How's your collecting going?
Dr Nick Riviera
138 posts
For myself i focus on official physical releases. I miss the days of the singles. Finding out all versions. Hunting down a special french release. Trying to learn japanese to make sense of the websites in japan.
There is nothing really to collect anymore. I have a box full of singles for the first four albums. The rest of the albums singles fit in half a box.
Comments
Yeah, same. I've zero interest in the random merch items with the FF logo plastered on them so other than the albums, I've not really bought anything in the last 5 or so years.. Mind you even the albums don't have as many editions any more. I only get different versions if they're unique in some way, not just a different barcode/made in XX.
Yeah i bought all the special deluxe packages for the last albums. The T-shirts are used but the rest of the merch is just stuffed in a box. Actually thought about puttning it on ebay cause i just look at the stuff once a year and go "OH thats Nice" and put the box back. :)
All I bought for C&G was the regular CD and black vinyl. We don't even get the 2CD/DVD type special edition releases any more.
Back when things were still booming I bought two large faux leather storage boxes to put everything in and I wondered if it would be enough to fit everything in future, definitely didn't need to worry there. Only thing that doesn't fit in is the Sonic Highways box, for obvious reasons. Still plenty of space for everything else though.
I've stopped myself from buying some of the silly things (i.e. the cookie cutter logo). now just on hold until the next release
I have some stuff. Some of it is a bit rubbish. Some of it is priceless.
There was a time back in the early '00s where I kept hitting this prick named Musiclor (something like that, mem is vague) on eBay.
We had a lot of fights over stuff. This was in between and waaay b4 I rejoined the board after Foo Blackbox (and nobody knows me from then).
Musiclor was Alban. We never knew each other - had no way to connect or discuss anything. But it got to a point where I said to myself this is crazy for both of us, so I laid off bidding on some things and watched him win them against other bidders (like Canadian Cigar CD single and a bunch of others).
I got then all later. He went on to get all manner of other things re actual music releases, though he started way after me. He devoted himself to it 100%, and he will now never ever be beaten.
I went another route (in the 00's) and said OK there are some amazing things out there that are not strictly music based. So while I let some stuff go, I gathered items and connections that spidered into all kinds of places. Knowing who TR was on ebay and having talked to him way before he listed the first Demo tape; asking questions on another cassette and looking at the seller name as Gabor and daring to ask who he was...
Quite a few others less notable but still incredibly "fruitful". Roadies, promoters etc.
If I'd stuck with straight music releases I'd never have had any of them.
I kinda also learnt somewhere in there as a result (I think anyway) about value etc - just from the sheer amount of stuff I looked at and did not buy. So bought some stuff as an equal got it / investment. Other things were for sure got it / got screwed (in hindsight) lol.
So I bought more band merch than I should have for sure. Nut in my defense it's like they piled it on when I had little left to get from 2011 to 2018. And I still lucked out on stuff...
https://i.imgur.com/r7ReJWO.jpg
And here we are... 25 years on.
If I took all the "there's nothing left to collect" shit I've heard for years to heart I'd have stopped.
Or I be an utter dick and start a thread named:
"Post Your Latest 1995 Foo Fighters Colour Proof"
https://i.imgur.com/Tn4DV36.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7Vgp24t.jpg
And then what? Just prove I'm a royal **** by posting the rest?
It's way harder to collect if you "join" years later for sure, but absurdly it's become harder now in the full "internet age" than it ever was before.
I finally found the 45rpm version of the 4LP In Your Honor set.
I’ve sold the 33rpm version years ago.
so now I’m back with all the albums on vinyl, in original pressings.
but that’s it.
Hello, I was a huge collector from 94-2006. I have a huge collection of Bootlegs and Video. I sold all my vinyl years ago when I moved to California. I have some random single CD's left. It's just not the same as it was years ago when they released the same CD in different editions. I miss those!
Not much has changed in the past 10 years....... Im still in need of "Miracle" CD. {:D
I have at the moment a bit over 120 different Foo releases in all formats according to Discogs.
😍
Want to start collecting tour t-shirts, the older the better. There's a really cool community of people that collect Grateful Dead shirts which has got me after some Foo shirts. Where am I best to look? Ebay and pray? Or are there other good sites ?
Collecting is not what is has been in the 90's and 00's. Aside from the odd colored vinyl, there is not much to collect. I always collected physical media, and have 0 interest in random stuff with a band logo popped on to it. I'll buy the odd t-shirt and I love unique concert posters, but that's it.
Better for the wallet though. Although I'm currently investing all my money in really good guitars and recording equipment. So actually worse for my wallet come to think of it 😂
I now have 5K worth of Roland V-Drums due to my attention getting diverted over the last 5 years - so I guess I know the feeling lol. I'd have (probably) not spent that on FF (though like you and Alban and others we'd hate to know what we HAVE spent) But the down time not chasing stuff has deff left me wandering to other things - prob never have gotten excited about what I was looking in electric vs std drums otherwise.
The whole concept of rock music and v-drums is super painful - drums are the one thing you can NOT play live as electric in an old school band like the Foos - yet at home you can and then play 1000 other band set-ups at the press of a few buttons. And not annoy any neighbours. So I have both now.
Console myself that after 4 or 5 bands in my 20's I was good enough to get in a studio a few times and clever enough to know I'd likely earn more doing something else in a country of (then) 4 million.
I've collected shirts since the start in 95 - but only the last 20 years semi seriously - and the last 17 or so pretty seriously.
I don't know of any dedicated FF shirt site and any that do exist will be new, so you will always be faced with a huge gap re "current" updates.
The best bet is sadly eBay - and the only way to do it is save every image of anything you are interested in and ask questions of the seller. Keep everything. Ask here if it's real - ask on Reddit too. For sure you face the poss it IS real and someone else grabs it when you were not sure - but you will know then what you are looking for.
If the shirt is pre 2003 -2005 and made in USA or Mexico it is highly likely real. After that era they printed in many places.
Many many FF shirts of any year have "Foo Fighters xxxx" (the year) printed in smaller text somewhere under the graphics. Not all - but that's a good place to start as fakes usually don't bother especially on the older shirts as they usually don't have real copies to copy.
To try and help centralize things I've created a new thread here:
I hear you. I have a great acoustic Ludwig drum kit in my studio. Great for the live situation, but not always great for the family members at home (I have a home studio). So an electronic drum kit is also on the wishlist for the near future. At the moment I'm investing in some good microphones. Just starting to really learn about mic placement and recording diffrent types of mic's. At least I'm getting the best out of this down time. Learning a whole lot about recording and engineering. Although I can't wait to go to a concert in the near future.... Damn I miss gigs