\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see it in Facebook posts; you hear it at meetings. It seems to transcend all collecting hobbies but what exactly is an \u201cin the wild find\u201d and why should it matter. I suspect it pertains to how and why we collect. The \u201ccollector gene\u201d is certainly not shared by everyone and each of us collects differently with different targets, goals and even how we should arrange and display. Some are generalists, some prefer matching designs and others specialize to some degree or another. We often fail to understand what others collect and how that could possibly bring them that \u201cjuice\u201d we feel when we add something spectacular or a longtime target to our collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are all distant descendants of hunters\/gatherers. A successful hunt was rewarded by the tribe and that celebration\/adoration became a Pavlovian reward which I believe persists deep in our subconscious. Somehow that feeling associated with carrying home a mastodon is poorly reproduced by bringing home 2 lbs. of 95% lean ground sirloin from Publix, Safeway or Kroger even though our tribe receives more than adequate sustenance. In addition, I personally feel a little extra \u201cjuice\u201d when I bring something from the wild into the hobby so I can be post it for my tribe on so many Facebook pages; I will refrain from my opinions as to how social media \u201clikes\u201d or worse have affected our mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I suspect another aspect of the importance we place on in the wild finds relates to a more insidious aspect of human nature, classism. We have always emotionally valued the effort of workers who produce over the owner\/managers who commission the work. Watching any news channel would validate this hunch. We even celebrate Labor Day without a similar holiday for CEO.s. We get both a rush from a successful \u201cwild hunt\u201d and by doing it with mostly honest hard work rather than paging through an auction catalog. We don\u2019t take into consideration that possibly more hard work may have gone into amassing the funds needed for a successful domesticated \u201cshopping adventure.\u201d Take an honest look inside and appreciate the touch of resentment smoldering when a collector with seemingly resources is bold enough on the bourse to request in earshot, \u201cshow me your most expensive pins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, having stirred that pot, what is the \u201cWild\u201d? It is simple in some hobbies such as fossil collecting. There the wild is literally the badlands with heat, rain, rattlesnakes and zero plumbing. I am relatively certain those collectors have areas of gray that recreate that juice apart from the great outdoors. In our hobby, finding a button tucked in the wall of a house or a poster lodged in the back of frame is as close to the wild as we get. Few would argue that finding an item in a remote antique shop or farm auction is \u201cthe wild\u201d but what of estate auctions that are widely advertised and a half dozen APIC are in attendance. What about sales available in online conglomerates such as the app LiveAuctioneers? There are also a number of online auction sites outside the hobby such as EBTH and Auction your possessions? I suspect most of our members would consider these at least wild adjacent. EBay has been a staple source of material for our hobby for some time; In fact, I would guess 80% of my purchases over the last 20 years have been on my eBay account. Most collectors would embrace postings from those outside the hobby as wild but what of those from our members? My impression is that a Buy It Now item is even a bit more on the wild side. Antique malls share a similar overlap; they generally seem wild enough but what about those booths belonging to our members? I think most of us define the wild as a source outside the hobby regardless of what platform it was discovered. I wonder if $1 bins on the bourse might be a touch wild or at least as wild as a walk in at one of our shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could go on and on about what is, what is not and what smudges the boundaries of our definition. It is better to embrace any way we chose to collect and share the excitement of our fellow collectors in every one of their successful hunts; regardless of how wild we find it. There are certainly passionate collectors that can no longer hunt the wild and we should in no way discount the method or effort of their hunt. Each addition to my collection has brought that \u201cjuice\u201d but those I got for \u201ca deal\u201d seem to pack more juice than even some of my true wilds. Possibly it is the \u201cdeal\u201d that makes the wild so appealing after all. I have selected some of my wild finds as an illustration and their source. I toast all you hunters; our tribe is grateful for your successes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You see it in Facebook posts; you hear it at meetings. It seems to transcend all collecting hobbies but what exactly is an \u201cin the wild find\u201d and why should it matter. I suspect it pertains to how and why we collect. The \u201ccollector gene\u201d is certainly not shared by everyone and each of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-presidential-collecting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collectingpoliticalbuttons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}