Cameras, but nothing all that exotic, partial to Argus TLR's and Zenit EM's. Old rotary phones, mainly Bell 500's. Tools, books, and farm implements. And 50's Coleman camping gear, nothing better than breakfast cooked on a vintage 426 three burner.

I have a few model trains too, and most of a '55 Chevrolet.

My god, this is why I'll always be broke.....

Wow thanks for the wonderful replies. I enjoy getting the broken bikes and making them ride like new again. So I am looking for an analog. Keep the ideas coming.

New hobby, huh ? Why is everybody suggesting collecting, it's all the same whatever you collect. Maybe you need something that isn't collecting, like learning to play a guitar, using a metal detector (that can turn into collecting though...). How about creating rather than collecting ? Woodwork !!! No good with your hands ? Do modern art, if you're good at "bull" you'll make a fortune too. All you need is a message. Make the "art" first, work out what it means afterwards.


Maybe this isn't really collecting but when me and the missus scored our place years ago I built my barn and shop out of used wood from old crates and pallets I dragged home. My boy's spent a whole summer pulling nails....
They still give me crap about it....

I will never recover from GAS (guitar aquistion syndrome), which took hold in the 60's when I was a teenager. In the 90's, my lovely wife took issue with my need to buy guitars, so I started sneaking them into the house in the form of wood and hardware and building my own guitars from scratch. I coupled that with an occasional pawnshop purchase. Fast forward to 2007---a running injury sends me back to cycling, after a 30 year hiatus. Wife not impressed with need for a contemporary road, bike, so I applied the bring 'em in piece by piece and buy 'em used and cheap principles I'd learned from my guitar hobby. The principles transfered perfectly! Now I take a lot of pleasure in owning a fleet of vintage road and mountain bikes with a net investment of zero after factoring in a few flips. Within a short period of time, my favorite web site shifted from the Musical Instruments Maker's Forum (one of the very best hobbyist sites) to Bike Forums (one of the very best hobbyist sites). I must say I never sell any of my guitars, though. Another instrument building/vintage bike similarity, and this one is problematic: time spent researching, buying raw materials, searching garage sales/thrift stores/pawnshops , building, and fixing mistakes takes a toll on the time available to actually PLAY the guitars or RIDE the bikes.

I've just gotten into the garden train hobby. As though I needed something more expensive than bicycles. I built a raised garden bed in the back yard with about 120 feet of track, a goldfish pond, and a nice collection of succulents and groundcovers. Gardening is another passion of mine as well as my wife's so she was much more interested in this than bicycles. I'll post more pics later but here's a few of the garden train in its early stages. LINK

Consignment clothing business. Can find items at the same places I find bikes, and the odds of finding are much higher than bikes.

I don't bother collecting stuff anymore. I have collected antiques for a long time and the house is full.

I can see the above point about creating something.

I build stuff with the things I collect, I make things with the vintage woodworking tools. (Cheaper than new tools!). I take pictures with some of the vintage cameras. When you fall in so deep, you need to try and inject some level of practicality into it.

I tried to learn the guitar, but I'm tonedeaf and have stubby fingers. :(

Yep, I have a very simple outdoor layout too. Under alot of weeds at the moment.


http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b5...D550/ry%3D400/

I also collect chairs. Mostly 20th century stuff but I do have a few from the 18th and 19th centuries. Always plenty of places to sit in my house.

does anyone collect old beer cans? When I bought my house I found a bunch from the 50's or 60's in the attic of what is now my bike shack. I'd be happy to give some away. They seemed kinda cool to be throwing out, but what the hell am I going to do with them? They were opened but are in perfect condition. Schmidts I believe which was a local brewery that not longer exists.

Pancakes? Burgers? I'd make more money. Every time I flipped a sailboat, I got soaked.
I've thought about large appliances. Books have been good to me. Made some money on classic cars. Did the Vespa thing for a while. Bought one off a friend for $100 (like 15 years ago) spent another $50 on it, rode it all summer and sold it for $400 to a buddy who really fixed it up all nice and shiny and rode it all next summer (like 14 years ago) and sold it for $800. I thought the kid he sold it to was a real sucker, then I moved to California. He had the last laugh.

I started with fat-tired bikes, was always more into mountain-biking,
and that took me hard into the pre-war fat tired bikes, especially shelby's.
"back then" 15 yrs ago, it was easy to find,
but I'd basically find and flip schwinns and keep all the '35-38 shelby's.

Then discovered hot rods,
and sold most all my bikes to get into a '29 sedan project,
then flipped a ton of project sedans, sport coupes, roadster and all the parts...
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7.../RDII3-4-1.jpg
sadly "flipped" this after 6 years of collecting and 6 power months of putting it together...

but got this as a basketcase and put it together, kinda rough but a good driver...
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...pe/mopar06.jpg

also got this as badly thrown together stocker,
but after 2 years made it a pretty good hot rod...
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...s/zibopaso.jpg
definitely trying to keep these 2...

The problem is that one hot rod is the compilation of alot bikes.
The cool thing is when you flip them the money is bigger,
you just have to have the time and love to fabricate and complete a project.
but they start like this sometimes!
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...sty/gapola.jpg



I found a beater mid-end 12 speed in my grandfathers shed,
and that is what started on road bikes, more riding and dialing it in though.
But when you have the collector in ya,
its easy to get into the road-bike specialty market.

It's now so bad that I pulled some of my old storage boxes out,
I had alot of the prewar hard to find stuff stashed - s-w speedometer, new departure front brake/2 speed hubs, delta hornlights, lotsa cool stuff.

I'm contemplating flipping those to put into a *****in colnago mexico,
but is tough cause the appreciation I had for the old prewar stuff wasn't gone, just on hiatus.

anyway excuse the babbling...

TP

OH, don't get me started ... :p

Current collections;
LGB trains. Someday to occupy the garden.

Thomas the Tank Engine trains (search YouTube for Tour of Sodor) That's half the collection.:p
The Holy Grail is right at the end. The little yellow car. I have the box. Last one I saw on the 'Bay went for $225 w/no box & USED! :eek:

Ferrari Hot Wheels Have only been after them for the past 15 years.

T-Shirts Probably have about 300, including the first concert I ever went to with my girlfriend.
Now my wife. That was of course ... E.L.O. A New World's Records Tour.

MAD magazines Oldest from Dec. 1960. (my birthday)

NON collecting interests, besides the 4 kids ...

Metal fabricating, wood working, gardening, masonry, print art, house painting, rollerskating (quads, NOT in-line) archery, firearms, driving and our Wii! :rolleyes:

I can't say I need another hobby, but I'll chime in.

Collecting bikes is a new thing to me. I also like old cameras, but only have a Kodak Target 6-16 and a few Canon SLR's from the late 80s. I have a few snowboards, the best being a 1982 Burton. Computers are thing for me also - but I don't really collect the older stuff. Typically use previous-gen stuff for my endeavors.

Vintage motorcycles...
 

When a bit (lot) younger, I used to collect vintage or antique motorcycles. I had about a dozen in my collection during the pinnacle years. The nicest bike I ever owned was a 1939 Brough-Superior 1150 Special. The fastest, a 1972 Kawasaki 750 H2 and the last, a 1934 Indian Big Chief. I even wrote a book on the subject - Half Price Harley.

Now-a-days, I could care less if I ever swing a leg over another motorcycle. Noisy, heavy and smelly no longer amuse me. Today, I prefer quiet, light and smelly. Only thing is, these days, I am the one who smells.

On a more recent collecting note, it seems as if I have an unintended collection of old pocket knives that could not really be considered a collection. And of even more recent interest (or opportunity, perhaps) vintage brand name bicycle water bottles and handlebar bells seem to be piling up. Once again, and as was the case with head badges, an unintentional collection. Should have just settled for money! and women?

I own a marine repair business which puts me on boats and at the marinas just about everyday. A few years ago I started putting trashed marine stuff on e-Bay and sold over 9k the very first year. My best deal was an electronic item that fetched just over 2k and was lifted from a dumpster.
It helps that I know the business very well and can tell right away if the item is a keeper or not.

For the minimal investment in time and energy I am thrilled with this as a sideline.

I have a friend that breaks down and sells diesel engines..a lot of his stuff is sold out of country..he drives a Viper so I guess he is making enough to cover the payments at least :love:

Mike

Cameras. I need another camera like a third nostril:
http://www.acutance.blogspot.com/

Maybe TV dinner trays next.

fishing rods, lures, reels

I've tried my hand at collecting various things, but someone else always had more money, time and access to the things I desired and left me with the scraps. My buddy and I ran across many fine item back in the 80's but those days are few and far between. I only buy neat things if they will serve a purpose and have the potential to pay for themselves by direct action, flipping not being up there on the list either.

Best deal I had, Sony transistor TV - 801 something or other. $5 in 1985, recapped it and used it here and there (saw the 1st Iraq war on it...) and then turned it on fleabay for $500 plus in '99.

And for the record, I am tired of the FG/SS flippers on C/L hacking up cool stuff and flipping it with some some arbitrary jacked up price to it...

I don't collect or flip things. I just keep 'em. I've got about a dozen old cameras, three printing presses, a '20s Remington typewriter, too many old guns, an entire woodworking shop, tons of old tools, probably thousands of old books, some back to the 1700s, a '58 MGA, four motorscooters, a Subaru wagon that I used to use for autocross, then I got a bigger Subaru wagon, but kept the old one (www.morrisgarage.com for the cars and scoots) Die cast models of vintage cars,antique furniture, crystal, china, fishing stuff. I even have an antique wife! :D

I need a bigger garage!

clocks and watches, most are in storage, a few are lingering, heres my fav watch, well not the actual watch I own but the exact type, only differance is mine is dated 1972 and is currently at the shop being cleaned.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cknylon_07.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cknylon_09.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cknylon_03.jpg

I once owned one of the 12 or 13? prototype beach bombs. That was years before you could buy a better than original reproduction for $50.

+1 thats some of the stuff I deal with also but I do any piece of power equipment. I just sold a Mower tonight for $75 and all I had into it was $10 for a new blade and a side chute plus I got his old mower to keep which I will repair and sell. The economy is making it hard to sell stuff this year as compared to last,I have a Murry riding mower that I am selling that is from 2004 and it has not been used since 2005 it is garage kept has a new battery and deck belt and a complete sevice and I have lowered the price from $700 down to $500 and still no interest but I would have gotten $700 last year and would have had a line of people wanting it.

At first glance, I thought you collected something *completely* different! :o

I have a friend that has a large collection of military vehicles. The last time I saw him he said that he was buying some land in Nevada and planned to put up a steel building to house his trucks and himself.