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The Collecting Of Stuff: Past, Present And Future

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The Collecting Of Stuff: Past, Present And Future

Sunday, 11 August 2019
Yes, this is just an opportunity to show off the new photo album I bought on a novelty store. Haha forgive me please I'm a nerd I can't even please send help

If you think this isn't the pinnacle of me making myself happy as I'm typing this... please leave before I beat you into a pulp haha welcome welcome!! *laughs*

Eh basically this is just a post to talk about something I have done incessantly over the years as a kid and towards today albeit rather inconsistently... it's collecting items. They need not be free, they need not be relevant today or tomorrow, but I'd like to talk about them. About what it means to collect and what I have done in the past, now and possibly what I might do in the future. I mean, especially the past stuff, right? Okay maybe not I'm worried now haha




COLLECTING STICKERS
Well it wasn't a hobby of mine until I noticed this was the cheapest stuff my mom could buy for me and make me happy lol okay this was nearly 2 decades ago already, please. Stickers were dirt cheap back then, and they are really nice especially some of them which are made of good quality, but other than that since I know of no tastes anything will be appealing as a kid, isn't it? Nonetheless, some of them are real nice, and I have them all kept nicely inside a sticker album that I have kept all these years.
Most of them are SGD1 in a bundle so I swear they aren't as expensive as the ones below haha we'll get to those don't you worry

Some of the nicer ones though I know are a tad bit more expensive, but those are also (I'm sure) the ones with way better quality and I'll still like them today. (That was a lie haha)
Well usually it's me and my mom (thanks mom) going out and then we pass by a sticker shop or those places where there'll be a bunch of these in like, street shops and stuff (it was the '90s) and at some point it became my mom asking me if I would want something and that smile on my face must be the only thing that kept me collecting all these stuff.

Eventually I stopped mostly because I've moved on to higher stakes (lol) but also because they don't sell them anymore at these prices either they got expensive or those stalls or shops get closed down because they got "cleaned up" by local authority since they weren't recognised establishments. Oh well, there goes my childhood.
Since I still have the sticker album... here it is in all its glory haha >w<
With the most suitable cover ever haha no really it could be worse
(You don't get to see Page 1 it has my name in it but OMFG)
Stock-taking as a kid haha yeah no joke
How to show patriotism to your country
(Also, the stickers as the flag pole were beautiful)
Haha yep this too love you Mac
If you could use some imagination the cars form the road
(haha yeah)
Oh God
If you need evidence for the next thing we will discuss then this is it
I loved country flags as a kid so these were a natural collection
(Note the page number btw)
Recommended YouTube video (by me) about country and state flags, by the way (No I didn't watch this as a kid)
If you need explanations this is a street map in bird's eye view, noted by arrows on the ground with traffic signs forming the road.
It was quite a bit of imagination but you get what I mean.
Just here to add up in numbers lmao
(Page number haha)
These are some of the better stickers in the album, I promise. The ones on top were pretty thick in material and can (wait for it) glow in the dark!!! Hell yeah! (Just take my word for it I'm not going to lay this under a light source for an hour)


COLLECTING TRADING CARDS
Man, if you thought this was like Duel Masters or like, Pokemon cards then you are horribly wrong. As a kid I don't know any of those (not until I watch the TV series especially Duel Masters) but yeah, before these two I was actually interested in something way more relevant to me as a Chinese... and as a kid: Jackie Chan Adventures. If you don't know of this series don't look it up, but suffice it to say that's when they released like, talisman sets and trading card sets to collect and if I'm not wrong there was a game there I just have no one to play with lmao
The whole set should be about SGD60 if I'm not wrong (yep) and then the subsequent card packs from each monthly magazine release was around SGD12 if I remember correctly. Yeah, the stakes were up real quick.
So, in exchange of my grades, my mom would promise me to buy the latest monthly release of the magazine when I was like 12 as long as I maintain my grades. Yeah, no joke. Those weren't cheap already, so of course my mom would take no chances to exploit of my diligence in exchange for my desires for things such as this. It sort of worked for a couple of years though, and it was until I graduated that I noticed collecting these lacked meaning and I did not put in more effort to maintain my grades (RIP Higher Chinese lol), and I think I did tell my mom that too. She probably had a smile on that face or I hooked myself with something else at some point that she still had to pay for haha (it was probably a female lmao) (nope this is not going to be a post of my crushes as a kid)
If you need evidence refer to the previous part about stickers since I literally kept the sticker which houses all the stickers to paste on your collection box as shown below. But otherwise...
[Below are not my images btw because I probably threw them away already haha yeah]
The Cards were kept in a metal box shown above which rusted real quick tbh.
The magazines below had content but who cares when there's the card pack/talisman
I know I didn't collect all of them (not even the main 12) because sometimes I would not meet expectations and my mom will not buy them for me. And I cried, legit. *laughs* The 5 below weren't actual zodiacs so I didn't bother with them.


COLLECTING BEFORE COLLECTING SKILL IN THE SIMS 3
Today, if you are able to play The Sims 3 (yes, that game) and play the game with the latest update or with all expansion packs, there should be a collection journal dictating everything you need to do to collect all the stuff lying around the world(s) in the game itself. But when I started (illegally) (okay can't mention that liao I'll only say this once) (so yeah don't ask about price I don't even pay for the PC and electric bills lol) in pace with the game's release they don't have all these. Collecting wasn't even a skill, and all the items aren't fully identified and dictated completely. But even then, I was OBSESSED with collecting everything. That, and mastering all the skills in the game but that is for another story.
In terms of collecting stuff, because I made my old man (yep) rich (well he was after mastering all those skills) (never cheated in this save btw besides aging which technically isn't considered cheating haha), he was also able to maintain a basement which houses all the treasures from the journeys in various expansion packs and all the ores and ingots and gems and so on that were collected over time. Due to me still being in school, I had a lot of time on my hands to play this game, so...
Screenshots are a great way to show off (it's still on Facebook when I started playing this though) so here they are:
How they looked like on the map, with the Collection Helper, a Lifetime Point Reward (40k I think)
As a reminder you collect one of those ores, smelt them (via the mailbox lol) (40 simoleons) and it's one small ingot. Put 10 of them in a display rack and it'll become one of those seen here. Yeah, I have a LOT of time in my hands.
A LOT OF TIME in my hands....
A LOT.
In case I couldn't see my large ingot collection clearly behind the window haha


COLLECTING BROMIDES
This one is easy. They come with the CDs for review. You need more? Because of a certain phenomenon called pre-ordering, one is able to get a free gift, a photo, a bromide as Japan calls it, and they are as rare as you can think because limited stock for so called First Press release. So, they eventually appear on auction sites like this today and you should consider if those I've collected are worth anything. But to me, they are worth my effort to go through all lengths to get the CDs from places where I shouldn't go, because normally you would need to forward that shipment which allows one to receive from an online shop to a local (Japan) address and many other complications which will increase the risk of them being delivered to here instead of an international shop like this or this. (Well HMV wasn't until 2 years later since CDJapan in 2012 so...) So around end of 2013 I took my first effort to buy 2 singles on pre-order from Animate Online Shop, and got them shipped to here. It was my happiest day ever since buying my first batch of CDs haha

But it was only recently that I had that desperation to get more than I can get my hands on without buying the original products, and that's where those auction sites come in. The rest should be history because I talked about them twice, in "The Auction House Journey" and "The Auction House Journey Part Deux". Feel free to read those in detail yourself. In summary, it was a huge waste of money just to make me happy haha
You don't want to know. You really don't want to know... They are free. As I mentioned before- Oh. You want to know how many more other ones I bought through that auction site above? You've come to the right place.

So since those ones I got for free couldn't be measured financially, I'll talk about the various times I went to the auction site and precisely calculate for all of you guys (outside of those posts) how much they costed.

THE AUCTION HOUSE JOURNEY
(*All calculations below include two A4 clear folders)

9 Bids + Service Fee: 450 yen (SGD 5.99) + 450 yen (SGD 5.99) + 400 yen (SGD 5.33) + 400 yen (SGD 5.33) + 400 yen (SGD 5.33) + 400 yen (SGD 5.33) + 400 yen (SGD 5.33) + 360 yen (SGD 4.80) + 450 yen (SGD 6.02) = 3710 yen (SGD 43.46)

Package Consolidation + Shipping Fee: 6,230 yen (SGD 85.77) [Including M/elody single]

Total: 9940 yen (SGD 129.23)

That is... a lot of money burnt. But don't worry: the worst has yet to come.

THE AUCTION HOUSE JOURNEY PART DEUX
(*All calculations below include one A4 clear folder)

12 Bids + Service Fee: 750 yen (SGD 9.93) + 750 yen (SGD 9.93) + 1,150 yen (SGD 15.29) + 750 yen (SGD 9.98) + 850 yen (SGD 11.30) + 2,850 yen (SGD 37.86) + 2,350 yen (SGD 31.22) + 750 yen (SGD 9.98) + 500 yen (SGD 6.66) + 2,350 yen (SGD 31.22) + 850 yen (SGD 11.30) + 850 yen (SGD 11.30) = 12750yen (SGD 195.97)

Package Consolidation + Shipping Fee: 4,791 yen (SGD 63.34)

Total: 17541 yen (SGD 259.31)

Jesus. I can buy my first three photobooks with those. (More on that later)

Overall: 27481 yen (SGD 388.54)
For the free ones since it was always due to a pre-order I had to buy the product in advance, knowing full well that I might hate the songs inside because maybe I didn't get to hear the songs in full (refer to the Twitter reading post two days ago for details) so suffice it to say I'm taking a gamble. And I did a lot of that with Toyosaki Aki and her singles, to be honest. It was only on two specific occasions (which I still do today) that I specifically bought bromides to keep them, and they are (1) Komatsu Mikako because she's the only one who will still sell her live performance goods online becuase she has her own online store and (2) Tachibana Haru aka Futon-chan because she also has an online store in which she sells her stuff sold on comiket (ok now I wished I did that other post first so I don't have to explain who she is, so Twitter profile for reference)

For the auction house ones I just felt like giving them a shitload of money so the reasons behind going on a spending spree are on the posts themselves haha
Before this, the photos were kept in a detachable photo album which soon I noticed will damage the products so I switched to a photo album recently, way better. Here's how they look like below. (If you want more most of them are available in those two posts I've been mentioning to do help yourself to those)
From left to right: Fujita Akane, Amamiya Sora, Amamiya Sora haha
Two from Futon-chan, two from amatsuuni which I reviewed recently, Touyama Nao and my imouto lmao


WORTHY MENTION: COLLECTING CD
This technically doesn't fall in this category, since I wouldn't call collecting songs a thing, but hey, it's sort of like it. You like the songs, you buy them and they stack up. *laughs* Not going to do pricing on this one because... I spent a lot. Over the past decade alone, I've spent a lot. A good portion of my salary when I was in the Army went to those, and those were the first things I bought with my own money. So yeah, I'll update if I can count them all haha maybe I can do this


COLLECTING PHOTOBOOKS
It has been going on for some time already (should've done this before all of them I guess) but yes, the stakes are going up to yet another level. Though technically I'll be spending less money because the ratio of shipping fees to the items themselves will be smaller so I don't feel so bad of burning money just to ship to where I am, but hey. I gotta spend money on something lol. This time, it's on women. (It's always on women haha) But not just that, because this time it's a book. Full of photos. Of the one woman I've boiled many years of feelings on. That, is called a photobook. I have withheld myself from buying any of these because they aren't cheap, and the online community has been kind to provide previews on these, but other than that... I guess it just happened. Happy birthday again, me. *laughs*
(Title: Base Price + Extras + Shipping = Total)
Amamiya Sora "10 looks":
3,240 yen (SGD 42.03) + 510 yen (SGD 6.62) + 2740 yen (SGD 35.35) = 6490 yen (SGD 84.00)
Asakura Momo "pleasant":
3,240 yen (SGD 42.03) + 750 yen (SGD 9.74) + 2740 yen (SGD 35.35) = 6730 yen (SGD 87.12)
(Title: Base Price + Shipping = Total)
Natsukawa Shiina "Nukegara":
3240 yen (SGD 39.95) + 5640 yen (SGD 71.83) = 8880yen (SGD 111.78)
Kouno Marika "Marinka": SGD 74.60 (6150 yen)
Kido Ibuki "breath": 3860 yen (SGD 48.78) + 2700 yen (SGD 34.56) = 6560 yen (SGD 84.34)

Overall: 28660 yen (SGD 441.84)

The books themselves average about 3000yen give or take and with the help of international shipping makes each book average about SGD 80 depending on how I got them. The first two listed here have to be obtained from an auction site so I have to order gifts to bring up their value ie. they don't have special gifts so I have to get one so prices may be slightly off along with the reduced price of the book over time. So far? Yep already exceeded the bromides mentioned above, just so you know.
Well it was first supposedly used as an excuse for a birthday present early this year, but now it has just turned to me going "who's the next person who will come out with a photobook in which I know" because I hardly even know Toyota Moe but I want her new photobook SO BAD haha. So yeah, considering the women I knew of today (goddamn now I really wish I did that post yesterday) I set a list of requirements on who and how then I could get new photobooks to do a review on. "She must be younger than me" and "I must have known her for years" are probably the current standing ones so I haven't violated any of them just yet, but who knows? If in the future I want to get Moeshi's photobook in which she is half-naked who is to stop this pedophile? *laughs*
Here, here and here. Period. *laughs* They will be easy to identify in the future too becuase the titles in this blog will contain the phrase "Worth Of Photos" so you know that's me enjoying myself again hehe




This shall be it. Didn't expect this post to be this long to be honest. Finances can't lead to this long of a post, or so I thought. I'll try to update this place for consistency (especially pricing I just copy pasted from the relevant sites) but don't expect more images this is all you are getting haha. Cya guys next time then, and until then... I think I'll be continuing the legacy of collecting stuff after all, as much as they aren't collecting now since I am paying for them haha bye

P.S. Well technically collecting calendars is a thing lol but I've done that already (it's here) and they aren't collecting because if I were to "collect" I'll be buying Sumipe's calendar for every year since she ever released one haha NO WAY lol