To each his own, but some people collect some seriously unusual things. You wonder where they store the things they gather and if their loved ones are okay with the volume of oddities.
Swipe through to see the crazy things people collect.
Some folks collect hotel room “do not disturb” signs. Edoardo Flores of Italy says he has more than 14,000 such signs. A Swiss man, Jean-François Vernetti, has collected more than 11,000 signs from 189 countries. There’s a Facebook group for collectors, and enthusiasts can buy and sell signs on numerous websites.
Photography: Pinterest/Digitalsplatter
Believe it or not, there’s an online museum dedicated to air sickness bags - www.airsicknessbags.com. While today’s bags tend to look fairly utilitarian, air sickness bags of days gone by were highly decorated, and so many collectors focus their efforts on vintage bags. Among the most coveted is a NASA space shuttle bag.
Photography: Amazon
Next time you enjoy a banana, think of the people around the world who collect banana stickers. Becky Martz of Orlando, Florida, for example, has amassed more than 24,000 of the little labels. The hobby has many other devotees and collectors can even purchase an “Official Banana Sticker Book” on Amazon.
Some people collect those orange pylons that most of us would prefer not to see when they’re impeding traffic, or making us switch lanes. UK resident David Morgan has hundreds of traffic cones and owns the Guinness World Record for the largest collection. His favorite is a 1956 rubber cone from Scotland.
Photography: Guinness World Records
Did you know U.S. presidents are featured on a series of sugar packets? The sugar-packet-collection hobby even has a name—sucrology. Sucrologists hold conferences where they gather to talk and trade sugar packets.
A few people around the world collect (unused) toilet paper. Apparently there’s a huge range of decorations and embossing on toilet paper, and these folks want a square or two—or even a roll—of all of them. We just hope that during the recent pandemic when paper products were in short supply, these folks didn’t have to turn to their collections.
Would you jump onstage at a Rolling Stones concert to snip a lock of Mick Jagger’s hair? People who collect celebrities’ hair might just pay you for it. Different enthusiasts are known to own hair from Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber, among others. A lock of John Lennon’s hair sold a few years ago for $35,000.