Hi all,

Personally I think you have indeed many ways of seeing a shell collection.

1. You can try to build one family up as completely as possible.  This is
trying to obtain all species of this family, different forms and sizes,
different variations, different locations etc...  You select one or two
families and try to get them complete.  This is kind of building a
scientific collection.  Labelling is very important.   For this kind of
collection, you better select a smaller family.  If you try this with
Cypraeidae it soon becomes very expensive.   It is my experience that a
beginning shell collector collects a bit of everything and then later on
specializes.  Then of course you have a lot of shells which do not fit your
collection anymore.  Also if you start with one (expensive or large)
family, the young collector soon starts to be disappointed when he realizes
he can not obtain all specimens in this certain family (ie if you start
with Cypraeidae you soon have a collection lacking the leucodon, valentia,
broderipi ...)  For collectors who buy their shells they soon have to save
up too long for only one shell while in the beginning of their collection
they could buy many shells)

2.  You can build a eastethic collection.  This is only shells you really
like, the nicest looking specimens from each family.  Here it is more the
look of the shells that is important.  So it is best to collect only good
quality specimens

3.  You can collect a certain area.  Here the emphasis is more on self
collecting, the study of the environment etc...

Of course you have all kinds of collectors.  Some people collect only red
shells, only albino, only left handed, only shells from 2 cm etc...

Personally I try to collect two families completely (Pectinidae and
Cuspidariidae) and of course I know I will never succeed, but I keep on
trying anyway.  Also I have a little showcase where I collect shells that I
like (nice shapes, nice colour) and that I can show to visitors - mostly
visitors are not to impressed by my Cuspidaria collection (they all look
the same)

Best regards,
Rika








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