AMASSBLOG my name is james phillips williams. most everyone calls me jp. i have been a designer in new york for 20 years. i started this blog at the urging of my friends and fellow designers who were familiar with my manic collecting. my collections are varied but generally have to do with typography or design.
posted by OmieWise on Aug 31, 2009 - 11 comments

Herb & Dorothy Vogel is a documentary about a postal clerk and a librarian who amassed over 4000 works of conceptual and minimalist art on their modest income. Their only criteria: it had to be affordable, and it had to fit in their apartment.
posted by Extopalopaketle on Jul 31, 2009 - 33 comments

Accidental Mysteries: Toilet Paper Roll Sculptures by Junior Jacquet l 19th Century Japanese Pregnancy Dolls l Hand soaps l An Obsessed Collector (From the Estate of Charles Martignette) [PDF but worth it and mildly nsfw] and other diversions to explore. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Jul 26, 2009 - 9 comments

The Baseball Card Movie is a short documentary set in a baseball card shop frequented by collectors. Showcases the customers' different styles of collecting and the strange ways the card manufactures mange to sell packs for $100+. It's not for kids anymore, but it's not all bad. (Via)
posted by The Devil Tesla on May 12, 2009 - 32 comments

Public Collectors is an eclectic archive of off-line and on-line collections to which anyone can contribute. It is "founded upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible." [more inside]
posted by stbalbach on Apr 27, 2009 - 9 comments

Obsessed with Jews is a hilariously delightful documentary short about Jewish memorabilia collector, Neil Keller. Keller speaks effusively about Jews in basketball ("Ossie Schechtman, great story. Ossie Schechtman scored the first basket in NBA history.") and Jews in hockey ("The first Jew in hockey was Samuel Rothschild."), although contrary to the Chanukah Song, Keller provides a letter where Rod Carew explains he's not Jewish. The documentary is by Jeff Krulik, that mensch responsible for Heavy Metal Parking Lot. For more Jeff Krulik documentary shorts and a great article on Krulik's days in cable access TV, check the multimedia article here. (Click through the pages. It's worth it!)
posted by jonp72 on Feb 22, 2009 - 24 comments

Crate Digging, Don't Do It! [more inside]
posted by hydrophonic on Oct 14, 2008 - 48 comments

It's the law: "No person who has attained the age of sixteen years shall take any migratory waterfowl unless at the time of such taking he carries on his person an unexpired Federal migratory-bird hunting and conservation stamp". The Federal Duck Stamp turned 75 this year. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious on Aug 20, 2008 - 12 comments

Remember the old days of the web, where insane collectors cataloged their manias for the world to see? Where terrible design, including "portals" belied neat things kept by amateurs?

I stumbled onto these bank logos via Ffffound and thought they were neat examples of two-color design. But the primary focus of the site is buttons like these.

Also collected: Maritime flyers, Ads for button suppliers, sample cards… All sorts of stuff.
posted by klangklangston on Mar 10, 2008 - 16 comments

The Ephemera Society was glancingly mentioned prior, but deserves a better mention. It includes:
—An exhibit, an article, and links to Michael Ragsdale's 9/11 ephemera.
—A history of Coca-cola print ephemera.
—An article by Will Shortz on the ephemeral history of the crossword.
—Articles from the Louisiana Library Association's journal issue on ephemera, including Principles for Organizing an Ephemera Collection and an Overview of Political Ephemera.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 5, 2008 - 11 comments

It's a bigger business. than you knew. International even. So big that there’s a secondary market of replicas of originals. Some are big, but some are tiny yet very ambitious about collecting. Many choose to build their own, and often they painstakingly document the process. And yes, there is a main watering hole where they ALL gather.
posted by asavage on Dec 18, 2007 - 38 comments

Pop Life Art and its associated blog focus on celebrity art, heavy on the rock stars. One of my happy discoveries is Martin Mull's collection of collages, but I bemoan the lack of any wildlife art from Radar O'Reilly. If you're a pop culture junkie, here's a little advice on celebrity art collecting from an expert.
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 19, 2007 - 3 comments

The Art of Sharpening the Pencil (You've GOT to check out the bizarre pencil sharpener at the bottom of the page. "You'll poke your eye out!"). [more inside]
posted by spock on Oct 23, 2007 - 33 comments

MeFi Trainspotting Dept.: While most music consumers long ago traded up their sonically dodgy, graphically threadbare, non-bonus-enhanced early CD pressings of their favorite albums, a subculture has naturally arisen to absorb their discarded digital detritus. Witness "Target CDs", a family which encompasses certain early West German and Japanese pressings on the Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (WEA) labels. So named for their distinctive label design, Target CDs - unlike, say, MFSL Gold CDs - make no particular claim to superior fidelity or longevity; in fact, due to their notorious "flat transfer" process from whatever version of the album happened to be lying around, it seems quite the opposite. (Further evidence for the purely nostalgic and/or aesthetic value of these discs can be seen in the "hypothetical Target CDs" threads.) Even so, as within any oddball subculture of collectordom, one can now expect to lay out serious bucks for certain of these shiny little period pieces.
posted by mykescipark on Jun 3, 2007 - 6 comments

The Autograph Man
posted by JeffL on Dec 1, 2006 - 12 comments

Beer Caps. With 12,568 scans available to peruse, Uncle Corkie is the winner in my books. Franco Ferretti may have the largest collection of bottle caps but it's not online. Collecting, a postmodern pastime?
posted by tellurian on May 20, 2006 - 11 comments

I love beer mats. Those with a low tolerance for slow-loading pages with too many graphics on them - or pages that require horizontal scrolling need not click. Other tegestology pages. I had no idea.
posted by spock on Feb 18, 2006 - 6 comments

Want your goals, bookmarks, photos, music, blogs (or anything else RSS-friendly) in one place? SuprGlu collects your own content from your feeds on various webservices and posts them in one centralized place, making a personalized site all about you. As an example. (example links not mine)
posted by divabat on Jan 2, 2006 - 35 comments

How Marvel convinced us to cut up our comics “The program destroyed the value of countless Marvel comics of this era, and missing value stamps are the bane of serious Bronze Age collectors.”
¶ I was ten years old and I collected all 100 Series A Marvel Value Stamps, so I totally grooved on this remarkably comprehensive site. Ironically, the coolest artifacts are the empty collector’s books, which show off the artwork best, in glorius black & white & red, without the crappy colour printing of the era.
posted by KS on Jun 7, 2005 - 5 comments

fore-edge painting. Books that, when fanned, reveal paintings on their edges. Hot, fore-edge action! (QuickTime.)
posted by steef on Mar 9, 2005 - 33 comments

I vould haf palbidations by de heardt if you vould let me take your picture. Vintage postcards featuring cameras and photographers.
posted by iconomy on Feb 14, 2005 - 5 comments

Dear MEFI, I just love Alphabetilately, and I think you will too! Yours sincerely, taz.
posted by taz on Sep 17, 2004 - 19 comments

For 36 years, Harold Gray has been on an extraordinary mission -- to recover what may be the most famous stolen coin collection in the United States. Since October 1967, when five hooded gunmen invaded the Coconut Grove estate of chemical empire heir Willis Harrington duPont, binding the family with silk neckties and stealing the valuable coin collection from duPont's safe, Gray has been on the case. ''We remain,'' he says today, ``in hot pursuit.''
posted by stbalbach on Apr 5, 2004 - 4 comments

Nothing to do but surf group weblogs? No worries, there's always some hobbies that you haven't considered. Try collecting sugar packets, fruit stickers, toilet seats, join a club, or just go for broke and cover yourself in porridge. There's no excuse to be bored...
posted by moonbird on Oct 5, 2003 - 9 comments

Heraldic Bookplates While everybody knows about book collecting, bookplate (ex libris) collecting has a somewhat lower profile. But those seemingly utilitarian bookplates can be a source of endless fascination, whether for the aesthetics or the owner association. For images, see Early American Fiction (U. of Virginia), Estonian Bookplates, the Murray Collection (U. of British Columbia), and the Bookplate Directory (Notre Dame). Joseph Manzano has proposed ex Webis (some female nudes, possibly NSFW). For more information, visit the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers, which among other things links to a site devoted to Beethoven bookplates (warning: prepare to hear the Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major). Or go ahead and read some articles.
posted by thomas j wise on Jun 2, 2003 - 3 comments

A 63-year old Norwegian bus company owner has amassed one of the worlds largest collections of ancient manuscripts valued at over 110 million dollars. His story, how the collection is used and his plans for the sale proceeds are all first-class and an inspiration to private collectors of antiquities.
posted by stbalbach on Aug 25, 2002 - 15 comments

Here’s a nice addition to your movie memorabilia collection. Would that I had the spare £15,000 lying around. If you could owe one little piece of a favorite cult film, what would it be?
posted by Fenriss on Mar 12, 2002 - 51 comments

"Many individuals have asked me in past months, Why moist towelette collecting? Why not stamp collecting, or numismatics? To be different, perhaps? Well, I must admit that at first that was part of the appeal, but I have since become aware of the strong movement of Moist Towelette enthusiasts, and accepted that I am not alone in my fascination / hobby."
posted by machaus on Jun 25, 2001 - 12 comments