I have been a collector of countless unusual collections over the years. For the new collectors out there, I would encourage you to realize that collections of any sort are really an organic experience. By that I mean they grow, diversify, expand, consume, and transmute often with little or no help from you the collector. In my personal opinion that is one of the most fantastic things about being a collector.
That being said there are those out there who have a passion for an item. Maybe its baseball cards, stamps, or coins just to list some of the more common collections. These people are focused and dedicated to finding those items in the collections that they are building, and over a lifetime will build a very impressive collection indeed.
I will tell you upfront, I am not one of these people. I collect the usual things from time to time, but my true passion is in the unusual, the forgotten, and the strange.
I have collected trivets for example. Not just any trivets, but ones of a very specific and unusual size. They are not worth lots of money, but they are a nice collection that I can display in my kitchen and they look very impressive.
I collect comics, but really I collect early original comic art, form the 1880's to 1950's. Now if you are collecting this particular type of art, from known runs of comics or newspaper strips you are looking at thousands of dollars, but I don't need to spend thousands of dollars to have the art I want. I buy early panels from non-famous artists, or art that was for comic exhibitions from artists that were hoping to hit it big. This art is unique, has an original style and voice, and honestly is not very common, due to the fact that many of these artists never became prolific.
Another example of "organic" collecting is the time my wife and I went into a group shop. We walked the entire 3 floor shop and found nothing of interest. Finally in the last booth at the top of the third floor we found these two huge bottles that stood between 3-4 feet tall. One was an acid orange color the other was a deep, rich blue. They were both hand blown. We both loved them as soon as we saw them, which is unusual because usually my wife and I collect very different items. We knew nothing at all about them, but bought them anyway. One bottle was $60, the other was $45. We took them home and Begin to research them and found them to be Blenko glass from the 60's. We loved it so much that we began to collect more of it. Now we currently