Behind the compulsion

For Shingle Creek pram collector Lesley McGregor (60), the first piece in her collection was a necessity - she was pregnant with son Duncan. That was in 1980, she was living in Invercargill and the second-hand Pedigree Airstream was only $5.

Before television and mass media, advertising was dominated by the transfer of commercial logos and business brands on to bottles and crockery for the home.

Rory Butler is a Coca-Cola can connoisseur.

Show him a can with the familiar logo, and he can tell you its history - where it was produced, what year and how many cans in that particular series.

His knowledge was gleaned over a several decades collecting an assortment of 9000 cans from all around the world - almost two-thirds of the various cans produced by the company.

Like many collectors, Norm McRobbie has a hard time finding space to keep everything.

A true southern man, Pete Moffat does not just drink Speight's, he compiles a history of the Dunedin brewery by collecting anything and everything associated with it.

Military memorabilia collecting may seem like a bit of a macho pastime, but after 40 years collecting vehicles, uniforms and cannons from across New Zealand, Waimate collector Murray Dempster is adamant his extensive collection is more than just a bunch of ''guns 'n ammo''.

Collecting is a hobby shared by people of every age, race, religion, nationality and financial standing. In the first of a series of articles, Rosie Manins talks to University of Otago Special Collections librarian Donald Kerr about the public good of collecting and how it has influenced his own professional and personal life.

'Treasure hunting at the ''Sally Annies'' is Lyndall Frost's favourite pastime.