What's the most unusual thing you own?

[BlackCurtains]

I'm in a popular group on Facebook about weird and unique finds. People post some of the strangest things but also very awesome things. It got me wondering what kinds of things people on the forum might have, considering we are collectors

I own some very weird jewelry I picked up at flea markets or antique stores. I also have a melted doll torso I found in the woods. It looks like a skull from a certain angle. I have it on display with my bones and fossils I also have (don't tell anybody!) a Bald Eagle feather. It was a gift from a living Bald Eagle at the Milwaukee Zoo many years ago. He was preening himself and plucked it out and it fell toward me.

I think the most unusual things I have though belonged to my Great Grandfather. He lived a very interesting and mysterious life. Some of what I have is propaganda stuff from the USSR. He was a scientist that worked in an underground lab in Moscow. When he came to America, he lied about where he was from and his name. So information about him is hard to track down. In Chicago he became a Free Mason, and I have some of those things as well.

The oldest thing I have is a handmade baby bonnet that was made by my Great-Great Grandmother. My Great Grandmother wore it as a baby, as did my Grandmother, my mom, my sister and myself. It wasn't given to my sister because she wasn't good with things... so my mom gave it to me, but I'm not having children, so the tradition is ended. I do like it a lot though. It's amazingly soft, like the softest piece of clothing I've ever felt.

What do you have that's strange, unique or antique?

[Koudoawaia]

Took me a bit to think of this but one of the strangest things I have has to be a tube of toothpaste I found in my grandmother's house the very last night I stayed over there while she was in Hospice in 2015. I forgot to bring toothpaste with me so was trying to find some. I found a small tube of toothpaste that had been expired since 1987 XP I found it so amusing that I decided to bring it home with me and it's in one of my memento bins. I did eventually find non expired toothpaste though >> I honestly have a lot to remember her by that isn't as unusual as that but another kind of strange one might be a threadbare white washcloth with a floral pattern that is probably older than I am and came from my grandmother's house also a few years before 2015 but can't remember how I ended up with it tbh but I'm glad I have it. I also have two pieces of coal my great uncle Larry gave me for Christmas years ago XP He was hilarious with an eccentric sense of humor and very fun to be around and I loved him to pieces. I thought those pieces of coal were neat.

[LadyAmalthea]

Fun question! I don't think I own anything especially old. My grandma's fake grapes are probably the oldest, and rather an oddity in themselves. She had a basement full of oddities and unusual items when we were growing up, and the fake grapes were on this balance scale on top of a chest of drawers. For some reason, I wanted them so badly! I would try to climb the dresser to get them, and get in trouble for it. After she passed away when I was a teen, my aunt asked me if I wanted anything from her house. I said not really...just those fake grapes. My mom rolled her eyes and tried to throw them away, but my aunt rescued them and snuck them to me. I still have them in my kitchen, in a giant decorative wine glass on top of my kitchen cabinets.

I have had a lot of strange things that have passed in and out of my hands over the years, but none so bizarre as my husband's extracted wisdom teeth. Not sure why I wanted to keep them; I also have some of my stepkids' baby teeth that they gave me when they fell out. A couple of years ago my own wisdom teeth joined the collection. I guess I always thought I might encase them in clear dental acrylic or something...make something fun out of them. I know...I'm weird.

[Taffeta]

I have a few books from Edo Japan. THe oldest is from something like 1790. That is probably one of the odder things I have, generally speaking. It's old enough that it has bookworm trails in it xD. It makes me wonder who owned it, and how they'd feel knowing it was now in the UK, since Edo Japan had no trade with the UK.

I also have a shell which came from Miyajima, I think.

I have two little wooden mice with gemstone eyes that I inherited from my gran. I named them after her.

Oh yes. I have a banner type thing hanging off my shelf. It was sent to me by a friend in India. It has several coloured squares hanging off it with hindi characters written on them.

[Heart Of Midnight]

Wow, you all have interesting stuff! 

I think the most unusual things I have though belonged to my Great Grandfather. He lived a very interesting and mysterious life. Some of what I have is propaganda stuff from the USSR. He was a scientist that worked in an underground lab in Moscow. When he came to America, he lied about where he was from and his name. So information about him is hard to track down. In Chicago he became a Free Mason, and I have some of those things as well.

BC, Your Great Grandfather's life story is like something out of a movie! Very interesting, thanks for telling us about him. 


If I had a lot of money, I'd like to buy and own a lot of weird stuff! I love weird and old stuff!

My husband has a knife with a deer leg. He found it in the 90s in a forest near his home. There it was on the trunk of the tree. It is still in very good condition and perhaps our strangest and finest treasure. It would be great to know who had left it there in the forest and why. 

I have animal bones and a couple of skulls. Most of them I have found in forests.
I also have baby teeth from one of my cats stored in a small jar. (She was an old lady when she died a few years ago.)

[BlackCurtains]

HoM, yeah he seemed like a super interesting person. He spoke 7 languages and spent his life trying to build a perpetual motion machine. According to my mom, he was a loner and most people were cautious of him, but he liked my mom and he would tell her stories.

Oh yes, I also have lots of teeth. I have mine and my sisters baby teeth from my mom. I also have teeth from our two dogs and two of my cats. Then I collect bones and fossils too I have some animal teeth like cow, horse, pike fish, shark teeth I have a ton of because they're easy to find on the beach. I even have a Megalodon tooth. I have two alligator heads, a small one and a really big one, both gifts from my dad. I've had the small one for a very long time and it's fine, but the big one makes me sad, so it's packed away.

[LadyAmalthea]

Maybe my habit of collecting teeth isn't as strange as I thought. My 7-year-old hasn't lost any teeth yet, and his dentist just informed me that 2 are finally loose. Is it bad that I'm already looking to poach my son's teeth by putting a little container in his backpack in case they fall out while he's at school, and making big tooth fairy promises? 

[Ponyfan]

I have a music box that was a gift when I was a baby.  I don't know if it can be wound up anymore.

I also have one of my grandpa's ties.  I told him I liked it and he took it off and gave it to me.



Ponyfan

[Ponybookworm]

I used to go to parties of a rather niche field of music, & collected: flyers, one DJ's entire back catalogue in digital format, many event & DJ tshirts, assorted event CDs & mix mp3s, & (this is what you're waiting for) the banner from one DJ's live show!!! I still have it somewhere & will never get rid of it. I made so many memories at these parties & the collection of memorabilia from them is my record of them xxx

[BlackCurtains]

Oh neat! What genre? I listen to some obscure stuff.

[Ponybookworm]

A niche form of EDM

[Taffeta]

My mother still has both my and my sister's baby teeth in a jar somewhere. Now I say that, it sounds a bit creepy.

Oh, something else I have which is maybe weird? I don't know. I have a stuffed "2" that I had as a present for my 2nd birthday. It was homemade by someone from green flowery fabric. At some point in its life it got torn, as it's been stitched back together. It is hanging on my cabinet. Somehow after all these years and multiple childhood house moves, I still have my plush 2.

[BlackCurtains]

Aw, a stuffed 2! I used to have a stuffed L. It was giraffe print.

[Beldarna]

I have a collection of cat whiskers in a ziplock bag. I've not cut them from our cats, lol, but whenever me or hubby find a loose whisker somewhere in our home I put it in the bag. I don't know why I began, but I have a small collection now.


Speaking of theeth, I get adds on facebook about a company that makes jewellry with teeth you send them, they put the teeth in rings and necklases. Creepy but cute.

[Beth3346]

my mom has my baby teeth too. it is a little weird. i have a couple of my sheltie's baby teeth somewhere.

i don't really own too many unusual things. i do have a signed letter my great grandfather received from President Taft. not the most revered president but my great grandfather was an economist who did some work for his administration. i have no idea what work he did or anything. he wasn't famous. i only know because i found the letter with some old prints we got when my grandfather passed.