Tolkien Collector Profiles
Beginning Tolkien collectors mostly own a handful of items assembled mostly by accident, such as gifts. They never officially decided to become a Tolkien collector, it just slowly happened. A new collector will come home from an auction wide-eyed and enthusiastic after seeing something new, learning a little about other items, and befriending an experienced collector. Once the collecting bug bites, even beginners can quickly graduate to full-fledged Tolkien fanatics.
Tolkien Experts on the other hand have been collecting for more than a decade. In fact, they started before anyone else seemed to be bothering with Tolkien at all. Most of these have assembled an extensive collection that usually dominates a spare bedroom, basement, attic, garage, or takes in a part of their livingroom. Tolkien collectors at this level revel in the thrill of locating an item they've never seen before and find a way to obtain obscure items others never knew existed. An expert gets several mails from collector friends asking for help in identifying or authenticating various finds. In fact, expert collectors can spend hours telling stories about the items in their collections, the people they bought them from, and the prices they paid for each item. They'll explain why it was a steal or a bargain, a fair deal, or an overpriced mistake they bought while in the heat of the moment but later regretted.
Some Tolkien experts falls into the category of "extreme collectors". Some say there's a fine line between expert and extreme, but a few would argue otherwise. An extreme Tolkien collector has made up his or her mind to acquire items deemed of value with no regard for the financial consequences. At an auction, these individuals exhibit bidding fever by running up an item to nearly excessive levels. As a result, their hobby is an expensive one. And what separates the "men from the boys" as they say, is the depth of their pockets when it comes to buying the best Tolkien memorabilia on the market.
One thing is sure if you are a beginner, an expert or an extreme Tolkien collector you can learn from one another. There for I added this section, Tolkien Collector Profiles, where you can see the passion of some of the greatest Tolkien collectors. Hope this will give ideas for beginning collectors and will give collectors a chance to learn more about each other. Any Tolkien collector who wants to contribute his own profile please contact me.
Collector Profiles:
Giulio Torlai, medical doctor and Tolkien collector, collects unique and rare Tolkien books. He considers himself an uncommon Tolkien collector, since he never focused on particular editions, and only buys what he likes. Especially rare special Italian rebindings of Tolkien books are at the hearth of his collection.
Barry Stread, a writer and teacher of graphics and multimedia in London, who collects posthumous first editions and deluxe editions related to Middle-earth and associated reference books on Tolkien. He confesses that he didn’t actually realise being a collector until a few years ago, when he ended up buying a deluxe edition of The Silmarillion as a treat.
Tim Scholz, is a 44 year old German who started out as a Lord of the Rings movie statue collector, but fast turned into an all-round Tolkien collector. He plans to turn his huge collection of over 10K pieces into a small museum. His collection holds movie collectables, art, books and anything he could acquire that a Tolkien feel to it.
Jean Claude Mouret, aka Estelläer, is a 19 year old French musician, and an avid Tolkien collector living in the United States. He mainly focuses on limited editions, first printings and signed books. He tries not to purchase cheaper materials, because he strives to acquire real long-term possessions, and not cheap memorabilia. We can only support that vision!
A young collector of from the Philippines, who mainly focusses on anything Hobbit related, trying to collect different kinds of covers of the book and "The Hobbit" in other mediums such as audio books and has impressive presentation displays to show of his excellent Hobbit collection.
A young collector of from Örebro in Sweden, who mainly focusses on collecting Scandinavian Tolkien translations, with his first priority on Swedish and Norwegian. He will try to collect every one of tolkien's books translated into Swedish and Norwegian and with a little help from us all he will of course reach his goal!
A young collector of Italian Tolkien books from Milan in Italy. He mainly focusses on collecting books directly related to the Middle-earth history from The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth to The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. He runs the website tolkienbook.blogspot.it where he catalogs his books and shares all his collecting adventures with all the Tolkien readers interested in collecting. We are proud to feature his profile here!
Pierre Dobrzykowski { @Pieeru }
A collector of German and Japanese Tolkien books from Munich in Germany, who can sit in front of the books and enjoy their beauty, especially the designs drawn by Tolkien himself, which have significant Japanese elements in them.
In the future he'll try to buy every Tolkien book translated into Japanese. If it's worth it, I'll consider a serious collecting of the Japanese editions. Now that is something we all look forward to and we wish him all the best! Hope we many will be inspired by this collection and help him in his quest.
Myla Malinalda { @MylaMalinalda }
A Tolkien and Middle-earth movie merchandise collector from Connecticut in United States, who primarily collects Tolkien books and while she focused mainly on the movies and merchandise from that, in the last few years started to branch out and look and buy items not exclusively from the movie trilogy like books, calendars, games, art,... She sees herself as a beginning collector but we are very proud to show her collection! It surely is a fabulous collection that can inspire many other collectors.
Andrew Ferguson { Trotter }
A Tolkien collector from Essex in England, who primarily collects British editions of tolkien's fiction and almost owns every different UK edition. His goal is probably about 98% complete and so it has now become very difficult to find missing items. He is now focusing on collecting signed Tolkien items.
Thomas Denys { Onónion }
A Tolkien collector from Belgium, who studies English and German Linguistics and Literature at the University of Ghent and collects anything Tolkien. He is a very young collector but already we can see he acquired a fabulous collection to be proud of.
Jeroen Bakker { Huinelassir Arestë }
A Tolkien collector from The Netherlands, who is a very passionate music lover, collector of Tolkien Books, Inspired Music, Motion Pictures and Soundtracks.
Peter Kenny { Fortinbras }
A Tolkien collector from Brisbane, which is in the far away land down under, called Oz, a long way from the ancient lands of Middle Earth across the Encircling Seas.
Oronzo Cilli
A Tolkien collector from Puglia in italy, copy-editor of the Second edition of “The Annotated Hobbit”, by Douglas A. Anderson.
Yvan Strelzyk { Vanya }
A Tolkien collector from Thonon-les-Bains in France, specialized in Tolkien translations, French and English Hobbits and Lord of the Rings editions.
Neil Holford { Deagol }
A Tolkien collector from Birmingham, and the compiler of the website "An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography".
Henk Brassien { Hobbit Hunter }
A collector specialized in collecting The Hobbit; and known as the Hobbit Hunter.
Jeremy Edmonds { Rowns }
A collector of Tolkien academic books, posters, fanzines and ephemera; and the person behind the website "The Tolkien Collector's Guide".
Phil Goss { Parmastahir }
A collector of Tolkien calendars, and the person behind the website "The Compleat Gyde to Tolkien Calendars".
A collector of Tolkien books, and the person behind the website "The Tolkien Library".