What else do you collect?

[GreginNM]

Hey all!  I haven't seen this question posted here, at least not recently that I can find.  We seem to get little hints and mentions in other posts of the other things that folks collect.  I thought it would be cool to see what else SMC members collect besides soda machines!

For me, I've been a collector ever since I can remember.  I started with the usual coins, stamps, bottle caps and license plates.  Since then, I've moved on to bigger and better things.  Aside from soda machines, I collect beer cans (cone tops/flat tops), pre-prohibition beer trays, Western split (8 ounce) 1890s beer bottles, micro-beer labels that I have drank, 1920s radios (also restore), Victorian and Mission furniture, early Boy Scout patches, and anything else that strikes my fancy.  I also have a 1929 Ford Model A, 1950 Ford F-1 truck and a 1959 Ford Galaxie.  My other passion is restoring old houses.  I have lived in and done restoration on houses from 1884, 1891, 1912, 1913, 1904 and my current one from 1918!  This is likely what I will do once I retire from the Air Force in a couple years (and complete my Masters in Historic Preservation).  Below is a picture of a small part of my 2,500+ beer can collection!

Can't wait to learn about everyone else!  Happy collecting!

[sodaworks]

I collect, restore and race vintage dirtbikes in my spare time.

[collecture]

I am pretty common I guess - coins, stamps, soda machines.
I inherited a pretty big stamp 'block' collection from my dad and some older singles - once my kids get older I hope to continue
I started collecting music items - mainly Stevie Ray Vaughan memorabilia in the mid-late 80's and have over 60 of his items including several early vinyl (not with Double Trouble) and a very rare Christmas Tree ornament (ball) put out by the Texas Highway Department as a promotional item in 1986 that has SRV's picture on one side and his brother Jimmie on the other (I do not hang it on the tree!). Don't really do much with that hobby anymore - got the bug when CD's started taking over.
Kids definately put a damper on some of the hobbies

[Eric]

As a kid I collected anything Superman after the movie came out.... then while in college
I watched a lot of “Night Court” with Harry Anderson and got the Vintage Necktie (140s50s)
bug I had only around 500+- ties including some of Salvador Dali's designs which I've kept
but have mowed it way down to only about 100-150 ties (But just found 3 sweet ones last week)...
but are hard to find anymore as the age group has all but passed on. But I met a bunch of wonderful older gentlemen and widows with some great stories... One widow who answered a tie ad was at Pearl Harbor where her husband was stationed.... awesome stories from her ... I now watch ebay and check the stores when hunting for coolers and machines.....
Also collect Western Electric telephones.... favorite model is the 302... have 6 of those with
12 phones in all.... (I also cut those way back as I had about 25 at one time.)
few gumball machines, a couple gas pumps and soda stuff all being/needing restored...
I'll shoot some images of the ties sometime great wild designs! Love 'em!

Ok ... next....

[SIGNGUY]

We'll be sides the obvious Soda Machines, I collect all sorts of Coin Op stuff and other stuff that is just TOO COOL not to have. I have Candy machines, Peanut Machines, Jukeboxes, Orignal Ms Pacman arcade game, Vintage Gas Pumps, a 1959 Corvette but my main interest that got me into collecting was orignal Coca-Cola Advertising signs. I have over 100 Near mint original Signs Dating as early as the 30's into the early 60's. Just Tin, Cardboard and Porcelain, a few clocks and lightups but nothing past the early 60's or with "Enjoy" on it!!!
I didn't live in the 50's, but most of my friends/family think I should have as  I Have a love if all of it!!! I have some photos of my collection on the photo page, or at www.cokenstuff.com
Next....

[Creighton]

Fun Thread!
Don't really collect anything in particular anymore. If it is cool and not too heavy it may get brought home :-). Have done red line hotwheels, any coin-op, stamps,coins and BB cards, phones... etc. in the past. Spending most of the free time getting the 1964 Serro Scotty camper up to the next level and finding the last bits to complete a few soda machines.
Creighton
Next :-)
 

[BrianB]

Let's see, Coins is really where I got my start. I haven't played with them much lateley but my interest is starting to pick up again in that area. Old Soda Pop machines was next and that opened up a whole new garage door into the world of antiques and collectables! From old phones, tube-type radios, antique electronic test equipment to just about anything that you can stick a coin in to include pinball machines, bingo machines and so much more! 

[Larry]

Here's my beer can collection.  Some people like collecting full cans, I like to empty them first.  Actually, that's not my living room, but it is somebodys who's probably not married!!

The first thing that I collected was baseball cards.  In third grade my buddies mom worked with my mom, and her one son was killed in Nam.  Well she gave my mom his doubles that he kept.  Yogi Berra, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, etc.  All the cards were hall of famers.  Too bad someone stole them.     All the cards were from the fifties.

Then I collected coins and old bills.  I had every one of those coin books filled up to 1973, which was the year at that time.  I had proof sets from the fifties up and bills dating back to the late 1800's.  Too bad someone stole those too.

The I bumped into a Coke machine (to big for a thief to put in their pocket) and a year or two later, 1985, I picked up my first Coke coin op machine, the VMC 72.  A few years later I won (actually, the wife won.....that's why I married her) a Wurlitzer jukebox from a local oldies radio station.

My life was complete  until ten years later a co-worker gave me a shuffle alley.  Once I finished school and figured out a little about electric, I fixed that one and bought more and more EM games.  I now have a ball bowler, shuffle alley, baseball machine, pinball machine, console slots, jukebox, popcorn machines , candy machines, gum machines, nut machines, cigarette machine, cigar machine, pachinkos, racing game, shooting gallery, motion beer signs, and a few more Coke machines.

And I believe that I'm not done collecting!! There's still room somewhere???

[MoonDawg]

     Wow Larry, wonder if they find that guy alive under all those beer cans?   

     So was it a home robbery someone stole your coins and stamps?

[Larry]

My cards and coins were an inside job.  My guess is my brother or an old neighbor.  Either way, they're gone.

The house with the beer cans came from an email from a friend.  I guess the renter was paying the rent on time and kept to himself, but one day someone complained about an odor.  Eight years of drinking and 70,000 cans later, they finally cleaned up the place.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/odd/beercans.asp

[jasmine64]

I collect coins, stamps and lately way too many clipart kits.

Used to find old watches at yard sales and old shops but alot of people got into it to
strip them of gold and toss the rest.

I'd love to collect 70-80's silver pioneer stereos but hubby say NO to that. I do have 1 a small SX 580 it need cleaning though and the wiring checked out. Been sitting in the stereo cabinet for a while.

[vend_dr]

Hey GreginTex are you a member of the BCCA? Even though I no longer collect beer cans (I do still dabble in beer gallon cans though)  I am still a member. I made the switch to soda cans 10 to 12 years ago at the time they were cheaper than beer cans so you could pick up nice examples cheaply. Times change though and soda cans are becoming expensive to pick up too.

I mostly collect Minnesota produced cans and Shasta Cans I have over 1200 different Shasta cans and 500 or so different Minnesota cans.

Here are a couple of pictures of my collection

[mznb1u]

Great topic!

My collections:

1.  Many cigar boxes that I have accumulated over the past 15 years.

2.  I also was very into collecting 1/64 die-cast Nascar cars back in the early 90's.  They are all boxed away still in the bubble wraps (100 to 200).  Someday I will probably bring those out and sell them. 

3.  My oldest collection is my beer-can collection from the 70's (100 to 200 cans).  They will go on display when I get the basement completed.  I don't think I have too many rare ones but they were all found by me on the beach or along the road well before I could enjoy the contents inside.  Probably the rarest is a steel Budweiser that was printed upside down.  Found that in a six pack at my dad's drugstore just before a guy bought the six-pack!  That one still has the beer in it and the pull tab in place!

4.  Used to have a pretty good baseball card collection but those got sold for way too little when I was strapped for cash during college!  I would not want to know what they were really worth.

5.  My newest collection is my two Coke Machines along with many Stroh's Beer signs from the 50's, 60's and 70's!

Hey, I guess these hobbies are all better than collecting wives and divorces or worse yet--collecting dust! 

Tim

PS--I forgot my UM football ticket stub collection--1980 to present!  Favorite stub from the 1998 Rose Bowl!

[aspbear]

Besides the soda machines,  I collect Griesedieck Brothers Beer advertising and memorbila.  It was a very large brewery at one time before it was bought out in 1959 by Falstaff.  I also collect Arkansas State Police memorbila patches, badges, pictures etc.

This was a great topic.

[vend_dr]

I collect Griesedieck Brothers Beer advertising and memorbila.  It was a very large brewery at one time before it was bought out in 1959 by Falstaff. 
This was a great topic.

It is my understanding that Griesedieck Beer is being bottled again (or they are planning on bottling it) in Wisconsin for the Griesedieck family. This info came from a employee at Griesedieck Vending in St Louis that I talk to from time to time.

[GreginNM]

Hey GreginTex are you a member of the BCCA?

Vend_dr, I am a member and have been one for over 10 years (other than a couple years recently with all my moves and deployments).  I have some soda cans, but not many.  I used to dump those Shasta flats all the time in California growing up.  They are still boxed up.

Great collections so far!!

[halehouse]

I have a small collection of "pop" bottles from Youngstown, Ohio.

Then, things for the gameroom. Signs, a pitch and bat, cocktail table video game.

[aspbear]

Vend dr, you are right they are already starting to bottle griesedieck again (you could still get on draught in st louis).  My son who had done a show in St Louis recently brought me back a 6 pack of bar bottles freshly brewed.  They are using one of the old labels and even starting to reproduce some of the advertising.  I got started collecting it because when I was a kid I listened to the St. Louis Cardinals on radio and they were always sponorsed by Papa Joe Griesedieck and there logo is a shield with the initials G B, which is my name.  It is a very smooth ale type beer.

[aspbear]

Dan, great signs is the one shaped like a bottle capr with the wire ring around it, is it a clock or thermometer.  I have never seen one like that it looks very unique...

[Curless Auto Repair]

Let's see....

Cars:
1929 Model A Business Coupe
1955 Caddy Eldorado
1958 Corvette
1966 Tempest
1985 Tube Chassis S-10
1991 Mustang LX 5.0 (blown)

Tractors:
1936 John Deere A
1942-45 John Deere A (war time tag missing don't know for sure)
1955 John Deere 60

COKE....Yeah right I have no idea how much stuff I have but I do have a rather large collection 6-packs, over 100 different unopened six picks. I have all square top machines, about 5 of them, 2 Westing house coolers, and who knows how much other "stuff" that has been given to me as gifts.

Cig machine, candy machine, gas pumps, tire flators, panty hose machine, ect...

But my real problem is Snap On......I love sockets! I am addicted to them, if it's new, deep, shallow, in between, swivel, chrome, black, 1/4,3/8, or 1/2 inch I NEED IT!

I need to have a sale, never wrote it all down before...hope the wife doesn't read this!

[halehouse]

Curless-  are your Westinghouse machines the Select-O-Matics?  I wouldn't mind one of the shorter ones showing up around here.

aspbear-  that sign is a 16" button which has the wire frame and a small plastic button on the back side.  I think it must have been part of a larger piece at one time. It has the remnants of an "Electric Sign" sticker on the back.  Here is a pic of the other side.  I have moved it to another room since the first pic was taken.

[aspbear]

Very nice sign, I had never seen one like that..Thanks for the second picture

[cormy]

I got a thing for these mini oil can banks about three years ago. They were handed out at gas stations in the 50's-60's if you bought their gas. I have about 70 now and am always looking for more. Some can be expensive!

[Curless Auto Repair]

Cormy, very nice collection. My uncle has been a petrolina collector for over 30 years, its all his fault that I love that stuff!

On the coolers , they are not as you asked. I have one that is just a cooler and one that is a recirculatory.

[bubba]

But my real problem is Snap On......I love sockets! I am addicted to them, if it's new, deep, shallow, in between, swivel, chrome, black, 1/4,3/8, or 1/2 inch I NEED IT!

I need to have a sale, never wrote it all down before...hope the wife doesn't read this!

I miss the Snap On man... My wife used to call him My other wife since I was giving Snap On more money than my wife was getting every week 

[cormy]

You collect sockets???

[dr galaga]

I still have my coin and baseball card collection that had a kid.  Right now I stick mainly with Classic coin-op games, beer/pop signs, Atari 2600 games (as you can see in my avatar  ), records (I have over 4,000 45's and also a closet that is just albums and 12" singles - gotta love the old K-Tel ones), and old pop bottles. 

[bubba]

4,000 45's?     K-tel??? 
                            

[Kilroy]

I forgot about K-Tel, may have to go searching the parents basement this weekend.

I don't collect as much as I aquire. Someday I'll have the  room to have everything displayed, in use. Well that's my goal I've slowly got into jukebox restoring,  of course, pop machines,  lots of original and repopped signs, thermometers, and weird stuff that just struck as me cool.

[dr galaga]

For those of you who have Seeburg Consolette wallboxes, the K-Tel mini-album pictures on the back are the perfect size for the album pictures in the wallbox (see pic below that I stole from jukeboxparts.com).  About 10 years ago I went in to a used record store and told the owner I was looking for some K-Tel record covers and what I was using them for.  He went in the back and gave me a few that that he didn't put out since the records were all scratched up but the covers were still in decent shape.

[cormy]

I also collect Gulf Oil gas pump signs. I have some rare ones to get yet.