Odds are, every single person in America collected something while growing up. My eldest sister collected hair metal cassettes, she still has them. Our middle sister collected baby dolls, they're still in moms attic. I collected posters, parents "lost" them in the move from Denver to Oklahoma. It was a massive collection too. I had a 10x10 room, and you couldn't see a single sliver of wall anywhere you looked. I had posters for days.

As we get older, we might still collect things, but the subject matter seems to change. Early in my radio life, I started collecting album covers. This was back when labels would literally mail you whatever single they were trying to release to radio. It was a full CD and case, but it'd only have one song on it. Knowing how people usually based the cool factor on looks, album covers used to be amazing in their graphics. We got dozens each week in the mid-00's. We would go ahead and record the song in, toss the disc and case, I'd keep the cover. Eventually, I had hundreds of them and did something similar to my poster room... I stacked them all across a big sheet of play wood, glued them down, buried them in clear coat, cut it into squares, and gave the results away as pretty epic presents.

In 2010, things changed. I moved towards a more traditional collectible... Tools. My grandfather collected tools for most of my fathers life. Even as an old man, if he saw something cheap, he'd have to have it. I've done the same thing, and at no point have I ever gotten rid of anything. After filling a few rolling tool boxes full of useful stuff, I started buying the big things. Big 'ol tools you need a lot of garage space for, but again, I've kind of hit my completion point for that too. I can literally only think of three more tools that I need, and those will come with holiday sales later this year.

Now I don't know if it's a SWOK/Texas thing, but my family has played dominoes my entire life. Not just straight dominoes, but the game of 42... it's serious business at every family gathering still today. Now I've been gifted dominoes in the past, and I've bought dominoes on a whim when I needed some, but those little plastic tiles have become the next collectible in my adult life. Not just any domino though, it's got to be the classic and still American made Puremco domino from the same named company still located in Waco, TX. They've been making dominoes there for nearly 70 years, and I'm convinced every old person in SWOK has at least one box of them in their cupboards. Since I love throwing the bones, I guess it has snuck into my habits as the new collectible thing.

Now, I didn't just wake up one day and thing to myself "I'm gonna start collecting dominoes." That'd be too simple. It was a year or two ago, at a family gathering, nobody could find the 1950's butterscotch (normies always call them 'ivory' because they're dark yellow in color) Marble-Like dominoes we've played with my entire life. We looked literally everywhere and couldn't find them, so we ended up playing on some cheap knock-off brand. The kind that won't stand up without falling over, it was a terrible night of bones. So I just happened to see some that same weekend on Facebook marketplace and bought em. They were a green set from 1953.

Kelso
Kelso
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I'm not the biggest fan of green dominoes, but we've had fun with them. They've been all over the country as they used to live in the back of my truck... you know, in case a random domino game breaks out wherever it is I happen to be.

About a year later, a Google alert showed me this little set of butterscotch Marble-Like's on electronic bay dot com, it was a good price, I couldn't resist. I didn't realize they were a mixed box someone put together to make a full set. They don't all match in color, so we don't use them much.

Kelso
Kelso
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Nearing the end of last year, I happened to spot a set of red ones here in Lawton, again on Facebook marketplace. I gave the guy a shout, stopped by and bought 'em. Turns out, it was the same guy that sold me the green set. They didn't have a box, so I'll probably make a wood box for them at some point.

Kelso
Kelso
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I have another set of vintage white dominoes coming sometime this week. It's officially a collection. It's crazy how grossly varied an individuals collectibles can be. Whether it trading cards, video games, guns, or dolls, each person has their own quirks. Never be ashamed of whatever you're into... Unless it's Netflix's Cuties... Don't ever share that as you'll most likely be pummeled for being a pedo.

By the way, if you have a set of dominoes you'd like to make money on, holler. I pay what stuff is worth.

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