> After a lifetime as a collector and several years dabbling in antiques, I have concluded that, no matter what it is, somebody collects it.
>
> If you try to think of the most boring thing in the world, there will probably be somebody who collects it. If there is any variety in it, you can bet your boots there are collectors out there.
> Matchbooks? Sure. Fire hazard that they are, many people collect match books. Beer cans are popular as collectables. I heard about a guy who collected airline barf bags. I have a second cousin who likes railroad related items. Not just any railroad. It has to be L&N or Pullman.
> Nobody is surprised to hear that I've collected coins since 1947, but a collection of motor scooters or fisherman's scales blows their mind. The usual reaction is, I didn't know anybody collected those.
>
> I have my own definition of a collection. You have to organize it. You have to be systematic.
> Putting pennies into a jar is not a collection. It's an accumulation. Saving three pennies for each year so that you have one minted in Philadelphia, one in Denver, and one in San Francisco, is a collection.
>
> Those little fisherman's scales with a built in tape measure (De-Liars) started out as an accumulation. I had three and when I picked up the 4th one, I noticed that they were all different. So I wondered; how many variations are there? I still can't answer that question, but I now have nine different varations, and a page about them on my website. Information is hard to come by, because the original manufacturer seems to have gone out of business.
>
> I know people who collect bicycles. Some of them like only one brand. Others don't care what brand, as long as they have the big, fat, balloon tires. Children's pedal cars are popular in this area, but most of the collectors aren't children.
>
> In this day of computer games, the old board games like Monopoly and checkers are collected.
>
> What is more useless than a wooden ironing board? People are buying them. Remember telephone chairs? Back when each home had one telehone and it was tied to the wall by a cord, it was popular to have a telephone chair. Many had space for a 'phone book underneath and a writing surface on top. There were many different styles, so collectors are looking for unusual ones.
>
> The old cast iron irons that you heated on a wood stove have been popular for years. Now people are looking at electric irons. Some people don't know what a perculator is these days, but collectors do. Have you seen a rotary dial telephone lately? How about a mechanical adding machine? A hand cranked pencil sharpener? A straight razor? A Studebaker? A Grapette bottle?
>
> I keep looking at that accumulation of dog tags that I have in a jar out there in the shop. These are rabies tags issued by vets and actually worn by dogs, not soldiers. It might be a collection some day. After all, soldier dog tags are collected.
> Howard

There's a whole website devoted to this guy's collection of barfbags. There's a link below. Also, concerning percolators, are you talking about the coffee makers? They're still sold and they make the best coffee in the world; much better than drip makers.