It is a good thing to collect things. From thimbles to whatever. Collecting improves a person's IQ and their research abilities.

For example, my wife collects Civil War uniforms and guns. She knows every kind of uniform and stiching possible. She knows what is authentic and what is not. Also, she has been asked by museums to evaluate clothing to verify its authenticity.

She's a real cracker jack when it comes to the Civil War.

I on the other hand enjoy collecting weapons from the great wars. In other words, World War I and World War II. The politics behind every sort of weapon is extremely interesting to me. Every bolt, nut, washer, etc. was carefully and politically designed.

Back in those days soldiers were thought to be brutes. Therefore, the greatest gun of World War II (according to me and endless sources of politicians to generals) the M1 Garand had an en bloc clip. It's not that they were cheaper to make, it's the politicians thinking the soldiers were too stupid and they would lose the magazines.

All of the nation's pretty much thought the exact same thing during the time period. Hence the reason why they have integral magazines. Meaning you cannot remove it. The British for example had magazines, their weapon of choice was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE).

The SMLE had a canvas cover over the magazine which prevented the magazine from being removed or lost.

Another example comes when taking apart a weapon. The avarage dough boy was not allowed to strip his rifle more than the bolt and the magazine. On the other hand I take it all the way done to the nuts and bolt.

I want to see how it works and how they designed it. For example trigger placement, or even the swivels. Everything has its own purpose. The Brits had slanted swivels mainly because they used what is called a tangential sight. This again is another old political thing which went away after WWI. The tangential sight in short, is to convert a rifle into light artillery, obviously a waste of time in the age which artillery was coming of age.

Then there are the Russians/Soviets. Using pretty much the same caliber up to today. The 7.62x54R is the oldest caliber in existence. Our fighting men and women in Iraq continually have to face the threat of this caliber. The very same way that 110 years ago anyone who opposed the Russian empire would have faced.

The politics behind anything is interesting. The engineering is amazing.

Think about it. Don't spend your money on perishables. Save your money and collect. Find out the history of your collection. All of my rifles have history, some served in WWI others in WWII. A dough boy, tommy, frontovik, carried these into service, a lot of them did not make it back home.

Politics, history, engineering, Zeitgeist, etc. these are things why come into any collection. Collect! Remember, they always go up in value, a thimble can be worth $200 some dollars, maybe you got it for $1 at a garage sale.