Reflections on Collections

“I don’t play with them or wheel them around. I just like having them,” says Hot Wheels collector Anna K., “I don’t really look at them or consider them decoration either. I just have them, set them up, and leave them.” Anna, who now owns around 100 Hot Wheels, will spend $75 on a new miniature vehicle, favors Priuses to flashy sports cars, and carries her favorites around for good luck. And she’s not quite sure why she’s compelled to shuffle through Goodwill bins and antique sales in search of that red and yellow logo. But she’s not alone.

Collecting is a national fascination. Though most people aren’t aiming for world records or dropping $500,000 on the Princess the Bear Beanie Baby, around 40 percent of American households engage in some sort of collecting, one study suggests. Some of the more popular collector’s items include postcards, coins, and stamps, but nearly anything can be stockpiled for pleasure, from fragrances and ornaments to Japanese Lolita dresses and antique dental equipment. One collector even amasses words she does and doesn’t like in a list on her phone.

Within these collections, the bulk of items go unused, sitting on shelves or packed tightly behind glass. Anna doesn’t roll her Hot Wheels around a bright orange track, and Ray K. doesn’t let his kids play with his 1970s Star Wars action figures. Even Ana E., who collects My Little Ponies to recapture her childhood excitement for the brand, leaves her figurines on a display shelf. On the surface, these masses and medleys represent an environmentalist’s nightmare and a consumerist’s trademark: purposeless purchases.

And though collecting can certainly be about buying — and buying as much as possible — it is anything but purposeless. When a collector enters a souvenir shop or a record store, they know exactly what they want and why they want it, and who that product and that collection will make them. When tiny-things collector Scarlett C. buys a minuscule cheese grater at a flea market, she doesn’t do so to possess just another object but rather to preserve a memory and grow her arsenal of trinkets. Collecting is not buying for the sake of buying, but buying for more complex motives. According to Psychology Today, people collect for all sorts of reasons, from hunting for rare items to fulfilling intellectual curiosity to building a legacy.

In fact, collections are a testament to a collector’s dedication. Explaining why he accumulates hats and Pokémon figurines — of which he has 40 and 300, respectively — Angel A. notes, “I can show people my collection and say, ‘When I say Pokémon has been my life, it literally has been.’” Collectors spend hundreds of dollars on their items, monitor bidding sites for hours, and polish and restore antiques otherwise destined for the dump.

Consumerism is about mass appeal and planned obsolescence that compels consumers to throw away the old in favor of the new. It thrives on homogeny and a lack of attachment, driving people almost compulsively to buy trendy tops or unnecessary knick-knacks. Collecting, on the other hand is a commitment to one brand or item for years on end, despite shifting trends. It is a desire to preserve, even if that means only looking and not touching.

And more than just dedication, what collectors amass specifically showcases their personalities. Anna K. is the kind of woman who gives “items a backstory of needing a home,” saving the duller Hot Wheels from trashcans and unenthusiastic toddlers. Ray’s nostalgia is rooted in Star Wars, a part of his childhood he can relive on the rare occasion he removes Obi-Wan Kenobi from the box. Dani M. started her magnet collection after leaving home as a reminder of her family’s own refrigerator menagerie. Collections immediately evoke a story or a sentiment, supporting and exemplifying the quirky sides of a collector’s personality.

Of course, collecting, just like consumerism and “retail therapy,” fills “the dark empty void in my soul” — as figurine and comic book collector Troy B. notes, not entirely joking. But where consumerism is an emotionless cycle of buying and discarding, collecting is a manifestation of dedication and personality. Collectors are storytellers, their objects a physical manifestation of memories: the things they love, the places they’ve been, and the dedicated, quirky people they hope to be.