My parents wouldn’t buy the real thing 😏😂

Now I just collect Barbie dolls.

I do have some that are still in their boxes. The problem is, I'm running out of room for them!

Even now still, in addition to many other things, such as DVD/Blu-ray movies.

They were a seventies thing.

I have been restoring and rescaling old straights for years. I also hone, strop and shave with them. I find it relaxing in kind of a zen way to have a Sunday shave with one of my homemade shaving brushes and a really luxurious fine shave soap.

In fact, the desire to start turning shaving brushes to match my fancy wood-handled straights during the pandemic led me all the way down the wood-turning rabbit hole, which cleared a path for me to retire from teaching to pursue it as a full-time business. Now I hoard wood, lol-so much wood! Here's a pic of a set in Walnut I made for a colleague for her husband as a wedding present:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MbqhZDvTY6ZBKRkEA

I enjoy watching wood turning videos.

I still have some of the insulators but I no longer collect them. They became too expensive to chase through flea markets and antique stores, and there's no longer any still out on poles for a long time now.

What was your home team.?

Plus, the games were available on WTBS from Atlanta (before it became simply TBS). Before that, we usually pulled for American League teams in the World Series especially Detroit since my dad's brother was in Battle Creek. About the only time back then that we didn't was if the Yankees were in the Series. We weren't too happy with them.

Molusc shells from the Lake Erie shore. They look similar to clam shells.

Stray cats from anywhere and everywhere.

Pop beads from gum ball machines. Called pop beads because you could connect them together by "popping" a prong on one of them into a prong receiver of another one. They came in different colors so you could make up your own design for bracelets and necklaces.

Fossil rocks from the creek bed at my grandparents' farm. It was my older brothers who first showed them to me and explained what they were. I got fascinated with them.

Books. Our 5th grade teacher subscribed to a paperback book club for students. About 3 or 4 times a year, we got flyers that listed titles and gave short descriptions. I'd order 4 or 5 books each time to pay for out of my allowance (and borrow some money if necessary). Book prices ranged from 35 cents to a dollar. Average price for most books was 75 cents. Also requested books for birthday and Christmas.

ETA: I still collect books. Ex husband worked for a book store chain (now out of business) so we often got book discounts. Local library has book sales, too. And I order new ones online. The living room in my apt looks like a library. I've been sorting through them to donate to the library sales.

After a college geology course, I started collecting rocks.

pop beads too. Your love of books is great. Thank you for sharing, wnylib.

at Presque Isle beaches and at the bay side of the peninsula.

A lot of Pittsburgh people used to come to Erie for the beaches. Also, people from places between Erie and Pittsburgh -- Johnstown and Somerset, Sharpsville, etc.

Now I collect vintage (replica) baseball caps. I think they look cool, (even though they’re wool) and they protect my bald head from sunburn.

shoebox full of cards.Thank you very much, rsdsharp

Without realizing, until recently, that I had in fact collected something.
Scores for all the music I've sung in concert.
I have visited many countries in the world and often wished I had purchased and kept something artisanal, or even just the baggage tags.
And I have memories of the fantastic cuisines in each of those countries. Unfortunately not tangible, but not erasable either.

Wow. That is a long trip down memory lane.

I collected chicken pox and swollen tonsils from strep throat and tonsilitis!

I couldn't give those away if I tried!

I had a good childhood. Just got sick my fair share (and maybe a little more).

But I've been lucky as an adult to be super healthy! So far, so good.

Governor Janet Mills of Maine has a substantial collection of baseball cards. I don’t know if she was the enthusiast, though. She may just have inherited them. She told me several years ago that she had the collection, though.

but mainly baseball cards I was given some very old baseball cards in addition to the many I collected. In 1985 I sold one baseball card for 1900 dollars. At one point my collection was worth 43K In college I generally sold cards for beer money and travel money

but kind of lost interest when they started encapsulating them for grading.

I had the entire 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers team in Topps cards; very good condition but not mint. When I went off to college and then the Army, my parents GAVE THEM AWAY! They went to a cousin who then sold them to a friend of his for $200.

Sadly, both collections are long gone.

Now I'm focusing more on getting rid of things rather than collecting them.

and little toy monsters that might be worth something now.

•Tween/teen- shells.
•Tween through (off & on) my 30's - rocks & minerals. My mom and were rock hounds. Went to occasional shows.
A few times some rock hunting spots on vacation - like Herkimer "diamonds" Double pointed quartz!
•Later teens - vinyl records (love certain Rock music), then cassettes, then CD's as tech changed. And sometimes Movie soundtracks.
•Later teens onward - Science Fiction books.

Almost all gone. Moves, major downsizing. At least I had fun!