to ask whether collecting anything is pointless?

[DeathbyDying]

Following on from the thread where a poster was looking for a particular novelty salt and pepper shaker shaped like a mouse with cheese, I ended up on ebay and etsy looking at novelty salt and pepper shakers.

There are loads of lots of a number of them as one lot which are obviously collections that are being broken up/sold off.

It made me think that most collections of the type of things people collect are pointless because when you die, what might be interesting as a whole set becomes just tat to unload.

Conversely, if you've got something valuable, the total value becomes a block to sale. I remember seeing in an antique shop a whole collection of silver vinagrettes which were just beautiful laid out all together. One or two weren't as striking as the whole set. the shop owner said it was a collection that was being sold off but to buy all of them would be cost prohibitive for most people and one or two were pointless

I suppose the question is if a collection of something gives you pleasure during your life, it is worth collecting?
Or if you know when you die, stuff you've spent years and money assembling will just be treated as landfill or ebay unloading or junk does that outweigh the pleasure of collecting?

I collect funky potted plant pots - the cute, weird, more fun, the better. A lot of people who collect things don’t collect for the point of it being financial, it’s something for yourself and inner happiness. I love the fact that I collect the plant pots and people associate it with me, so if they see one they think or me and quite honestly people who collect things are easier to buy gifts for. My home is covered in them with tiny little plants in and it just makes me happy and everytime I get a new one it’s exciting (my life is boring, it’s the little things that count)

I used to collect a certain type of ornament my ex husband bought me loads as did his family it no longer gave me pleasure so I car booted the lot I kept a few pieces I was attached too the rest went

Everything we do in our lives becomes pointless once we die.

Studying for qualifications and achieving a first class honours degree or a doctorate in your passion subject are all pointless once you die. They have no value to anyone or anything once you're dead. Does that mean nobody should bother with education either?

You could spend hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds decorating your home to make it just right for you, so it makes you feel safe and relaxed. Once you die someone will paint over it all because they think it's ghastly. Is decorating your home pointless and you should just live with bare plaster and bare floorboards?

While you are alive, the point is that what you are doing makes your life worthwhile to you in some way while you have your life. Who cares if it has a resale value after your death?

My mil collected stuff we've inherited , Toby jugs, figurines, teapots, Beatrix Potter figures and silver spoons.

We haven't go a clue what to do with them. The Toby jugs are out of fashion and I think we have a couple of rare ones. The teapots are mainly those " collectible" ones shaped like buildings.

The silver spoons may be worth something as there are some antique Dutch ones but we need to get them valued and there's far too many to take to a valuer.

Please don't collect things and leave them to your children to sort out.

I've got a collection of obelisks. I won't say I collect them now because I rarely see one that interests me but I would buy it if I did. I've got a large marble Victorian garden one, a small Tunbridgeware one, two by David Linley, a Versace one and lots of others. I really like them.
My mum had collections of paperweights, samplers, Victorian card cases, a particular children's book which were probably late Victorian, writing boxes .... I don't own any of them now

I’m not a big collector, as such, but I certainly don’t decide what to own based on whether other people might like them when I die. I acquire things because I like them and enjoy them, not because I think they’ll be valuable, or of interest, to other people when I’m dead.

Life is really fucking short, you know. Spend it doing as much of what you actually enjoy as possible. If that’s collecting random stuff that isn’t worth any money and which nobody else likes is what makes someone happy, that’s absolutely fine, because this is the one and only life we’re ever going to get and nobody on their death bed ever thinks “You know, I really wish I’d spent less time on small, harmless pleasures.”

Yeah, how dare your MIL spend her short time on this earth doing something that brought her pleasure. What a bitch, eh?

I like the hunt. Going to charity/antique shops, collectors fairs, car boot sale.
I like the online communities where I can talk to people with the shared interest.
I like doing research and learning the history about certain things.
I don't collect because I think things are worth a lot of money or because I want to sell and make a fortune. I collect because I like what I am collecting.
Yes one day I will be gone and my various collections will need to find new homes....but then that means the next generation of collectors can have that fun.

I don’t really collect anything, I don’t like ornaments or things without useful specific function so don’t have much in the way of ‘stuff’. Already dreading my dad dying as he has such a weird random assortment of army memorabilia and no one else to deal with it.
Unless he leaves specific wishes it will all be going in with the other house clearance stuff I will organise. So not really dreading it after all I suppose as I won’t be dealing with it!

I think it’s pretty pointless collecting “collectibles” - that’s just an exercise in selling to the gullible. Pokemon cards have more point - at least they’re tradeable.

But anything where you collect from places not trying to sell you a collection is worth it for the stuff you find out on the way. I used to collect English coins that turned up in change (pre decimalisation), and therefore know all the more recent kings and queens and their dates, foreign coins (more history), sea shells (lots of natural history and the rudiments of taxonomy), sugar cube wrappers and other ephemera from my father’s trips abroad, labels off melons, and inn signs (in a train spotting way) in the days when inn names had a history and weren’t a figment of a marketing man’s imagination.

I gave one of my collections to a young (20s) collector who was very pleased to have it. I wouldn’t have made much money selling it, and it was good to meet someone else with an interest in it, and see some of his collection.

In my family at least, I think collecting has been very much a response to general increased disposable income over the years. For people who had literally nothing as children, the ability to collect anything in later life was and still is a real luxury. Souvenirs meant that you had been somewhere. That was a luxury

For my generation I guess the question is where do we stand with it? My parents have a collection in their loft of things that are both bulky and fragile, moderately valuable, but neither they or we want. I think they're just going to leave us to sort it out in the end.

For me... I do try to ensure that that most things we acquire are either very functional/very beautiful or both. I like to hang onto things for a looong time. I don't want to leave the next generation with a load of stuff to sort out.

Swedish Death Cleaning all the way for me!

I collect vinyl records. Researching and finding records, looking at the artwork and of course listening to them brings me a lot of joy. My DD (10) has started to show an interest in my collection, which will pass to her when I die if she wants it, just as my DF's records were passed on to me. Even if she doesn't want it and sticks the whole lot on ebay I still don't feel it will have been 'pointless' as I will have gotten so much pleasure out of my collection during my lifetime.

Dh collects art that he likes.
He's slowly filling my walls. I like it too so not complaining.
Nothing mega ££££££ but not cheap tat either.

He has a folder with print outs of what he's paid so the dcs don't just up and donate it to the local charity shop when he pops his clogs.

I used to know someone who collected slide rules. He had about 200 I think he said. I expressed a mild interest just to be polite and he proceeded to describe his favourites at great length.

In fact I got a bit worried he might be about to ask me back to see his slide rule collection and I wasn't entirely sure what his intentions were so I hastily dropped DH in to the conversation.

It's just a bit sad but I'm trying to work out whether individual pleasure in the collection is worth it.

Of course it is, if it brings that person pleasure.
Who is to judge what is "worthwhile" or not.

I mean, many people do jigsaws, and then, as soon as they are complete, they break them up again. Is that worth it by your criteria ?

I have a similar collection - let’s call it a collection of vintage office equipment, as the specifics would be outing. If you showed the tiniest hint of interest I would tell you ALL about it.

It was not a huge surprise when I was diagnosed with autism a few years ago 😆

Let's be honest, most hobbies and pastimes are pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things, aren't they? But we enjoy them, so we do them, and it brings a little joy to our lives.

Well you enjoy it when you're here, so what's wrong with that?

I think ultimately, it is pointless.
My pre-war and Boomer parents spent far much time and energy 'collecting'. I say collecting but actually I mean shopping. Big sports halls full of men selling & buying toy cars, railway models, stamps. Magazines and exhibition centres devoted to china deliberately produced to be sold in magazines and exhibition centres. The commerce behind the industry so my parents could get a tiny dopamine hit.
When they were doing this, they weren't building friendships or strengthening family bonds, decades of shopping and ultimately left to me to sort.
Most of these collections are generation specific, 1950s cigarette cards are valuable to men born in 1930. Men born in 1970 want 1980 space Lego.
My way of sorting will be to get a massive skip and smash the whole lot in off the balcony, limited edition Franklin mint plates, model of yesterday year cars, the china from China produced for overseas export. All in one giant landfill container.
For the tiny dopamine hit they got, it cost far to much. And in retirement, the more friends and social activities they did, the less they collected and the more it all got ignored in the attic with just the odd ' it will be yours one day, if your lucky'.

@GenXit you're really going to dump things just because you don't like them?
A bit harsh.

I remember getting rid of my mums ‘stuff’ not collections as such, but silver plated tea sets, the special dinner set for high days and holidays that wasn’t dishwasher safe…

getting rid of all that means that pretty much any time I think of collecting or buying a thing…I think nah.

If you're planning on paying for a skip, why not look at hiring a house clearance company will get rid of the stuff you don't want, or see if a charity will take it?

Absolutely, I'm getting ready to dump collections that symbolise my parents worship of stuff over people.
We need to stop kidding ourselves that house clearance firms have a magical portal to a place where 1980s tea cards are revered. It all goes to landfill. The stamp collection where Stanley Gibbons earned more from selling the stationary than it did dealing the stamps. It's not worth my time to find someone who actively wants second class stamps from 1978.
The charity shops can have the plates, the tupperware, the vintage vase but the 'collectables' will be skipped. Not worth the head space.

@GenXit

My way of sorting will be to get a massive skip and smash the whole lot in off the balcony, limited edition Franklin mint plates
Absolutely, I'm getting ready to dump collections that symbolise my parents worship of stuff over people.

It's pretty clear that you are consumed with resentment towards your parents that is making you angry and blinding you to a better course of action.

People do collect stuff like limited edition Franklin mint plates and some can be quite valuable. Smashing them is just mindless destruction for no purpose and creating landfill unnecessarily.

If you can't be bothered to sell them to realise any value or send them to an Ebay seller or auctioneer to sell them for you, then at least as @BabySnarkDoDoo says see if you can get a charity or house clearance to take them.

It's one thing to have collections of dead flies, it's quite another to have things of value that can be used or taken by other people rather than smashed into a skip.

It's sad that you are so angry at your parents really but destroying their things when you actually could get some money out of it is pointless.

There are currently 406 unsold lots of Franklin Mint plates for sale on eBay. A total of 31 lots look like they have either been withdrawn from sale or sold in the last two months
Examples include £11.50 for 7 limited edition John Wayne plates.
£16 for imperial Japanese collection with stands and display case
And a Whooping £45 for the tall ships collection.

Quite tempted by the Diana, Princess of Compassion plate but realistically this inheritance is not going to even cover a spoons breakfast.

Collections go out of fashion - big game trophies beloved by the Edwardians are an embarrassment.
Stuff sold as collectables will rarely be worth anything like the original retail. It's the oddities, the genuine rarieties, the nostalgia for the current collecting generation. The original tupperware in the kitchen cupboard is worth more in practical terms and desirability than the Whimsy animal collection.
Everything else to the next generation, without the dopamine thrill is landfill.