What is the best non-numismatic collectible you have seen?

planonit

If you are a numismatic nut you meet other collectors and you quickly find out other collectors have other interest beyond putting together a Seated Dollar set.

I, as many of you surely have, run across a lot of guns. Most are pretty standard "prepper" types who have piles of firearms but I have run into quite few who were really into collectible firearms and one in Colorado who had quite literally turned his basement into a massive display of his prized firearms including at least a dozen blunderbusses.


I also had couple that collected African tribal art. It is strange to see a guy in rural Southern Indiana have a farm house stuffed with that stuff.

lordmarcovan

I could get into collecting art or antique maps and manuscripts.



I'd imagine the list of cool non-numismatic collectibles is nearly infinite.



I had a collection of antique local postcards from my home town going for a while.



As to the African tribal art, we lived in Tanzania when I was a child and brought back some Masai woodcarvings. I had a chess set where the "knights" were giraffes and the "castles" were grass huts and the kings and queens and pawns were all quite fierce looking. I'm sorry I sold that several years back.

lordmarcovan

PS- my teenaged daughter Victoria was reading over my shoulder and said, "BOOKS!" and "Christmas lights and string lights"! (So there you have it from a 14-year-old girl.)



Oh, also- we are fortunate enough to live in a place (coastal GA) where we can go out to the dredge spoil heaps and find fossil shark teeth. Check out the monster megalodon my buddy found. The brute who lost this one would've made Jaws look like a minnow!

Raybo

That is so cool LM!

lordmarcovan

That's a thousand-dollar tooth, easy, because it's not only HUGE, but it's in great shape (usually they come up chipped or cracked or broken from the dredge), and it's also a "pathological", meaning there are areas on both sides (most visibly the right near the root) where the shark bit into something a bit too crunchy (whale bone, possibly) and the damage later healed.



I haven't found any remotely that nice, but I have found a couple of big 'uns and some big partial Megs, plus a number of other cool species. It's fun, and unlike metal detecting, which I also love, it doesn't take any special equipment. Just an attentive set of eyes.

Gazes

Love my wacky packs!

CommemKing

Old flint lock muskets from pre-civil war.

Walkerguy21D

Many years ago while appraising an inherited coin 'collection' (really just a large old accumulation) for an acquaintance from work, I mentioned something about
arrow heads, and his eyes lit up. Turns out he was a third generation collector (and he was ~60) of Indian artifacts, and actually had built a room onto his
home to showcase the large collection the family had amassed over the years, mostly from the Midwest and Southwest. Thousands of spear points and other stone tools, but also some rare ceremonial pieces, carvings, a full chief's headdress stored in a large glass bell jar, some sort of club or weapon carved from petrified wood with symbols engraved in it, even a few human bones with broken spear points lodged in them (yes they came from burial mounds, that were excavated for a highway being built many decades previously). The collection was dispersed about 15 years ago.

Jackthecat1

I think that if I was to start a new field of collecting that it would be antique tools.

Musky1011

Better yet a love token on a Megalodon Tooth

lordmarcovan

You're playin' some of my favorite tunes, Musky!



Say, that tooth looks slightly familiar... is that Georgia sand I see in the crevices?

coindeuce

Only hockey memorabilia, as that was a big part of another life a few decades [ ] ago.

This covered my melon in college hockey, and some of the NHL game worn and signed masks from the 1970's-1980's bring 5 figures in the sports collectibles market today. Yours truly built this one, and a few others for some "lodge brothers".

Musky1011

Originally posted by: lordmarcovan
You're playin' some of my favorite tunes, Musky!

Say, that tooth looks slightly familiar... is that Georgia sand I see in the crevices?

Yes

AUandAG

Originally posted by: Gazes

Love my wacky packs!

Okay, I'll bite, what is a wacky pack?



bob

AUandAG

I'm going to collect corvettes. Still looking for my first one,,,,got to be a '58.....





oh well, the fun is in the hunt!



bob

Walkerfan

Originally posted by: AUandAG

Originally posted by: Gazes

Love my wacky packs!

Okay, I'll bite, what is a wacky pack?



bob

I remember those waaayy back in the day!!



I was about 7 or 8 circa 1974 and I was addicted to those!!



They were like trading cards that had peel off stickers and they made fun (cartoon parody) of brand named products.



i.e. 'Weakies' instead of 'Wheaties' cereal.



I bought them and traded them like baseball cards. All the kids had them.



Wow, major blast from the past!!!

kiyote

All of the farms near me had shoeboxes stuffed with Native American artifacts. My favorite was a flint carved into a spread-winged eagle.

Lakesammman

I enjoy Pioneer/Territorial gold and also collect white ironstone.



This piece has crossover appeal since it dates to the 1850-60 period, Gothic, white English ironstone. Whalley was an early importer to the California market. Unusual to find a piece that is so intact with matching marks on the base and lid.

blu62vette

Originally posted by: AUandAG
I'm going to collect corvettes. Still looking for my first one,,,,got to be a '58.....


oh well, the fun is in the hunt!

bob

I can think of another year you might try.

I picked up a chainsaw at an estate, wanted someone to check it out turns out I got a collectible chainsaw and the guy who worked on it collects saws. He has about 130.

seanq

My former employer was a big time collector of early American furniture and folk art. Once he asked me to hang a recently purchased antique barometer, circa 1815, on his office wall. Years later I stumbled across a photo of one like it (from the same maker) that was valued in excess of $100K.



Another time after conducting some business in NYC, I accompanied him to Sotheby's where he had consigned some early portrait paintings for auction. In the same sale were several enormous weather vanes, all one of a kind folk pieces, and most of them either eagles or American Indian motifs. The largest was an ornate chief standing with his bow drawn back in the direction of the wind. I found out after the auction that the chief hammered for just under $6 million.



EDIT to add a link to the auction above, the weathervane sold for $5.84MM



Sean Reynolds

messydesk

Originally posted by: Walkerfan

Originally posted by: AUandAG

Originally posted by: Gazes

Love my wacky packs!

Okay, I'll bite, what is a wacky pack?



bob

I remember those waaayy back in the day!!



I was about 7 or 8 circa 1974 and I was addicted to those!!



They were like trading cards that had peel off stickers and they made fun (cartoon parody) of brand named products.



i.e. 'Weakies' instead of 'Wheaties' cereal.



I bought them and traded them like baseball cards. All the kids had them.



Wow, major blast from the past!!!

No kidding! Those were great. They were meant to be stuck on lunch boxes.

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: messydesk

Originally posted by: Walkerfan

Originally posted by: AUandAG

Originally posted by: Gazes

Love my wacky packs!

Okay, I'll bite, what is a wacky pack?



bob

I remember those waaayy back in the day!!



I was about 7 or 8 circa 1974 and I was addicted to those!!



They were like trading cards that had peel off stickers and they made fun (cartoon parody) of brand named products.



i.e. 'Weakies' instead of 'Wheaties' cereal.



I bought them and traded them like baseball cards. All the kids had them.



Wow, major blast from the past!!!

No kidding! Those were great. They were meant to be stuck on lunch boxes.

Wacky Packages



I am of a similar age (turned 9 at the end of 1974), and my boy cousins and I thought those were a laff riot. They always had them.



For some reason, I never did. I don't think Mom was a big fan of them.



I'm not surprised they're a popular nostalgia collectible nowadays.



FWIW, I never had a bike with a banana seat, either. Or Star Wars figures. Or toy guns (the last were verboten in our household).

Originally posted by: coindeuce

Only hockey memorabilia, as that was a big part of another life a few decades [ ] ago.

This covered my melon in college hockey, and some of the NHL game worn and signed masks from the 1970's-1980's bring 5 figures in the sports collectibles market today. Yours truly built this one, and a few others for some "lodge brothers".

Bet that mask comes in handy on Halloween nights, particularly if you have some large cutlery or a chainsaw to accessorize with.

MrEureka

The one non-numismatic item that I would have loved to have bought was George Washington's personal copy of The Federalist, hand-annotated by John Jay and James Madison. I saw it at Sotheby's in 1990, where it was estimated at about 400K. I couldn't swing it at the time and didn't bid. Brought $1.43 million, which now seems like a bargain.

I've seen lots of more expensive things offered over the years, including many paintings that brought in the tens of millions, but nothing turned me on like that book.

Twobitcollector

Steam engines, I'll be going to Mauch Chunk, PA on Saturday to take more





http://www.jimthorpe.org/#!town-history/bppdz

oih82w8

I am partial to Antique Rail Road Grade Pocket Watches.

amwldcoin

I'm starting to sell off another collecting past time I had.



Seashells anyone?



This is the only way I am able to link a picture so I hope no one minds.

cmerlo1

I've always wanted to collect memorabilia from the space program... I've seen some really cool stuff in the Heritage catalogs from the Apollo missions including 11 and 13.

MICHAELDIXON

Does anybody remember the thread (many years ago) where Greg said he collected belly button lint? I still laugh about that one!

ricko

Marbles, old decks of playing cards, hip flasks, lots and lots of firearms... Cheers, RickO

WillieBoyd2

Wacky Plaks:



I believe that the artist worked for Mad Magazine.

SkyMan

Love the Meg teeth. We've had a few 15+ foot long Great Whites attacking boats out here in CA. lately.

I collect space memorabilia from roughly World War II to the present, but predominantly from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo era (1961 - 1975). Actually today is a good day for a picture, as 7/20/69 was the first Moon landing and Moon walk. So, on the 47th anniversary...

Here's a US flag that flew on Apollo 11:



Here's a picture of the launch signed by all the Flight Directors for Apollo 11 (Clockwise from upper left: Gene Kranz, Glynn Lunney, Gerry Griffin, Chris Kraft). FWIW, the Saturn V has just gone supersonic, hence the water vapor condensation about halfway along the rocket body.



Here's Buzz giving me the finger. We're discussing a page of the Flight Plan that I own...

garrynot

My wife collects Russian lacquer boxes from the Soviet era before the rush was on to mass produce them in the 80's when the Russian Federation took over. Consequently original Soviet boxes are harder to find now.

asheland

Old Silver!

BryceM

Firearms are great. Old cars are a habit I look forward to dabbling in someday. I feel, however, that both should be used & enoyed instead of just being looked at. I have a favorite firearm that will be busy on its 100th birthday next year. A guy in my hometown collects WWII era planes and keeps them in a museum...... but it's a "flying museum." We were back home for the 4th of July and it was fun to see them overhead during the parade. He was nice enough to take me up for a spin in one of his P-51 Mustangs a few years back, but that's a story for another day.... I digress. I guess the same sentiment explains my lack of enthusiasm for proof coins. They were never meant to be used for their inherent purpose.



All of that aside, my favorite collection is the one of photos of fun times with family. Really, nothing compares.

Elcontador

I have an obscene blacklight Disneyland poster circa 1971. Someone made this thing and I grabbed one because I knew Disney would sue the outfit and shut it down (which they did very quickly). Apparently it's worth a few hundred dollars. And no, it's wrapped up and ticked away. The wife would not want it displayed in the house (she has enough problems with the gator head on the wall).

Cacoinguy

I collect early california paintings , stickley furniture, tiffany studios lamps. My newest collecting passion is actually coins.

ambro51

I've been a user of classic screw mount Leica cameras since the early '70s. My collecting passion struck last year and so far have about 10 Leica bodies along with various lenses and accessories. My favorite (and oldest) is this 1930 Leica Model 1A. The nice thing here, unlike coins, is that you can actually USE your collection! This is roughly a 1200$ camera [URL=http://s249.photobucket.com/user/ambro51/media/971CF38E-D012-40B9-91E7-B6792F5AA35F-574-0000015280836AB7_zpsaek8gfod.jpg.html][/URL]

northcoin

Movie memorabilia.

DCW

The coolest fossil I own, a chunk of skull from the Saber-toothed cat Smilodon Fatalis with two hulking teeth beautifully preserved.

Meltdown

I just bought myself some spoons... I don't collect then necessarily but do like just about anything old & silver.

Barberian

Wow. A blast from the past! My brother used to collect sea shells back in the early 60's. At that time, the Glory of the seas, or Conus gloriamaria, was the most sought after shell in the world with only about 10-20 specimens in collections. Now I just found out that one can purchase one on Ebay for under $20. Large numbers of Conus gloriamaria were found off of the Solomon Islands in 1969, which knocked the price down from thousands of dollars to $12.99 on EBay. I may buy one and surprise my brother. He hasn't collected shells in 50 years but he'll probably still recognize it's characteristic shell markings.

-8AAOSwARZXi4h3">Conus gloriamaria, formerly the rarest shell in the world

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: WillieBoyd2

Wacky Plaks:







I believe that the artist worked for Mad Magazine.

That's Jack Davis.



Yes, he was a founding artist for Mad magazine, and lives here in my hometown. Or lived, rather- I just noticed on the Wikipedia page that he died yesterday!



My daughter got to meet him last year and got an autographed piece of art- I forget what. Now I'll have to ask her.



Jack Davis, 'MAD' Magazine Cartoonist, Dies at 91









PS- I guess these might be worth buying now, huh.

amwldcoin

Originally posted by: Barberian

Wow. A blast from the past! My brother used to collect sea shells back in the early 60's. At that time, the Glory of the seas, or Conus gloriamaria, was the most sought after shell in the world with only about 10-20 specimens in collections. Now I just found out that one can purchase one on Ebay for under $20. Large numbers of Conus gloriamaria were found off of the Solomon Islands in 1969, which knocked the price down from thousands of dollars to $12.99 on EBay. I may buy one and surprise my brother. He hasn't collected shells in 50 years but he'll probably still recognize it's characteristic shell markings.



-8AAOSwARZXi4h3">Conus gloriamaria, formerly the rarest shell in the world

There are all kinds of stories circling around about the Glory of the Seas. One of the most famous that was eventually discredited was a Danish Collector who purchased one in auction and immediatedly crushed it so he would still have the only one known.



Another shell that has lost a tremendous amount of value is the Golden Cowrie. This happened because they learned who to raise them in captivity!



There are many other shells that quite the opposite is true. Much of this is due to man causing the extinction of so many species.

SaorAlba

Originally posted by: Jackthecat1

I think that if I was to start a new field of collecting that it would be antique tools.

It is not a new field, I have a small collection of early 20th century hand tools that were my great great grandfather's.

coinkat

Political memorabilia. Especially posters as I suspect fewer were saved than pin backs

TigersFan2

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, France. It would be an awesome addition to any collection of anything. Any Van Gogh painting would be a very close second.

BG

Purchased in Venice, Italy in 1975, 24K gold:

thebeav

I suppose, if I were younger, I would get into live steam engine models. I've always enjoyed them.
I still have quite a shortwave radio collection though......

northcoin

Fossils are certainly up there, however for really old wouldn't some meteorite rocks be even older? A collection of Moon Rocks would be a prize.

lordmarcovan

Originally posted by: BG

Purchased in Venice, Italy in 1975, 24K gold:

That's gorgeous.