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I'm looking for theories or just-so story on humans' desire to collect knick-knacks.
A house down the street was having an estate sale. I could tell it belonged to an elderly middle-class couple. The house was a monument to mediocrity. Granted, I got there on the second day, so the family and public had already taken the good stuff, but there wasn't exactly empty space anywhere. It wasn't hoarded, but there were thousands of figurines and collectibles. Some over-studious daughter or granddaughter had put a price tag on every single item. I was actually surprised that I wasn't tempted by a single thing.
Not an uncommon refrain, but this couple had spent a lifetime amassing stuff that no one really wanted. So my question is: why? Is there some misaligned wealth signaling going on? I have my own temptations. I like to buy tools, I want a library someday so I'll probably start amassing books, and I'll probably keep buying guns and end up with more of those three than I need, but I can think of use cases. Am I just rationalizing while I sneer at baseball cards, stamps, Funko Pops, and porcelain figurines?
What are the modern-day Precious Moments collections? Funko Pops?
With older people in particular, the hoarders I think often reflect broad scale deflation in manufactured goods over time. Older people grew up with more expensive manufactured goods. Little nonsense like commemorative plates and snow babies and precious moments probably all fall into the category of things that would have been more expensive when they were young. My dad is a frequent overbuyer, of many things, and when he does it always takes the justification of "that would have been [3x price] back in the day." Especially with tools and things like that, he'll buy entirely too many power drills or tool boxes because they used to be more expensive. Nobody could really sell the little cheap commemorative crap for as cheap as it is today back in the day, so they buy it feeling like it must have real value, even though it doesn't at this point.
Also, the useless stuff is the most likely to survive. The Precious Moments don't wear out, don't get moved around and break often, etc. I've purchased a decent number of laptops and cellphones, and more measuring tapes than I can count. When I die, there won't be many of them left in the house, they'll be destroyed or lost, worn out or stolen.
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