Never tell anyone what you collect or that is all they will ever give you.

I made the mistake of telling someone I liked owls. Soon, everyone related knew I liked owls, and I had so.many.owls. While I did specify I like VINTAGE owls with huge eyes and orange color - I ended up with those realistic looking owls you find in gas station/gift shops in the hills. :S

I also collect matryoshka but made the distinction that I like only the folky ones. I have one of those, a nutcracker (who looks folky enough to keep), and a Mickey Mouse one under 2 inches tall from the same person who gives me every owl they come across.

My great-grandmother used to have a matryoshka on the top of her refrigerator. It was a special treat to go to her house and get to play with it. I have a set picked out on Etsy to get for my own kitchen!

As sweet as it may be, I really do not like when people buy "collectible" items for me. My mother has made a habit of doing this, I like something and all of a sudden I have an assortment of paraphernalia (i.e. Nightmare Before Christmas, bento boxes, cookbooks, cute animated characters, etc.). Honestly I don't like really anything my mother has gotten me, but I don't have the heart to get rid of it either.

We have an Oregon collection, and everything must be small because we don't let it overflow one built-in cabinet (with a few exceptions). We mainly refrain from buying anything ourselves because my mom and our friends like getting treasures for us.

have you seen http://www.worldwidefred.com/m-cups.htm

the measuring cups? I LOVE matryoshkas, dont own any cuz i dont like a lot of clutter, but these which will have an actual purpose for me will be making their way into my kitchen one day!!

I collect green glass.

My way of keeping the collection pretty strict is pretty much the same as what you said and the same as some of the former entries:

-I never tell anyone I collect it (then that's all they ever give you, and it's just not that special that way),
-I spend less than $5 on each piece,
-and I always get ones that are secondhand and "lonely" (like seeing old pieces of glass sitting by themselves on Goodwill shelves for months--oh, the pain!).

A rule about collections might be--let the collector make the collection. I collect Hall Pottery, which is very ordinary, but it's a fun thing for me to do at yard sales & thrift shops. I appreciate it when people give me pieces but it is more fun for me to stumble on them. The hunt is as much part of collecting as the having.

Totally agree with the "never tell anyone" rule, but if you get more than one or two of something, They Guess.

I haven't tried this since I no longer exchange gifts with many people, so incursions of more collectibles isn't an issue for me, but this idea might work for some of you.

Find something tiny to collect! Something to put in drawers or shadow boxes or on one particular shelf -- but something itsy bitsy. Then leak word that you are collecting this thing. Hopefully if you get gifts of the item, either you will actually like them or you can easily tuck them into a show box in storage!

Four options I might consider for myself are: hand made flameworked glass beads (often $5-$100 each bead!, something for every price range); netsuke (including museum replicas); tiny teddy bears, under three inches (dollar stores up to hand crafted fully articulated ones for $100); or marble sized geodes.

Doll house chairs or other small things like that are another route.

Good luck!

I accept the risk of getting too many gifts when sharing my collection items policy is because I collect glass Coke bottles from all over the world (and each state, because the city is embossed into the bottle's bottom).

I could never get all of them on my own, and I haven't yet actually bought one on Ebay. That may happen when/if I move into the vintage bottles.

I love getting the bottles from friends' voyages, and duplicates either go into storage or are recycled (my dad keeps bringing back diet coke *cans* from italy. weird). I usually write the story, giver's name, and year on a scrap of paper and drop it into the bottle.

I estimate I have about 200 bottles, and none are being displayed, but it warms the cockles of my heart to know they've been nestled in suitcases all the way to the US.

A lucky gift I got as a result was the limited edition Karl Lagerfeld diet coke bottle from my sister - so I get collectors items I wasn't even aware of!

If I'm lucky, I get to drink old-school Cokes with real sugar - definitely a nice bonus!

I mostly agree about not telling people about collections, except one of the things that I collect are antique skeleton keys. That is the only collection that I let people "help" me with, but that is because they are a little different than ordinary collections. They are small, easy to contain, and I have never seen one that I don't like. A good friend of mine gave me a lovely bronze one for part of my Christmas present one year. Sometimes it's very nice to have help with a collection :)

I have a totally different approach to the same problem (people giving random and horrible things because they fit the theme, and keeping the collection at bay): I only collect very valuable items.

This way, I'm sure I can't buy too many of those (thank you tight budget), and I'm sure no friend or family will pay more than 150 euros on a whim.

So far, huge success: my silver tea-things collection has something like 5 items in it, four of them were a wedding present from my grand-mother.

And for the really motivated friends (30th birthday coming up soon !), I direct them towards silverware and provide the one who ask with an internet link. It doesn't sound very appealing, but they are glad to give something I love, and I'm glad to keep and treasure their gifts.

www.russiandollsandtoys.com is the website of Meena Handicrafts. Over here you will find the most exquisite range of Russian Dolls, Japanese Dolls, Wooden toys and gifts for home decor purposes. These beautiful Russian Doll sets and Japanese Dolls are painted by master craftsmen. The design represents the tradition and culture of these places.