Ex wives and parachutes.
Does anyone collect something else other than music.
I guess all of us must be collectors at heart, both music and kit, but are there other collecting obsessions out there? Many people collect watches, cars, mountain bikes and so on.
I have started a small collection of good Scotch malt whisky. Always loved whisky, but never studied the range and quality available. It may be a bit easier for me, living in the UK, although most bottles seem to be available in the US, at comparable prices too. The only drawback is that I don't get to drink any of the good stuff, as the collection is something I intend to leave to my kids, who all have tastes above their pay grade. Whisky has always been collectable, but prices do seem to be on the up. It is staggering what bottles, particularly of the best distilleries and closed ones, can go for. Prices over £100,000 for one bottle, aren't unusual, with interest from all over the world.
I like all whisky, but my current favourite is probably Caol Ila, a not too heavily peated Islay distillery. Glad to say my consumption has remained very modest. Unfortunately, when we emerge from Covid 19, I think there are going to be a lot more problem drinkers.
So what do you collect? If you are a whisky fan too, perhaps post your favourites and bottles worth collecting.
Thanks
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Currency - as in old US paper money, sometimes referred to as "horse blankets" due to their size. Mostly early silver certificates, just like everything the rarer the pricier. I have had a few of which there were under 200 known examples. Can't recall how I got started on this trip but it still blows me away whenever I hold one of them. Remember that these are engraved by hand and the detail is awesome. Here is an example, look close at the back: http://usrarecurrency.com/1886$5SilverCertificateSilverDollarBackFR-263PCGSCU64PPQSnB27422639.htm |
Vinyl&tubes I expect, in fact I'm sure you know the origin of India Pale Ale, I didn't until recently. Evidently in the 19th Century, the Indian army got through a lot of beer, like any army I suppose. The local brew only lasted 5 to 7 days, before it went off, so someone in the army contacted Burton on Trent in the UK, a centre of brewing, could they make a beer that would last at least a year, in the bottle, in a hot climate? The result was IPA, everyone was happy. What a range of collections, most of them would never occur to me as collectable, but I suppose anything is collectable. Toenail clippings anyone? |
Like dwhess I own and restore vintage restored jukeboxes from the 40’s-early 60’s, but it goes a bit further. Inside my insurance agency I built a 36 seat 50’-60’s diner to store my collection. It is not a working restaurant due to zoning/licensing but rather a room the community and clients can use for their special event. I’ve got over 150 antiques dating back to the early 1900’s including, restored pedal cars, restored Pepsi & Coke machines, and 3 working jukeboxes from 1946, 1952 and 1961. You can sit in one of 5 booths and play the 1952 Seeburg 100C jukebox on authentic Seeburg wallboxes. Lots of neon and stainless steel. |
Keuffel & Esser Leroy lettering equipment as well as Letterguide lettering equipment. For those not familiar, these were pantographic type templates that were used extensively in the engineering and architectural fields before the age of computer generated typography. I even have a template with vacuum tube layouts for making engineering drawings. |
Al ... I love the radio collection. The Art Deco era produced some mighty fine and good looking radios. When I was a young guy, I collected motorcycles. Triumphs, BSAs, Bultacos, Greeves, Sachs ... all for desert racing. Later, I collected bicycles ... road bikes. I was an avid cyclist for many years. Also, I collected houses and rented them out. Now that I have not only entered the final glide-path but seem to be running out of runway, I'm just collecting ailments. Frank |
Al, Yes, it is now called the "SPARK" Museum. Previously, it was known as "The Museum of Radio and Electricity". It has a non-commercial, low-power radio station called KMRE (the call letters are self-explanatory). You can visit them at kmre dot org and listen there. I visited it many, many times when I lived in Bellingham. Keith |
I assume LP’s don’t count! Until my divorce, I was an art collector, or more specifically, animation art. Production cells, pencil drawings etc. Or, other artist’s interpretations of animation art such as Warhol. After that, art in general (my field) and books. I don’t think of my books as a collection because I can’t imagine not having them. Just one collection really. After my big D, I became very involved in knives - specifically folding pocket knives. I’m a rank amateur compared to many, just like stereo gear. But, I like the ability to have my entire collection in one or two cases. While I started with production knives as most do, I soon started buying customs. I love the various materials, almost all are custom forged/fabricated. Timascus, Mokume, Mokuti, Damascus, San Mai Damascus... Carbon fiber has made huge strides because of the industry. A few years ago, all the CF was sourced as surplus from places like aviation. Some of the CF now looks nothing like the basketweave my motorcycle has or tripods are made out of. Is collecting photo gear a collection? Oh, one popular material is micarta (before plastic). While there’s some really talented people making it today, the hot stuff is vintage, of course. One popular one is Westinghouse micarta. It’s hard to believe, but the desk tops we were carving our initials and other things in back in the 60’s and 70’s, that were junk in the 90’s is now worth a fortune. Some of the micarta used as electrical insulation can be worth thousands. Resin and cloth. Go figure! |
hypoman5 posts05-11-2020 1:49pmKeuffel & Esser Leroy lettering equipment as well as Letterguide lettering equipment. For those not familiar, these were pantographic type templates that were used extensively in the engineering and architectural fields before the age of computer generated typography. I even have a template with vacuum tube layouts for making engineering drawings.Interesting, Hypoman. One of my earlier jobs was surveying. At one point I did all the drafting, nothing like you're talking about, but all the finished plats were India ink on mylar. Straight-edges and templates on risers, and all the lettering done free-hand. (Everything done first in pencil for layout, of course) The good old days. |
I'm a single malt Scotch and fine Bourbon collector, in a small way. Favorites are Lagavulin, Highland Park and Glenmorangie, and Knob Creek bourbon.I also picked up a fine bottle of Japanese single malt during one of my trips to Tokyo. I wish I had more like that. The trouble is that I rarely have Scotch loving visitors, and as I am a moderate drinker, the corks dry out over time and it's a devil of a job getting them out without them crumbling into the bottle. It's almost sacrilege, but I just use a tea strainer when I pour one out. |
I collect elac miracord 50 and 770H automatic German turntable to repair and resell. I have a pretty good collection of about a dozen Hickok tube testers ready to sell and a small but tasty collection of pre-amp tubes, a collection of novelty lighter that became illegal about ten years ago, and a collection of about 30 Oregon myrtlewood , African- style drums. Ive also got a large collection of myrtlewood game calls and wall switch plates.Keeps me out of the pubs. aloha |
I build tube/valve power amps to my own designs for a hobby. I have collected a variety of tubes/valves to use in these amps. I own a Yamamoto A010 which I use as a sort of reference to compare my amps against, sound wise. So I have a modest collection of tubes. Friends have impressive tube collections of over 100,000 tubes! NOS WE 300A!s and 300Bs, engraved base VT52s and 50s etc. My favourites are my quad of NOS Tungsol mono-plate! black glass 6A3s. They look and sound fabulous and are probably priceless too. |
@dpl1: I have a dear friend who has an astounding scotch collection. I learned this trick from him: Instead of completely inserting the cork, only insert about 3/4 of the way. Then to open, tap *downwards* first. This breaks the cork loose from the side of the bottle’s neck and will then come out cleanly. Works a treat! |
Yes to single malt (around 70 different ones) and like Caol Ila especially an 18 I tried recently but hadn't tasted in a long time. Also pre-resurrection Ardbegs (although I also enjoy Uigeadail when in the mood). Other collections include watches, wine, fountain pens, sports cars, antiques (particularly clocks) and some specific areas of gardening. |
mahgister I am amazed to be the only one that collect books it seems.... Anybody else?Interesting. I’ve never thought of books as a "collection." They are just ... books. You have to have books, right? It’s kinda like saying, "I collect flatware" because you have a drawer full of knives, forks and spoons. But I guess our books are a collection and, like our LPs and CDs, they reveal something about the collector. |
Interesting. I’ve never thought of books as a "collection."I have books about any subjects, not only the one that interest me most...Books are collectable beautiful objects but are way over my possibilities to buy them and collect them now....I sell my 5 thousand books collection....By the way I read 4 thousand of them... I use other medium now...When you are older the place is less available and the house smaller... Books are not only object tough for me ...Never has been only objects …. Books are living spirit no less real than my friends.... They speak... And living with them is like living in heaven....Many books has completely change my way of thinking and living.... I dont collect book in fact, no more than I collect people.... But in this thread we speak about collectable objects, books are objects also.... I pity those who has never pick a book that change their mind and heart many times in their life... How can we know about geniuses of the past or contemporary one without their books ? How can we marvel about nature if we dont live in the midst of it without books? How can we fall in love if we live lonely without books? I cannot live without the books I have read and even without those I will not have the time to read.... Music help me, books also.... :) By the way, we cannot read Goethe or Blake and throw the object after reading it....We cannot throw books never, only some impersonal manual course perhaps, and not some for sentimental reason…. But for example who will throw the number theory course of G. H. Hardy after reading it ? It is a work of art.... One day I go to buy the books of a ninety old electrical engineering professor, we speak a lot, he was surprized that I comment about much of his books mathematical, physics and epistemological one, and at the end the last book was Maxwell electromagnetism ( old dover edition) and i said to him:" this one cannot go you keep it ".... He almost weep and say :" you are right" …. Books are not books they are souls.... I remember the day I go frantically in a search in the aunt's house for the first book I had ever seen....I turn his pages for one day...But we were poor, and the day after my aunt hide the book from me for his own children... :) I desperately look for it and remember my search at 4 years old, this was my age for 2 reasons: I cannot read the words at this time, and it was the first time I go for every corner of this 2 floors housing and each 2 rooms under the attic near our own housing....I never see this book again in spite or because of my tantrums …. :) |
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I collect books, most of which are non-fiction. I love books on history, free-market economics, also classical liberal authors from the "Old Right," such as Garet Garrett, Frank Chodorov, Albert J. Nock, John T. Flynn, Hayek, Mises ... etc. If you want a good one, get Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom." It is an eye-opener ... and relevant to today. Frank |
