Collections - My Minnie Mouse Collection

I have a huge collection of Minnie Mouse items. I have several that date back to 1928 when she first came on the scene at Disney with Mickey. Did you know Minnie was one of the group of the first five Disney characters...called the "Fabulous Five".

My motto was always to take "no Mickey's" and once I got started collecting, some 20 years ago, I found that a lot of folks collected Mickey, but not so many collected just Minnie.

Once the word got around to my family and friends that I collected Minnie Mouse items, I began to accumulate quite a collection. I have had a total of over 1300 pieces and they range from a $3.00 key-chain to an old cookie jar worth over $200. I have back scratches's, jewelry, clothing, kitchenware that includes two sets of dishes; socks, scarves, umbrella's, nail files, perfume, pens, pins, pencils, dolls, cars, radio's and lunch boxes. The list is endless. I especially love some of the Walt Disney Classic Collection figurines. It became somewhat of a game to see what I could find that I didn't already have. I bought a small 'Danskin' porcelain figurine off of eBay that isn't even 1 inch tall, but she's cute as can be. In China, at a bakery, they make muffins and place the tiny Danskin figurines inside the muffin. Children buy them to collect all the figurines that are available. I suppose they must change them out from time to time somewhat like our McDonald's does with Happy Meal toys.

I have also bought pieces that people have made of Minnie Mouse, from wooden cut-out pictures, embroidered towels, and a custom made jacket.  I probably have one item that most people would find kind of strange, and it is certainly something that I never thought I'd do.  That would be the tatoo of her on my right ankle.  Disney said it was okay as long as I wasn't in the market to 'mass produce' it.....LOL!

I know the oldest piece that was my very own is a gumball machine. It even has some left over gumballs in it from when I was about 12, and that's been quite a while.

People often ask me how did I start my collection. Well, I think the fascination started when I began looking for ways to 'like' my name. Yep, that's right.........my real name is Minnie. It was my father's mother's name. I'm told she was a very nice, caring and kind woman and had many friends. I felt blessed to have her name.

Soon as my collection grew to over 1000 pieces, about 10 years ago, I contacted a representative of the World's Book of Records at Guinness. I asked if they acknowledged collection as world records and told them what I had. It took some time, but after some time passed, a letter came in the mail with a congratulations attached stating that they did have a category for me and that I was 'un-officially' accepted as the World Record Holder of the largest number of Minnie Mouse items for an individual collector. Wow! I was excited! Next they informed me to have each piece photographed, cataloged and my entire collection verified by an elected official in the community.

Well, needless to say that took some time. It seemed something always kept coming up and I never got that official to come verify my collection. Just when I thought I had it all ready, I'd buy another piece and have to photograph it and get it into an album. To be honest, I was happy just knowing they accepted me and the 'un-official, official' record holder.

And wouldn't you know it, just last year a woman with a collection of some 3000 Minnie's took my spot. But, that's cool. I like the idea that I got someone else involved, and that I was the first holder of the title.

Now....today in 2009, my collection is taking over my home. I made the decision that I would create an eBay store and sell off some of them. I admit I do have a problem selling off some special pieces and some of the more rare pieces. I have a lot of figurines that I just can't seem to part with. If you come into my home, it won't take you long to find a Minnie somewhere in the house, although my decor theme is more a french country than a whimsical Disney theme.

So, for now I will try to sell some Minnie's and keep my collection neat and tidy. I have already sold over 100 of the 300 Minnie beanies I had. If you'd like to have a piece of the collection from the first accepted World Record holder, check out my eBay page listed under Minnie's House Of Beauty. That sort of has a double meaning, since I am also Minnie and I also sell Avon products as an independent representative! Minnie Mouse makes my house beautiful and I make you beautiful!

I enjoy showing them off and I would invite anyone to come see my collection. I can pretty much tell you the age of each item, where it came from and what it cost or it's value today.

Thanks for visiting my hub page and let me know how you feel about collections. Some folks can have their lives over-run with collecting things. A small collection isn't so bad, but I think about a women I see pretty regularly at a local auction house who collects cookie jars. Now there is something that would take up a lot of room to display. And, if you can't show them off, why have them....humm....that's another problem altogether.

One thing to remember about collecting.....you might get alittle obcessed with the whole thing. I found myself spending hundreds of dollars on places like ebay to just having-to-have an item that wasn't in my collection. It can become an addiction for sure, and costly! So, you may want to set a limit as to how much you'll spend on a collection and when it's a good time to stop.

Enjoy my pictures and tell me about your collection. I decided to add my picture with Minnie Mouse at Disneyland in California. I met her in 1992 on my first visit to the Magic Kingdom. It was very cool.