How It Started: A Life & Career in Collecting

From collecting as a kid to building an enterprise rooted in curating history and culture, and publishing art and objects for others to collect.

Over the years, people have often asked how I got into this.

The answer is actually pretty simple.

I started the same way a lot of collectors do—opening packs of basketball cards as a kid, sorting them, organizing them, holding onto the ones that felt important.

Not long after, that turned into going to Boston Celtics games and trying to get players to sign those cards. That small step—taking something I had collected and connecting it to a real person—changed everything. It made the object feel different. More real. More unique. A moment in time preserved.

From there, things evolved.

What started with basketball cards from the local card shop led to meeting players, asking for autographs, and eventually finding my way into a much deeper world of objects tied to history, culture, and art. One step led to another, but at the core, it was always the same instinct:

Holding onto something that felt like it mattered....

Collected Culture is a place to explore that idea.

Through the stories behind the auctions we curate, the objects we offer, the art we publish, the projects we concept and create, and the artists we work with—as well as the history that continues to shape what we choose to hold onto—this is an ongoing look at what it means to collect, and why it still matters—seen through our lens as curators and publishers.

If you’ve ever come across an object that felt important for reasons you couldn’t fully explain—something you knew you didn’t want to let go of—you probably already understand.

— Jared

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