W101 Collections: Inspiration Ahead

I've always pictured Pirate101 as the collector's paradise - unique boss gear, all kinds of weapons, and a lot of items that we're discovering all the time. But as it turns out, Wizard101 has long had some even more fascinating sets of items to collect from a number of locations.

Planning A-head

My goal is to set out and start collecting some of these items in-game and expand that collection as much as possible within reasonable crown and time investments. Then, after it's all over, I'm hoping to offer some of my own tips to aspiring collectors. What do I mean, exactly, by collections? Items and item sets like rare casting wands, tapestries, treasure cards, dropped and crafted spells, and the one I'm most anticipating... bobbleheads! I'm hoping to do a total of four posts in this series. But first, I've got to get some ideas on how to go about this process.

Warm Welcome from a Cold Wizard

Blogger, graphic artist, and Ice wizard David Silverhunter, better known as Frostcaller, was happy to show me one of his collections - tapestries. This is definitely a tough collection, given the fact that several of these tapestries don't necessarily have easy locations in which to obtain them. In fact, most tapestries are given away by fansites, while others are buried in packs or bundles - that can be both time consuming and expensive.

Frostcaller told me that he loves collecting, and that he'd finished his promo wand collection, so he decided to start a new one: "I have 13 tapestries and think there are 26 in total, so I'd say I'm halfway. I tend to pick them up as I'm able, but I don't think I'll be able to complete this tapestry collection." His tapestries were arranged in the hallways by world.

Tapestries - I had been largely ignoring the contests and tons of giveaway on Twitter. I think I need to start paying closer attention and trying to snag a few of those if I'm going to have a serious collection.

The Obsession Begins?

Beatriz Abbott, also a blogger with many a talent, invited me into her home to check out her Bobblehead collection - one that I was very excited to see. She had three shelves full of them - two of unique bobbleheads and one of duplicates. She warned that it wasn't anything fancy, but I was too busy looking at the items.

Beatriz (Emma Starblood in Wizard101) said that she had simply been assembling the ones she came by: "I think I had started out with the intention of collecting, but it's kind of an expensive hobby." Turns out all of these bobbleheads come from packs, "... except for the Cyclops one, which was with gold from the Crown Shop."

Her bobbleheads were impressive. She had them arranged by world and that's when I realized that each one had a base based on the world it was from, regardless of the pack it came in - and some bobbleheads of the same world might come from different packs.

One Man's Trash...

... is another man's treasure card collection? Some of those old cards you throw away in the Bazaar become a part of a very complete collection for others. Christo Deathgiver has long been known for his assistance to others, but it wasn't until his return following a long break that became a major part of the treasure card trading. It's hard to view a treasure card collection, especially when he has collected just about every card out there - that means the same spell from every pack if it's available in different packs, etc.

"Before I started playing W101, I played LOTS of CCG (Collector Card Games) like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yugioh and the list goes on and on.... So collecting was already in my blood and mindset so it came very naturally to start a collection of cards that seemed rare or hard to find," Christo said. "I have one wizard on my son's account that has 110 Druid Knot decks (3520 cards) that holds most of my cards that I trade/collect. As well all of my 12 wizards on my regular 2 accounts have at least 5 decks strictly for holding extra tc cards (5 decks x 32 cards per deck x 12 wizards = 1920 more cards)."

Christo also offered some advice to aspiring collectors of treasure cards: "I would start at the top. By that I mean start with avid collectors like Allen Strongthief123, broker27 or myself for example. Avid collectors will usually have lots of extras of rare/hard to find cards that you can get for a pretty reasonable price (forum gold). Most of the bigger collectors have forum gold coming out of their ears so getting cards from them would be easier than getting card from someone that has only one or two of the cards and no forum gold. They will tend to charge more than what the price guide may list."

Bobbleheads, Bobbleheads Everywhere!

My final collection observation would be Johnny's. He had posted a picture on Twitter of his collection, and I had to see it in person. As it turns out, he's got all kinds of small collections in his impressive Massive Fantasy Palace - rare wands, Ravenwood professor portraits, and so on.

He explained that because Bobbleheads are only available from packs (minus the one from the Crown Shop), he, like Emma, wasn't picking them up each day, simply putting together the ones he'd come by, even adding in some duplicates. One that he's recently added was Old Green Beard, which Wizard101 gave away via code on Twitter.

Johnny had a number of interesting bobbleheads. One I hadn't seen before was Malistaire. Although I'd previously concluded that each had a base based on the world it came from regardless of the pack, Malistaire seemed to have a MooShu base. Which was strange, because he didn't come from a MooShu-themed pack. In fact, he came from one with several other Dragonspyre characters that had Dragonspyre bases.

After a long day of seeing different collections and hearing about how these people went about them, I was ready to start myself - all I had to do now was decide what I wanted to collect, which items I wanted, and how I was going to get them... all started with digging through twelve houses, five attics and banks, and a shared bank. But that's a story for next time...

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Thanks to Frostcaller, Beatriz Abbott, Christo Deathgiver, and Johnny for allowing me to see their collections and ask them questions.