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The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors

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pleppy
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
Just that picture gives me horrid flashbacks:

When I was elementary school age, I had this bestie friend, and every once in a while, when we were at her house, her mom would drop us over at her grandmother's house for safe keeping.

Said grandmother was a doll collector. Now, I don't mean she had a bunch of dolls in boxes and then lined the shelves.

I mean there were dolls everywhere. ABSOLUTELY everywhere. Every room of the house. There were aisles where you could walk, but the rest was taken up by dolls. The one that sticks in my head the most -- that is, in my nightmares -- is the life-size wax doll she had of friend's mother (it was, well, elementary school child sized) that had, in its mouth, ALL OF HER REAL BABY TEETH.

Sleep on that, m*therf**kers.
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Everything MidnightBikeRide does is a balloon.
07/10/09

@pleppy: Whoa. The tooth fairy is scary enough. I´m horrified.
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BabyJane
07/10/09

@pleppy: I'm creeped out just thinking of that! I can't imagine having actually seen it.
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communistspy is spying
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I own one of these in a box:

But, I've put it on display on my desk at pretty much every office I've worked at. So, the box is not in very good shape. Oh, it's a good one though. Stocked on the shelves in 2001 and a totally awesome display of bad creative decisions and co branded opportunities. I've worked with Mattel as a vendor before and I can say that after, I won't ever again for this very reason (though I got the doll after the project).
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Breamworthy
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I understand the idea of collecting something because you love that thing, but so much of big-C-Collecting seems to be about arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with the love of anything. If you're outside the community and are just someone who happens to love that thing (say dolls), you would have no way of knowing what collectors think is right and what isn't. How do people get drawn into this?
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ladyjaye75
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I'd make a bad collector because, while I do like vintage toys, I'm like you Dodai in that I like them loose with traces of their past lives. I also prefer using them as decoration, and it just seems more natural to have them loose than stand stoically, confined in a box (besides, you can't make an impromptu play session with boxed toys). To me, it's a similar debate as with collecting vintage videogames in their original shrinkwrap. Having the full packaging is great but the point of a game (and of a toy) is to play with them, not to just stare at them. Same goes for comic books -- I prefer reprints to a vintage copy that you will never read because one crease and the book loses its value.
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hannapdx
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I've a good friend who collects Hawaiian shirts and Tiki stuff to a crazy degree. Whenever I make fun of him, he tells me, "It's a collector's thing, non-collectors don't understand"
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sassy
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I have a few Kozik limited release toys, but the first thing I did when I got then was take them out of the package and giggle. Right now Lenin-dunny is hanging out with my TV and Team Rocket.
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AFever
07/10/09

@sassy: I collect Labbits (the non-Smorkin' ones) but they defffffinitely have to be taken out of the package, else how can one play with all of the accessories! My labbit needs to be able to change from eating a popsicle to a banana at a moment's notice, god dammit.
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sassy
07/10/09

@AFever: I love how so many of them come with food or are food-themed! I've got a whole bunch of the tiny smoking food toys.
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SharonTaint
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
Oh man, I so get these people. These people are my people. I used to do packaging design for cosmetics and in my world, the outside is just as important as the inside.

Most of my makeup at home is still in the original packaging (especially if its something I designed but also if it's just really pretty).

I am a weird weirdo, I know.
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LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues
07/10/09

@SharonTaint: I will admit that I occasionally (ok most of the time) will buy cosmetics solely based on the outer packaging. My name is LindsayC and I am a sucker.
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SharonTaint
07/10/09

@LindsayC: dissertations are overrated.: I do not think you're a sucker! I am encouraged!
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Yahtzii
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
Everything I know about collecting, I learned from The Little Mermaid. So it doesn't matter if your whosits and whatsits galore are in a sunken chest, or if your thing-a-ma-bobs are packed 20 deep into an old coral reef. The true pleasure of collecting comes in examining, touching, and swimming gracefully among your objects. And you better keep it a secret, cause you never know who will want to get their greedy mitts all over your most prized item. Or explode it to pieces with their Triton.
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Edited by Yahtzii at 07/10/09 3:22 PM Yahtzii was starred Yahtzii was unstarred

notthemarimba
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I think comparing Barbie collectors who only want Barbies in undamaged boxes to men who only want to have sex with virgins is hyperbolic and makes next to no sense.
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Edited by notthemarimba at 07/10/09 3:17 PM notthemarimba was starred notthemarimba was unstarred

Breamworthy
07/10/09

@notthemarimba: You're right, it's more like comparing them with men who want to look at virgins but not screw them and just make sure they stay virgins forever.
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notthemarimba
07/10/09

@Breamworthy: Even then, where on earth did the vagina comparison come from?
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HuckleberryFriend
07/10/09

@notthemarimba: I think Dodai's making the point that the barbie box fetish shares a lot of the same language and obsessions with the "pure virgin" fetish.
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formergr
07/10/09

@notthemarimba: Well, beyond what others have said, "box" is also slang for vagina...
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geekgirlliz
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
It's like keeping your comics in plastic, or your baseball cards. There are people who do it for the love of collecting things, the value, prestige and then there are those who love the barbies, want to take them out, see and enjoy them. Two, totally different categories.

And vagina=box?
There's something to be said for a mind firmly in the gutter but where did that come from?
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anibundel
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
The one doll I have is the RuPaul doll, and I got it because the box said "99% plastic, 1% woman." Naturally it has never come out of the box.

But I'm also 30 and not about to play with dolls.
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hovy
07/10/09

@anibundel: RuDoll is not a doll, she's a queen. Let her out. Free her to work the runway.
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Ultraprison!
07/10/09

@anibundel: I guess you haven't seen the "Cher doll" episode of Will and Grace... I'd take a Cher doll out to lunch. Maybe Ru Paul. We could have a tea party?
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AmericanSplendor
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
I have a Smith-Corona with big suction cups on the bottom of it from when my grandpa was in the navy (keeps it in place when the boat rocks). The man who fixes it for me says I could get good money if I took the cups off and sold it. I told him thanks, but no thanks. It reminds me of my grandpa and I love it, so I'm keeping it the way it is.

I am obviously not much like these barbie people.
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truckasaurus
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
Could there be anything worse than being the young child of a compulsive toy collector like these folks? All those boxes and they're all untouchable, like Christmas morning in hell.

It's torture on the same level as that Twilight Zone where a bookish Burgess Meredith lives through the apocalypse - only to break his glasses, leaving him unable to read. Horrors!
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Uncommon Whore
07/10/09

@truckasaurus is jackie jormp-jomp: I had a friend when I was little with somewhat creepy parents who had, among other things, a collection of Strawberry Shortcake dolls, all housed in Mason jars with labels.
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Wit is periodically disensouled
07/10/09

@Uncommon Whore: That sounds utterly fantastic, somehow, but I'm twisted.
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truckasaurus
07/10/09

@Uncommon Whore: That is some Silence of the Lambs shit right there. But I'm sure there was a reason.

...A reason we may never understand, of course.
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Uncommon Whore
07/10/09

@truckasaurus is jackie jormp-jomp: Probably the same reason that they had an armoire full of sex toys right next to the armoire full of Strawberry Shortcake dolls? Having been chased around the room with a giant dildo when I was 9 by my friend, I say it was definitely creepy.
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Everything MidnightBikeRide does is a balloon.
07/10/09

@truckasaurus is jackie jormp-jomp: My dad collects comic books, and I got yelled at many times for turning the pages wrong or OH MY GOD BENDING THE COVERS BACK. I got to read the worthless stack of Monkees comics however I liked, of course.
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NerD: Blattella
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
As a collector, I have mixed feelings about other collectors who only collect boxed items.

On the one hand, the box is important. Not only does it preserve the object, it shows it in context. I get that.

I however, take joy in actually being able to interact with what I collect. I know this ruins it's value to other collectors. I don't care all that much, however, because to me I am willing to pay the value for the object, and lose the resale value.

If it is something I think I will want to sell in the future, I will buy two, and store the second.

Dodai, I'm pretty sure, though, if this was a conversation about how you treat your handbags, you'd probably have something to say about that. It would probably strike the outsider as weird. Right ;).
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Edited by NerD: Blattella at 07/10/09 3:01 PM NerD: Blattella was starred NerD: Blattella was unstarred

Dodai
07/10/09

@NerD!!! - R.O.A.C.H.: Nah, I throw my bags on the floor, and in any case, even though I have a lot of them, 95% of them were fairly cheap, like $30 and under.
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NerD: Blattella
07/10/09

@Dodai: LOL, you just described my gundam collection.
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Dodai
07/10/09

@NerD!!! - R.O.A.C.H.: Maybe, but I use my purses to carry my shit around all day in a city where there's no need for a car.
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token_illiterate_commenter
07/10/09

In reply to The Bizarre Language & Psychology Of Collectors
The same kind of debate is going on in car collector circles right now. Some favor restoring cars to be better than when they were new and others prefer a "patina" that shows that the car has been around the block a few times. I like my old stuff to look like old stuff. It adds a depth and a back story.
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AmericanSplendor
07/10/09

@token_starless_commenter:

Exactly! If it's brand new, it has no history!
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