Collecting is a basic human instinct, and a practice whose roots are lost in history. People have devoted large amounts of resources as time and money making and maintaining collections.
Diadem. Gold. Greek, probably made in Alexandria, Egypt, 220 - 100 B.C. The piece probably belonged to a noble woman of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The clasp is shaped as a protective Herakles knot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When people think of collecting, they mostly think of expensive works of art or artifacts of antiquity. However, the truth is, for many people who amass collections, the value of their collection is not monetary, but emotionally valuable—and often not for sale. Collections offer people an emotional connection to certain moments or periods in their life they need to recall, to ease insecurity about losing a significant part of themselves like inosence for instance,or to relive the past’s vivid memories. Collecting follows a self-imposed set of rules. First of all, when we collect we bring together objects that belong to a set of some sort. They may be alike one way or another, or they may be brought together under a certain rubric, explicit or implicit, logical or not. There are collectors of paintings, and there are collectors of vintage automobiles. Some collect old coins, others collect baseball cards, still others collect seashells. People collect all conceivable objects: clocks, stamps, mugs, buttons, matchbooks, pressed leaves, cat whiskers, whatever. Everything is collectible. There is nothing that cannot be developed into a collection, and everyone collects something.We know for a fact, that the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty collected books – this is the reason behind the creation of the Library of Alexandria. The Medici family also collected artifacts – by various artists – in Florence, during the Renaissance.Collecting is no easy task- it requires knowledge, time and long-term effort. Sometimes, it also requires considerable funds- Robert Lesser, an ardent collector of Disney memorabilia for example, had to mortgage his house in order to acquire some expensive pieces for his collection. The collector delineates the taxonomy of his collection; it is a taxonomical exercise. So it follows that collecting sets its own goal and aspires to achieve it. When we start collecting, we have an idea how the collection will be completed. The goal may be proximate and easily reached; or it may be distant and the collection may never be completed. Sometimes, the goal may redefine itself as the collection grows.
Both collectors of whales and penguins on stamps would want this 1929 issue from the Falkland Islands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What about today? Do people continue collecting things? Jeebboo decided to make a survey on the issue and posed its Jeebboo members the following question: “Do you collect something?”
The Jeebboo members responded swiftly and participated in the poll. In total, 77 Jeebboo members sought to vote, with “No” being the most popular answer (31 votes), followed by “Yes, not seriously” (28 votes) and “Yes, religiously” (15 votes). As we can observe, the combined votes of answers #2 & #3 (43 votes) reveal that more than 50% of the people asked, stated that they have the tendency to collect things (either religiously or not seriously enough), which is amazing. This shows us that the habit of collecting is vivid and very appealing to the people. In other words, through the Jeebboo survey we can now confirm that collecting is very popular. Some of the reasons why, can be the following:
- It provides extended learning (to the point of becoming an expert)
- It battles stress and promotes relaxation
- Social interaction (with fellow collectors)
- Competitive challenge
- Personal satisfaction (when achieving) & pride
- Promotes nostalgia
- Recognition (by collectors & public)
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