Collectors are outliers. Not out-and-out liars, except maybe to their partners when confronted with how much their latest collectable cost (limited edition of 211, released on one day only in a remote Norwegian fishing village). No, I mean they’re statistical outliers.
Statistics are a useful tool in understanding our world, although it has been said that 43% of all statistics are meaningless, so caveat collector. Loosely put, a statistical outlier is as an ‘occasional or infrequent observation in data that differs significally from its co-data’. Collectors turn the statistical world on its head. On Planet Collector, outliers rule. Weird is normal. Up is down. Expect the unexpected.
Try this. If you ask some people to name the top ten things that “people collect”, this is more or less the list you’d likely get back:
Books | Coins | Comics | DVDs | Music | Toys | Stamps | Sports Memorabilia (Your results may vary. Serving suggestion only.)
Look at the list again. Yes, I know there are only eight items there, but this only serves to strengthen my next point. There exists quite a narrow view on what humans out there actually collect – this is the middle-of-the-road stuff that one might assume fills a home’s spare room. And, the 20 million people who collect stamps would probably agree.
Look at the list again. Read between the lines, those little pipe characters that hide somewhere on the Eastern key-Bord. Each of those pipes represents a huge iceberg, and the text either side represents the thumb-sized tip of that mountain of ice. For every ‘normal’ collection type, there’re thousands of outliers, quietly sitting under the surface, lurking just off our radars. You’ll only find the outliers if you go looking. And the more you look, the more you find, and the more you’re surprised. You might know an outlier without having ever realised it. Don’t panic. They may otherwise be quite normal.
I’m talking about people who collect Gundam, jars, butterflies, flags, vintage walkie-talkies, speeding tickets, Durutti Column, newspapers, shells, frogs, autographs, soda cans, Atari, smurfs, costumes, Babylon 5, number plates, fountain pens, Toby mugs, kites, Warhammer, fishing flies, Asuka and Rei, beetles, Blythe, earrings, and coat-hangers.
Yes, there is someone out there who collects coat-hangers. In fact, there are three suspension de vêtements enthusiasts: 
1. Bob Browning (see photo).
2. Penelope Cruz – yes, she apparently collects coat-hangers.
3. Someone in a remote Norwegian fishing village.
I’d like all three to join Kollecta. I’ll tackle the third person, if anyone out there knows Bob or Penny, please let me know.
Kollectamaniac 