How to Amass an Immense Collection

*Originally published on 3/25/09


I'm a collector. Over the years I've collected trading cards, CD's, DVDs, and comic books. I often come across other people with libraries that put my somewhat impressive collections to shame. I look on in awe at people who have movie collections in the thousands, entire walls lined with comic book boxes, or entire hard drives filled with music. I find myself asking "how do they do this?" I've given it some amount of thought, and I think I can give some explanations as well as tips if you aspire to build a massive library or collection of your own.

The first thing you should do is start young. If you start collecting comics, books, or movies when you're in elementary school, over the years your collection will accumulate and it will make it that much easier once you have an income of your own to make it even bigger. It is all about the head start.

Make sure you find one thing and stick with it. I made the mistake of collecting several things as I mentioned above. If you can find one thing you are passionate about, you can devote all of your resources to making that particular collection that much bigger. You can still build a reasonable and respectable collection if you do diversify, but it will be a bit more difficult and require more work.

Find something you and your friends can all collect. This enables trades to be made as well as some healthy competition between the two of you. I had that with Star Wars cards back in elementary school as one of my friends also collected them and I have it now with movies and comics as my roommate has those hobbies as well.

Finding a good job is key, as is keeping a low cost of living. The more expendable income you have, the better. If you get a good job you'll be able to pay for more stuff.

In the case of movies, you'll be tempted to upgrade your older copies to whatever new medium has been released. You can do this, however, I find it much easier to build a collection if you just go for the films you don't have. This is especially true with the dead formats. Laser discs are now collector's items. If you have some VHS tapes, laser discs, or HD DVD's don't fret or feel obligated to ditch them. Keep them as it will make your library that much more impressive. That being said, going after those dead formats after they've died is a waste of time and effort that would be better spent on whatever format is available.

Hand-me-downs are also a great way to build a collection. If your father or older sibling collected something, you can pick up where they left off. This goes back to the head start I mentioned earlier. Back when I collected cards, my dad gave me some of his and that augmented my collection. It can become something of a family legacy, the massive movie, comic book, or trading card collection. Passing it down from generation to generation adds a sense of honor to the compulsive nature of collecting.

Make sure you only buy what you can afford. Collecting can be a fun hobby, but you don't want to dig yourself into a hole of debt that you can't pull yourself out of just because you wanted to outdo your friend's collection.

So now you've got some simple tips to building a massive library of whatever it is that piques your interest. You'll be able to amaze your friends and family while showing off your collection with pride.