115 replies to this topic

[BRG]

“William Boddy, former editor of Motor Sport used to write about his collection of historic spark plugs. “

For some reason, this comment in the “Old Spark Plugs” thread made me snigger at first. Why would anyone collect spark plugs? But then I thought, well, why not? It is no more bizarre than many other collectibles.

Which all got me thinking about collecting. I am not a collector – maybe it is because I am not much of a sentimentalist and prefer to rely on my own memories rather than mementoes. But I do have a collection of club magazines from my old (now defunct) motor club covering a decade or more. However, I was the editor for some of that time so it started as a working record. I also have the regulations and results from nearly every rally that I competed on. And a lot of rather trashy awards from rallies, sprints, autotests etc. I keep thinking that I should sling all these out, but I somehow never get around to it. Maybe I am not as immune to the collecting bug as I like to think!

So the point of all this is for TNF members (who I rather suspect may include a rather higher percentage of collectors than the general population) to come clean about their collecting habits? What have you collected, and why?

[uffen]

Racing programs, tickets, posters, just about anything. One caveat - I had to have been there personally. No collecting just for the sake of collecting.

[Henri Greuter]

I have a squire cm carbonfibre from Roberto Guerrero's March-Alfa he crashed on 14 May 1990 at Indy, also a piece of bodywork of one of the Hardee's March-Buicks crashed by Pancho Carter during the second Q-weekend at Indy '88.
Other than that, programs of the races I attended and if possible (existing) a scale model of the winning car of those races.
Several other scale models too and books, postcards as well as some of the Indy collectables (programs, tickets, pitbadges) during the years when Arie Luyendyk participated.
That's about it.


Why?

Because I'm a Dutch racing fan with a crush on Pre-IRL Indy.

Henri Greuter

[RTH]

Old Motor Racing & Motoring films, on video the older and more obscure the better , fascinating to be able to look back in time , at a whole range of different periods , and a great reference, getting some old footage you have not seen before is a joy.

[xkssFrankOpalka]

I collect old Motoring books for years., over 1000 now, and many other kinds of auto memorbilia. I like the artistic car items. The place is beginning to look like a Museum, good thing I live alone.

[petefenelon]

Books books books.

I'm cutting down on contemporary magazines (stopped buying Autosport and don't really see any lasting value in the last decade or so of it), so at some point I'll probably be offering them to a good home.

I don't - out of a conscious effort of will ;) - collect models, because I could spend far too much on them and I just don't have the space to display them.

[Jack-the-Lad]

Car related: Magazines; books related to Ferrari, Porsche, racing photography, and biographies and autobiographies (first editions and inscribed copies, preferably); Porsche race car pieces from the 60s and 70s.

Not car related: Bulldog figurines; cufflinks; leather cigar cases.

Jack

[Frank de Jong]

Apart from the books and magazines (they are used but not collected - we've had a thread about the difference) I collect motorsport card games and whenever I come across Marabout pocket books about racing I can't resist buying them, altough my French is very limited. No worry, I only have 8 so far, including a book on BMW which looked familiar on second notice - and indeed I already had the German version ("sieg in 1000 rennen")

[D-Type]

I collect model racing cars.
Having a small house I have to keep the physical size down so I collect 1/43 models, i.e. Dinky or Corgi toy sized.
Having a small budget, I have to limit what I collect. The core collection is F1 World Championship winners, both drivers and manufacturers. This fills two display cabinets. I mainly have diecast models - Brumm, Minichamps, Onyx, Quartzo, etc. but I have a few built up from white metal kits - John Day, SMRC, etc. As my modelling skills are at the 'ten-thumbed' level I would love to be able to afford them ready built. Most have been acquired at collectors' fairs where prices are usually lower than the dealers.
Needless to say, I don't have that much self discipline and have another cabinet's worth of other cars that have caught my eye (particularly when offered at a significant discount!). This covers general history from Peking-Paris Itala and 1906 GP Renault through Tipo B Alfa, W125, Wilbur Shaw's Maserati, a NASCAR Chevrolet, Monte Carlo Mini, CanAm McLaren, Ferrari GTO etc, etc. Needless to say a D-Type Jaguar and D-Type A-U feature.

Does a library of about 70 books count as a collection?
Edit: It's more like 100+ books.

[ensign14]

Books, definitely. I do read them all and use them for dipping in regularly, but am always most careful to keep them in pristine condition - and if they are signed even better; I am one of those that will also try to get the most expensive edition I can afford... Can't work out if this makes me a sucker, but sometimes it's nice to have something that looks nice or well-designed as well as useful and informative - plus if worst comes to the worst a judicious liquidation of some assets will make a decent sum. God willing I will not have recourse to doing that.

I never throw magazines away, to the detriment of my spare room...so I have Autosport dating back to 1988 and Motor Sport for the last few years. Plus a bound collection of Speedworld International which I bought primarily for the William Court articles. Had I more space I would be collecting more magazines.

If I have been to an event I will keep the programme, tickets, leaflets &c, but do not collect them as such.

[Frank S]

Hello. My name is Frank, and I'm a collector...

A collector of things I have touched, and that have touched me...

Books, magazines, photographs, car models (1:43), movies (VHS, DVD), experiences...

I can't help myself. From where I sit I can see thousands of collectibles...

Collectibility is in the eye of the beholder. Someone very close to me calls it junk. Well, it is, but collectible junk. Tons of it.

My Dad collected coins. As a young man I couln't fathom his sitting for hours with a magnifying glass, inspecting and reviewing his coins and catalogs. Now I understand, somewhat.

At least once a week I spend an hour or so shifting from foot to foot in front of my models display cases, congratulating myself on my acquisitions, my selections, my acumen, planning a rotation of exhibits.

At least once a week I spend an hour or so scrolling through my database of collectibles, adding a comment, substituting a better photo, congratulating myself...

More than once a week I have a fleeting thought: Is this a little sick, or what?

I always answer: Hell no!

[Bruce Moxon]

My name is Bruce and I'm a collector too.

Models, books, magazines, posters, damaged panels (some my own) and all my results and other paperwork from 20 years of competing. Oh, and about 100 trophies - all earned.

It started innocently enough - a model here, a book there. Then it was a cabinet for the models. Then the collection outgrew the cabinet. Then I got a job writing a column about model cars - and now people insist on sending them to me! Mongrels!

Books - I'm a little more discerning - only if I want them - I'm not obsessive about it - but I can't walk past a second-hand bookshop.

I keep all the magazines where my work is included - and I give away some of the sample models - but only some of them and only to people who can handle them - not become addicted.

Models I deliberately collect? What I like - cars that I've owned that are or were important to me, famous sports or racing cars and 1/64 NASCARs - I have a couple of hundred of those. Pride of the collection? Probably a very ordinary model - a Brumm 1/43 Cooper T53 - signed by Sir Jack Brabham.



Bruce Moxon

[Don Capps]

My name is Don and I am not a collector.

Yes, I have books and magazines, but they are certainly not a "collection." They are reference materials and that is the only reason I have them. That they should be considered commodities and have a market value is a bit of reach for me. My books get used. They are cared for, but they are books, not money sitting around in the form of books.

I get screwed regularly and routinely as I either add new materials or replace those lost in the many moves I have made over the years. My wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed, is beginning to think that it would be easier -- and cheaper -- for us to move to Watkins Glen so I could hang out at the IMRRC -- or with Bill Green when he isn't on duty there -- every day and not keep several book stores solvent....





































































Let's not mention DVD's...

[Jack Rabbit]

Although I am not a collector, there is an awesome movie on collecting called Vinyl by Alan Zweig. If you can find it, its totally worth seeing.

A review from film threat:
VINYL
by Jeremiah Lewis
(2004-07-09)

2001, Un-rated, 180 Minutes, The Asylum


“Vinyl” is as personal a work as any I’ve ever seen. Like its studio-produced comedic predecessor “High Fidelity”, the subject is records, music, love, and life (or lack thereof). Yet writer/director Alan Zweig infuses his cheap video celebration of obsession with a spectrum of meaning and insight that goes beyond the surface attributes of record collectors; he dissects himself and his interviewees with a deprecating and moribund wit, creating connections between their collective misarranged lives.

Zweig devotes much of the film time to interviewing Toronto record collectors—scroungers, really--in their homes; their stories range from the small fry to the grandiose; in particular, one man owns over a million records, and his goal is to collect every single record ever made. Zweig’s questions are not often pointed—he allows his fellow collectors to speak freely and candidly about their collecting habits. Their honesty is surprising; for obsessive-compulsive collectors, nearly all recognize, or at least acknowledge, that perhaps their habit was a substitute for something missing in their lives.

For Zweig, who places himself in front of the mirror and does a good bit of self-reflection, it is a matter of the way his life has turned out. He laments the time that has passed and with it, the opportunity to accomplish the things he once thought he wanted to accomplish. He finds himself delving more and more into Easy Listening records, while his head tells him he’d rather listen to Jazz, and he wonders what it means.

There is a good bit of humor in Zweig’s work. His personal and solitary reflection of Christmas over a tumbler of whiskey, his distressing encounters with the mice of inevitability, and his self-deprecation at feelings of losing the battle between ‘collecting for the music’ and ‘collecting for the having’ are at once pathetic and gloriously insightful. He questions himself, yet makes no apologies for his state of being. He is honest, yet funny; sad, yet anxiously searching for joy outside of possessions and material wants. His poignant desire for a family, for love and romance and sex and children, come through with the clarity of a deeply nuanced and well-meaning man.

Through “Vinyl”, Zweig interprets obsessions as substitutions for lacks we have in life. His warm consideration of record collecting as both a function of endearing love for nostalgia and a socially dysfunctional habit is both entertaining and thoughtful, and a worthwhile watch for any collector.

[JacnGille]

Mostly 1/43rd scale models, race programs, and books, The odd press release, a couple of DVDs (Le Mans and IMAX Super Speedway), along with the Grand Prix Movie soundtrack LP.

[JacnGille]

Opps! How could I forget all my stickers and pins!!!!!

[biercemountain]

Hi, my name is Paul, and I'm also a collector.

I have about 300 plastic models of subjects ranging from F1 cars, ships, tanks, sci fi, and aircraft. My 1/12 scale Tamiya Lola T70 mk3 is the centerpiece of this collection.

I also have over a hundred 1/2400 scale twentieth century warships.

I used to have over 3000 comic books but I recently sold most of them at a moving sale.

Lots and lots of military books as well as a fair number of auto books.

Trading cards, classical sheet music and recordings, and on and on.

I tend to become interested in a subject, spend a few years learning about it and collecting things related to it, and then moving on to something else.

[panzani]

Well, my name is Márcio Panzani, and I am a collector, but this is not related to races unless the way I usually watch them...

I have something like 12.000 different beer cans at home, in boxes, shelves, in the attic, in the kitchen, below my bed, wherever... I've been collecting since 1984, and now I am trying to keep just 5 or 6 cans from each Country plus any Guinness can I can put my hands on... I'll get rid of most of the collection at eBay, I hope, when I have time to do so.
And once, as a matter of fact, She Who Must Be Obeyed, as Don says, said something like "me or them?". It was not the main reason, perhaps, but She doesn't live here anymore...

I have also near 3.000 books, almost half of them are Science Fiction, but I do not think they are a 'collection', they are just books I've read and kept forever.

[antonvrs]

Books- I have about 300 automotive titles and another 100 or so "others"- fiction, reference etc.
But the thing I say I "collect" is connecting rods from interesting engines or just interesting connecting rods.
It started about 35 years ago when a friend gave me a 122 Miller rod. It's beautifully machined, gun-blued, and then butchered by some "mechanic" who filed large notches in the big end and cap to denote which cylinder it came from. I wish it could talk.
I don't really have a large number of them, and I can't even put my hands on them at the moment 'cause they're in storage, but they range from model "T" Ford through Talbot GP to Porsche 962- a highly polished Titanium work of art.
I also have a number of mangled ones. Some that came to me in engines to rebuild, some donated by saying "look at this one- this let go at xx,000 rpm on the banking at Daytona" or "this one's from a Top Fuel motor- 4500 horsepower"
Anton

[Zawed]

Books for me...100+ F1 or other motorsport books, 700+ other mainly non-fiction history books(Military, Antarctica, Exploration, NZ, Korea). Like others here, I cannot simply walk past a second hand book shop.

I also collect F1 minichamps, have around 60 or so these days.

Plus F1 memorabilia- photos, signed items, stickers, F1 car parts, totally random things.

[T54]

I must be the worst: EVERYTHING! An accumulation of stuff beyond any need whatsoever. 62 years of piling it high, I cannot resist and will go deeply in debt for a good piece.

Antique 18th century miniature furniture:



Filled of course, with what else but...antique pearl buttons!



Toy cars of all kinds as long as they are "period", meaning made when the real cars they represent were running. I stop there at 1965 before the "plastic invasion".



Real cars, all kinds. Crazy ones:



Nice fast ones:



Sweet ones:



Plus: books ( a zillion...) photos, documents, artwork, trophies, magazines, autographs, racing helmets, racing suits (from famous racers of course...), vintage slot cars from the 1960's, pre-1980 Japanese racing motorcycles, auction catalogues, private letters from famous people...

Please shoot me now.

[Dennis David]

My name is Dennis and I am a collector...

Books, stamps, coins, model cars, toy soldiers, model trains, old cameras and oh yes debt.

[WDH74]

Car magazines. Read several times before the new issue arrives, then carefully put somewhere out of the way till its needed or I go looking for something else and I find 'em! I also have a pretty large stack of brochures from auto shows. I used to take anything I could get my hands on but have since just picked up interesting ones (why I would want an auto show brochure showing me the new 1992 Hondas is beyond me....so I recycled it). Oddly, I have three of the 1991 Miata Limited Edition brochure, so I framed one and stuck it on top of the bookcase.

I too went through the record collecting thing, where you buy new records compulsively, but have since ridden myself of it. When it comes to music, I only "collect" by artists I really like, instead of just buying interesting looking discs whenever they catch my eye. (Which is why I have all sorts of hard to find stuff by Oasis and the Brian Setzer Orchestra, stuff I'm too afraid of to actually listen to so I had to make backup copies of!).

-William

[dbw]

the collecting bug???...i collect..uh..BUGS!!

[RTH]

Are you saying this fine motor car is your's ? If so do lets hear all the details.

[BRG]

As I suspected, there are enough TNF members to form an on-line chapter of CA (Collectors Anonymous). Plus a few that are in denial…

Except for dbw; collecting Bugattis is of course a duty thrust upon a fortunate few.

How about the rest of you? Honesty is the best policy - admitting you're a collector is the first step in the rest of your lives.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Don Capps
My name is Don and I am not a collector.
Let's not mention DVD's...

Ummmm, we won't mention my CD collection...;)

[SEdward]

I used to collect beer cans, and 1970s Brands Hatch was a great place to pick up the then exotic containers from continental Europe. I had hundreds, and they were all carefully arranged and indexed on shelves in my bedroom, until one of my first potential conquests said that they were stupid, ugly and smelt horrible.

So I threw them all away, hoping to impress her. But I never got my wicked way anyway.

Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere?

Edward.

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by SEdward
.... one of my first potential conquests said that they were stupid, ugly and smelt horrible.

So I threw them all away, hoping to impress her. But I never got my wicked way anyway.

Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere?

Edward.

Or maybe you misheard and she wasn't talking about the beer cans at all?

[SEdward]

Apart from the beer cans mentioned in the previous post, I have never consciously collected anything. But, and as I am frequently reminded by my dear old Mum, my love of the sport since 1967 has resulted in an enormous hoard of everything and anything related to the races that I attended.

If you're looking for an entry ticket stub and programme for the Lesser Wilmington and Hatchford-cum-Bottomdell MG Midget Owners Club meeting at Brands on November 16, 1973 (held in fog, rain and snow with 157 spectators), then I probably have it!!

Piles and piles of Motoring News, Autosport and Competion Car are lying around waiting to be sorted out. Tons of race programmes from Brands, Snetters, Silverstone and Thruxton, all the merchandising rubbish that is handed out at meetings, and countless other bits and pieces are gathering dust in a loft in Manningtree, Essex. She (Mum) wants us (me and big brother) to chuck the lot, but that would be a crime. We have been promising to sort it all out and take it all away for about 20 years now.

What I am interested in now is Le Mans 24-hours tee shirts (they have to be XXL to fit round me) and posters. I have almost every year since 1978, but not all of them.

Having said all that, I never consciously collected anything at all...

Edward.

[SEdward]

Nice one Vitesse2, but she never showed the inclination to inspect, smell or play around with anything other than the beer cans!!!

Edward.

[T54]

So I threw them all away

The Billy Beer cans too!???@!!!#$%
How did it taste?

[SEdward]

T54,

I don't know what a Billy Beer can is. Please enlighten me!

Edward.

[T54]

You are no good beer can collector then...

Here you go. Begin the hunting...

[SEdward]

Not many Billy Beer cans hanging around Brands in the 1970s...

Edward

[T54]

I am pleased to let you know that you did not miss much.

[Frank S]

Originally posted by dbw
the collecting bug???...i collect..uh..BUGS!!

How often do you get to see the/an artist at work?

[T54]

Frank, Thursday at Laguna is always best! Nice T35C with pre-war french licence plate.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by dbw
the collecting bug???...i collect..uh..BUGS!!

En-ttore-mology?

sorry, it's a Monday...

[Keir]

I used to collect so many things, beer cans and bottles, model cars, model ships, motor racing books, prints, posters. Now, sadly, most are gone, with the exception of the books and some magazines.

........but I am accepting contributions toward the "Keir Delaney Memorial" fund.

Send your $20 American to

Keir must continue to Live!
PO Box 4233
Bayonne, NJ 07002
USA

[SEdward]

"Bayonne", eh? Methinks that it's in the Pyrennées-Atlantiques, that they have, or had, a damn good rugby team and a thrilling fiesta every summer.

In fact, it's coming up soon...

Edward.

[FLB]

Originally posted by Frank de Jong
Apart from the books and magazines (they are used but not collected - we've had a thread about the difference) I collect motorsport card games and whenever I come across Marabout pocket books about racing I can't resist buying them, altough my French is very limited. No worry, I only have 8 so far, including a book on BMW which looked familiar on second notice - and indeed I already had the German version ("sieg in 1000 rennen")

If youy ever come to Montreal, go to the Colisée du Livre at the corner of Ontario and Berri. I've been able to complete my collection of the annuals written by Michel Hubin about the F1 WC and World Championship for Marques from 1968 to 1971. They usually have several books in the store.

[T54]

I used to collect so many things, beer cans and bottles

Somehow, I feel like sending you the twenty bucks... :

[Keir]

T54,
There was a time when you could find many different looking cans and bottles, some of them quite unique! .........but then they all had to go, no room, children on the way

[T54]

Don't feel bad, there was a time when I seriously considered collecting antique milk bottles. Fortunately my wife straightened me out.

[dbw]

frank; great shot of artist getting the shot....the b&w was[i believe] taken at laguna in 2000...thats my fake 550 behind you in 2003.

btw,T54....chassis 4948...a 35-c at monaco 1930 [the french reg no. issued to messr bugatti]..upgraded to 2300 b-specs when sold to hj von morgan in 1930...

a bit of a clarification...i'm not a cumulative collector of bugs but rather a serial one...[t-13,t-37,t-35b]

[Ron Scoma]

EEK !

Looking over the stuff.... over 1000+ books, 5000+ magazines, a few thousand die casts (AMR, Tron, Western, Dinky, Corgi, Spot-On, etc.). A few hundred 1/24 and 1/32 unbuilt plastic kits mostly from 59-68. Programs, club magazines like Iota, VSCC Bulletins, and things like Sports Car and Lotus Owner, SCCA Sportscar, R&T, C&SC, T&CC, SCI, Speed Age, and SCG.
Slot car stuff (I use to buy out hobby shops and due to laziness I never got rid of anything), mostly Revell, Cox, and Strombecker along with some real esoteric items made in the UK in the 50s and 60s. There's rally equipment from Halda, Heuer, and Stevens to go on the TC, 120, 356, and other cars I have etc., etc.
About 50 original paintings and drawings by Nockolds, Degrineau, Ham, Crosby, Lane, etc.
Posters and Lithographs by Ham, Montaut, and Gamy to name a few. Badges - including Lord Howe's Brooklands car badge that I picked up at an Onslows sale in '85 or so and River's ERA Club badge that he gave me, a few hundred 16 mm movies, photographs, stamps, trophies, awards, menu's, toys, old shop equipment, etc., etc.
Club items like NAMGAR (MGA) and 356 Registry's (Porsche), and older items like Christophorus and Panorama (both Porsche), Safety Fast (BMC), and Bugantics.
Various "neat" display items like a BRM crankshaft and a Porsche 4 cam cylinder head.
I also have a bunch of Lionel and LGB trains and a pretty nice stamp collection (USA) concentrating on the Washington-Franklin issues.
It just goes to show you what can be accomplished by someone with enough determination combined with no spouse or significant other and social life that consists of greeting the pizza delivery guy once a week or so can accomplish.

I live in a black hole, once it comes in, it never leaves.

We arrive in this world with nothing and we leave with nothing, or so the saying goes.
Well, I arrived with no car stuff and I'm leaving with no money.

All that is overshadowed by the many many people I have met, some I am truly honoured to be called their friend. That's what this hobby is all about IMHO. Lunch with the guys on Friday, TNF meetings, Lake Drive 100 MPH meetings, CLASS meetings. Because of those people I have a pretty nice life by any standards.
Thank to them all.

Ron Scoma
TNF badge Number 41

[Bruce Moxon]

Originally posted by Ron Scoma
[
Ron Scoma
TNF badge Number 41 [/B]

I think we have a winner.

I forgot - I seem to be collecting dogs - large dogs. One German Shepherd (Kramer) and two Labrador Retrievers (Cybill and Whoopie). And the dogs seem to collect fecal matter!

Oh, and remember - he who dies with the most toys - is dead.




Bruce Moxon (and videos, and DVDs, and programmes, and PC games and press kits, and ......)

[Patrick Fletcher]

Hello my name is Patrick and I collect Oil pressure guages - I have just got them out and looked at them all [ 14 ] s..t one of them is an ampmeter.
Hello my name is ...... .....and I collect OPG and now ampmeters
as well as books - cuttings - programmes - autographs, not purchased but self obtained [ Peter Whitehead thru to Mika H.]
On the subject of autographs Ron Flockhart's has by far the best script - maybe?

[T54]

All that is overshadowed by the many many people I have met, some I am truly honoured to be called their friend. That's what this hobby is all about IMHO. Lunch with the guys on Friday, TNF meetings, Lake Drive 100 MPH meetings, CLASS meetings. Because of those people I have a pretty nice life by any standards.

Ron, you are my kind of fellow with well-understood life priorities. Just for you today, here is a little display of Chaparrals from the actual days when Hall and Sharp were terrorizing American tracks, none of this Chinese die-cast c**p or today: