The child-like wonder of your youth may have influenced you to collect a number of different things while you were growing up. Or maybe you had a grand collection of just one thing. In fact, the hobby of collecting might still carry on with you today.
From baseball cards to dolls to stamps to insects, tell us what types of things you collected as a child in today’s Throwback Thursday!
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Every Wednesday along with my milk money I had money for my stamps. I had a stamp collection and the school would allow us to buy different stamps to place in books which after being filled up could be exchanged for different gifts.
refrigerator magnets and pennants
pebbles
paper dolls that i made, their clothes, their home furnishings. ...Loved it.
Creepy Crawlers, Mice, and Horror Figure Models.
I use to collect marbles and jacks
Garbage Pale Kid cards, Baseball and Basketball cards, Comic books, Comic book cards, and Coins
I collected anything Beatles. I've sold part of my collection in recent years but still have plenty left. I also collected coins that were older than me. At the time I worked at Reads Drug Store as a cashier and came across old coins at times.
Trolls, Barbies & Beatle photos!
Nickels, postcards, and a few other things sporadically like stoneware from Williamsburg and stamps. I still have everything. Somewhere. EVerything. (Talk about clutter....)
I collected panda bears (and I still do). My grandfather used to buy anything with panda bears on it from yard sales and I still have a coffee mug 25 years later.
I collected sea glass from the shore of Lake Ontario. I had a beautiful collection
Breyer model horses. And as a teenager, anything to do with "Van Hagar" and Dokken.
When I was a kid, we used to collect stickers and trade them. They came in all kinds of shapes, colors, sizes and scents. Scratch and sniff stickers were the best.
the little plastic NFL football helmets...we used to get them out of the gumball machines. then we would trade them ..
I collected stamps as a kid, especially stamps from different countries depicting various time periods. I saw my collection as a view into a world that lay beyond my island home. As I grew older I began collecting sea shells and unusual seeds that fell from the trees. It was a joy to walk on the beach and to find beautiful shells that got washed up on the shore. I found alot of joy and passion in collecting different seeds.
Sorry to say I grew up in the 60s and collected nothing.
But when we landed on the moon I did collect all the newspaper clippings from that mission
When I was 8 I collected Frito Bandito erasers that came with Lays snack products
My daughter collected "oilies", these were stickers with oil in them in various different shapes. We went from store to store to collect different ones. My kids also collected the toys from "Happy meals", they used to give very nice little toys away, I even called to McDonald's outside our area to complete the sets. My son put together an Inspector Gadget doll from Burger King, each week they gave you a different part.
Matchbooks from restaurants all over the country. Since smoking is banned in public places, no more matchbooks 🙁
I never smoked, I just liked the variety and the free memories
I collected all sorts of comic books. The corner store sold them for 5¢ with the front covers torn off (I'm sure they were supposed to have been sent back for recycling instead of sold). I had them categorized, numbered, and "filed" in a box, so I could find any of them easily. At one point I had over 400 and had read each of them several times.
Now I collect books (and have a substantial collection of embroidery supplies, but since I expect to use at least some of the embroidery supplies to give away as gifts, I don't really count that as a "collection").
cabbage patch and barbies... now marvel comic books
Comic books (Archie, Superman, Beetle Bailey, Brenda Starr, Graphic Horror, Mad) and cut-out dolls (detested real dolls) and their cut out clothing, books (with really tiny fonts..a lot more words for the buck), bottle caps for playing Skellies on the streets of New York, Spauldings (some had more bounce over time than others), puzzles and pets (had several at a time as parents permitted-brought home strays often-and this in New York City-the Bronx!).
I collected dolls and I also liked to collect marbles. I don't think kids today even know what marbles are much less play the game.
I loved playing with marbles and jacks... it's the simple things in life...
I collected oceans.
When I was 8 or 9, my dad and I decided (ok, mostly my dad) that it would be so neat for me to collect sand and water from different oceans in glass jars. We didn't travel to that many oceans, but I did meet the oceans at different spots around the country. Sanibel Island, Florida; San Diego and Coronado, California; the Gulf of Mexico, and so on. I set each labeled jar, some with the photograph of the collection spot by it, side by side on my blue and white book shelf. And then my friends started contributing to my ocean fetish. One middle school friend of mine surprised me upon her trip home from Paris-- she had collected water from the Seine (not sure how) in little travel shampoo bottles.
I have since dispensed with my pet oceans. The jars started to fill with green slime and little bits of life carried on in their miniature version of home. Anyway, I thought that was a pretty cool thing to collect as a kid and, needless to say, I'm pretty proud of it. My dad and I still talk about it sometimes.
Matchbox Cars & Garbage Pail Kids
Stickers and Cabbage Patch Dolls 🙂
In the 70s we all collected stickers. "Wacky stickers" were especially popular. I recently came across my old wacky sticker collection and sold it on ebay for over $100!
I collected all sizes and types of TROLLS 🙂
I collected Lisa Frank stickers. I was so fascinated with the vivid colors attached with the wild imaginative designs.
I loved to collect well dressed paper dolls. Then sit the dolls are in my bedroom with my black board and chalk taught school. I no longer collect those dolls, however I still teach in many many ways.
As a child, I used to collect stickers. Sticker kits were quite popular in my day and I would scour department store shelves to find these rare kits before they were sold out. I created 5 sticker storybooks in my lifetime (a true accomplishment) but alas, the tragic day eventually came when my mom threw them in the Goodwill donation bag and I lost them forever. My collection ended that day, but I will always treasure the memories of hours spent sitting on the floor organizing and counting stickers.
I collected Americana/relics, starting at age 6 (I've aged 10-fold). I once came across a family trash heap which contained letters from the Civil War and two Washington, D.C. telephone books dated 1896 and 1903. I carried these historical archives home, knowing I really hit the jackpot this time. Unfortunatly, I left them on top of the garbage cans and they were disposed of the next day (trash day, Monday). Well, I guess I can't forget this early trauma.
I collected coins, although I think my dad did most of the work for me!
I collected $2 bills . They were in circulation briefly when I was a kid,
I also collected dolls from other countries. My aunt would bring them back to me. Each was dressed in traditional garb from their country.. I had dolls from Italy, Ireland, Greece, Isreal and many others.
As a child, growing up in the midwest, I collected stamps and comic books.These were my outlets during the winter months and I got most of the stamps from my grandparents. Then I could here the stories that went along with the letters. I got a glimpse of what they went through during the war and depression. Great insight as to how the country was back then.
I collected and saved every ticket stub from the movies that I went to see.