One of our library regulars collects all sorts of odds and ends, and he uses our library to print info or checklists, look up knick-knacks online, and shoot the breeze. On a recent visit, he was trying to remember an updated aphorism. The original, we concluded, was something like "Once is strange, twice is a coincidence, three times is a conspiracy." His personal updated version was, "One is a curio, two is a coincidence, three is a collection."
The library has a lot of books for collectors, especially coins, bottles, dolls, and stamps. General antique collector catalogs are also housed here and there around the district. And of course, nowadays, we are a contact point for the web out here in the middle of nowhere with people who have no access to fast internet.
I have a few items which may qualify as curios, and I have definitely collected a lot beyond the Magic: The Gathering cards I occasionally write about. I have an assortment of miniature plastic baseball caps. I have some coins. I have boxes of baseball cards. Heck, I probably still have some neat rocks I picked up along the shores of Lake Superior when I was a kid.
What do you collect? Is it because you hope it might increase in value, or because it's fun, or because of some deeper sentimentality?
