A Collectors Item

By Emily Fisher
Collections allow people to relive their childhood, connect themselves to a period in history or
time they feel strongly about, to ease insecurity and anxiety about losing a part of themselves,
and to keep the past present. This quote, stated by Catherine Carey, a professor at Western
Kentucky University, in her article Modeling Collecting Behavior: The Role of Set
Completion, provides many explanations to answer the question, Why do people collect?
Collecting has been around for many generations, has been passed down through family lines,
and is a hobby among many, including Tom Hanks, who is a fond collector of typewriters,
Madonna, who enjoys buying paintings every chance she gets, and Demi Moore, who collects
antique dolls and is said to have an entire house set aside just for the dolls. No matter what is
collected, whether its a typewriter like Hanks, paintings like Madonna, or dolls like Moore,
there are a vast majority of items that many people collect, making it part of their lives.
A Whole New World
Sydney Walsh, a freshman at Blackburn College, passionately collects a variety of snow globes
and says that she collects them because snow globes are a world that she can escape to. Around
age ten, her grandma gave her her first snow globe for Christmasa hand carved wooden tree.
After receiving this, she was mesmerized by its beauty and uniqueness and began looking for
them everywhere she went. With more than forty snow globes at home with themes of
Halloween, Easter, Christmas, seasons, vacations, Fourth of July, and many more, Sydney
doesnt plan to stop collecting. Once you tip the globe upside down to get the snow floating, its
like a whole new world. They make you forget about all the stressful things that are going on in
your life and make you wonder what the world is like in globe-world, remarks Sydney.
I Love Lucy and She Loves Me
Premiering on television in 1951, I Love Lucy is a sitcom that many Americans adore. Alta
Hackett, a seventy-year-old admirer of the show since she was a little girl, started her collection
in 1992. As a child, I always loved watching the show and at times, I still watch reruns, says
Alta. When her youngest granddaughter, Tori, was two or three years old, Alta started buying the
show on video and before long, had accumulated all of the episodes. When the show was
introduced onto DVD, she started over and bought all of the episodes on DVD as well. Now,
after twenty-one years of collecting, she has an entire room set aside in her house just for I Love
Lucy. Along with the DVDs, fifteen years of calendars line the walls, along with over ten dolls,
multiple books, hundreds of pictures/postcards, magnets, puzzles, games, pillows, throws, tshirts, school supplies, blankets, and even light-switch covers. I never actually thought about
getting rid of them. Theyre part of my life as well as my granddaughters. One day I might
consider selling them, but until then, Ill keep finding more collectables to put in the Lucy
room. If she doesnt sell them in the future, then the collection will be passed on down to her
granddaughter. One day, Ill want her to possibly have the collection. Its been in my life for
over twenty years and one day it will give her something to look back on and remember me by.
Plus, with the DVDs, she can show her children and grandchildren so they know what television
used to be like-when it was actually good. After talking with Tori, Altas granddaughter, she
says that she would be glad to take them in one day. Even though she wont add to the collection,
she would still like to keep them to remind her of her grandma.

Photo Credit: Alta HackettFigurines that line the shelf on one wall

Photo Credit: Alta HackettHalf of the refrigerator filled with magnets (the other side is full of magnets as
well)

Halloweenie Beanies, Basket Beanies, Valenteenies.What kind of Beanies?

For Debra Wilson, a freshman at Blackburn College, Beanie Babies have been a passion for
many years. Ranging from penguins, the classic bears, cats, dogs, birds, and insects, her
collection is over eighty-five and continues to grow each year. When Debra was about threeyears-old, her grandmother gave her her first two Beanies: Ally the Alligator and the cow, two
rare Beanie Babies. After receiving them, it became something that Debra and her grandmother
collected together. After her grandmother passed away, her family divided up the collection of
250 amongst each grandchild. Having some of her grandmothers cherished collection, Debra
feels connected to the past and the memories that it holds, especially when they were together
collecting. In Catherine Careys article Modeling Collecting Behavior: The Role of Set
Completion, she also explains, Collecting may provide psychological security by filling a part
of the self one feels is missing or void of meaning, which is exactly why Debra collects. Having
part of her grandmothers collection allows her to hold onto something that she doesnt want to
let go: the memory of her grandmother. By keeping the collection (no matter how much room it
takes up), her grandmother will always have a special place in her heart.
If the Shoe Fits
Shoes are an essential part of everyones life. But would you have ever thought about collecting
them? Maggie Anderson, a freshman at Blackburn College, spends her free time collecting
miniature shoes, some of which would not fit on a baby. Starting with her grandmothers father,
the miniature shoes have been a family heirloom for many years. When her great-grandfather
passed away, her grandmother inherited the entire collection, as a reminder of her father. Over
the years, she added more shoes to it, gaining a collection of more than fifty. Five years ago,
after Maggies grandmother passed away, Maggie and the other grandchildren in the family
gathered together and split up the collection so each could have a small piece of their
grandmothers memory. Every now and then, Maggie will find a new pair to add to the
collection, but doesnt want to add too many because she wants to keep it how her grandma had
it. I know it seems silly to keep shoes that dont even have a matching pair, but I feel closer to

my grandma and know that I have a piece of her with me always. Every time I pass the shoes it
makes me think of her. I know that the collection reminded her of her dad and in a way it
reminds me of her too. With over thirty-five individual shoes, Maggies unique collection is
part of her life and will always have a connection to her grandmother.

Photo Credit: Maggie Andersona look at a select few shoes of her collection

More than a Dispenser

With flavors ranging from strawberry, cherry, chocolate to vanilla, Pez dispensers have been
selling since 1927 and are still being produced today. Jordan Fisher, a freshman at Riverton High
School, does not like the idea of saving his money for anythingexpect to buy more Pez. When
he was eleven years old, he watched a Seinfeld episode where Kramer, one of the main
characters, went to a flea market and bought a Tweety Bird pez. As a fifth grader, Jordan thought
that was the best idea ever and started his hunt for different dispensers. Before long, the entire
family was hooked and it became a habit on vacation to stop at antique malls to see the different
Pez that each antique mall had. After a few months of collecting, his father, who helped him get
started, typed into Google Pez Conventions. What was found was the start of a new annual
tradition. Every year, Jordan and his Dad travel to different cities (St. Louis, Peoria, and
Cleveland) for a weekend Pez convention. About six to eight different conventions across the
country are held each year. The first day is called room-hopping, where collectors go to
different hotel rooms and see the different Pez that dealers have laid out for purchase/swapping.
There are also silent auctions for rare dispensers as well as a few games of BINGO with prizes of
Pez. The second day of the convention consists of collectors gathering in the hotel ballroom
where there are hundreds and hundreds of dealers set up at tables with their Pez for sale. Im
very passionate about my Pez, states Fisher, who swatted at my hand as I picked one up. Its a
cool item to try to find. They have been around for so long that there are so many to try to
collect. I even bought a book on the rarest pez dispensers in the world, which contains prices and
why each dispenser is worth so much to help me widen my collection. While looking online to
find Pez to buy with his birthday money, he came across the Democratic Donkey Pez dispenser,
which sold at an auction for $15,000. Finding that price, he decided to spend an extra hour on the
computer looking up expensive Pez dispensers, and came across ones of Kate Middleton and
Prince William after the Royal Wedding, which sold at an auction for $13,000. After high school
graduation, Jordan plans on taking his senior trip to the Pez Museum in Burlingame, California.
His collection consists of a total of 531 dispensers and a shoe box full of pez candy. One day,
when I have every single Pez dispenserthat I can affordIm going to feel so accomplished.
Im pretty sure it will be the greatest feeling in the world.

Photo Credit: Emily FisherA view of half of his collection on one side of his room.

Even the most unique collections have stories behind them to tell and reasons of why
they are being collected. Dr. Greg Meyer, the department chair of Philosophy and Religion at
Blackburn College, explains, The psychology of collecting has been studied for many years.
Psychological ideas about collecting have stressed the need to deal with existential anxiety by
filling the void, or sense of emptiness with collecting complete sets, etc. For Jordan Fisher
with his enormous amount of Pez dispensers, collecting seems like a hobby that never gets old
and wants to feel that satisfaction of completion of the set. But for Debra Wilson and Maggie
Anderson, both who inherited family heirlooms, collecting is a way to stay connected to the past
and to memories. Collectors like Alta Hackett, with her I Love Lucy collection, collect not only
childhood memories, but to also start those family heirlooms. With Sydney Walsh and her snow
globe collection, collecting is a way to escape to another world. Kim Herzinger, an awardwinning author and enthusiastic collector, agrees with Sydney by saying, Collecting, like most
passions, has the capacity to let (the collector) live in another world for awhile. If I could tell you
why passion allows us to inhabit another world, I would stop collecting.
Whether collecting stems from the psychological need to fulfill an empty space in your
life, the passion to collect, adventures to new worlds, or a way to hold onto something in the
past, every collector has their own reason for why they collect. Kurt Kuersteiner, columnist of
The Wrapper, a non-sports trading magazine, states in his article Collecting Collections, I
believe the main reason people collect something is a basic interest in the topic. Perhaps
Kuersteiner is right in the sense that there is no psychological explanation behind many
collections, like Tom Hanks typewriter, Demi Moores antique dolls, and Madonnas paintings.
For some it is just a general interest in the collected antiques. No matter what the explanation,
people around the world will continue to collect for many more years to come.