Perfectly Awesome

On Youtube, jazz enthusiast Jonathan Holmes declares: 'I can guarantee this is the cleanest sounding Louis Armstrong record you'll ever hear! With the original transfer supplied by Nick Dellow, here is the mother record which was shipped by Okeh to Germany for their Odeon pressings.

For many, letting go of possessions is intensely stressful, even when the clutter puts them at risk. Here’s what you can do

Rimowa's pre-owned suitcases look well-worn. And many consumers see these dents and scratches as a badge of honor.

Harmonica players will suck and harmonica players will blow, but mastering the harmonica is tougher than its diminutive size and simple mechanics suggest....

When we turn to algorithms for recommendations instead of asking friends or going down hard-won cultural rabbit holes, what do we give up?

Literary treasures are too often hidden away from the public—but the world of private collecting isn’t all bad.

Former streaming service subscribers on why they have ditched mod cons for MP3s, CDs and other DIY music formats

Shop for—and learn—about vintage and antiques. Browse the best of eBay, connect with other collectors, and explore the history behind your favorite finds.

Early in its history, the candy company made a strategic move to find its most successful market

The only thing more fun than the rides themselves is this guy’s staggering analysis of them.

The Apple co-founder and the super-producer share similar ideas regarding taste and creativity.

The Official Site of Major League Baseball

Raiding Grandma’s cupboards is no longer enough.

One person's trash may well be another's "come up," or what the rapper Macklemore calls hidden treasures in the song "Thrift Shop," but only if secondhand shoppers follow the rapper's lead and dig through ...

She had perhaps the largest personal dictionary collection in the world. It is certainly the most titillating.

For lots of rock-poster collectors, even those who like to think they’re in the know, a common question is, “Who’s Luke Martin?”

Greysheet US Coin Prices.

Bela Bajaria, who oversees the streaming giant’s hyper-aggressive approach to TV-making, says success is about “recognizing that people like having more.”

Who has their hand on the dial? Talk with someone who works at Apple, Amazon, Google, Linkedin, Facebook, etc, and they’ll be happy to give you tips on how to work the platform to your advant…

Inflation, the curse of our pocketbooks and the Federal Reserve, has hit almost every good in the U.S. But the price of a beloved toy has managed to hover around $1 — for more than 50 years.

Susan Rogers, acclaimed record producer and expert in music cognition, talks about her new book, This Is What It Sounds Like .

What seems like a simple hobby can take you across the world.

“It’s more than a hobby, it’s a passion.”

The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group sounds super-official, but it's just one very obsessed guy.

Digital media platforms give users access to enormous amounts of content. To stay interested in this content, users must explore by seeking variety. In this study, we examine how users explore online content on Spotify at different points of their lifecycles, whether by discovering entirely novel music or by refreshing their listening habits from one... View Article

In July 2014, Alexis Madrigal reported for NPR on the strange case of Pinterest . The visual bookmarking app “is mostly known as a place people go to find things to buy or make,” he wrote, and — unusually for a high-flying tech company — it had first gained traction among “young women away from the

The limitations of algorithmic curation of news and culture has prompted a return to the use of actual humans to select, edit, and explain. Who knows, this might spread to another less traditional…

The world’s most obsessive breakfast-food fans demonstrate just how far humans will go for the sweet taste of nostalgia.

We’ve all watched from the sidelines as companies have come out in a burst of glory, and then, two years later, spent their venture capital, lost their user base, and failed to monetize. This begs the question - what are the factors that drive a company’s survival, differentiate it, and ultimately make it a winner? In today’s online world, personalization is increasingly making or breaking companies. The companies that win are the ones making personalization a key company value – not just a feature. In the early days of the web, consumers were happy just to gain access to information. However, as technology became more sophisticated, and as more consumers and companies came online, we quickly moved out of the access age and into a state of information overload, often leaving consumers frustrated and confused. Companies that helped consumers cut through the clutter to reveal relevant information had a critical and sustainable competitive advantage in their respective areas. The concept of relevance is critical to the success of Google, for example.

By Stephanie Tilenius, an entrepreneur in residence at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers The Wild West of online marketplaces is over. From 1999 until 2006, eBay and Amazon Marketplaces dominated the field, offering platforms that brought buyers and sellers together. But over the last seven years, more than 20 new marketplace [...]

Personalization algorithms influence what you’ve chosen yesterday, what you choose today and what you’ll be choosing tomorrow. Simultaneously, there seems to be something wrong with personalization. We are continuously bumping into obtrusive, uninteresting ads. Our digital personal assistant isn’t that personal at all. We’ve lost friends to the algorithmic abyss of the News feed. The content we encounter online seems to repeat the same things again and again.

More and more companies are announcing new products based on human curation, even as the most important content players — Google and Facebook — rely on algorithms. When does curation make sense, an…

Remember downloading songs? Even in 2022, it’s still a viable—and rewarding—way to collect music.

Jimmy Carter’s grandson, John Chuldenko, is unlocking White House mysteries. The record collection is an archive of the nation's music taste back in the 70's.

The rising prices of Rolexes and Pateks have collectors turning to what one expert called “the dead brands society.”

I know, we're all doing vinyl and there has probably been no better time to be a vinyl junkie, given the number of places selling it and the...

Have you ever bought an item and then just not gotten around to using it because the time never felt right? Researchers now have the data for what they call ”nonconsumption”—and it may explain how clutter accumulates.

The world’s most obsessive breakfast-food fans demonstrate just how far humans will go for the sweet taste of nostalgia.

Dozens of “rare Cheetos,” shaped like everything from Donald Trump to a squirrel, are up for sale on eBay. But who’s buying?

Things got weird when a 19-year-old artist shared her unique hobby online.

Collectors swapped ads featuring pretty pictures, demons, and chefs bursting out of giant pickles.

Their collections may look like trash to you, but these guys know every can has a story—and some have shockingly high price tags, too.

Most of us try to avoid radiation, but not Andrew Walker, who collects radioactive objects. The surprising part? These items can be found in a variety of common places.

Gary Haase has amassed the world’s most expensive Pokémon card collection, valued at over $10 million. So why isn’t he cashing in?

Building the raw materials for personalization at scale

Here's how to figure out how long it's been since someone left their empties around, only to be dug up later.

[caption id="attachment_82071" align="alignnone" width="600"] Stan and Mardi Timm show off Johnson Smith novelties they've collected. Stan wears X-Ray Spe...

From the archives: Pinball is a dying art, but as it dies it has spawned a new art in its place.

[caption id="attachment_78396" align="alignnone" width="600"] This huge '60s sideshow banner—roughly 8 by 9.5 feet—was painted by esteemed circus arti...