Here is some information about and photos of the various things we collect.
Warning: Collecting is a disease. We are helpless packrats. Prolonged exposure to these pages will either induce profound smugness ("heh, heh, at least I'm not that bad"), or will make you want to collect things, too. Oh sure, you'll start off small, collecting things for their educational or monetary value, but you won't stop there. Oh no. You start to collect stuff because no one else is collecting it and you'll make a killing when everyone catches on. You wind up with no room in your garage, renting climate controlled storage space to house all this valuable stuff. You didn't think those places were for normal folks, did you?
You'll learn to rationalize. My collection of early widgets is valuable. Or will be, some day. Soon. It has historical merit. The kids will learn a lot from it. Face it. We collect this stuff because we like it and because we just can't help ourselves. Life will be so much better if only I can get the one blue-with-red-stripes widget I need to complete my collection. Better get looking. It's out there somewhere, probably on eBay!
Don't let this happen to you.