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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?
Older generations considered collecting utterly useless but aligned in a theme figurines to be a feminine and normal use of disposable income, and it was also seen as making it easy for husbands to shop for birthday gifts. This is where the stereotype of grandma with the looking-at dolls comes from.
My mother really likes Mickey Mouse. It is well-known to her friends and family that she really likes Mickey Mouse.
She now has a lot of Mickey Mouse merchandise.
It goes for men sometimes too, my friend really likes dragons (enough to write dragon-themed fanfiction and explain various forms of dragon lore) and he now has a small but growing collection of dragon memorabilia.
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