How to Begin Your Collection of Collectibles: Choose Your Passion, Visit Estate Sales

When I was younger, I collected teddy bears. It all started with the bear a boyfriend bought for me when he was going off to college. As time has moved on, I have pretty much aged out of that collection. I still have most of the bears and I have been looking for a charity to perhaps donate them to, although I will most likely hold on to that first bear for the remainder of my life. I have since moved my passion of collecting to Scottie Dogs, I have a couple living and breathing Scottish terriers in my life and they manage to bring laughter into our home with their crazy antics each and everyday. I originally owned one Scottish terrier but when he died, I replaced him with two more. That was not enough, though, each and every time I saw something at the store, embellished with a Scottie dog, I just had to have it.

While I can remember the bear that started me on collecting, for the life of me, I can not remember the first Scottie collectible I purchased. Maybe because I purchased it myself, or maybe it is because, in my heart, I know my first Scottie thing was the living breathing variety and the collectibles grew out of my love for him.

Collecting anything is a lot of fun and it makes it even more so, if you belong to a club or group, that shares the same passion. I belong to a Scottish terrier message board, where it seems that everyone collects at least a few Scottie things. Every once in a while, someone will leave a message with the heading "Scottie Find". I quickly open those messages looking to see where the Scottie collectible was seen, what it looks like and how much money I will have to part with to add it to my collection. Christmas is the best time for locating new Scottie collectibles and my family and friends appear to love that, it makes me much easier to shop for. But new collectibles are not always the best and most cherished collectibles.

I have also found many Scottie collectibles at estate sales. Estate sales are a great place for people with a passion for collecting, you can find almost anything at an estate sale. Looking for vintage clothing? Start with what you might know about a neighborhood. If you know of a neighborhood where there is a large population of older people, who probably lived in the same house for more than 40 years, you will most likely hit the vintage clothing jackpot, cast iron skillet jackpot, old china ware jackpot, etc. The longer people stay in their homes, the more likely you are going to be to find the rare and unusual. I have found quite a few Scottie collectibles from the Franklin D Roosevelt era, the initial beginning of the Scottie dog collectible craze, on my estate sale visits.

Choose your passion, do a little neighborhood research and start a collection close to your heart. Once your collection begins to grow, you can move on to the next step, decorating your home with your collection. Happy collecting!