Last I checked each person's collection is THEIRS. They don't collect to please anyone else, but themselves. As such they answer only to themselves as to what they collect. You don't like it, so what!
If you don't like that someone collects repop/fantasy items, so be it. YOU DO NOT have the power, nor the experiences to judge anyone else's collection(s)..... None of us do.
Last time I checked we don't have a "Collection Police Force". A group who decides what should and should not be in a collection. To those making judgments about others collections, even if we did have such a group, what makes you think you would be in it?
Anyone should, can and will collect the items they want. It should be that way here, without someone else passing judgment on their collecting. Since when do any of us have the power, experience and/or knowledge to condemn someone else's collection?
Collecting is about experiences. It has nothing to do with money nor whomever has the most items or the most expensive items. Any newcomer with money can possibly buy the biggest and most expensive collection(s).
Experiences are different for each individual collector. For some it is working at stations in the 40s,50s,60s,70s..... up to now.
For others it is having a family member or friend who owned/worked at, a station whether they were alive when the station was open or not. For others it is places they worked at adults or owned as adults. For some it is memories, they didn't work at a station. Didn't know anyone who owned or worked at one. Just remembering an important bit of history, important to them.
Globes, pumps, signs, cans etc. are just physical reminders of different eras that have past. Memories, snapshots, stories these are what this hobby was all about when it started.
Last I checked none of us here were one of those first collectors. I maybe wrong, if you were one of those first collectors in the early 50s. Please contact me, as you may have known my father.
Even back in the 50's, that small group of collectors wanted repop and fantasy items marked... or atleast that is what my dad always told me.
