as a kid I collected coins, football cards (all cowboys cards were separated from the rest), pokemon cards. I had a bunch of other hobbies, but as far as a collections this is what I tried keeping. I haven't purchased any football cards for around 20 years since so the cards I have are still the ones from when I was a kid. I got started into football cards in the 3rd grade in New Orleans where one of my teachers would reward each student in the last class a pack of cards if we did well overall as a whole. I remember they were action packed cards with some of the limited cards having a 24k gold vertical banner. I traded many many of my cards for someones gold Aikman, I had a gold too but can't remember the player (was probably rick mirer or some mess).
This is the first chase card I ever traded for and led to the start of a small collection of cards: 1995 Action Packed Aikman 24k
As a kid with hardly any money any time we made a trip to the card store or mall I'd go straight to the card kiosks or sporting stores and spend the $6-$7 I had saved for who knows how long on some of the more expensive packs I could afford (less cards per pack) thinking that I'd somehow get some ultra rare lottery winning card.
This will also be considered a small collection, but I kept my nitro r/c cars from when I was a teen (hpi nitro rs4 fully modified, hpi nitro savage x fully modified) along with their old FM radios and receivers and just last year got the itch to buy more kits to build (got a 1/10 xray t4 and 1/10 xray xt2. I don't drive these as much as I'd like, but I don't ever plan on getting rid of them. They're just nice pieces to build and look at.
I'd like to consider my two "real" cars as part of another collection as I hope to keep them forever: 05 Honda S2000 and 06 Acura RSX Type S. Both are stick shift and both, to me, represent what cars should be (reliable, fun, sporty). I am not a fan at all of 99% of modern cars, the ones I am are well beyond my price range. My dad owned a 87 GN and I know he's always talked about wanting another, my favorite would be a 97-02 Viper GTS. I'd like to be able to add the Viper to the collection before every year goes by and I miss out on it. A 97-02 NSX (6 speed model with flip-up headlights) would be nice, but their prices have spiked recently so that's out of the question lol.