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Episode 3 - Collecting or Flexing
21 Plays1 year ago
Ross and Gregg discuss collections and what defines collecting over hoarding or whether it is just something you purchase to flex.
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Transcript
Introduction & Host Banter
00:00:06
Speaker
You're listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared, a podcast where we take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle to muse about life, liberty, and the pursuit of randomness. Now here's Greg and Ross. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Unmotivated and Unprepared. I'm Ross.
00:00:36
Speaker
And as always, I'm Greg. Wow. Still Greg. Still Ross. Same old stuff. As people go click. Okay. Yes. No guests. No guests. No guests today. One day. One day we'll pull. One day. One day we'll get guests. One day. We'll pull some high powered, like we'll get some high powered like podcast guests. That'll be the first one we're actually sponsored. When we get over 23, when we get over, we get 23 active listeners and maybe Ross, someone will sign up and be like, Hey, I want to join.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Then we can be
Oreo Flavors & Psychology of Collecting
00:01:07
Speaker
sponsored. So Greg, today I want to talk about stuff and not like, not S T U F the stuff in between like Oreo cookies, because I was just reading about the 85 different flavors of Oreo. So that'll have to be a whole nother podcast episode, but let's talk about collecting stuff. So this, this came to mind.
00:01:29
Speaker
I went to a concert the other day and I see people getting the tour shirts. They buy the shirts. It's nostalgic. It's reminiscent. They remember their experience. I was like, man, we start collecting things.
00:01:44
Speaker
at a pretty young age. And you can read all about the psychology of collecting, and we can get to that later. But I want to talk about just generally collecting as you get older, what you start with, why we do it. And then I just kind of wanted to know, like, do you collect stuff too? Because that's kind of my thing. Well, I want to know if you do you collect stuff for us. I was I was looking around. I'm like, yeah, I have some I
Hoarding vs Collecting
00:02:08
Speaker
have some. But what's but here's the other question. What's the difference between a hoarder and a collector?
00:02:14
Speaker
Um, uh, I think if you, if you could still see the ground, no, I don't know. I mean, that part of me says you are able to part with something that, but, but then at the same time, there's probably some things that I would say, eh, I don't really want to part with that at this point. You know, like even though it's outlived, it's,
Digital Hoarding: A New Age Dilemma
00:02:40
Speaker
Yes, the idea the idea that someone says I might need it is where hoarding comes from and I think the easier I mean in our business right in our what we do for a living data hoarding is a real thing like you at the office and at home like
00:02:56
Speaker
it now seems like space is infinite, at least as storage of digital assets. So now people are hoarding everything, things that they don't need from 20 years ago. They've got pictures of people that don't even remember who they are. So is that a collection or is that hoarding? I mean, I think it's probably hoarding. Yeah, I think from a digital standpoint, you run the risk of it becoming hoarding because, you know, to me, collecting is more, it's a tangible thing that cannot be replaced.
00:03:25
Speaker
Like it either is the memory can't be replaced or the actual thing is unique from that standpoint.
Nostalgia & Collecting
00:03:34
Speaker
So that's even another way to go, right? So if you're talking about it from a memory perspective, how much of what you're collecting is because it has some sort of nostalgia to it. Like, you know, kids collecting toys when they're in their adults and how much of it is you've just acquired these things and you're just holding on to them. You're no longer really an avid collector as much as you just
00:03:56
Speaker
refused to part with something that is, you know, but symbolically that the items are all congruent. Like for instance, let's say movies or something, right? Like they're congruent assets. At what point does it become anyways, we'll get to it. So those are the questions I would want to dive into. Yeah. So, so let's start with, let's start with the, with the childhood thing, right? So,
00:04:18
Speaker
As children of the 80s and 90s, we'll just lump that in general so people don't know the youthfulness of our age. As children of the 80s and 90s, my first foray into collecting was baseball cards. And I saw my brother collecting baseball cards. And for me, it was absolutely a completionist mindset. And if you look at the psychology of collections,
00:04:45
Speaker
and collecting things. There is an aspect of you collect it to complete something to have some sort of control over it. But for me, I wanted the complete set. I wasn't smart enough at the time or didn't put two and two together that I could have just saved my allowance money
00:05:01
Speaker
bought the box set and had every card versus getting the packages and having duplicates of everything but that's but then you don't but then you don't get the bonuses you don't get the the whole reason for doing packing is and the and the yeah and the little like trip of like opening it up and the excitement and the thrill of like did I get the card so that was my first kind of like I guess dopamine hit of collecting and like that excitement of finding something unique I guess was my
00:05:29
Speaker
take on collecting was the uniqueness. Yeah, I think about being a kid. The strangest part for me was I moved around a lot, right? So I moved every, in some cases every year, sometimes every couple years.
Childhood Collecting Experiences
00:05:47
Speaker
And as far as what I could hold on to,
00:05:50
Speaker
or maintain was limited, right? I got to pick out my favorite seven comic books that I want to keep or my favorite 10 mad magazines that I want to keep, but the rest of it had to go away, right? Music, same thing. It was like I could keep some CDs. Well, I kept all my CDs, but I had to have the books. I couldn't keep the card cases. I had to have everything fit within like five bins. I got five rubbermaid bins and that was all I got as far as what I could take with me. So collecting for me was, even now I think about it,
00:06:21
Speaker
I don't know if I was active in the collection of completing anything as much as it was, what do I want to have that I would feel comfortable moving around. I think that's why music for me, collecting CDs, was such a big thing for me as a kid because
00:06:37
Speaker
It was all I could take with me when I left. My brothers collected Legos and I collected CDs because they were useful.
Exhibitionism in Collecting
00:06:44
Speaker
I could validate their use. I could use them all the time. It wasn't some little trinket that sat on the shelf and it would fit in the Rubbermaid bin at the end of the day. Yeah. And that's interesting. So you were forced into that whole downsizing and really getting to the point
00:07:00
Speaker
the whole thing where people try to purge something, except for every one thing you get, you gotta get rid of two things and stuff like that. You were forced into that mindset early on. So for you, going through that list of things that you had, opening up your closet and looking in there and going,
00:07:16
Speaker
And I can only take a few of these things really forced you to make a decision on here are the things that are either most like that. You see, it's interesting. You went based off of a use perspective. I would never consider. I wouldn't say never. Rarely do I consider my collectibles useful, but it's interesting because music for you had a use, right? Like you could continue to use it. And that was your that was your collection. Right.
00:07:41
Speaker
Whereas my dad collects stamps and coins. And to him, there's some level of monetary value in some ways. But in many ways, I think he just likes his collection because he's been doing it since he was a little kid. Yeah, yeah. So he still collects stamps or whatever.
00:07:58
Speaker
That's interesting, because that's the other aspect of collecting. The things we collected as kids, some of them, had we not been kids and are rough on our collections in general, would have a high monetary value. And so some people, I think, but the problem is, I think that kind of ruins collecting, like collecting to try to hold on to something for monetary value. Because at that point, it's not collecting, it's investing.
00:08:26
Speaker
Essentially. Yeah, and I think that's the whole thing with when you see stuff come out at Burger King or whatever. It's like this is a collector's item, this is a collector's edition. Anything that says collector's anything means it's worth nothing. Correct. The things that are worth things are usually the ones that no one collected and now they're rare. Yes, exactly. Like the weird obscure bad guy from a 60s television show, that toy that they made a hundred of is now the most expensive of the set, not the six billion dollar man or six million dollar man, right?
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, essentially. Yeah. And I mean, like, I like if I look at my collections, of what I have is I look around my room, like I have, I don't have a record player, but I have some vinyl.
Art vs Utility in Collections
00:09:08
Speaker
But for me, that's art, right? I have it on the wall. Because it's something that I and something that I enjoy. It's art. It's an art piece. Same with as a kid, I played Pokemon. I have a couple of Pokemon cards that
00:09:23
Speaker
Ironically enough, my brother-in-law also collected Pokémon.
00:09:28
Speaker
and took way better care of his. And they somehow got passed around in a shoebox, but stayed in really good condition. And he didn't want them anymore. But I was like, dude, that's some of my favorite Pokemon. So now I have them like, as artwork, right as like things that I remember as a kid, but like, do they have a use to me? No, they're just they're just pieces. Well, but it does have a memory, right? But wait, so let's separate something for a second usability.
00:09:57
Speaker
That's hard because if you enjoy looking at it, I have a heart on the wall, right? And LPs, just for the audience, a vinyl LP to charge $34 for a vinyl LP, it has to have some other purpose than its music.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Because ladies and gentlemen, vinyl does not sound good. I'm sorry. It does not. It's a warm sound. No, that's called terrible. Like that's not right. It sounds like some, it sounds like someone stepping on their vocals, but
00:10:31
Speaker
But from a nostalgia perspective, I can understand why people gravitate to, I mean, cassette tapes are coming back now. I think it's just the idea of the idea of now being a Gen Z'er or even younger, having a Walkman and doing something from the past feels like you're tapping into some sort of audio file experience, knowing that we were kids and had the cassette tapes and hated them and would like warp them out and they would sound bad after several times playing it.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, but it's just a different feel. So, but yeah, you're right. You're right. Usability is not something you like. If you, if you talk about a collection, right? You're not necessarily looking for usability unless it's something like your dad with stamps, right? Going through them, looking at that, remembering like, Oh, this, this, this, but he's not going to sit there and paste it on something and mail it out. You know, he has sheets. They're never coming off the sheet.
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So then, so then let's talk about when you, when you get older and you start collecting, cause we collect things as adults as well. Um, do you feel like it's all, it's all still because of nostalgia and the things we went to or the things we're currently doing? Cause it's something for me I thought about was,
00:11:53
Speaker
You know, you go on a, you go do a 5k, right? You get the little, you buy the little t-shirt says, you know, some sort of, you know, Turkey trot or something on there. It's like, Oh, cool. I need, I did that Turkey trot thing. But then you cross the finish line and they give you a metal.
00:12:10
Speaker
You didn't win anything. Heck, you walked half of it, but they still give you a medal. Is that a collector's item or is that just a trophy? Is that just to appeal to a person's nature of just stuff and just, you know, like, like, does that cross the line? Well, I think, okay, justification. So there's a, all right, to all collections, doesn't matter who it is, there is a exhibitions aspect of collections.
00:12:37
Speaker
It's the reason why there's Reddit threads for people who collect 4K Blu-rays or whatever, or albums or Pokemon cards. It's an exhibitionist outlet. You're collecting because you want to show off to someone. So the same thing with a medal or a t-shirt. A t-shirt validates that you are... I mean, that's a big thing now. Nowadays in life, it's, did you... Oh, you were at the show? Prove it. Because you have a concert t-shirt that actually could only have been bought at that show. It feels like validation that you were there.
00:13:08
Speaker
And you show off to everybody else that you have some niche taste and some weird, obscure band that like you could start a conversation about, right? And you feel validated that you exist in the world because you have somebody else's name on your shirt.
Physical Media vs Digital Convenience
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
And that sounds cynical, but it really is. I mean, humans naturally have an exhibitions outlet. They want to be validated by their tribe. And one way of validation is just to purchase or share in the purchasing of items or gathering items that you have shared interest in. Like for instance, they take movies. I like movies, right? And for a long time, physical media and still is physical media to some level is there is a joy of
00:13:50
Speaker
physical media. One is the visuals, right? So for people who really like and have purchased a nice TV, because it really makes a difference if you purchase a nice TV, to be able to watch their movies at a higher quality. Is there really that much of a difference from an enjoyment perspective? Not really, it's the same movie.
00:14:06
Speaker
Whether it looks in DVD quality or 4K UHD, it doesn't make it that much better. It really doesn't. It's the same joy. But you feel better because you have decided to gravitate to that area or to that level because you say, I really love movies. So therefore you want to purchase movies so that you can have them on your shelf and you can show them off to your friends. And when they come over, check out this quality over streaming. But let's be honest, it's not that much different. Yeah, no, it's not. But it's a collector's thing. It's the idea that you can share in some sort of
00:14:37
Speaker
joint effort to acquire these things. Yeah. And there is a community aspect, right? And I mean, we talked like a long time ago, we talked about comic book conventions, but like you talk about comics, you talk about sneakers, right? There's a community aspect. You walk by and you see some, even the hardcore sneaker collectors, like they don't wear their shoes. They put them up, you don't wear those, right? Like there's
00:15:05
Speaker
there's like a different level of like extreme but like you walk by and you see someone with some cool kicks on and if you're a collector of shoes and sneakers and so you're like oh yeah those are dope I like those like that's that's something that all of a sudden there's like a community aspect to the collecting of it you know and and you kind of it's something relatable for people like oh I found this thing it's like a treasure hunt for some people right I mean I have 40 I've counted that I have 47 sports coats
Is It Hoarding or Collecting?
00:15:34
Speaker
One would say I might have a collection of sports coats. One might say, no, all would say you have a collection of sports. Greg, we need to talk about hoarding. This is now becoming intervention.
00:15:49
Speaker
But I wear all of them, Ross. I wear all of them. At the same time? No, not at the same time. Okay, sorry. But I wear them frequently. I wear them at least two sports coats a week. I wear them all the time. I have a bunch of shoes, and I wear those all the time. I don't have anything in my clothes collection, for the most part, that I don't wear on some sort of frequency basis. See, I think a lot of people... If I don't wear a shirt for a year, I throw it away.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, see, I think a lot of people, like I couldn't say that. I think there's, I do a purge yearly, but I think there's a lot of things that I get used to wearing certain things and just like creature of habit. But like I envy you with that. Like I wish I could cycle through all those things and be, I don't know if it's discipline or if it's just, that's just what you, how you enjoy doing it.
00:16:39
Speaker
But take ball caps. I have probably 20 ball caps. I rarely wear a ball cap. I think I've maybe seen you once in a ball cap. Maybe once. I wore a ball cap.
00:16:53
Speaker
last night at the soccer game. Actually, I don't even know what I did with that ball cap. But anyways, I wore a ball cap last night. But most of the time, I will never wear a ball cap. You won't see me, but why do I have 20 of them? Well, because I've had them for a while. At some point, I probably won't move them if I leave. But right now, they just sit in the closet. I don't know if that's a collection though, right? I don't know if I'm collected. I don't actively engage with, oh, I want to get a new ball cap this week or this month. I have eight Kango flat caps.
00:17:22
Speaker
I wear them, but really honestly, I only wear like two of them on a regular basis if I wear them at all. And it's just one of those things where like, I don't know if you have eight of them, if it's a collection, what makes an active collector in your mind? That's a good point because like I would like, yeah, is it quantity? Is it, cause if you have, if you said you had four ball caps, but
00:17:51
Speaker
They were all autographed by different players. That's immediately, in my opinion, that's a collection, right? Because you, or at least it's the start of one. But from a utility standpoint, I mean, I at least have two dozen pairs of socks. I'm not a sock collector, right? I just wear them. So that's a, it's an interesting point. Like what would I consider- I have 60 pairs of socks, Russ. Would you consider yourself a collector of socks? You do have some funky socks.
00:18:21
Speaker
Maybe my Nightmare Before Christmas ones were probably a collection because I have like eight different pairs of Nightmare Before Christmas. But again, they're for wearing them. I don't really think of collecting. For me, the hard part for collecting is that, well, one, I don't think as a person I'm that active of a collector of anything.
00:18:40
Speaker
Like maybe my, probably my movies, right? I probably buy 4K movies. Yeah, I would agree with that. Like I've called you up before and started listing off a collection of different Blu-rays and you're like, oh yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that. So like I would consider you enough of an advocate or enough of like an enthusiast for movies. And I think that's probably the thing.
00:19:01
Speaker
You're enough of an enthusiast in that thing to consider yourself a collector of it, right? Just like me. I don't have a ton of like expensive Pokemon cards or anything, but I'm enough of an enthusiast in the games in the past and everything else that I would consider even a small amount a collection for me. So then here's the other question. At what point does somebody
00:19:27
Speaker
I'm thinking about my spices in my cupboard, and I'm a cook, so I cook a lot, or at least I did for a while.
00:19:39
Speaker
I don't know, probably 80 different, 90 different spices. Like, but it's because I need to buy that spice for this dish or do whatever. I don't know if I've actively going, Oh, I want to try something that has this spice in it. Like, I've really wanted like, figure out the nine, 10 things I can make with turmeric. I don't know. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. No, I would neither. I do not like turmeric. But that's another, it's another conversation.
00:20:03
Speaker
I mean, I think if the average layman or laywoman came to your place and saw all of your spices, the comment other than wow would be, that's quite the collection you have there. But that's like a general term for like, that's quite the stock. You have a large stock. You're like a grocery store, right? I wouldn't call that necessarily a collection.
Symbolism in Collections
00:20:28
Speaker
So I think, for instance, whiskey, right? So there's other things that I really enjoy. Whiskey, I definitely have a collection of. I have probably 20 bottles that sit on the shelf that are probably only gonna be open on a special occasion, which by definition means you're starting a collection. They don't have active use, right? They have bottles that have been sitting there for 10 years.
00:20:52
Speaker
They're not getting actively used or anything. They haven't been opened. I think that's a collection. Because it's something that, A, I admire it. I look at it. I put it up there. I show it off to people. No one comes over. But if someone did come over, then they'll come over. But if they did, I would show it off to them. I think that's probably much more of a collection than probably anything else I have. So that's an interesting way to put it, right? Like a collection.
00:21:19
Speaker
being something that you don't necessarily you either one uses art and you regularly appreciate or something that you break out like for on a special occasion or to show someone right back to your whole like it's a what did you it's an exhibition right so like that's how you can kind of validate that yeah that's probably a collection
00:21:43
Speaker
of something I have. I think about people who collect art. So not just art they put on the wall, right? I have art on my wall that I appreciate. But people who collect art actually rotate their art. They have art that's sitting in their closet that they pull out like this is the fall prints, we're putting all of the fall art up. And now we're gonna put the spring art up and then we're gonna put the summer art up. Oh, yeah, I do that too. But with doormats.
00:22:07
Speaker
So so I one could one could argue that we are doormat collectors. But yes, that's interesting that like people rotate like I never thought of it that way is that's it's not just
00:22:20
Speaker
It's not just decor for the house, it's decor for like specific reasons. Or people collect ornaments every time they go somewhere that has an interesting ornament, they collect it. They're not going to use it, but once for Christmas, for a month and a half, and the rest of the time it's going to sit in the closet. It's really just junk. But, I mean, really, I mean, it probably doesn't have any intrinsic value. It doesn't have any extrinsic value. It probably is all intrinsic. They appreciate it because they got this ornament on their vacation in Myrtle Beach. They bought a Christmas ornament.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah. You know what? Now that you say that I, it's another collection of mine. I collect sports jerseys from different countries. If I visit a country, I like to get like a soccer jersey or a rugby jersey or something. So for me, it's kind of reminder of where I was and I'll wear them. Like some of them are terrible fits, but like I'll wear them, but, uh, but yeah, I would consider that a collection because it's, it's somewhere I've been.
00:23:15
Speaker
So I guess at the end of it, I guess we got to come up with our list, Ross. So we know the following things. What makes a collection? A, it has some sort of intrinsic nostalgic value to the purchaser or holder of said collected item. Two, it has to be a collection in the collection sense. It kind of has to have a
00:23:40
Speaker
exhibition quality to it. It's not just because you like it and you wanna enjoy it, but it's something you wanna show off to people. I don't show off my movies to people. I might watch one with someone, but I'm not gonna go, hey, look at all these movies. It's not- Yeah, look at this movie. Yeah, so there has to be some level of showcaseability. Agree. Right. And then the third would be you have to consume a significant amount of it. So you have to have purchased... I mean, you have one rock T-shirt that you're not a collector of rock T-shirts. No, no.
00:24:09
Speaker
Unless, yeah, I agree. I agree. There has to be some sort of minimum amount and or investment in it. Right. If I go purchase a $4 million van Gogh painting.
00:24:23
Speaker
one could argue that I spent enough money that I would consider myself a collector of a Van Gogh's. Not quite, but like, I mean, I don't know, I could argue that's- You bought one though. You bought one though. Okay, so I have a collectible, not a collection, right? Right. Oh, that's fine. I have a collectible. Okay. Well, also, maybe the other piece is also you have to have some sort of
00:24:48
Speaker
associative quality. You have to have some sort of tribe or a group that recognizes that. The value of it too, yes. Yeah, if you collect like pre-chewed gum, I'm not sure that's a collection. I think that's just a weird eccentricity.
00:25:02
Speaker
That's funny. You went with pre-chewed gum. I went with you gently used Kleenexes. So both disgusting, but nobody's going to say like, well, unless it gets extreme, cause there's probably, you could probably Google it. There's probably a pre-chewed gum collection or museum. Oh, I mean, Greg, there's probably a museum. This is, this is the world we live in. Let's see. Gum.
00:25:30
Speaker
Well, it's pre-chewed though. That would be tough. Pre-chewed gum museum. I mean, there's the penis museum in Korea. That's true. And people do like collect phallic statuettes. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't know why, but people do. I have no idea. I have no clue, but to each their own. Yeah. I don't know if there's actually a pre-chewed gum museum, but I'm sure there's a chewing gum museum. I have no doubt.
00:25:54
Speaker
Yeah, or at least candy something. But again, we're talking about it's one thing to collect the outside wrapper. People collect all soda cans from all over the world. It's the advertising or branding associated with it, not necessarily the liquid that's contained inside the can. Could you imagine walking into someone's house and be like, I collect the soda from cans and I just keep them in jars? Who's looking at that?
00:26:20
Speaker
I specifically bought a label maker so I could put what liquid this is. Right. Is this zero or diet? Big difference, folks. I need it for my label. Right. Right. And I like to look at the different color, color differentiate now. Every now and then I shake them and I see how they look when they get shaken up. Yeah. And I wait and I can figure out what percentage of carbonation is left within my jar. Like. Dear diary, today I acquired
00:26:49
Speaker
A cola from Germany. What's interesting is the viscosity was much less than the cola acquired from Italy.
00:27:07
Speaker
But to your point, I mean, to that point, I think from a collector perspective, it has to have some sort of community attached to it. Like it does. It has to have some sort of group that people associate or convene about. Yeah. So now do you feel let's, let's move to the future.
00:27:28
Speaker
Do you feel that with everything being digital, because one, physical media is coming back, and I think that's all because people keep shutting off certain shows off of streaming services stop airing their favorite shows and it's hard to get them, but do you feel in the future, I mean let's go real extreme, collecting of things, will that just slowly go away because everything is being digitized and it will just be,
00:27:57
Speaker
gathered for us, right? Like I already go to a journaling app and it suggests memories. And I'm like, oh, you're just collecting all these memories and stuff for me. But like, do you think collecting will slowly go away? Or do you think there's always going to be an element of that physical collecting of items just because that's the human nature of how we are?
00:28:22
Speaker
I think the utility of things will always cause people to purchase stuff and then maintain it. I think space always has a constraint, right? The people who collect the most are people who live in houses in the suburbs in the US that have big giant behemoth houses and they fill a house full of, I mean, people who collect mob posters, like mob movie posters, and they have like them all up on their wall, they can do
Cultural & Personal Significance of Collections
00:28:48
Speaker
that because they have an entire room that nobody ever goes in.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah. This is my mob room. Yeah. This is my mob room. This is like, hold up. No, no, no. I promise it's a collection. Don't think of it any other way. Yeah. But yeah, I, I do think that I do think humans naturally want to, um, I had this conversation about religion the other day about the idea of idols.
00:29:15
Speaker
and this idea of having something to manifest your visual interpretation of what you believe. And I think a lot of reasons and not that I want to get into a deep conversation about Jesus and that kind of stuff, but like the reason why he looks the way he does in the modern era is because that was a Byzantine creation of a picture of the guy. So people could associate with it. It looked like the ideal of or at least blonde hair, blue eyes with a very rusty red beard and looks like what we
00:29:43
Speaker
associate as being potentially human or at least of the party they were trying to attract. And so Buddha was in Thailand is skinny, but Buddha in China is fat. Why? Because that's what they associate as being good luck and great for you as a big fat character.
00:30:03
Speaker
People collect things because it gives them a sense of attachment to the world. If you don't have anything, look at people who don't have anything. People who live in small houses that are so happy and thrilled to live in small houses, they don't have all the junk. Those people are mostly outdoorsy people. People who live indoors don't want to live in a small house, you can't put any stuff in it.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's the inverse. They want to explore outside. And I think that's the whole aspect of, and we've touched on just memories and just experiences. We've talked about experiencing things that are interesting. And I think that's something that
00:30:47
Speaker
From a mindfulness perspective, you know being in the present being in the moment It almost seems that's counterintuitive to collections collection because collections are always something either in the past or something that's You know, you've moved on from or it's a thing. It's not an experience you have I could argue that exhibitionist. Yeah, it's exhibitionist. That's the whole thing of my clothes, right? My clothes are 100 exhibitionist I get to wear my clothes out and people look at them
00:31:15
Speaker
That's right. People look at Greg's clothes. Greg's a great dresser. Thanks. It's an exhibitionist thing, Ross. I think if you live alone and you don't have people over, odds are you probably collect less. Yeah. I would argue. I can make that argument. I would say that. Yeah. Yeah. Because what are you collecting for? You're not going to show off anything. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to have your couple of things.
00:31:45
Speaker
but you're, you're probably not going to dive deep into something unless, unless it's something, like I said, that you have like a passion and an investment in, but then that usually ends up being almost something that you share outside, right? Like you almost like artifacts, like historians, like, I mean, essentially like, I think what's interesting is people that I talk to are, who are historians or history teachers and everything else. Like,
00:32:12
Speaker
They're fascinated by some of these things like collections and everything, because that's the basis of a lot of what history is on. Like artifacts are how you document and share history throughout, you know, written things, scrolls, like to your point, idols, statues. Those are things that, so collections are what help define history.
00:32:34
Speaker
Right, it's a human's attachment to a place. I thought about it in just thinking, I would argue that probably single people collect far less than married people.
00:32:44
Speaker
The reason I think that is because when you are single, or at least me being single-ish, the whole thing about being single is you're out. You're doing things. You're spending your time and money on experiences or to be out and different things. And so you have this monetary aspect. You're capturing memories as you go.
00:33:06
Speaker
But you also don't have attachment to people because you are out all the time. But then when you get married, I mean, so my my when I was married, you know, my wife and I used to buy a little stuffed animal from everywhere place you went that like symbolize a mascot or something or whatever. Yeah, yeah. They now I have a giant bag of these things in my closet because I got them back in a divorce. And like I have no need for any of that. Like it doesn't have any nostalgic value to me
Collections: Value and Confusion?
00:33:31
Speaker
anymore.
00:33:31
Speaker
Yeah, there's no attachment to it. Yeah, because it was it was something that you you acquired as part of that unit. And you're not that that unit anymore. Yeah. So it's an attachment to that period. I think I do have some stuff left over from my childhood, some collections, like I think my Boy Scout stuff or whatever, that I still have. But the reality is, is like, I don't know how valuable that actually is to me anymore. I don't ever pull it out. I don't ever look at it that much. It's not it. It
00:33:57
Speaker
It's from a Pygon era that I don't have any sort of, and I'm not having children, so there isn't anything to pass that down to share the stories with. Nor what if I got a relationship with the person I'm with, want to hear about Boy Scouts. Yeah. They'd be like, eh, okay, neat. You got some, you got some good life skills from it. Cool. Agree. But, you know, nothing else beyond that.
00:34:16
Speaker
Okay, so let's wrap up with one question. What is something that confuses you to no end as something that people collect? And I can start, I don't understand why people ever collected Beanie Babies.
00:34:44
Speaker
that blew my mind, mainly because it seemed so manufactured. And I mean, it was a hype thing, right? And I knew people who collected Beanie Babies. But I just, that just confused me. Were they true collectors though? Here's the thing, were they true collectors? Because here's the difference, right? I collected some baseball cards when I was a kid, but I was not that passionate about baseball. Sure, sure.
00:35:12
Speaker
And so I never really got that into it, where my friends were really passionate about baseball. They wanted to care about what the earn run average was and all that sort of stuff. They wanted to know the stats in the title card. I care less. So I collected it just to hang out with my friends, but as I got older, I didn't care. I gave away all my baseball cards. I didn't care about baseball.
00:35:32
Speaker
I don't know how people collected Beanie Babies for real that really liked Beanie Babies. I think they just got swept up by the idea of they were valuable, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So where's Codbook Collectors? Maybe I could get an expensive one. Yeah. Yeah. But Codbook Collectors legitimately, like they like Codbooks. They read them. Yes. They pull them out. They wear gloves sometimes when they read them so they don't smudge up the pages and don't get oil.
00:35:55
Speaker
Like I'm it's called book is meant to be read, dude. I have comic books like they're old, but like they're in bad shape. They're exactly what a kid would have. So for you, for you, not knocking comic books, but you do just you don't understand keeping the comic books perfect.
00:36:11
Speaker
Oh, no, no, no, I totally get it. I'm just not that passionate about it. Things I don't understand what people collect decorative plates and decorative spoons. Oh, yeah, that's that's a good one. That's that's a solid one. Yeah, like people are going to someone's house and they have like plates on the wall like hung up.
00:36:27
Speaker
Mm hmm. Oh, why? Oh, my grandmother did. Yeah. And it was like, now granted hers were like, the bicentennial of the city or the centennial of the city. But still, I'm just like one, I'm a kid running around here going, Oh, man, I could easily accidentally break that easily accidentally break it. But like, yeah, I don't but the spoon thing China,
00:36:51
Speaker
Like understanding like I have all this all these plates all this China all this silver and everything No, no, I understand. I understand my mom collects pottery I get understanding like wanting to collect plates for different seasons same thing as the decorations I get that same with ornaments. I understand and I understand I
00:37:11
Speaker
like having silver for when people come over, plus it's a value proposition, right? It's actually real silver, so it's worth something. What I'm talking about is people who have like a, like, okay, so I got gifted from the old company we worked at because I used to help with some of the political stuff that we would do. I have these plates from the White House. I have like a Washington reproduction plate, a Jefferson reproduction plate, a Lincoln reproduction, they're in the boxes still. Like, what am I gonna do with that? Where am I putting that? Who's using that? You must have to really like the presidents.
00:37:41
Speaker
Really be excited about I gotta forget history. I have no interest in these plates I don't know what I'm gonna do with them. I'm sure I could sell them but Be like, um So I've got a plate Make your best offer Right is is free an offer sure take it. Yeah. No, you just pay shipping. I'll send you the plate. Um, yeah, no really like these plates are
00:38:09
Speaker
But people collect them, and I don't understand. You asked me what people collect. It actually has a legitimate collectability to it. These plates are rare. It's not like they're not rare. It's just... Yeah. It just doesn't register with you. You don't get it. Okay. Well, Greg, this was good. I enjoyed talking about collecting things. Now I have to go back through and try to...
00:38:30
Speaker
try to really dig down and see if I'm a collector or hoarder with some things. I'm sure my wonderful wife will have some things to say about whether or not I collect things or hoard things. I think your server is hoarding. My server is definitely hoarding. I have plenty of things on my server this morning. Well Greg, I have to keep five copies of this podcast in case something terrible happens. Same. We've been hoarding them.
00:38:54
Speaker
And it's like nobody, no one is going to be sad if they're God, other than maybe you and I. But I will be. I got to keep like 12 copies.
00:39:04
Speaker
So, okay, well, I'll do that, but new segment. Today's podcast is unofficially brought to you by, and let me scroll through and find a random Oreo flavor, brought to you by the Nabisco Swedish Fish Oreo, limited edition. Fruit gums now also taste of Oreo cream filling. So apparently there is a Swedish Fish
00:39:31
Speaker
Oreo. Not digging it. Love Swedish Fish. Love Oreos. Don't think I could do the same together. But that's what today's podcast is unofficially brought to you by. Not looking for any sort of plug from Nabisco. I just thought that was interesting. Next time we'll talk about the Nabisco Firework Oreo and what's in there. So Greg.
00:39:54
Speaker
I said we were going to talk about stuff. I said we were going to talk about stuff. We had to finish with STUF as well as STUF. Greg, always a pleasure, man. Next time we will figure out something different to talk about, but we might have to talk about these 40 some odd sport coats. We might have to do the fashion episode next because that might be a
00:40:16
Speaker
That might be a fun dive into Greg's outfit collection. Plus Ross's as I'm wearing like a I'm actually wearing a rock t shirt today, which is kind of funny that I got out of concert. So didn't even think about that until I saw myself on camera. So take care of Greg. Have a magnificent rest of your day, man. Talk to you soon, Ross.
00:40:39
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared. Join us again next time as we continue to meander through random topics at a pace defined by our mood, the weather, and what happened five minutes earlier.