“I didn’t mean to collect over four bookcases of Sailor Moon, but here we are…”
By: Sarah Forde on February 09, 2017
I became a fan of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon when I was in high school. I managed to scrap together enough money to buy the comic books, and I used to record the TV episodes on VHS tapes.
After college, I started working full-time while selling my artwork online. From 2006-2012, I built the majority of my collection. It started with DVD box sets and dolls. I didn’t mean to collect over four bookcases of Sailor Moon, but here we are and now I have over 600 licensed items!
The series is in revival with the 25th anniversary, a new animated series, and stage musicals in Japan. A few things in the collection I bought while I was in Japan in 2013, which was my greatest Sailor Moon experience! I got to meet up with other collectors and fans while doing a LOT of shopping! Most of these friends are people I've known online for years so it was really incredible to hang out with them and share our love of Sailor Moon.
In the last few years, there's been an avalanche of new merchandise coming out in the USA and Japan. It's been challenging to try to keep up with the new stuff while also keeping an eye on collecting the vintage merchandise. The prices for the older items have also skyrocketed! This means a lot of my wish list items are unaffordable for me right now, but I'm in it for the long run so I'm hopeful.
In 2014, I had a daughter, so I'm not as focused on merchandise news as I was in the past. Though I don't have as much time and money to dedicate to my hobby, I love waking up every day to my sparkling, shiny collection!
Love for pizza leads to world’s largest collection of boxes
By: Scott Wiener on May 11, 2016
Scott Wiener didn’t plan on amassing the world’s largest collection of pizza boxes. But nine years ago, he came across a stack of boxes unlike any other. Used to seeing a generic phrase paired with a simple drawing, this explosively colorful design took him by surprise. The box top presented an image of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Even more intriguing was the side of the box, which boasted the odd claim “Limited Edition Tour of Italy Series.” Scott was intrigued.
With this new light shed on an otherwise disposable genre of art, Scott started his collection. With the launch of his company, Scott’s Pizza Tours, visits to pizzerias were a part of his daily life. Friends, family and tour guests took to his interest and helped grow the collection. Before he knew it, he had collected enough boxes to score a Guinness World Record. Scott also wrote a book called Viva La Pizza! The Art of the Pizza Box (Melville House, 2013). The book and collection were featured on the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, CBS Sunday Morning, and dozens of other outlets.
Soon after, emails started flowing in from companies wanting to display the collection at their media events.
Why the hype?
Pizza boxes were designed to be thrown in the garbage. Saving and presenting them in an artistic context suddenly made them visible in a way not yet seen before. It became clear that something as simple as a pizza box resonates with people even if they aren’t into art. Interested in celebrities, athletes or politicians? There’s a box for you. As Scott says, “Right now, they’re just funny pizza boxes. In a few years, they’ll be artifacts.”
How my search for stamps led me to my wife
By: Dan Walker on December 01, 2014
It was back in 1979, and I was in Newark, NJ, for a show. Actually, it was my first time exhibiting—in this case, with my collection of Grenada postal history. I was probably a bit nervous about being a novice exhibitor, especially when I met Patricia Stilwell. She was a veteran postal history exhibitor, but we managed to hit it off well enough to start seeing each other.
The rest, as you might say, is history. Because that chance meeting led to a marriage that has lasted more than 30 years.
It was definitely a philatelic wedding. The wedding cake was decorated with Grenadian postmarks from my collection and Irish postmarks from Pat’s. And to send us off on the honeymoon, our wedding guests tossed used stamp hinges instead of rice!
Editor’s Note: Dan Walker is the former owner of Collectibles Insurance Services. His collections have covered British Borneo, Romania and the Civil War era US Revenue stamps. He is best known for his research and published work on the West Indian island of Grenada. A winner of the American Philatelic Society's Champion of Champions Award, he is now actively engaged in the collection and study of the Feudatory States of India, including multi-frame exhibits of Barwani and Soruth. In 2014, Dan was elected to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, an honor conferred on just 369 philatelists in the world since the Roll was established more than 90 years ago.