Kingly Obsessions: Weird and Wonderful Collections

What’s most important to you? Your family? House? Car? For serious collectors, their objects of obsession are right up there with what they hold near and dear. Here are the stories of real South Africans with crazy, cool collections.

I’ve always liked cartoons – especially cute, quirky and kitsch ones. I’ve always liked Hello Kitty, but I started collecting in 2004 or 2005, when I taught English in Taipei. There, Hello Kitty is so readily available. You can find Hello Kitty branded anything in Asia, from chopsticks to food, and appliances. My collection started when a grocery shop ran a promotion – they gave away little foil Hello Kitty surprise packets if you spent a certain amount. Everyone knew I liked them and was collecting them, so they’d bring me their packets as well.

It’s almost too easy to go on to eBay and find stuff that way. I love walking around flea markets and trying to find unusual items. I think I’m a discerning collector, I like finding unique items. Once, on press trip in Mauritius, I found a Hello Kitty piggy-bank in a baby shop. I found some cool items in Toronto in a flea market in Chinatown. Cindy Nell and her husband gave me a set of framed posters after I reported on their wedding for a local magazine.

I can’t count how many items I have - beach towels, bathroom mat, a 60+ piece crockery set, pillows, mugs, keyrings, my fridge is filled with Hello Kitty magnets, water dispenser as well as a gumball machine. A few of my items are for display purposes only, some of it is used. The three things I’d save from a fire are my Hello Kitty onesie, it’s not easy to find one of those for a grown man; my crockery set, I collected that over weeks and it costs thousands; and a custom-made Hello Kitty teddy bear I received from Build-A-Bear when I was working with 5FM. I also have a Hello Kitty tattoo on my right bicep – people stop and stare when I’m at the gym. If anything, it’s unusual.

I have well over 100 pairs of sneakers, and my boyfriend has three times as many. We’ve converted our dining room into a sneaker room – we store our sneakers in clear shoe boxes to display and protect them. I started collecting sneakers when I was a teenager, my parents would buy me a few pairs of Adidas or Nike sneakers. But my collection really took off when I hit my 20s and was able to purchase my own shoes. Back then, I didn’t have any brand loyalty – if I liked something and I thought it was cool, I’d buy it.

Nike South Africa then reached out to me and they started collaborating with me, seeding product with me. They’d send me free sneakers, and exclusive and limited edition pairs. That was definitely cool. On a daily basis, it’s really difficult to choose a pair of shoes to wear! There are pairs that I wear maximum twice a year, for example, I have a pair of Nikes that are made of cork and they’re hard to clean, so I don’t want to damage them.

Then there are a few limited edition pairs – I want them to look fresh in ten years, I have a pair of Spike Lee edition Nike Air Jordan’s that I’d want to give to my son when he reaches my shoe size. We’ve factored our sneaker collection into our household insurance. I mean, a R1 000 pair of sneakers can be valued at R25 000 in five years’ time.

On average, the sneakers can cost around R1 500 per pair and we have hundreds of pairs. Some of them can’t be replaced – you can’t just walk into a shop and get them – they’re limited edition and you’d have to wait until they’re re-issued to buy them again. If the house burns down, I’d save the cork Nikes, a few pairs of exclusive Airmax and Air Jordan’s. My clothes can burn, but not my sneakers.

I can’t remember when I started collecting Hard Rock Café pins, I must have been about 7 or 8 and now I have maybe 300 pins. I store them in two converted picture frames that have pin board inside. Each Hard Rock Café store as its own set of pins, and they also produce limited edition pins around holidays, notable days, when they fundraise for charity, Broadway shows, and even waitresses have special waitress pins. I definitely appreciate the limited edition pins more – I only buy special pins. There’s also a pin collectors club, you can auction them on eBay, you can trade pins with other collectors and you can also trade pins with waitresses at the cafés. Whenever any of my friends travel, they bring me a pin as a souvenir and I also try to get a pin from everywhere I go.

Some of the more rare pins I have are from the first Hard Rock Café ever opened in London, I have a Grand Opening pin from the Hard Rock in Venice, and I have a pin from the Cape Town Hard Rock Café that has closed, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali and Cancun. I met someone at the Johannesburg Hard Rock Café who had a pin from Venezuela and she gave it to me. I wouldn’t even know how to value my collection. To me, I’d never sell the pins, the collection is just a hobby. I’m not doing this to make money, it’s about self-gratification. If it’s about buying them in order to sell, it becomes work. I really take time and pride in my collection.

The first record that got me hooked was Cliff Richards’ ‘Congrats’, which I got when I was six years old. There’s something special about records – picking it up, slipping your hand into the sleeve, letting the vinyl slip onto your thumb; you don’t just pull it out, you treat it with a sense of respect. I don’t want to count how many records I have, I could have between four and five thousand, but it’s not big enough – you never feel satisfied. It’s an addiction.

There’s also such a sense of community with other collectors, without subscribing to religion, nationalism, ethnicity and politics. Through connecting vinyls, I can connect with people from Turkey, Kenya, Uganda, USA and that excites me. We can celebrate humanity’s sense of creativity and achievement. I’m not loyal to a specific musical genre, I have very eclectic tastes. I buy a lot of jazz, old South African music, reggae, I love soul, old rock, west African funk, lots of African music in general and electronic music.

I collect as far and wide as possible. I love going to weird little stores after I’ve heard about from other collector friends of mine. Most of the time, it’s not great, but then you find a jewel that gives you shivers. I once bought a Horace Andy album for R300. At the time, I thought it was a bit much, but it was pressed in the early 1970s in Kingston, Jamaica. I went onto the Discogs website, a marketplace for collectors from around the world, and saw that some people were willing to pay R8 200 for it.

I’d save that from a fire, and other things I can’t replace: a few South African records like ‘Diagonal Street Blues’, which you can’t find anywhere; ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ by the Beatles from the 1960s, and ‘The Creator Has a Master Plan’ by Pharoah Sanders. I store my collection in beautiful custom built floor-to-ceiling shelves, and they’re categorized according to genre, then alphabetical order.

Over 16 years ago, we received a part of a Johnson Brothers Old Britain Castles tea set from my now mother-in-law when we got engaged, and that started the collection. I love the blue and white sets and my kitchen has always been blue and white. So, I collect the Old Britain Castles tea cups, sets and dinner sets. I have well over 300 pieces now. I store them in open shelves in my kitchen and in cupboards. They’re not just for display purposes – I do use them. I mean, what’s the purpose of having something if I’m not going to use it? If they chip or break, I do get annoyed, but I just move on. What’s the point if it’s just for display?

My mom lives in the UK, so whenever she sees them at boot sales or antique shops, she immediately FaceTime’s me to see if I’d like the item she’s found. I mostly get them as gifts from friends and family. There’s an antique shop in Hillcrest that stocks them and they’ll set new things aside for me and phone to let me know when they have anything. I have items that are really difficult to find, like duck egg holders and gravy boats with the attached spill plate. I also have a cake stand, which I know is really unusual. But I also have lots of duplicates of everyday items. Altogether, the collection is worth way more than R30 000. I mean, if you think about it, a cereal bowl can cost around £20 each and just the other day I bought over R2 000 from the antique shop. But it really holds sentimental value for me. ’m just going to keep building this collection and hopefully hand it down to my daughter so the sentimental value continues.

Do you have a collection you’d save from a home fire? Visit King Price Insurance to find out how you can keep your crazy, cool collection safe.