Story by Brandes Elitch
“There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them” – Louis Armstrong
Why would a person in their fifties, sixties, or seventies still collect model cars, spending perhaps hundreds of dollars on an individual model? Well, if I have to explain it to you, this quote from Louis Armstrong is right on the money.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Collecting is so widespread that there is even a “psychology of collecting,” which says that “this allows people to relive their childhood, and connect themselves to a period or time that they feel strongly about.” Collecting “helps people to relieve insecurity and anxiety about losing a part of themselves and to keep the past to continue to exist in the present.” Someone once said that collectors have “a genetic defect.” These comments are beyond psychobabble – they are nonsense, of course.