Collectors vs Hunters

[Yoder409]

Here's my deal. Got some with sentimental value, some with historical value. Lots I've bought and didn't like. Nothing of what I would call big $$$ value. But I'm a big history kind of a guy.

The historical ones need preserved.   Yep.

I just came back from the post office.  I preserved a couple more today.   

[YelpOnTheWay]

I just got 2 pot calls in the mail and walked out to the garage to get my vest ready. Saw a pile of strikers and pot calls that aren't gonna be in my vest and realized I'm now a collector as well, lol.

[Yoder409]

I just got 2 pot calls in the mail and walked out to the garage to get my vest ready. Saw a pile of strikers and pot calls that aren't gonna be in my vest and realized I'm now a collector as well, lol.

See how that happens ??   

[utfan1]

Nice 

[wyetterp]

This all really means something to me. I never really realized how much it would mean to me either.

I think there are 3 types. Collectors, hunters, & mainly for profit buyers/sellers working a decent hustle to make a dollar (most of the time). There are some shady fellers out there but the ratio is fairly low considering. 

First I'll get the for profit guys out the way. They obviously know what's hot & a lot of them really do put a large amount of time & work acquiring and selling. Same as a job. Even though I couldn't sell things for some of the prices they do. The stuff sells. Some people have the money to buy at overly inflated prices, vs spend the time & wait in line or go through some of the hoops that most do to get a call from certain makers. I can't be mad at 'em. Is what it is. God bless America.

Now for the hunter or collectors. It's obvious the collectors are hunters, & have been acquiring stuff they like over large periods of time. The calls mean something to them with, often, sentimental value more than financial. They also have put a lot of work into acquiring. We all know how hard some stuff is to get, how rare & limited,  or how long some of the waitlists are. I'd assume, with collectors, part of the fun of hunting is to have such a large collection & deciding what to hunt with that day. Even just handling or playing some collector type calls can tickle the turkey hunter like fire does to a caveman.

Then there's the minimalist hunter who runs the same call they've had for 20 years & slays the birds with it. Stone cold killers with any call from walmart. Some calls are very unique & hard to come by, while some are way easier to find for way cheaper. There's some cheaper calls that sound amazing & do the exact same thing. Killing birds. Often sounding even better.  Not to mention, it's a lot easier to accept accidentally damaging that cheaper call the birds love, vs something like a Zach Farmer that rarely makes it in the woods.   

I'm at a point in my life now I'm in an unexpected evolution. I like to blame this place on it. Thanks OG! I've been turkey hunting for over 30+ years & ran the commercially bought big box store stuff up until recently. I have a $9 call the turkeys go head over heels for every time, & hundred dollar calls they could care less for. I decided I love turkey hunting enough & have been slowly starting to upgrade everything I have. Piece by piece.

So, I started researching & making the phone calls to a few well known call makers at first. Boy can you meet some salt of the earth people that way! Always some surprisingly friendly conversations with makers that make you feel like family & offer amazing advice. Some make me proud to use stuff they made. The passion they have for turkey hunting feels like it comes through in the calls. True grim reaper & pied pipers that have caused the demise of any turkey in ear shot.   

Then I met some amazing "collectors" through the classifieds on here. Same thing. Salt of the earth types that have amazing collections that most of us can only dream about. Most of them sell stuff for what it's really worth, or cheaper, & not out to just turn a huge profit.

There's one member on here I met that reached out to me in PM at first. Not gunna name him, but I'm sure he knows who I'm talking about. Sold me a few small things for a really great price. Then the more we talked, the more he offered me some amazing pieces that for me, that I consider are collector worthy. For me, the chance of the lifetime type stuff. I honestly don't think it was about an extra dollar. It was & is about sharing a passion for turkey hunting & some of the calls & makers. I feel like a true type of friendship was made. Now, every time I grab or use those calls, that seller will be a part of those things & memories are now forever connected with something as simple as a piece of wood. Who would have thunk it?

I've realized a lot of the collectors are equally as passionate about turkey hunting, as hunters who hunt all 49 states. The front porch rocking chair conversations can be amazing, educational & entertaining. Collecting/selling can also make for some great friendships.

So now I'm hooked on all the different types of calls. The history of them. The call makers themselves & their history. Hearing about how they like to hunt or advice on what works for them. The history of how they started building & often who they learned from. Again making it something more than just a piece of wood.

I'm to a point now that calls in my hands; all have something sentimental, in one way or another. Not just a genetic call used just as a tool. Even with the most special ones, I still have dreams of killing a turkey with it at some point. Adds even more soul to the calls.

When I see some calls for sale, from certain makers, I want more of them. Not cause I need it, but because I've evolved into having a different kind of bond for them. I'm knee deep down the rabbit hole & at the rate it's going, also starting to build a collection. Which eventually will make me a collector. 

Hopefully one day, I'm sure I'll meet others that I see the same shared passion & are at the same stage I am now. Or was before. Then, I can also find enjoyment in offering them some collection worthy calls to spark them with,  just the same as I've been blessed with. To me that moral profit would be more worthy than a financial profit.

At that point I'll consider myself a true collector.

For the couple of "collectors" that have sold me some memorable stuff for very reasonable & fair prices....Thank you & bless you! I hope to & will one day do the same for another. You've made a true friend with me.

Now let me get back to learning more ways to hide money & further my white lie list for the honey. The same old, oh I've had that one  for a little while & I ordered that a long time ago are getting repetitive.  Plus I need to go check some tracking info in case I need to keep stalking the postal workers. At least I know them all by name now.

[runngun]

In the future, this writing above will be a CLASSIC!!! AWESOME READ!!! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Have a good one and May God bless y'all, Bo

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[Yoder409]

This all really means something to me. I never really realized how much it would mean to me either.

I think there are 3 types. Collectors, hunters, & mainly for profit buyers/sellers working a decent hustle to make a dollar (most of the time). There are some shady fellers out there but the ratio is fairly low considering. 

First I'll get the for profit guys out the way. They obviously know what's hot & a lot of them really do put a large amount of time & work acquiring and selling. Same as a job. Even though I couldn't sell things for some of the prices they do. The stuff sells. Some people have the money to buy at overly inflated prices, vs spend the time & wait in line or go through some of the hoops that most do to get a call from certain makers. I can't be mad at 'em. Is what it is. God bless America.

Now for the hunter or collectors. It's obvious the collectors are hunters, & have been acquiring stuff they like over large periods of time. The calls mean something to them with, often, sentimental value more than financial. They also have put a lot of work into acquiring. We all know how hard some stuff is to get, how rare & limited,  or how long some of the waitlists are. I'd assume, with collectors, part of the fun of hunting is to have such a large collection & deciding what to hunt with that day. Even just handling or playing some collector type calls can tickle the turkey hunter like fire does to a caveman.

Then there's the minimalist hunter who runs the same call they've had for 20 years & slays the birds with it. Stone cold killers with any call from walmart. Some calls are very unique & hard to come by, while some are way easier to find for way cheaper. There's some cheaper calls that sound amazing & do the exact same thing. Killing birds. Often sounding even better.  Not to mention, it's a lot easier to accept accidentally damaging that cheaper call the birds love, vs something like a Zach Farmer that rarely makes it in the woods.   

I'm at a point in my life now I'm in an unexpected evolution. I like to blame this place on it. Thanks OG! I've been turkey hunting for over 30+ years & ran the commercially bought big box store stuff up until recently. I have a $9 call the turkeys go head over heels for every time, & hundred dollar calls they could care less for. I decided I love turkey hunting enough & have been slowly starting to upgrade everything I have. Piece by piece.

So, I started researching & making the phone calls to a few well known call makers at first. Boy can you meet some salt of the earth people that way! Always some surprisingly friendly conversations with makers that make you feel like family & offer amazing advice. Some make me proud to use stuff they made. The passion they have for turkey hunting feels like it comes through in the calls. True grim reaper & pied pipers that have caused the demise of any turkey in ear shot.   

Then I met some amazing "collectors" through the classifieds on here. Same thing. Salt of the earth types that have amazing collections that most of us can only dream about. Most of them sell stuff for what it's really worth, or cheaper, & not out to just turn a huge profit.

There's one member on here I met that reached out to me in PM at first. Not gunna name him, but I'm sure he knows who I'm talking about. Sold me a few small things for a really great price. Then the more we talked, the more he offered me some amazing pieces that for me, that I consider are collector worthy. For me, the chance of the lifetime type stuff. I honestly don't think it was about an extra dollar. It was & is about sharing a passion for turkey hunting & some of the calls & makers. I feel like a true type of friendship was made. Now, every time I grab or use those calls, that seller will be a part of those things & memories are now forever connected with something as simple as a piece of wood. Who would have thunk it?

I've realized a lot of the collectors are equally as passionate about turkey hunting, as hunters who hunt all 49 states. The front porch rocking chair conversations can be amazing, educational & entertaining. Collecting/selling can also make for some great friendships.

So now I'm hooked on all the different types of calls. The history of them. The call makers themselves & their history. Hearing about how they like to hunt or advice on what works for them. The history of how they started building & often who they learned from. Again making it something more than just a piece of wood.

I'm to a point now that calls in my hands; all have something sentimental, in one way or another. Not just a genetic call used just as a tool. Even with the most special ones, I still have dreams of killing a turkey with it at some point. Adds even more soul to the calls.

When I see some calls for sale, from certain makers, I want more of them. Not cause I need it, but because I've evolved into having a different kind of bond for them. I'm knee deep down the rabbit hole & at the rate it's going, also starting to build a collection. Which eventually will make me a collector. 

Hopefully one day, I'm sure I'll meet others that I see the same shared passion & are at the same stage I am now. Or was before. Then, I can also find enjoyment in offering them some collection worthy calls to spark them with,  just the same as I've been blessed with. To me that moral profit would be more worthy than a financial profit.

At that point I'll consider myself a true collector.

For the couple of "collectors" that have sold me some memorable stuff for very reasonable & fair prices....Thank you & bless you! I hope to & will one day do the same for another. You've made a true friend with me.

Now let me get back to learning more ways to hide money & further my white lie list for the honey. The same old, oh I've had that one  for a little while & I ordered that a long time ago are getting repetitive.  Plus I need to go check some tracking info in case I need to keep stalking the postal workers. At least I know them all by name now.

If THAT don't sum it up for 99.9% of the guys who ever owned a turkey call.............. I don't know what does.

GREAT dissertation !!!!!!!

[Tom007]

Amen, thx for sharing......

[Greg Massey]

GREAT POST WYETTERP..... the only thing i will add is i have brought my wife along with me in sharing and buying my calls, she has enjoyed traveling and meeting these call makers as much as i have through the years. She understands my PASSION of buying and using calls. The only thing i usually have to do for my wife is buy her a good dinner .. LOL...

[BDeal]

I buy too many calls but I'm definitely a hunter and not a collector. I could care less about how a call looks or its history. It just needs to sound good and be effective in the field.

[ScottTaulbee]

I buy too many calls but I'm definitely a hunter and not a collector. I could care less about how a call looks or its history. It just needs to sound good and be effective in the field.

I'm exactly the same way. I also make my own calls and that's how mine are, they aren't flashy, they aren't super pretty, and I guarantee you'll find a blemish in the finish on one or two but they sound good and they kill turkeys and that's what's most important to me. I also typically only sell a dozen or two a year. I don't push them and I don't do social media. Most of all I sell are friends and people who they tell about them and I'm fine with that. They were never made to be a collector piece, I'd rather see them dinged up, with knicks in the pots and laying beside a gobbler.


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[Greg Massey]

I understand everyone has his or her way of using or buying calls or making them. Back in my early years we made most all of our calls out of some kind of material. We used turtle shells old chalkboard slate, we made gourd calls, we made tube calls out of small snuff cans and we carved cedar limbs and made strikers with corncob strikers. While enjoying doing all of this, i still have some of my homemade calls. Now to this day and time, i wouldn't trade the people i have met and the call builders i became friends with without acquiring my collection of calls. All of this is priceless in my opinion especially the friends i have made from buying calls and the friends i have made on this forum.  So YES it's my PASSION and i have a variety of calls next to my recline and i can play these calls anytime i want, CAN you say you can play various calls from different call builders NO..BUT I CAN... Pot calls, Boxes, Hen Boxes, fiddle boxes, longboxes and trumpets... SO do i want to go back to the days of making calls, NO I DON"T... Every call builder puts his own TURKEY SOUNDS into the call he builds and it's truly amazing finding these hens in a particular type of call..   

[ScottTaulbee]

I understand everyone has his or her way of using or buying calls or making them. Back in my early years we made most all of our calls out of some kind of material. We used turtle shells old chalkboard slate, we made gourd calls, we made tube calls out of small snuff cans and we carved cedar limbs and made strikers with corncob strikers. While enjoying doing all of this, i still have some of my homemade calls. Now to this day and time, i wouldn't trade the people i have met and the call builders i became friends with without acquiring my collection of calls. All of this is priceless in my opinion especially the friends i have made from buying calls and the friends i have made on this forum.  So YES it's my PASSION and i have a variety of calls next to my recline and i can play these calls anytime i want, CAN you say you can play various calls from different call builders NO..BUT I CAN... Pot calls, Boxes, Hen Boxes, fiddle boxes, longboxes and trumpets... SO do i want to go back to the days of making calls, NO I DON"T... Every call builder puts his own TURKEY SOUNDS into the call he builds and it's truly amazing finding these hens in a particular type of call..

I agree with you and I have several boxes and pots, in different surfaces, from a lot of these big name custom call guys and I enjoy talking to all of them and running their calls. To me, my passion is putting the hen that's in my head into a call and experimenting with different surfaces, sound boards, pots, etc until I find the combo that clicks and there is nothing in turkey calling that brings me more joy than seeing people kill a turkey with a call I made with my hands, and fell to the hen that has been in my head since I first heard her in the wild when I was a kid.


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[wyetterp]

GREAT POST WYETTERP..... the only thing i will add is i have brought my wife along with me in sharing and buying my calls, she has enjoyed traveling and meeting these call makers as much as i have through the years. She understands my PASSION of buying and using calls. The only thing i usually have to do for my wife is buy her a good dinner .. LOL...

Thanks.  It's my truth. Sorry for the long read but the op's post struck
a nerve like a call does to a goobler.

My wife does back me, luckily, just as I back her. More fun & games.
A full freezer is her favorite, also. We don't take vacations much but
we're already planning on the next Unicoi. I have a feeling just she'll
be picking out a few things herself.

She gets it too though. She got a little teary eyed when a member on
here surprised me and mailed me a cool little cane yelper, unexpected.
She loves that little thing what all it symbolizes. Funny what a piece of
river cane can do.

Alright family,  hope everyone has a good season!

[Greg Massey]

I've killed gobblers over the years with a variety of calls, this year is my first year of learning a trumpet. Hopefully i can kill a gobbler while using one or at least call one up with a trumpet. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning / still learning to play these awesome instruments ... So now yes i have added trumpets, cane yelpers and wingbones to my collection. I have a COLLECTION and I"'m very proud to own my calls..  I live to see the beautiful sunrises and hear that first gobble as the turkey woods come alive... That's my Passion...