What determines the importance of what you collect or lay away just as a keep sake? I have tended to be a pack rat over time, storing or stashing away most things that other people would probably sooner throw away or sell off than keep for sentimental reasons.
I started collecting postage stamps by retrieving the envelopes of letters discarded by my father at the age of 11 years. Here is the latest addition to my stamp collection: 
Did I tell you that my book on Philately was derived from my experiences as a stamp collector? Perhaps, I shall serialize excerpts from the book on this blog one of these days, if there is adequate initial feedback/demand.
Discounting an inheritance or a lottery windfall, there are very few other passive pastimes that can easily turn a kid into a multi-millionaire as he/she ages.
I mean, becoming a collector of anything is as easy as this: start your collection of what you like early in your youth and by the time you get to old age you would have a decades-old antique collection worth a lot more than you paid for it initially.
There are also many other things to collect, depending on your budget. In fact, someone recently sold a piece of cornflakes shaped like one of the 50 states in the US for thousands of dollars in an online auction on eBay.
Money is not everything, of course, but I think it would be very gratifying to know that my old baseball collection can be sold in the future to put my children through college/university!
Some collect art, matchboxes, CDs, tapes, videos, currency, stocks and bonds, movies, bubblegum cards, and so on, to name just a few positive items.
I also collect airline tickets, old letters and official correspondence addressed to me, and telephone recharge/scratch cards. Yes, used cell phone cards!
Many people tend to overlook the importance of the historical nature of such mundane items, such as ticket stubs from train and bus stations or airport road access tax, restaurant, and shopping receipts.
Even the telephone companies and cell phone carriers do not seem to attach much importance to documenting their scratch cards and the beautiful advertising messages printed on them.
For example, none of the five local telecommunication companies in my neighborhood has given any response/feedback at all – except just to automatically acknowledge receipt of the message – so far regarding the following online inquiry/request/submission of mine on their websites:
“I want to do a historical art mosaic of all your prepaid scratch recharge cards on my blog at http://www.surfersbrowse.com.
I have only about 7 different types of your recharge cards in different denominations and know that only you can give me the complete set for my project.
I need just the frontal recharge card images only, right from the inception of your company.
Please help.
O. Awa.”
Do not laugh. I know that most people just throw the scratch cards away once the recharge PIN data has been revealed by scratching in order to load extra electronic call credits onto the phone.
Why do I want to collect them? I just love the advertising themes and historical depictions displayed on the scratch cards.
I think they are great works of the art of modern photography and media communication excellence. Whatever!
You know what I mean: they are beautiful to look at, they are collectibles just like postage stamps, and they cost you a lot of money over the years but you can now make money from them! See for yourself:
I think that it would be interesting and fantastic to have someone do a similar post on his/her or blog and link to this one somehow. Have you done a related post or are you planning to publish one soon?
By the way, I do not collect anything dangerous, to avert this kind of tragedy: Civil War Collector Killed by Antique Shell.
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