stereo — Ennui Vagaries

Birth Year Collecting

July 11, 2026

Photo: IBM Selectric I Typewriter, By Steve Iodefink, License: CC BY 2.0

The concept of birth year collecting has fascinated me in the last year or two. The idea of seeking out objects that were produced in the year you were born has an appeal. And yet, I cannot, for the life of me quite wrap my head around the concept.

So, think of it this way… You are looking at objects that you very likely had no knowledge or recognition of when (and even if) you were around them. When you were born, your brain didn't have object permanence. In fact, you likely didn't fully develop object permanence until you were 18–24 months old.

So, why are we fascinated with items that we likely didn't have complete recognition of until we were nearly two years old? The only answer that comes to mind (or more of a thought, really) is that we have some fascination of finding objects that are now symbols of the world we were born into. Objects that our parents likely interacted with on a regular basis around that time.

But even that as an answer isn't completely satisfactory. Why? Simply because we will likely search out objects that simply weren't all that common in the year of our birth.

Take fountain pens as an example. I was born in the mid-1960s. Around the year of my birth the world had largely moved away from fountain pens. Ballpoint pens had become the new norm. So, if I were specifically looking for a writing instrument my parents were using around this time it would have been a ballpoint pen, and not a fountain pen. (Indeed, neither of my parents ever suggested anything about having a preference for fountain pens over ballpoint pens.)

Yet part of my interest has been in Parker fountain pens (as indicated by my interest in Parker 51 Vacumatic clones). Yet, if I were to be honest with myself, my parents would have been likelier to use a Parker Jotter ballpoint pen. And, indeed, there were quite a few Parker Jotter style pens in my house growing up. (Although, there was also another very specific / special ballpoint pen that was extremely common in my house.)

Now, if I were to look at stereo components from this time period... Well, honestly, component stereo systems weren't super common around this time period. (Yes, they were gaining in popularity, and thus weren't uncommon, but hear me out here.) The thing was, the average, non-audiophile would have been more likely to have a Hi-Fi or Stereo console during this time. And, in the case of my family, I know it would be more appropriate to find a console from this time – because they had one.

I don't recall the exact model, or even the brand. However, I know that around the time I was born it broke, and ended up in storage in our attic. And there it sat until I was 6–7 years old and pestered my parents into getting it fixed so I could use it (yes, I was really into music at an early age). That is a story worth telling on it's own at some point.

Another thing that I've looked into birth year collecting is watches. Or, at least, getting a single watch from my birth year. But, while I know my father had a wristwatch, I don't recall what it looked like (and I can't find any good pictures of him wearing it). And, while I've looked at watches from that time period, I am extremely leery of getting one. Why? During that time period manual-wind watches were the most common, followed by self-winding models. And the fact is, many watch manufacturers were making their own movements. Movements that aren't produced today, and don't have parts available to repair them. The fact is, you can buy a watch from this time period for a few hundred dollars, but end up spending thousands to get reproduction parts made to get it working. Not something that I want into invest in.

So, of all the things birth-year related, the one that I am likely to get is: a typewriter. A typewriter? Yes, I've been looking at getting into typewriters for a while now. I don't want to build some big collection of them. But one two, a manual and an electric, would be kind of cool to have in a nerdy historic way, in my opinion. And, in fact, I know that we had a couple of typewriters in the house when I was growing up. There is even one in my attic now I think: an old Underwood inherited from my grandparents that I used to write my first story ever (as bad as it was – lol).

So, I just don't know why people get into birth year collecting. Knowing what I know from doing a bit of research on all these items, it just seems like more of a nuisance than it rewards. The biggest problem is actually identifying objects that were specifically produced in the year that you want. And, even if you can find something, it might not be in good shape and need to be restored. Restoration can be extremely expensive if you pay an expert to do it. Or, it can be a real time-sink if you decide to undertake it yourself.

Maybe it's just better to get a modern reproduction instead.

Categories: #Collecting Tags: #fountainpens, #wristwatches, #watches, #stereo, #hifi, #typewriters License: Copyright Unattributed. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.