During the holiday season, it becomes all the more apparent that we are all awash in useless stuff. From the once-a-year seasonal outfit to ornaments without sentiment, trinkets we soon discard, and gag gifts that don’t make it past opening day, the world pushes us to buy more of it all — stuff that we don’t need and, frankly, don’t really want. This puts us collectors in a troubling spot. Those of us who seek out carefully crafted figures and worthy vinyl, special edition DVDs, and signed movie posters will bristle at being compared with your average over-consumer. There’s not just nostalgia and dopamine-chasing in our collections; there’s something bigger and better.
As John Laroche, the protagonist (and thief) in Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, puts it, “It's not really about collecting the thing itself ... It's about getting immersed in something, and learning about it, and having it become part of your life. It's a kind of direction."
