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Q. Are you a Professional Restoration Artist?

A. No, but I am experienced and still learning, and would never put for sale a restored or altered piece if I wouldn't be willing to buy it myself--and I am quite the picky shopper! However, my product images should display any areas of a restored or altered piece that would not be to your liking. More images and descriptions of any of these items are available upon request. 

CONCERNING OTHER PRODUCTS AT CURIOSTAR

Q. There are other, new items for sale. Are these vintage goods, too?

A. I have partnered with one or more artists to help create home goods made on-demand and produced and shipped by a third party. Those images and designs are NOT AI generated. They are images of real canvas artwork from Colorado artists. Some of them may be altered using computer imaging. This information is true for all items in the True Art section of the shop. I take time to upscale those images and develop them into something tasteful.

Q. What is DHC Merch?

A. CurioStar sponsors the Denver Horror Collective: A large community of Horror writers and creators. Those items are also made-to-order and are specific to the Denver Horror Collective Itself. However, there may be some products that display AI or Third Party artwork to which CurioStar has the license to use. 

Q. Are these Made-to-Order Items Refundable/Returnable?

A. Not entirely. Made-to-Order goods from CurioStar are not eligible for remorse return. However, we do take responsibility should an item arrive damaged, or Severely different than what you expected. In any event, I encourage you to reach out to me if you are not satisfied with your order. 

For the rest of the year, this store will continue to operate under the 'CurioGuild' domain address, but changes are underway. The first being is the types of items one can find in the shop. We will be moving away from things such as Vintage Plates, Porcelain Knick-Knacks, and items such as Homco figurines. These items will be moved to the 'Closeout' category and we may be adding more of those items until they empty from our inventory. 

These items will be given a CLOSEOUT price and shipping will be included and you can find them here: CLOSEOUT SALE

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us at [email protected]

Previously, we briefly looked into why we collect things and it was just a quick eye-opener and a reminder to ask ourselves ‘why do I want this’ versus ‘why would I need this’. It was all a little boring, really. 

This week, CurioStar delves into ‘How to Collect’. Like eating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, there’s almost no wrong way to collect...but if you’ve got 1000 Reese’s wrappers strewn about the house, then it certainly becomes a problem...

Hoarding is a word that comes to mind when you’re on the outside looking in on someone that loves to collect items. Stamps might not be a big issue because they’re so tiny, yeah? Well, think again...

There are two types of collection avenues: Finite, and Infinite. 

Finite Collections include things like a 12 piece limited edition set of cups from McDonalds or Burger King. Once you collect all twelve cups, that’s it. Infinite collections include items such as stamps, playing cards, or Hot Wheels. Those never stop being produced.

For Finite items, a whole set will indeed be worth something to another collector later down the road. The process for properly collecting Finite items is simple, but often overlooked. 

Step 1. Attain the goods at your own pace

Step 2. Store them somewhere safe, away from direct sunlight, smoke and dust. Shadow boxes are a collector’s best friend, and they serve as ice breakers or conversation pieces for guests…Even if you collect and for some reason display a fancy set of adult toys. 

Step 3. If your collectibles are not on display, store them somewhere easily accessible. This last one is important because we are fleshy and perishable creatures, and will likely forget all about them for decades. 

At some point with these Finite things, we have to ask ourselves, ‘Have I been fulfilled by this?’. If the answer is yes, then it is time to find them a new home if they won’t be passed down. Spoiler alert: your Finite collection will indeed find a new home after you pass. So, its best to gain something from them, be it appreciation or money. 

Things get tricky when it comes to Infinite collections. When I was just a bit younger I owned a Tegu—an adorable lizard that started out no larger than a gecko. Years later, it grew and grew to the size of a Chihuahua and would continue to grow to the size of a Labrador. I had no place for the precious fellah and would have had to feed it small animals and children. I was naïve, and had to surrender it to a new home. 

Infinite collections, even if cared for properly, can grow to unexpected levels. Action figures are among the largest baubles that can overrun a living space, turning away potential mates from those hopeful weekends at the pub. 

So…how do we control this and still feel proud about the things we’ve managed to hunt down over years and years?

There is the option of turning an Infinite Collection into groups of Finite Collections. For example, say little Billy has 300 actions figures. He has the entire (100) piece set of the Power Rangers 90’s Edition: (100) piece set of the entire Barbie Army production from the 80’s (don’t judge Billy): and the remaining (100) are a mix of other figures. 

What little Billy could do is preserve the memory of his two completed collections by flooding his social media pages with pictures and immortalizing the accomplishment. After that, they can find a new home and Billy can expand upon that remaining (100) mix. 

It is important to understand early on what Infinite collections are and that those pieces usually don’t assume worth well until people like Billy are dead. We collect to accomplish something and for some it means leaving behind a legacy. Your legacy doesn’t mean much when your kids need to spend three weeks clearing out your post-mortem hoard. That legacy will mean just as much in the form of photographs, videos and other recorded sojourns. 

It should be enough to say, ‘I spent years pulling all of these things together from all over the world’.

We hope this brief examination into little Billy has opened up some options and avenues to both control a growing collection or maintain one that seems like it is getting out of control. Comment on the blog or reach out if you have further thoughts or questions like, ‘Where can I sell this Collection?’, ‘What is the best way to store this set?’, or 'Did Billy ever find love?'. 

I end this post with a factoid for all the Stickermule and Stimulus buddies: 

A group of strange people put together the largest Sticker Ball in the World back in Nov. 11th of 2020 and it weighed over 300 pounds. 

No, we don’t know why all those poor stickers were assembled in a large useless ball, but Billy might know.  

In the beginning, collecting was a matter of survival. Food. Clothing. Shelter components...Mates. Back then, it was hard for such simple human creatures to imagine abundancy. This is no longer so. While there are too many individuals in the world with nothing at all, the rest have either too much or strive to attain more. 

For one reason or another, we all collect. From the rich to the poor, from the over encumbered to the minimalists; there is something out there for everybody, and one can be absolutely certain that there is a merchant ready to accommodate. 

Psychoanalysts are forever intrigued by the behavior and have narrowed the most common drives to collect:

-Financial Gain (accumulated value)

-Nostalgia

-Psychosis (hoarders)

-Self Reward

-Vanity

For the rest of us pondering why we have 150 empty oil cans from the 1800's sitting in the garage, there is perhaps a simpler tune to agree on. In an essay based on collection behavior, Andrew Dillon of the University of Texas narrowed used an intriguing word to sum up those drives: 'Compensation'. For most of us, this may very well be the core of our desire to not just obtain, but to match future items with ones we already have in an attempt to reward ourselves or fill that proverbial 'hole'. This may be obvious for some, but it does help to ask ourselves 'why' whenever we spot that one thing that we absolutely MUST have. 

Aside from the intrepid Magpie that may be attracted to shiny objects, we may very well be the only species on earth that collects items, and not need them. 

Well, there is this guy:

The concept is introduced to us during childhood, and some may see it happening at home. A mother may want to collect the remnants of precious baubles such as hand prints, old school projects, hair and even teeth--not as weird in some cultures where children's teeth are worn to ward off evil...please don't wear your kid's teeth, I beg you!

Commercially, children are marketed by companies peddling items like toys and trading cards. Take Pokémon, for example. In Japan, Pokémon debuted in 1996 as a game, then trading cards were released followed by an animated show. The point of Pokémon is to collect fantastical creatures, and the marketing of that aspect was compounded over time. Fast forward 20 years and the Pokémon: GO' mobile game is introduced in 2016. Countless millions now traverse the real world in search of digital aspects. 

Four to five years later, the animated series introduces the character 'Goh', a deuteragonist who's narrative goal is to 'catch one of every single Pokémon'. One can see the parallels along with that slight breaking of the fourth wall. The series now has a character directly representing the countless million Pokémon collectors all over the world. Theoretical exploitation of young minds notwithstanding; we see how naturally the act of collecting begins to emerge in our youngest selves. 

As to whether shame should be attributed to collecting, it is entirely dependent on what harm it poses (the show 'Hoarders' is a guilty pleasure). Since this is a form of adaptive behavior developed over thousands of years, we may as well embrace it. We cannot even begin to guess how many unique items have been produced by our species and there is no shortage in sight. It all has to go somewhere; better in our pockets than in the landfills, no?

For the most part, it seems collecting is harmless second-nature. Mentioned before, there is a merchant for every niche' venture. A sea of sellers and micro entrepreneurs who's number one goal is to possess what you must add. Commerce is an entirely different topic, but its important to seek these people out whenever possible--either for yourself, or a loved one. Its often more charming and thoughtful to keep in mind what a loved one is collecting and help them to achieve their goal or quota, rather than present them with something new. This does keep items from the landfill--at least for a time, in what the Ferengi of Star Trek have dubbed, 'The Great Material Continuum' i.e, the cycle of life for every single bauble. 

CurioStar hopes we can find, restore, and offer something of value to the seeker of collectible things. And if you are in any way concerned about how much you've collected so far or how much you have spent on those precious things, here are some heavy hitters:

References:

Dillon, A. (2019). Collecting as routine human behavior: motivations for identity and control in the material and digital world. [Essay] p.264. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336587786_Collecting_as_routine_human_behavior_motivations_for_identity_and_control_in_the_material_and_digital_world [Accessed 22 Jan. 2023]. ...collecting as a form of compensation is remarkably widespread and seems to have persisted throughout the popular and academic literature on collectors, even while scholars have been critical of it.

Guinness Book of World Records

PokemonWiki.com / 

Pikachu Project Archives

Quality is a major factor. Ever shop at a dollar store? Many of those goods are mass produced in either Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brazil, and sometimes here in the U.S. Safe to say, those items won't last very long. Vintage is considered 20+ years old and an antique, 80-120 years old depending on the material or object. So as you can imagine, there are a lot of quality products out there just looking for a good home. 

At CurioStar, we attempt to uncover not just valuable items from history, but unique treasures and items that can be used. My workshop is stocked with everything needed to restore and repair old treasures so they may be worthy of a new home. Not many vintage shops offer this because it is costly and time-consuming. This is something we enjoy, and love to peel away the years on an item so that it can look as great as possible. 

Learning about an item is also time consuming. We recently accepted a lot of 52 vintage and antique cameras over for consignment, and learned about each and every single one. Because of our knowledge and restoration practices of that camera lot, every single customer walked away happy, and so was the consignor.

 

Our photography and video practices also get better over time. Most of the time we are able to photograph all (if any) irregularities and damage apart from one might expect to see in vintage and antique goods. This is an industry standard, and hope to set a new bar. Transparency is just as important in our line of work as it is to anyone selling brand new goods. 

All in all, if you're looking for something special for you or someone you love, buying vintage can be a far more rewarding experience. Look for those that promise clean goods or those with knowledge about the items they have available. We don't know everything, but a hint of history goes a long way when seeking gifts and home décor. 

For those that do not know, we started as 'the Curio Guild', however myself and the other owner were just living too far apart to properly manage, so we split and are now working on our own separate ventures. For the time being, our shop will remain 'CurioGuildShop.com'. 

We will continue to offer exciting and unique items to our shop, and provide the kind of transparency and honest one would wish to expect from any American business, large or small. As we continue to offer vintage products, you'll notice a fairer selection of niche' items. And when it comes to new products, we will always strive to source from suppliers that ship from within the U.S.A. 

On the right side of our shop, you'll notice a 'Comments' tab. We encourage anyone and everyone to tap/click on this, and let us know how our website is looking, and what we can do to improve it. This is a one-man show over here, but I won't stop trying to make this shop the best it can be. 

More insights to come as we cross into the new year. Thank you to everyone that has chosen to support the CurioStar, its Guild, and choosing to shop sustainably. I sincerely wish you all a Happy Holiday Season!