The almost tragic life of a collector

[tosh]

I've only just began to realise how serious this problem is.

It all starts out as a little bit of fun..ooh a new multitool WOW 

Then you go off searching to see if you missed anything....what you then find  is that there are many many more models (some it seems are no longer in production  )

"Oh no, I must get one of those whilst they are still available".

Fast forward 3yrs during which time he discovers a website dedicated solely to multitools!! Now his eyes are well and truly opened. He now realises that the clock is ticking, he is not alone for there are others too.....he must try and grab as many as he can.......the urgency quickly compounds itself as he realises that many are not so easily available for love nor money and so the hunt begins....

Our tragic collector spends his nights (and days) constantly thinking what he "NEEDS" to get. His monthly allowance is gobbled up within a space of hours as he quickly grabs more multitools. Spent up....skint..he now sits and waits, he must plan ahead and prepare himself for the arrival of the following months pay cheque!!!

Does any of this sound familiar?? Or am I alone 

[Etherealicer]

You are alone, now go to ebay site and buy something

Any Wenger still missing that I should keep an eye open for? No guarantee here, still looking for stuff that basilio is missing...

[Chako]

There is one hard fast rule I have....know your limits, spend within it.

[tosh]

There is one hard fast rule I have....know your limits, spend within it.

I hear you, but sadly it's too late.
We know you go after leatherman first followed closely by victorionox plus whatever strolls across your path 

Unfortunately for me it was and is Wenger. (Though I am still far far behind you )
And discontinued MTs.
Never did I realise how many there were

[Zed]

Ive never been a collector even if it appears that way,ive tried pretty much most mt's / sak but usually have to trade to get another one,these days ive whittled it right down to what works for me and stuff with sentimental value,saying this ive now got a fred and p-38/51 obsession  but i do buy to my means plus lots of help from this great site 

[Chako]

I hear you. I have been collecting things since I was a child. My father wasn't a collector, but my mother certainly was. I got my collecting habits from her. She started me off with world stamps. You know, the cheap used ones that you had to soak the papers off and press and dry them for the collection. Then we both moved into coins for a while. I am happy to say, I do not collect either but still have them all in storage. I never did stop collecting stamps...as I now collect Canada First Day Covers.

With the passing of my father, I found 20 or so multi-tools strewn all over his bedroom. I guess he did have a bit of the collector in him after-all. That is how I started collecting multi-tools. At first, it was just plyers based multi-tools, but soon after finding this web site, I got into SAKs because a lot of people were praising their quality. To this day, the SAK forum is till the most contributed forum on this web site.

At first, when I decided to focus on Leatherman simply because my father favoured his Pulse, I assumed I only had to get maybe 10 more models.  Little did I know there would be so many to collect. I now have around 300 Leathermans alone.

Well tosh, at least you have decided to focus your collection to one brand. I decided early on that I would expand my Leatherman sub group to everything I could find...and would be happy with only one copy of Gerbers, SOGs, etc. My collection is more of a generalist grouping with a focus on one brand. Lately, I have even ventured into these one piece tools...mostly because Leatherman has seen fit to add these to their lineup.

Well tosh, not sure what I can tell you to make it feel better. I know for myself, I have some other reasons than pure sentimentality for buying new items. A big part of my enjoyment is posting and talking about gear on this forum. That was fueled by the lack of such info when I first lurked MT.O and the web. Now a days, most people post photos. Back when I first started, people thought I was weird for doing such. This is one of the main reasons why I am so public with my collection. That and I feel collections need to be shared and not squirreled away or hidden...but that is a personal philosophy. I am aware plenty of members may think I am bragging...but honestly, it is the whole melding of photography and educational aspect that keeps me going on MT.O.

I think most collectors go through phases. At the end of it all, you will be able to look at your collection and feel pride, sentimentality, and a sense of accomplishment.

[AimlessWanderer]

I went through a mad phase of having to try everything, but after a while I started to realise certain types/categories just didn't agree with me, and my wish list cropped accordingly. I was also able to offload a lot of stuff that didn't work out for me, and now it's all levelled off whereby I pretty much have all I want (stuff I enjoy using) .... and a few others I could probably get rid of too   

I consider myself very lucky I never get hit with a real collecting bug. I actually started collecting penknives several years ago, but got bored of that very quickly as I just wasn't getting any fun out of them sitting in a box. Not really surprised though. I had a couple of those panini sticker albums as a kid. Got within 5 or 6 stickers of the first one before I lost interest, and probably only got about 1/3 of the second before slinging it ... never bothered again. The only thing I've ever really wanted full collections of is DVDs ... but I always just cheated and bought the box set 

I think I just get bored too quickly to collect stuff ... thankfully   

[Zed]

Oh i say im not a collecter but ive collected stuff since i was around 8-9 as my aunty and uncle god bless them collected everything and there house was like a museum,in the 80's i collected swords,knives,replica guns,and militaria,ive around 12-13 watches and many pocket knives, a few mt's and about 7 sak's and lets not start on fixed blades and swords  so yes i stand up and say yes i have a problem  and we want even start on my bicycle passion  so ok iam a collector 

[magentus]

Good subject Tosh - Do you enjoy your collection, or is it the collecting you get the rush from?

There are so many MT's in such variations that we can never hope to have them all!

I'm lucky (!) that I don't have enough cash to buy anything and so my collection of 6 SAK's are all from trades. I think I'd like a full size LM or similar but I'm happy to wait for that.

I hate too much choice and love charity shops as there is always an element of serendipity if I find something I'm looking for.

[kkokkolis]

I was never a collector in the sense many here are, but I was always a collector the way Chako's father was. I never feel the need to have everything of something, rather something from everything. So I have a little mineral collection, some hundrends specimens but mostly small ones. A small lead and pewter soldiers collection. Ι thimbles collection I gathered for my wife and continue to add from time to time. Other "collections" are function oriented, so I wouldn't stay with one telescope or one binocular pair but would like to experience using many different designs.
Regarding SAKs and Multitools, thanks to MTO now I have more than the ones I use but for most of them I found uses (I put them in different places or I am going to inherit them to my kids etc).
Mostly I want to experience different designs and philosophies. The one I bought as a collector's item was the Victorinox XAVT. It has display and conversational value and prevents me from buying more SAKs just to experience a more rare blade tool, because it contains most contemporary such implements.
So I collect items that make my day and have a function (people are awed by my mineral collection in the living room, or the toy soldiers, or both, and we can start a conversation easily) and usually I try to EDC things in order to use them at any given chance, or have them in ready condition to put in the car or use in the balcony when I feel the urge to do it.
Normally I should be following the EDC forum and not MTO, but I like the people and contact here. 

[babola]

Oh yes, you hit the nail on the head...believe me there's far more of us similar in this respect on this forum than one would think.

It's a sickness of sort, there's no point denying it. But a controllable one, you just need to ensure you stay on top of it and take it easy, pace yourself.

There's a lot of fun in collecting and acquiring, and the greatest bit for me is the rush I get from the 'chase' of just another one, the last one, the special one...etc.

 

[Chako]

That and after a while, you get a keen sense of what works and what doesn't...as you can see, feel, and use many different designs...which is the nicest perk of collecting multi-tools in my opinion.

Maybe I should make a bumper sticker that states : I love fondling my tools. 

Nothing wrong with the minimilist user crowd either. Plenty of room for all here on MT.O. 

[tosh]

Without coming across as "woe is me" as a child I had very very few toys. My father was a drunk. (abusive) and my mother worked all hours as much for the passion as the need.

Most of you won't be aware that I was born 40% deaf in both ears. Forced to wear hearing aids at school and was bullied mercilessly plus my violent father add to that we lived off the beaten track so to speak.
As I grew older, toughened up, took part time work earned money - I began to buy things. And from then it's snowballed. Funny thing is I have 2 younger brothers who were spoilt rotten - never asked twice, fantastic holidays, designer clothes etc etc. Yet today they want for nothing as they had it all back then - I often wonder if there is a psychological connection?

Back to me... When I used to be into photography I had to have everything, them it became binoculars, then powertools and recently MTs and SAKs.
Although as I have stated several times before, to me personally this collection is my own Multitool evolution - I have witnessed the the whole era, it is that that I find so fascinating.
As for Wenger, if they hadn't ceased production I probably wouldn't have purchased any more than I had at the time they made their announcement.

[Zed]

I see this tosh as my dad left when i was 9 and my mum struggled money wise so i started doing work at age 11, i still remember the first things i bought with my first proper paypacket,ive slways worked hard and appreciate all i own,i think youngsters have it much different these days, life does toughen us up but thats no bad thing 

[Yadda]

Hello, my forum name is Yadda and I have a tool collecting problem....  I inherited the pack rat collecting gene from both sides of the family. My parents are children of depression era parents.  Saving and holding on to things was a way of life.  That's one of the reasons I usually only buy used tools and vintage plierenches.  I can't see spending the cash on the new ones unless they are on sale at a vastly marked down price. 

[Chako]

Hmmm.

I can say that I was never abused. I came from a single child family with a stay at home mom. Never was spoiled, but never went without much either. We were not rich in money, but definitely rich in many other things. My father was a tradesman in an industry that was seasonal. He would make the money for 4 months out of the year, but we would live off of that to make due for the rest. He could have traveled for work,and did when times were really bad, but decided to stay with his family most of the times. Despite the financial hardships, I do not see myself collecting because I went without as a child. On the other hand, I do tend to be somewhat sentimental, and I do like many hobbies. Collecting MTs allow me to contribute to this community that I care about, and also allows me a quick fix for photography, which is another hobby of mine.

I agree Zed. I had to pay for all my post secondary education. I saw so many friends and folks I made acquaintance with in my first year of University, that never made it simply because their family was footing the bill. While they wasted their time on parties etc, I was working hard because I knew I couldn't afford to waste my time.

[kkokkolis]

I was loved and wasn't really bullyed but we didn't have money either for much else than a lot of food (top priority for Asia Minor refugees!). The whole country was poor then, and under a 7 year military Junta that was hostile to imports  and that was followed during transition to democracy by halving the drachma overnight, something that made foreign goods (read that as most industrial goods, or everything other than agriculture) very very expensive.
I would like to have goods then that I couldn't. Among them books and records and I forgot to say that I hoarded many books and records when finally I had the means, and then even more in electronic format, since you can fit millions of them in a small HDD nowadays.
So, as a person and as a shrink, I think that Tosh is quite right in his interpretations.

[basilio]

still looking for stuff that basilio is missing...

Glad to read that! 

[Yadda]

still looking for stuff that basilio is missing...

Glad to read that! 

Both sides of the coin, therapy and enabling...

[tosh]

still looking for stuff that basilio is missing...

Glad to read that! 

Both sides of the coin, therapy and enabling...

lol - that's a bit like bringing your own rope for the hangman!

[Chako]

Maybe, just maybe, enabling IS the therapy. 

[tosh]

Maybe, just maybe, enabling IS the therapy. 

Without a doubt Dan, collecting brings a feel good factor.
Have you read Judith Williamson Decoding Advertisments. Great insight (also quite disturbing) into how the subconscious mind convinces us we need things.

[Chako]

No I haven't...but I don't need these things...I do want them however.

Need to me is food, shelter, clothing, and money to pay off the bills. Everything else is gravy.