Collecting.....stuff

[Niner]

Collectors have the same kind of thought pattern no matter what they collect. A guy on a facebook page dedicated to cameras said this this morning.

I want to make a statement about "my" collection of classic cameraes.
I am not the owner.
I am the temporary custodian and keeper.
It's my duty to secure the collection for the next generations.
It's my job to keep the collection intact, to register, to keep it in a good condition.
I don't trade or buy to the collection.
Good people started to donate their camera-gems to the collection.
It's my job to hand it over to the next custodian.
Signed and approved by the family.

My response was this:

Your collect and preserve statement is the collector apostle creed of all collectors of anything...excepting the trade or buy to add to the collection. The notion of saving outdated items that have perceived or actual value because of when they were made and the people who used them is human thing to do for true collectors. A corollary statement of collectors of anything mechanical is the one that goes... I wouldn't own one that I didn't use ....but this is a diversion from the true faith for some and accordingly not strictly held as a matter of faith. Then there is the apostate diversion fork in the road of the "bubba" who modifies in any way a found relic. Such people are often excommunicated for such things as replacing a cover on a most revered Nikon with a pink imitation cover.

Any musings on this topic?

[Niner Delta]

I do agree that the old things we collect should be kept original. However..... (there is always a however) it seems.
Part of the enjoyment of owning these old guns, for me, is altering them in ways that do not actually change the gun itself.
Such as changing stock, adding scopes, turned down bolt handles or different style magazines. Any of my guns can be changed back
to original in less than an hour with no permanent change to the gun itself. I have every original part with matching numbers,
like the M/N turned down bolts that I just bought already turned down bolts. If that makes me a semi-Bubba, so be it.
And in reality, it will someday be my son's problem, not mine. .....

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