Guess I first started collecting bubble gum machine prizes. Had a slim cigar box mostly full of them. I didn't put a penny in for the gum. Greatest prize I remember was a small knife. It worked, too. I was so excited. That was like the ultimate of the prizes, so I relaxed my spending pennies in the gum machines. Don't have a clue what happened to the collection.

Then I moved up to nickel prizes in the form of baseball cards. For a nickel, we received several baseball cards and one sheet of bubble gum. I remember how we placed a team of cards on the hall floor, "pitched" a marble by rolling it to the other guy who flipped a number 2 pencil at it. We found something to do to actually play with the cards. I had quite the collection. We would cut grass or pick up empty coke bottles for the money.
Wish I knew what happened to them. Never dreamed they would be so valuable to another collector, though their worth is driven mainly by them.

They say good and bad things about collecting. Psychologists the world over say it can lead to hoarding, for whatever reasons they wish to aspire to. Can't say I believe that or don't, but I do like being prepared. I don't store bunches of food or water, mainly because I could not turn a dying neighbor away. I might, after all, be of more assistance if I were looking, too.

I enjoy the hunt. It's like walking on a beach looking for things that have drifted up or have been washed ashore. However much I hunt, I'm mostly frugal and look for a good deal. If something begins to take shape and there is only one of it missing, I may pay a little more for it. Completion makes me feel absolved, as I no longer need to look. If I stop looking for everything, I almost feel incomplete. It does give me something to do that brings me happiness and great joy, and I learn so much along the way.

Psychologists say some that collect have had prefrontal cortex damage in their brain. Maybe they need an emotional attachment. Maybe this and maybe that, but it is not about money in the end. Maybe I had a baseball bat slam me full force across my head above my eyes as a child. The guy that did it felt really bad, so I gave him one of my Blue Angel models I had collected. I liked model airplanes.

I don't like someone peering into my life to see what my small collections are worth. More, I don't like people thinking they know what makes me tick. We are all different, are we not? There may be some constants out there, but we all need something that makes us happy in this world.

If I can't afford a Pre Model 29 four screw 4" blued beauty with nice Goncalo Alves and a blue background to sit in, let me personally thank you guys for letting me see one every now and then. Your collections are helping us to enjoy life.