Before the armchair era of online search, 1-tap purchases, and drone delivery, collecting collectibles wasn't such a breeze. You might pore over magazines and catalogs, travel, attend events, make friends with other collectors, and try to beat the ominous ticking clock of "while supplies last." Obsessing in just one collectible arena could suck up a person's free time over many years.
Now try to imagine a lifetime of feeding a hundred different collecting passions -- and continuing to restock that smorgasbord as if the Internet didn't exist.
Jim and Nida Gyorfy run their Collectors' Corner Museum, home to 125 totally different collections of collectibles. The couple opened it in 2003, and have been married since 1960.
The museum easily goes unnoticed, housed in a one-story building that was a grocery store in the 1950s, "We moved in here, selling for Tupperware, in 1975," Nida said. "When we retired from Tupperware we decided -- since we owned the building -- it would be a good place to show everything."
The museum's collections are arranged behind glass in numbered cabinets: Precious Moments figurines, Ron Lee clowns, coins, stuffed animal toys, commemorative plates, hubcaps, model planes, troll dolls, mechanical monkeys. Some were specifically manufactured to appeal to consumers as collectibles, and some just caught the eye of Jim or Nida. The museum has more than 20 displays of items donated by others.
Currently, I am awaiting permission to post photos from inside the museum. It is impressive - there is a lot to see.
