Besides musical instruments, what do you collect and why?
I’ll go first: I collect bookmarks, especially religious/spiritual ones. I don’t really know why, other than that I love books and bookmarks are nice to have and I’m a dork. I have about 2 dozen or so.
I also used to collect small glass mice figurines, but I accidentally broke them all. Oops.
I don’t collect anything…I like to discard things!!
Robin
I do too, actually. I’ve found that having one collection is kind of soothing, though. I don’t know how, but I guess I just like to go through my bookmarks and remember the story behind them all lol. Nearly all of them were given to me over the years. I also “collect” every letter and every card ever sent to me, but I don’t think that really counts.
I collect old books. Used ones, that have seen a lot of use. It all started when I had a fetish for old, obscure, out-of-print sci-fi books, which I could only get in a beaten and battered state. It spread to encompass most any kind of book.
Amazon, surprisingly, is a veritable gold mine of heavily-loved books. And you can get them for a dime plus shipping.
I KNOW!!! 
But the shipping is like, $4 for one book which is crazy. I love thrift stores, though, and used book stores. There’s one in town owned by Friends, and you’re allowed to go in and simply sit there and read, without buying anything. I am, at least. 
Come to think of it, I will probably walk down there tomorrw if I feel up to it…
Sometimes, I try to collect my thoughts…
I collect dust.
Otherwise I am kind of boring. I find the best of what I want and usually buy only it.
Unless books count, I buy them at used book stores in hopes that some day I will have time to read them all.
you mean besides children? 
I do collect books in a way…when you publish books, you tend to get tons of them. Other than that I can’t think of anything. I’ve gotten to a point that I don’t have time (or the room) to collect anything.
Sadly, I haven’t been able to find a used bookstore within walking distance of my dorm. I mean, I’m in Charleston, there should be all kinds of little tucked-away coffee shops and bookstores, indie record labels running out of the basement of a sandwich shop, but it’s just not there. Perhaps my view of the city was a little… skewed? 
There is a beautiful old library around here, but it is far from within walking distance. I do like to visit it when I get a chance, though.
I collect useful things found in trashed out house trailers.
I have:
A $7,000 measuring cup. Wonderful thing. It’s pyrex glass, 1 Qt, has a sort of bowl shape and handle, and it’s great for microwaving anything and then carrying it off to wherever to eat. It’s my all purpose cooking/eating thing. With that and a spoon, I’m all set.
A $4,000 chair. This is a simple oak library chair. I have it in the living room for watching TV. I don’t like upholstered furniture. We have 13 of those popular white/natural wooden windsor chairs, but if I bring one of those into the living room, it disappears again and I have to keep bringing them. This one stays in the living room because it doesn’t match the others and the children understand that it’s mine, so I always have a place to sit. A big improvement in my quality of life.
A $2,000 parka that fits Maria. Very nice, sort of teal color, good quality in good condition.
The indicated value of each item is what I paid. I may have made some money back later on after I sold the eventually reconditioned house trailer and kept the collectable item, but the collectable item is all I have left, so that’s the significant part of the purchase.
Anyway, that’s how I refer to them. As in, “Where’s my $7,000 measuring cup,” “Please get your stuff off my $4,000 chair,” etc.
For some reason, the children roll their eyes a lot when I’m talking to them about such things, but they always know exactly which item I’m referring to. We’ve had quite a few, long “Yes, I did,” “No you didn’t” discussions about what I paid for them.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Oh, that reminds me! When I moved down two floors a couple weeks ago (so that I wouldn’t have to climb the stairs, which I am unable to do), in the new room there was this little wooden plaque that’s quite bizarre. Here it is:
I still have it. I have no idea what to do with it. I don’t agree with it’s contents, so I’ll probably throw it away, although putting it on eBay has crossed my mind.
In addition to that little oddity, the previous occupant(s) of this room also left a whole box of rubber gloves, 2 wall mirrors, a small zip-up fanny pack thing, a molded loaf of bread, a large piece of clear plastic (that fits snugly onto my fish tank!), and a small pink pendant of some sort.
I do that, too, in journals.
I think I’d shrivel up if I ever ran out of those spiral notebooks that wal-mart sells for a dime a piece. I buy them in gross.
ME TOO AGAIN!!! 
Mabey we’re related…
In addition, the Dollar Tree has some really pretty writing journals for (of course) $1. The Dollar Tree is a lifesaver. I buy nearly everything I need there. 
Of course, on a “good day,” it’s also not uncommon to find me snooping around the Goodwill, too…I love cheap stuff.
I collect unicorns.
It all started one spring day when I parked the car about 1/2 mile from downtown (for free instead of going downtown and paying to park), and walked downtown with the intention of buying another Irish Rovers album. I already had all the records the stores had. So I walked back to the car. By this time what had started out as a reasonably warm sunny spring day had turned into a cloudy, blustery, chilly day, so I stopped in a small mall on the way back to the car. This mall had a glassblower shop, and they had a little blue glass unicorn. Well, I had this money that I was all set to spend, and I said to myself, “I can’t buy one of their records, I’ll buy their SYMBOL instead.”
Well, the unicorn looked very pretty at home but also very lonely, so I had to buy another one or two over the summer to keep him company. Then at Christmas I got a few as gifts, and on my birthday a few more - and it snowballed from there.
I just did a quick count around the house - 39 unicorn figurines, 10 stuffed ones, 17 glass ones, one ring, 10 necklaces, and 8 pins. And I have more stored away because there isn’t room for them all. Oh, and 2 sweatshirts and a t-shirt with unicorns on them. And a keychain. And two needlepoint pictures and a sketch of a mother and baby unicorn. And a couple of unicorn coffee cups.
I can’t resist this line - I started collecting unicorns a long time ago when the earth was green . . . . .
To bad Noah didn’t collect them.
OMG! I have someone to offload my old collection on!
I started collecting unicorns after a dream in highschool, and stopped collecting about 25 years ago. It started with one that a highschool chum bought for me in Ireland, went on to one that a college friend stitched, a plate that I ‘stole’, a really homely one that has become one of my favorites, a ton of mugs, one limited edition thimble. . .a trio that looks like its made by LLadro, a small pendant, one drawn on a river rock…
Old Collections: unicorns, tigers, parrotphernalia, knitting machines and yarn
Current collections: erotic frogs (very small collection, but very precious to me) mugs (hand made only - does it count as a collection if you actually use them?) hostae (24 varieties) round towers (I actually ‘collect’ sightings of round towers, commemorated with photos)
Tyghre collections: flashlights…lots and lots of flashlights
besides dulcimers…
I collect “moon and stars” things - it all started as a “protest” when P&G removed the symbol from it’s products because of the Satanic rumor-mill in the early 1980’s. I’ve got moon and stars jewelry, wind chimes, wine glasses, clothing, you name it.
I don’t collect Hummels, but I have quite a few I inherited from my grandmother. She worked for a German baker and he would give her one every year after his trip back home. So these are quite old and valuable. My cousin got the creche figures - which were “stolen” when she moved.
While I don’t have enough to say I collect it, I love estate or vintage jewelry. I have several pieces from relatives, etc.
I also collect old family pictures.
A woman co-worker of mine was still single in her early thirties. I’m sure that she was wondering whether she was ever going to meet the right person. After all, when you are 33 you are beginning to get set in your ways. Anyway, to make a long story shorter, Nancy finally met a man that she could get along with. He was a few years older than her, and as she talked about him at work, it became clear that he was a bachelor collector. One thing that he collected was shot glasses. He had built special shelves, and his shot glass collection filled an entire room. To me, this seemed a little bizarre, but I didn’t mention my reservations to Nancy.
Some time later I attended the couple’s wedding, and 9 months and one day after that the first child was born. Nancy confided in me that her new husband was a little upset when she insisted that the shot glass collection was going to have to go into storage, because they needed the collection room for the new baby. There is a moral to this story, but I am not going to mention what my answer is. You can be creative and construct your own moral. Share it if you want.
Moral: Always check with Doug Tipple before you get married, to make sure it’s ok.