A Few Things I Enjoy Collecting

I wanted to put together a post that showcases some of my interests today and reflects on the hobbies and activities that have shaped my interests over time.

When I was a kid, I collected stamps - and in saying that and wondering why or how that started, I now recall that it was because my Mom, who worked for various high tech companies in Canada- had access to all the incoming letters. Of course too, this was a time when people actually sent mail, and didn't use machines to print postage.

I'm not sure where those stamps are exactly, but it would be interesting to look back at the locations they were sent from. These are of course also from a time when postage used glue and were not stickers, so I soaked them in water to release them from the paper. I put them in a small kid toy bucket, and I think in part because I didn't have a way to display them, I lost interest!

As a kid I also collected pin backed buttons. I don't know where that one started, maybe in competition with my orthodontist who loved to put them above the patient chairs so you had something to look at while getting work done. I had a baseball cap I filled with all the best ones. Again not sure where these are but likely my Dads house.

You could say I also collected toy cars, both Hot Wheels and Micro Machines - but those were unintentional collections!

These days, I collect: -watches -old video games and consoles -coins -radios including walkmans etc -old computers and parts -cars

The watches, I am not sure count... as I feel like they are like a piece of clothing. And we don't say that we 'collect' clothing. But since I do have over 60, I suppose I may have to concede this being a collection. My Dad for sure got me started on all these as it was an interest for him as well. Some came from his jewellery store, some from what few Swatch watches were made available in Ottawa. The store I believe was on Sparks Street, and got in a small selection of Swatch watches now and again. Later on, the Hudson Bay company in the Rideau Center carried a fair selection of Swatch watches. We also would drop down to New York state area to check what the Swatch selection was like there too.

As for old video games, I've collected some to re-get what I had as a child, and to expand on what I had as a child. But also to get some of the consoles and games that I missed out on. This field can be an expensive one, where what you are paying feels disproportionate to what you are getting for the money. So I've stayed out of collecting the Sega Master System things, but I would collect there if I could! Especially the game cards, and wouldn't it be cool to have a CRT TV setup with a lightgun?! Speaking of lightguns and such, wouldn't it be cool if I had kept my Nintendo Powerglove, I don't even know what happened to that.

Genesis kind of offers for me the happy medium of cool old games in cartridges (housed in a nice case) and decent graphics to look at. I did have a PS2 when I first moved out on my own which doubled as a DVD player, so I've re-collected that in the "slim" format. I've also collected a PS3 "super slim" to explore all that I missed in the Sony world- that was too expensive for me to buy when it was new. PS4 I have collected as well, but it seems to overlap with a lot of PC games / PC quality graphics, and I question what makes that one special.

I was lucky enough to snag a nice Game Cube silver at a good price, for the sake of having the original Animal Crossing, and for the good memories of playing this or watching it be played at a friends apartment around that time that I first moved out. Kind of a sleeper console really, surely with some great Nintendo titles. It wasn't as powerful of other consoles of its generation so it was looked down upon in that respect, but still - Nintendo games were Nintendo games and still very fun to play.

I have memories of buying a Nintendo DS "phat" in blue new- so I have re-bought one of those, and of course a Game Boy which I had the original of, but now I have the "pocket" edition of, which I honestly didn't know existed till I looked into collecting a Game Boy. I have a DS Lite which I still own, and had a 3DS LL which I wish I hadn't sold given the prices lately. I still do have my New 3DS in lime green, Amazon exclusive edition (bought used from Amazon). Of course I do have a few Nintendo Switch consoles - the original that I waited in line to buy new, a Switch Lite, and a Switch OLED, both of which I bought lightly used and still in warranty.

Speaking of Nintendo, I can't forget my Wii, still with its original box- though I don't have this one set up to play, maybe I should bring it out of storage for kids to play?! That one is soft modded to play downloaded games which is nice! What a cool system that was, with its online social connectivity, and I loved that blue message light.. why can't Nintendo bring back that kind of social interaction the early 3DS's and the Wii had? I used to love carrying my 3DS and using Street Pass. They should've never abandoned that whole idea.

As for collecting coins - I have always been interested in coins from around the world, now I look at it a bit as a store of wealth. They are also just a thing of beauty in their detail and artistic designs. Being also nostalgic for anything to do with Canada, and with the design innovations from the Royal Canadian Mint, I am heavy on collecting RCM coins. Stores of value and visually striking display pieces, can't beat it.

Collecting radios absolutely ties in to my love for music. Similar to vinyl, there is just something different about radio in comparison to streaming. There is something to receiving what your radio hardware is capable of, how it can change through atmospheric conditions. Something about the live nature of a voice speaking to you in real time and everyone else hearing the same thing at the same moments. Something about not having to pay for an additional service like internet to listen. There is something to the nostalgia of gathering around a radio for news like people used to do before TV and video killed the radio stars.

I was told that there was a history in my family of tinkerers who enjoyed the hobby of making and listening to crystal radios from the 50s. Sangean radios are what I prefer to collect, but I also like collecting walkmans from Sony or Panasonic, as well as Panasonic's line - Technics for old full size tuners with knobs, or early to mid 90's Sony tuners. And of course those full size tuners connect up to record players, and having the fun of choosing a particular speaker set - right now I am running some Boston Acoustics.

And coming to computers- well, I think I am stuck in appreciating the eras I grew up with, 386, 486, Pentiums. Also anything from the era I worked at the retail computer store, 1999 to 2009. Early ATI cards, Quantum hard drives, Asus motherboards, US Robotics dial up modems, early sound cards, parallel port printers, devices that required jumper configurations. While others look to newer and faster, I enjoy looking back at older and slower. I have fun collecting CPU's from Intel that were once hundreds of dollars, that are now essentially useless, but once were absolutely top of the line high tech. Its fun to behold something that was once a thing of wonder, now cast aside and sold purely for the collectability. I think we are going to move back to efficiency in software as the price of hardware is now on the rise (no) thanks to AI demands. For a long time now we've been gaining more speed, memory etc, and not caring so much about software size as we could always add more RAM, add more storage, add more CPU cores and higher clocks... but now that is getting price prohibitive- maybe we can return to taking time to optimize.

Finally we come to cars! Again, I don't know if I can say I collect cars, but I do like something I heard a YouTube car person say once... I am a steward to cars. I temporarily take care of these things, and hopefully leave them better than when I found them. Under my care I allow others to enjoy them by taking them out and using/enjoying them. And sometimes I will sell them and move on to something else interesting that I can take under my wing for a time again, until the next one comes along. I'm not here to find a car and keep it forever, even if I had the ability to do that- life is too short to stick to a certain car or type or brand of vehicle!