question of male/female collecting: But if Allen is right, and men are more likely to collect, perhaps the cause is economic rather than genetic. Collecting is an expensive habit to indulge, and men have more disposable income available to spend on it. There may be something in that, though what I have read about women and shoes tells against it. :-) http://thethoughtfuldresser.blogspot.com/search/label/Shoes (Not that that generalisation applies in any way to female TIPSTERS. :-) ) I see Stephen has not challenged my assertion that nerds are predominantly male, and in my view there is a strong correlation between nerdishness and collectivitis. My impression is that we hear more about women hoarding (more sexism?) and so, if there is a sex difference, women might be more frequent hoarders than men. But I can't find data on that either. Based on the tiny sample of my friends and acquaintances, I can confidently assert that more men than women find it difficult to get rid of things they have acquired over the years. This applies in extreme form to two men friends, and indeed to my late father. On the other hand, I don't know any women friends or acquaintances about whom this is true. QED. :-) Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org -- From:sbl...@ubishops.ca Subject:Collecting: [Was: A change from horses] Date:Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:18:07 -0400 Allen's interesting conjecture below seems not to have attracted any takers. Perhaps it was overlooked due to its header, or perhaps all he really wanted to do was discuss anything but horse archetypes. So I'm trying it out with a more descriptive header. On 26 Oct 2010 at 4:12, Allen Esterson wrote: snip http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/8082354/To-me-books-are-literally-indispensable.html My wife says the collecting gene affects men only, and I think she may be right. [Telly article, not Allen speaking here] That's certainly been my impression -- that collectors of all manner of items are disproportionately men. more snip [that's Allen] It seems to me that this might not be necessarily true. But poking around the Internet didn't turn anything up one way or the other. So I don't know whether collectors tend to be men. What I think is more likely is that the object of desire in collecting differs for men and women. Perhaps Allen's impression results from his thinking only of male-type examples (the availability heuristic?) . Men tend to collect stuff like cars, books, paintings, stamps, beer mugs, caganers, and comic books. Women, I would think, would be more interested in shoes, figurines, and tea pots (or is this just my sexist side talking?). But if Allen is right, and men are more likely to collect, perhaps the cause is economic rather than genetic. Collecting is an expensive habit to indulge, and men have more disposable income available to spend on it. A related activity is hoarding. Hoarding and collecting are not the same but they are related. Criteria for distinguishing them are given in http://tinyurl.com/23ebxw, and see also the Frost and Steketee interview on Amazon.com (below), but to some extent the criteria apply to both (e.g. a disfunctionally cluttered living space). At the border between the two, it may be a value judgement (Your acquisition is worthless junk and therefore hoarding; mine is valuable, and therefore a collection). My impression is that we hear more about women hoarding (more sexism?) and so, if there is a sex difference, women might be more frequent hoarders than men. But I can't find data on that either. I see that a popular book on the topic has been published by two who appear to be leading researchers in the area. ( haven't read it). It's: Frost, R., and Steketee, G. (2010). Stuff: Compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Interview with them on the Amazon book site at http://tinyurl.com/26tfm7k (scroll down). Disclaimer: I myself neither collect nor hoard. Oh, I do admit to a modest collection of belly button lint. Want
Re: Re:[tips] Collecting: [Was: A change from horses]
Depending on the culture,my thinking is that just as we utilize the term comfort foods as underlying obesity,men's collectibles could come under the umbrella of comfort spending.Men probably define themselves by the amount of stuff they accumulate.My idea of comfort spending parallels that of conspicuous consumption wiyhin the U.S economic paradigm.From a classical Freudian sychoanalytic standpoin,it would appear that women should me more inclined to be in collectibles based on the receptive mode of the female anatomy,but I stand corrected.Btw,I am curious who has more books and other items in their academic offices. Men profs or women profs? Michael omnicentric Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5n=Tl=tipso=6115 or send a blank email to leave-6115-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
