Are vintage collector's secretly depressed ?

[Drain]

I sometime collect items that I had at one time in past, that are now incomplete or lost to time so I have vistual link to a happier time, when I had the whole future in front of me. Also they remind me of people long gone.

[vulcan2074]

I've always Loved collecting objects that have held great value and memories in my life, Whether from my youth or as an adult. I have a collection of Boxes, Coins, Glass jars, Trading Cards and of course Vintage Toys just to name a few. I love the way they make me feel. I care so much for them. The place they hold in my heart is emense. My friends don't see why I love collecting so much. I know that they could never Understand my Desire to have any collections, especially my MEGOs. So why do I Collect vintage stuff? Simply put, it's all the wonderful Memories they bring back
Sammy

[stuart]

This all started for me when I began looking on eBay for an old Superman like the kind that I had when I was young. Of course, there are thousands of Supermen to go through. Then..I finally figured out what I was looking for - a Mego. It didn't take long to find the Museum here and also to realize just how many of the toys I played with were Mego-made. Anyway..the Megos remind me of a very happy time in my life.

[YoungOnce]

I had a really big one a few years ago.

I parked my car in Woodshole, Mass getting ready to take the ferry to Martha's Vineyard ...
You had to take a trolly to get to the ferry.

The trolly was an old redone school bus.
Man, that fuel oil bus smell took me back so much, I was in a trance the whole ride.

For that 10 minute ride, I was reliving my whole childhood.

That amazes me... and it's so true. For some reason, the sense of smell can draw out old memories you never even knew you had!

A couple years back, my wife happened to change the soap in the shower to Irish Spring. With my eyes closed I used the soap and bam! I was transported back to my grandmas house fifteen years earlier. I hadn't smelled that aroma since forever ago and it made me recall memories from her house that I didn't even know I knew. It was crazy.

For me, collecting these old toys is another way to try to reclaim those elusive buried memories. To recapture that ten year old boy laying on the carpet making kapow sounds with Batman and the Joker!

[MysteryWho]

I'm not secretly depressed, I'm wide open about it.
Without getting too personal, I can't think of a time I was happier than when my life revolved around toys, etc. and the world was about as big as my backyard (and adjacent neighborhood). It's hard to separate the toys from the movies, TV shows, or even the people. They all kinda blur into one happy swirling time. It's not that my childhood was perfect, far from it. But it seemed better.
Meanwhile, nostalgia has been around forever. It basically has something to do with people wanting to return home or to some idealized version of their past. My modest collection helps me to connect with that part of myself. That's really oversimplifying the matter, but that's basically it.
I collect some other genre stuff as well, such as old sci-fi paperbacks (the one's with the terrific/terrible artwork), old horror mags, and of course my vhs/dvd collection is rife with B flicks and TV collections. These things are embody fun and imagination.
The impulse to collect things can also be a form of mental illness, but I don't think that's the kind of hoarding of objects you are talking about.

[BENDY]

It Was From A Time When There Were No Bills, Grandparents Were Alive, And Toys Were Your Only Want At The Store.

[bgrimm77]

After reading all the post's that have come before me it will sound redundant to say it brings back memories (which it does) of a more simpler time. I collect my vintage toy's for a lot of the same reasons the majority of everyone else does but one thing that realy hasnt been touched on is " THE LOOK". For me it's the look....when I look at my bookcase of Mego's and my shelves of misc. vintage stuff from my past it is how they present that makes me love them that much more.....I know that you guy's get what I'm saying. Is part of me trying to recapture something that is gone forever....sure. I'd be lying if I said no. But from another point of view....it's that "vintage look" that makes me say YEAH!!!

[EMCE Hammer]

I've collected things as long as I can remember. Arrow heads, old bottles that I dug up where houses had been torn down, sea shells, bicycles......then books, old radios, comic books, antiques, toys. I don't know why I do it; it's just the way I'm wired. I'll probably pass away peacefully during an Ebay search for 'mego -micronauts, -cher'

[drmego]

The 5 and 10 store that I got my first Megos at is now a bank. The old building
was leveled and a cookie-cutter Chase was put there. That is depressing.

But I don't feel depressed. Life changes, people pass, but that little Mego
stays the same. I love the little memory jags - only a brief second - that
pop in my head sometimes when I play with a Mego.

Collecting is about hanging onto the past, and that is a form of depression,
but keeping this piece of the past helps us to stay happy.

[Surfsup]

It is partly wanting to hold onto that innocent time as a kid but I think, as an adult, you can really appreciate the vintage toys a lot more. As a kid, it was about playing with the toys but now, for me especially, it's about loving the fantastic packaging and artwork along with the toy itself. So you get to be a collector and a curator with a load of fantastic memories along the way. How could you ever get depressed?

[HardyGirl]

Actually, for the most part, you hit the nail right on the head. (except for not liking myself today, I do like who I am). However, I don't like the world today; too much technology, not enough imagination, way too busy. And yes, I'm trying to recapture my youth. When you're a kid, you think everything will be the same, you're just going to be bigger. When I grew up and found that wasn't the case, it was sort of disheartning. I still maintain that the 70s was the best time to be a kid and I like to revisit that period as often as possible. Yeah, sometimes I get kinda sad, b/c you really can't go home again, but hey, I can pretend, can't I?

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I'm with HardyGirl and her explanation. I found the museum because I stumbled across ordering EMCE's first issue of Kirk and Klingon online. Made me want to find the WGSH for my kids to play with because I loved them so much as a kid. There is a playability with these figures that just doesn't seem to happen today. These became collectors items because they were built to last awhile in a kid's hand. Today the toys just seem to be built to display or make noise or do something special so the kid doesn't have to think too much IMO.

I was always a collector of things. That's why I still have a lot of things from my youth still. I always appreciated graphic arts, so I saved some packaging from toys, etc. I just pulled a lot of it out of storage, found MY Megos, etc. I like to relay my fun times to my kids, not wallow in the past, but I don't even see reliving cool play times without the kids as a depressing thing.

[trekman101]

I find that collectors are people who feel the same way now as they did when they were kids,you know what I mean.I have the same tendencies now as I did then and the things that grabbed my imagination then grab my imagination now.My interests in things I like and collect haven't really changed much.I just have more appreciation for them now then I did as a kid.Thats why I think people collect what they had as kids.Thats why I tell my son to take good care of the stuff he likes(he shares my interests so he benefits from my experiences)
The topic of smells...smelling is the main sense that triggers memory.Being hunter gatherers smelling things is a good way to remember good stuff and bad stuff

[starsky]

my parents didnt buy me many toys as a child, so now, i'm buying all the toys i've always wanted and more!

[Hector]

I was going to say we collect kids' stuff because we are all nerds, lol.

But then you see someone like WWE wrestler Batista...collecting lunchboxes.

So I guess that throws that theory out the door.