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.
I think I must collect hobbies: I keep Koi, play drums, I have a small road bike collection with the requisite vintage no’s parts, there’s my woodworking shop in the garage, golf, I have a small collection of mid-mod abstract animal sculptures, I have a 68 mustang fastback, I like mid-mod danish furniture.
I suffer from OCD (obsessive collecting disorder). I collect knives, used to be any knife but I managed to scale it back to just folders. I also collect hats, books, flashlights, watches and headphones. Financial and space restrictions are my major limiters.
Al I can't believe I overlooked your link when I posted earlier those radio's look amazing! Especially the floorstanding one's what a fantastic collection thanks for sharing the pics.
It's not much of a collection but I have a few old wood cabinet radios.One is a floor model Philco with a turntable that pulls out from the front.My favorite is a Telefunken Allegro AmFm with a phono stage.
Having moved house, my wife says I collect stuff and junk. I just don’t throw out what I should. Despite cleaning the new house weekly, it seems, as per GK, dust. Where does it all come from?
I also had a bunch of other IBM stuff but in my move to a smaller house it had to go. The Computer Museum of America bought it all.
I also had a fair collection of JBL speakers, including the L300. Managed to sell it all to one person except for 3 sets. Dorian S12 purchased new by me from Allied Electronics on south Western Ave. in Chicago in the late 60s. L222 Disco purchased new 1974. And L65 Jubal bought used in the early 2000s.
Garden scale steam engines and rolling stock. Battery and digital remote for power and control. Accucraft, Bachmann, HLW and a few others. Circa 1880 to 1910.
I don’t collect stuff because I’m into collecting. I end up with collections of stuff because sometimes an individual item will "speak to me," even though I have a similar item already. If that item happens to be one more guitar or fiddle...or one more performance of a Beethoven piano sonata...so be it.
@flatblackround , @noromance , @kacomess , thanks for your nice comments.
@kacomess , I believe you are referring to the SPARK Museum. I recall having read about it, but I’m on the opposite coast so a visit most likely isn’t in the cards.
Regarding bakelite, the five plastic radios appearing in one of my photos are sometimes loosely referred to as bakelite, but more precisely they are made of a somewhat different plastic known as Catalin. Unlike the much more common true bakelite, Catalin often has a semi-translucent and/or marbled character, although less so in modern times as Catalin tends to darken or even change color with age. (Although with enough sanding, polishing, expertise, and patience its original appearance can be restored). That character combined with the deco styling many such radios had, together with their rarity, makes them particularly appealing to collectors and correspondingly valuable.
Thanks again for your comments. Best regards, -- Al
Wine I am in the wine business not an enormous cellar maybe 300 or so bottles mostly Burgundy, Tuscany, Peidmont, and Champagne. Also brandy I have 13 different bottles working mostly Cognac and Armagnac with one CA brandy and one Marc de Bourgogne.
My girlfriend and I collect art. We have drawings, paintings, prints, posters and original comic art throughout our apartment, mostly by younger, underground artists. It's wonderful having a home full of work that appeals to our shared sense of humor. We also have a lot of zines, though we haven't picked up so many of those in the last year as we've missed the last couple fairs.
I used to collect books, but that's fallen off since I started selling them for a living.
Al, That's an amazing radio collection. I've always lusted after a bakelite vintage radio. Are you familiar with The Museum of Radio and Electricity in Bellingham, Washington? It's got an amazing collection, supposedly the largest in private hands (outside Smithsonian's).
Those of you who collect watches might enjoy reading “A Grand Complication”, by Stacy Perman. An amazing recounting of the quest to build the finest watch.
The variety is fascinating. I feel men are more likely to be obsessional about collecting, perhaps that's why a high percentage of audiophiles are men. But it seems a percentage of men are collectors and of a number of different things. No whisky buffs yet, plenty of time
Cameras. Not really on purpose, but I have too many of them. I have also collected tens of thousands of images that I've taken with them. I have enough watches to wear a different one every day of the month, but they are mostly Seikos, Citizens, and the like, nothing extravagant.
I also have a collection of some watches, having been a watchmaker for years, a couple of the most contemporary examples being from later 2000s. Also have antiques collected many years ago, since growing up in the antique business.
I have a small,very selective,automatic wrist watch collection & am active in an online community...Mostly Professional grade Divers watches,NO Rolex or Omega,I’m much more selective than a brand I can see a dozen of in any financial district on the planet.I do have 1 watch that has served on the International Space Station & has walked in space!
I collect antique radios, and to a lesser extent vintage tube hifi equipment.
The appeal of antique radios to me derives from their unique combination of aesthetic, technical, and historical factors. Also, it’s interesting to note that the better radios of the 1930s, if properly restored, can far outperform just about any AM radio made today in terms of both station getting ability and sound quality. Partly because they had to, as stations in those days were fewer and farther between than is the case today, transmitters were much lower powered than they are today, and AM radio was the main source of entertainment in the home in those days.
The photos shown at the following link represent just a fraction of my collection:
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