I am a handbag collector. It's clear that I am passionate enough about this to even claim myself as a collector. Well anyway, I would like to share some of my hands-on learned lesson about handbag collecting. Here goes.

Storage

If you already have a bunch of bags in your wardrobe that you almost couldn't fit your clothes in it, I would suggest you to make a new room for your precious bags. Remember that your handbag storage must be dry. Keeping your bag collection within a close range of humidity (e.g. bathroom and/or kitchen) would attract mildew and mildew means bad news for leather, cloth or even plastic. Avoid direct sunlight because leather changes color when having too much exposure to sun rays.

Storing Method

If you love leather handbags as much as I do, you would know that even the "cheapest" can cost close to a month's rent. Therefore, you have to provide extra care by keeping them in the cloth bags that come with purchase. Be disciplined and remove all contents within your bag should you want to change bags. Wipe your bag with a dry cloth before tucking it back in the cloth bag. If you want to wipe it with a damp cloth, you can too, but don't ever forget to wipe the moisture with a dry cloth to avoid fungus growing on the leather. It doesn't matter if your bag is varnished, because it's always better safe than sorry.

Arrangement

I arrange my bag based on brands. And I put a little tag on each cloth bag on what's inside so it saves more time than to peek into them one by one every time I want to use them. I know I'm quite anal at this, but it works for me. The key is, arrange your collections based on what you feel most comfortable with. My best friend, Trish, is a shoe collector and she arranges her shoes based on types. Same goes with bags. You can also arrange your collections based on use.

Be Sensible

Emptying your savings account to buy a brand new designer bag in the name of ‘collecting' is ridiculous. So unless you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, be really sensible in purchasing bags. Sure everybody says having a certain brand of bag with the price of a brand new car is an investment. But please be careful because if you are not secured financially, the ‘investment' will be a huge ‘debt' at the end of the month. While it might be satisfying to be able to follow the latest trends, it's far better to be original.

Be Thorough

Okay, so you decided to buy a designer bag from eBay, used or new. Please be very careful when doing this, because seeing a fake bag in person is already mind-boggling, let alone seeing only the picture. Learn about the bag you want to purchase, do a thorough research and consult an expert or two. You can find a lot of authenticity guides on the internet. Make use of them so your thousands of dollars will be worth it. Nothing is more devastating than spending a lot of money and ending up with a used fake handbag.

Display Them!

Okay, I don't mean parading them on the streets at once because that would look stupid. I'm saying flaunt your collections online. Create a blog and talk about them, like me and my Anuschka blog. Write your wishlists, thoughts and pour your passion into the blog. Why am I suggesting this? Because your friends, and probably boyfriend or husband, might get bored if you talk about bags all the time. Find an outlet that won't bug your surroundings. And who knows, you might find fellow collectors online! Join bag-loving communities and start participating in their forums. Best of all, they have time-to-time sweepstakes and freebie giveaways. What are you waiting for?

So there you go, some points to ponder for a bag collector. Hope this serves as a useful hub!