Harry Rinker, the Collectors' Guru: Part I
Harry's travels for the trade give him an overview not afforded to everyone, and he has concluded that there are more collectors in the US than anywhere else. He estimates that three out of four adults in the United States collect something, while in Australia it's more like one out of four, and in Europe, fewer than that.
Harry says "collecting is as natural to him as breathing".
2. Do you have a favorite area of collecting? Of your personal collections, which is the largest? The most valuable? The most obscure?
Harry claims not have any favorites among his own collections. His favorite item to collect is always "the next one" - he has around 250 collections, including 5,000 jigsaw puzzles, and has little room in his life for anything else. By his own admission, relationships in his life have suffered somewhat because of his passion for collecting and the fact that his collections have highest priority.
He lives in a 1927 converted school building with a 1950's-era addition, totaling about 14,000 square feet! The building has an auditorium with stage, cafeteria, etc. There is certainly enough room for all his collections, if he stopped adding to it today!
Among the more obscure items Harry collects are toilet paper ("all toilet paper is not created equal"), laxative boxes ("too many people said to me, 'Harry, you're full of ****!'), and vintage girdle tubes (the containers that women's girdles came in) as he figured he tried to remove girdles from more difficult places in his youth...
As for value, his firm conviction is that value is in the eye of the collector and exists only at the moment the item is sold. It is thus very transitory and irrelevant to the true collector. By the way, Harry plans to die with it all...
Part II will continue the interview, including Harry's inside scoop on Antiques Road Show and his opinion of e-Bay!
Harry L. Rinker's description of himself, from his Harry Rinker website:
Harry Rinker is a principal in Rinker Enterprises, Inc., a firm specializing in providing consulting, editorial, educational, photographic, research, and writing services in the antiques and collectibles field. The company's headquarters is located in the former Vera Cruz (Pennsylvania) elementary school. In addition to a staff of qualified researchers, Rinker Enterprises draws regularly on the expertise of advisors located throughout the United States and Canada. Rinker is a prolific antiques and collectibles writer. He serves as
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