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Collecting items has long been associated with fandoms. However, often seen as a physical activity, how does collecting function in the digital world? This edited volume presents a fresh perspective into collecting culture – incorporating a focus on the growing practise of collecting of digital assets alongside more traditional collecting.
Exploring the activity of collecting, the chapters in this collection focus on collecting digital assets, FOMO (fear of missing out) within collecting communities, social media identities of collectors, and understanding collector burnout. The collection also features chapters on collecting physical objects of various forms, such as Anime and K-Pop collections, as well as the haptics of collecting, and the collection of vintage items.
Addressing a need for research on collecting as a fan practice across digital and physical domains, Fan Cultural Capital in a Digital Age of Collecting: Diverse Perspectives is a timely contribution which synthesises collecting across platforms and media that will be useful to fan/media studies, consumer culture, digital culture, social media studies, applied sociology and material culture scholarship.
Janelle Vermaak-Griessel is a Senior Lecturer and HoD in the Department of Media and Communication at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Her research interests include film, fandom, collecting media studies and horror. Dr Vermaak-Griessel is a co-editor of the books Gender and Female Villains in 20th Century Fairy Tale Narratives: From Evil Queens to Wicked Witches (2022) and From Mainstream to Digital: South African Perspectives on Participatory Media Cultures (2025). She has published on fans of the Alien film franchise, as well as religion and fandom, and artificial feminism.
From Tangible to Digital and Beyond; Janelle Vermaak-Griessel
Section One. Digital Assets and FOMO
Chapter 1. Can’t Catch ‘Em All: Collecting, Subcultural Capital and the Fear of Missing Out in Pokémon Go; Lincoln Geraghty
Chapter 2. The Study of Hidden Animals: on Monster Breeding Simulators; Alesha Serada
Chapter 3. The Impact of Social Media on Sports Memorabilia Collecting Trends; Shatabdi Nannaware and Pushkar Phadtare
Section Two. Social Media and Archiving
Chapter 4. Finding their Flock: Motivations and Communities of Decoy Collectors on Social Media; Vincent Genareo
Chapter 5. Collecting Clout: Social Capital and Digital Exchange on Instagram; Hela Hassen
Chapter 6. Archiving and Architectural Narratives: Rethinking Collecting through Creative Practice; Daniel Dream and Ifigeneia Liangi
Section Three. Anime and K-Pop Collectors
Chapter 7. Collecting K-Pop Photocards: The Brazilian Fan Collectors; Luisa de Mesquita and Giovana Santana Carlos
Chapter 8. Role Play with Dolls- K-Pop Idol Doll as Transitional Object for K-Pop Fans; Shangru Jiang
Chapter 9. More is Better: Mediators of the Association between Fanship and Collecting in a Sample of Anime Fans; Stephen Reysen, Courtney N. Plante, Sharon E. Roberts, and Kathleen C. Gerbasi
Section Four. Collecting and Touch
Chapter 10. Barbie Burnout: The Stress of Collecting Toys; Janelle Vermaak-Griessel
Chapter 11. Considering Religious and Para-religious Collection in Fandoms; Ambrose Kolawole Dada and Janelle Vermaak-Griessel
Chapter 12. Collecting ‘in the wild’: How Haptics Drives the Collecting Experience of the Physical Object in our Digital World; Sarah Cooper
Chapter 13. Private Book Collection Development and Personal Libraries as Reflectors of Individual Identity and Cultural Consumption; Karol Michalski
Section Five. Vintage Items
Chapter 14. Paper or Plastic: The Changing Shape of Comic Book Collecting in an Age of Grading and Encapsulation; Jason Kahler
Chapter 15. The Useless Alone is Truly Beautiful… Or, There’s No Such Thing as Record Collecting; Simon Poole
Chapter 16. Investigating Issues of Collecting Vintage and Second-Hand Clothing; Neetu Singh