Three of my personal collection fields are biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt, whom I greatly admire, and Queen Elizabeth and Cleopatra. Recently it struck me that whom I love to collect as far as biographies are strong and powerful women. So maybe I am collecting in one field.

If you decide to collect biographies, you can specialize in just one person such as Lincoln, whom I feel a strong desire to recollect as I eliminated those books when I was trying to downsize. Since then, I decided if any of my collections were allowed to get out of control, it would need to be my books.

You can collect a field that is broader such as Generals of the Civil War or all the royalty in a specific country. Maybe you enjoy reading books about movie stars and would love to collect only those of the 40’s or 50’s. Possibly, books about politicians might be the answer.

I also have a budding collection of authors. You could certainly stick to one or expand to all sci- fi authors, or all those of a certain country or time frame.

How about you sports fans at there, wouldn’t you love to know more about your sports heroes?
Biographies are limited only by your imagination. I love autobiographies and memoirs, but others work and study on that person should also be considered.

Games that were commercially made came much later and date back to the Victorian Era.

People in the United States really began to be aware of board games during the 20th century.

One significant change of lifestyle occurred after WWII. Suddenly people had more leisure time. They looked for activities that were less strenuous physically and soon discovered playing board games. When they started to gain in popularity, more board games were manufactured.

Some facts to know when collecting board games:
One of the most popular names in older board games is Mc Loughlin. If you decided to attempt to collect these, realize they are rare and command very high prices. You could pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a late 1800 game. An example of one of these games is the board game called Bulls & Bears. It may be sold for the $13,000 range.

Most collectors stick to more modern games since those items from that period are very rare. During the period between 1946 and 199, there were games about lice4nsed cartoon characters. These are a favorite type to collect. Even board games from the 1970’s are interesting to collectors. Often you can still by these while very cheap, but expect them to ultimately rise in price also.

Be sure to take note and collect any special Editions of Scrabble, monopoly, or Trivial Pursuit as a future collectible.

Collect classic name games and things like checkers, chess, and Chinese Checkers besides Chutes and Ladders, and Hi Ho Cheerio.

For a fun collection, but one without much value, you could just collect the boards themselves. They are attractive displayed on a wall.

When you do collect the total games make sure everything is there and in mint condition. Boxes must be perfect and intact. A game is not considered mint unless corners are perfect.

Often the boxes were beautifully lithographed and are even more valuable than the game itself.

It is important you pick a theme for your collection, even if it turns out to be everything Disney. You can focus on the old classic Disney or the new Disney characters or both. The more rare items will be the original character items such as Mickey Mouse or Donald duck from the cartoons or Cinderella and Snow White from the movies, but anything Disney would make a great collection.

Suppose your collection centers on getting all the Disney Movies. You would be well advised to pick up all the classics if you wish to build a collection of value. You can fill it out with the newer movies to make it complete. There are anniversary and shorts which also could be collected as part of this theme.

You could concentrate entirely on Disney books and be able to collect for a lifetime. There are so many versions of the classics and the newer characters are also everywhere in book form.

What about figurines? The Disney stores have beautiful and exquisite porcelain and tiny pewter ones for most classic and some newer characters. You could add plastic ones also; some are made like banks, or other objects such as phones in the shape of a character such as Mickey Mouse.

You can stick to plush toys from the older ones to the newer ones, there are so many examples of Disney, and you will never be done.

Don’t forget toys, movie reels and view masters, snow globes, coloring and sticker books, clocks, linens, pillows, and the dishes. The list actually goes on and on.

You can start by visiting a Disney store or Disneyworld, to see what types of things you might collect. Go online to check out antique and collectibles stores and E-bay. Don’t forget to check at garage sales, flea markets, auctions and thrift stores. You can start a collection easily almost any time you choose and if looking carefully and often, can collect many items in a short span of time. Happy collecting!

First, to be on top of the value of your collection, you need records to show what you originally paid for your collectibles. Second, where they came from might give you a hint as to provenance. Basically, if anyone important ever owned them or if they came from an important collection or location is what provenance means. Third, there is the fact that as your collection grows; keeping all the facts about each item may mean it is impossible to remember them.

Let’s take the first one, the value of your collectibles. To be able to determine the value you need to constantly keep up with market trends and note them in your collection notebook. Every month or so, you should do a check with antique stores, E-bay, online stores, and collectible newsletters for the price of a few of your collectibles. I would choose the ones you think are most valuable, unusual, especially beautiful, or have some special reason that sets them apart. I would keep a column for the current value and update no less than four times a year. I’d also make a separate entry for the market value of that item when the new collectible books come out each year. Then, you can easily compare this with the price paid and determine how that collectible is doing.

Provenance can add value to an item. If you can trace, through questions asked at time of purchase and research, your item back to Martha Washington for example, it would become much more valuable. Perhaps, you suspect, a piece of china came from the titanic, wouldn’t that make that piece more valuable than if it came from your local diner? You get the idea.
Last, when your collection contains a dozen trading cards, you may be able to remember most facts concerning it, but when you have hundreds, records are vitally important. The same is true of any collection. I know many doll people pin a slip of important information on the back of their doll, but slips of paper can be lost and like all information should be backed up somewhere in a record.

It is better to be safe than sorry and records also add legitimacy to a collection.

Some folks try to recreate their childhood by collecting items form that era or things they owned as a child. Some try to get items they never were able to own as a child, but now feel they are a must to possess them.

Still others are driven by the fact of ownership of such rare or beautiful items. Some just like to surround themselves with beauty and great workmanship.

For many of us the search is almost more important than the acquisition. Just being able to finally locate something or adding that item that really fills out our collection is everything to us.

Some collect because they wish to own things of value. For them it is more of an investment. It is an accumulation of items that have worth and therefore act almost like a savings account only they are more beautiful or interesting than mere money.

For whatever reason you collect, it means something important to you. So, why do you collect?

The next thing I would look for when purchasing vintage jewelry is the condition. To me, there is no point in buying anything less than very good condition unless it is so rare and the price is really cheap.

I wear my jewelry, so I want it to have clasps that work and be nice enough to display. This means all stones are present and tight or can at least be re-glued or tightened. It means the stones have a brilliance and clarity, not muddied by lack of foil on rhinestones or simply bad stones.

Next, I look for unusual pieces. I particularly love the figurative pieces that are created in the shape of animals, insects, clothing accessory items like shoes, and fans, and parasols. I like lots of color on my items whether from stones or from enamel. I want as much detail as I can get. But, all this has to be done in a very pretty way so it does not look cheap or amateurish in execution. To me the classier the better, but your collection may focus on the bizarre and then sometimes we have nothing else to compare it with.

If there are several pieces of a similar design, comparison is great for deciding which piece has better quality than the others.
When you first start collecting and even later you will want to purchase lots of pieces. This is as it should be for a beginner since all these purchases should help you learn about your field of collecting. As you gain more experience you should be a bit more discriminating in purchases if value is really important to you. To begin with just collect what you like. If it appeals to you, chances are it will appeal to others and have some value.

The person that is a Labrador Retriever collector may have started by wanting to collect Lab figurines, but now his collection has exploded. He has ventured into the collecting of art prints since many of the pictures of Labs he owns fall into this field. He also has become a small book collector as he collected many books on the topic. His collection can include steins which could be a collection all its own. He has playing cards, yet another field of collecting as well as buttons and badges with Black Labs on them.

It is easy to get into many phases of collecting once you expand and especially if you haven’t narrowed it down yet. Other people may be responsible as they pick up items they think you should have or even make gifts of other items slightly out of your field which you originally had not planned on collecting.

One of my interests is Egyptology. I really love anything Egyptian that represents the time of the pharaohs. So that period has become very interesting to me and I have found sculptures, boxes, books, vessels and pottery and numerous other items that could be collected under this field.

So, you have one of two choices, stick to a narrow area of collecting such as just elephant jewelry or just cat figurines or just Impressionist paintings or embrace your wild side and collect everything. Your collection of pottery might include everything Red Wing or just everything you love in every shape, color, and from every manufacturer. It is up to you since it is your collection.

The kitchen collectible can be a set of beautiful pottery mixing bowls kept on a shelf because you love the colors or it can be a cherry pitter that is otherwise more difficult to find. It might have a primitive look or maybe an art deco design.

Some kitchen collectibles are rare, but if found often still work very well since they were so well made at the time they were produced. Missing parts would be difficult to find, but not every woman liked to cook or needed to use their tools so hard either.
You will soon learn the names of those manufacturers that are in demand once you begin to collect. Each item will have the top collectible brand as well as other brands that are either more decorative or another style of the same tool. Many patents were given during the nineteenth century for kitchen tools that still are able to do the job they were designed for.

Kitchen collectibles can include things like glassware for cooking and serving, but one favorite item is the refrigerator dish with its top. We now all use plastic, but glass is still preferred for keeping in freshness and eliminating that plastic odor.

Your tool options could include choppers, knives, cherry pitters, sifters, mixers, and the list could go on and on.

Displaying your collection is fun if you have room other than kitchen cabinets and drawers. I have used a piece of pegboard with hooks for an interesting conversation piece and ease of finding those unusual items. Open shelves are the best way to collect mixing bowls and attractive and unusual pottery pieces for cooking and serving. You could collect rolling pins and place them on narrow shelves with fasteners to keep them in place or use sturdy hooks that could be bent into place and line them up and down a wall. They come in many different woods, pottery, glass, and marble.

Whatever you collect try to find stuff without rust, pitting, dents, and that still work.

The best part about kitchen collectibles is that they will not be ruined by using them also.

An inventory could help you answer all these questions and head you in the right direction for making your collection what you want it to be. You may once this is done, decide to refocus your collection on just one area. You may decide to take your entire collection in a new direction.

At least once a year and probably even better would be every 6 months, you should ‘take stock’ of what your collection has become.

This is the time to check for duplicates and to see if everything stored or displayed is still in good shape. You might want to combine this activity with cleaning your collection.

Your record keeping needs to be checked for accuracy during this inventory time. Your records should reflect every purchase, every time you have sold or traded off an item, and anytime you got rid of something due to breakage or other damage.
Don’t forget to make sure every item is numbered and accounted for. If you have the collection split into several areas, be sure to thoroughly check all of them for lost or misplaced items.

Inventorying your collection will keep things fresh in your mind and enable you to make wise purchases in the future. Check inventory first if possible, before purchasing items. Might be a good idea to have that book or records with you when actually purchasing so as not to buy duplicates or make costly mistakes.

One of the nicest things about shopping E-bay is that you are able to shop worldwide. Yes, it takes a bit longer to receive items when you buy from Europe or the Orient, but where else can you find some of these same items?

Being an E-bay seller in the past and buyer now, I know most sellers are wonderful and reputable. Some have been selling for years and you really can tell the good sellers and buyers form those with less of a reputation. Look for the ratings people leave them to shop with complete confidence.

No matter, what your collectible is, E-bay usually has some examples. I have purchased and sold books, collectible dolls, vintage jewelry, tin toys, rare dolls, character toys, some pottery and glass, some Oriental merchandise, art work and many other items with great success.

In recent years, E-bay has taken a hit with the rest of the economy and many sellers are offering items at real bargains. They often add free shipping as well.

Spend some time search through the items and when you find those bargains act quickly and bid consistently so as to not miss out on your favorite collectible.