The other evening I had just finished reading a story to my youngest, #3. It was a freebie book from Chic-fil-A called Library Mouse. We finished the book and on the back cover it showed 5 different books, of which we only owned one. Without hesitation, he said, “Dad, we need to go buy those other ones so that we can have all of them.” I chuckled because that’s exactly the same thought I was thinking. It wasn’t even that it was a great story, but there’s this natural instinct of mine to collect…everything. I get it honest, however, because my dad is exactly the same way. I still remember being in grade school and bringing home a funny looking sticker card a friend had given me. It was Blasted Billy from Garbage Pail Kids. That very evening, we drove to K-Mart and my dad bought every single package of them, and continued to do so for years. Why? To get the whole set (or in this case, sets), of course! As an aside, he still to this day has his main collection of GPKs – a full set of every single card from all series, including every single known variation (i.e. misprints)…
…except ONE.
So, naturally I continued the tradition by starting with Hot Wheels, then action figures (I was keeping action figures in the package by middle school…), before moving on to baseball cards (didn’t everyone have some of those in the 80s??), comics (of course), gaming cards (Magic: The Gathering, etc.), book series, and most recently, board games. Incidentally, if you don’t know, there are THOUSANDS of board games out there that are so much better than the ones you grew up with from Hasbro and Milton Bradley. Check out BoardGameGeek when you get some time…
At any rate, it’s obvious now that #3 has the same genes (along with his older sister), because this is not the first time he’s wanted “all of them” when reading a book that is one in a series, or even when playing with a figure/jet/truck/etc. One is always considered to be incomplete, and you must have “all” in order to be appeased.
It’s not just the ownership either. It has to be in good condition, and it has to be taken care of. #2 constantly is begging me to let him read my comics, and it’s hard for him to understand that’s simply not an option. He looks at them like his mom (and probably like most of you): they have pictures and words and are meant to be read. He’s right, of course, but that would lessen their value, so…
Are there any other collector mentalities out there? Feel free to talk about your collections in the comments. I’m curious to see just how in the minority I am!
