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Six months ago I was forced to pass ten days at home cause during my last travel to Istanbul in Turkey I had catch the flu. After the first week when I was totally unable to study or think about everything ( 40 Celsius degrees of fever are very high for everyone ) I pass the rest of my convalescence studying to pass my admission exam of Economy and then reordering my collection of mugs cause only during that summer I realized that I have a lot of mugs and the kitchen became to be a mess: so I decided to order at IKEA a bookshelf to put my mugs and do some order at home. Bookshelf arrived the last day of my convalescence and it left me the time to assemble it and stock all my beloved Icons. After that hard and very long work, it needs all my day, I realize how many mugs I have…more than 100! So there’s my considerations about collecting Starbucks Icons mugs:

THINGS THAT I LOVE ABOUT ICONS

-It’s relaxing and stress reliever: drink in mugs it’s therapeutical when you are sad, hangry or you have a bad day because when you drink in the mug you think at the past experience when you get the mug.

-It give to your empty life and times moments full of satisfactions (obviously in my case when I’m not lost in transaction and inesorabily sinking in the deep, deepest water of society accounting…).

-It’s endless: new mugs may will be out somewhere in every moment…also when I’m posting that pharagraph. Last mug released was Lijiang… ( someone knows where’s that place? China…but where in the big China, who knows. )

-It’s always a good topic to start conversations, also with person that don’t collect mugs, just to inform they how many things they loose in their life.

-They gives you the possibility to vaunt yourself of your collection, mugs after mugs, untill your interlocutor faint with no more energy and tired of your long-winded chat.

-It gives me the possibility to appreciate things that for the others are uknown.

THINGS THAT I HATE ABOUT ICONS

-It’s terribly addictive.

-It changes your home as the collection increases.

-It’s consumes many times.

-It maybe expensive in some case.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Here we are with another Milestone! This post analyse the status of my passion collecting Icon Mugs.

The Vegas was the first mug that I bought online on the eBay and was the beginning of the end… Initially I would collect only the mugs of the place that I visited but then I don’t do it… I had collected all. Let me explain better, there are many phases in the collecting mania and every collector start from the initial phase when his collection it’s under control until arrive to the final step when its collection is terribly enormous and bloody out of controll, at the moment I’m in the middle of the evolution: my collection it’s big but not too much and I can choose which mugs I want obtain soon and which others that I can wait. I desire to obtain all the Americans and Canadians mugs cause they are now discontinued and hard to find, after they I will focalize my research on the mugs that will be discontinued or are very rare like the Mexican, the South Korean or the Japanese mugs. I also heard that the Malaysian, the Indonesian, and some middle east mugs will be stopped for indefinitely times (they are sold out in many store just now), and it make me very sad cause I like a lot the Icon series. Probably, after the Icon, I’ll stop my collector obsession. Probably not, I repeat not, certainly.

Down there I listed the various phases of my personal collector mania:

-ZERO: One apocaliptic day a devilish force create a damned mug! The makumba on the mug force me to fall in a horrible loop of obsession but I don’t know it now…

-FIRST: One day when I was drinking in my mug, the only one that I have for the moment, I find it very nice.

-SECOND: Another day I ask to myself if my mug fell itself alone and I bought a friend for it.

-THIRD: When I was passing near a Starbucks store I saw a mug displayed in the store and I decide to buy a memorabilia of my travel. Now the loop start and you’re done!

-FOURTH: I start to go to Starbucks every times that I can and offcourse I start to buy Icons for every travel.

-FIFTH: I start to think that my mugs may decorate my home.

-SIXTH: I start to ask to friend and relatives if they may buy the Icons for me when they travel in a new place.

-SEVENTH: I start to search on eBay and Amazon if some discontinued mugs are avaiable on the web.

-EIGHT: I start to love my mugs cause they are important and beautiful in my head. (PS If you live with someone the person that live with you start to hate your mugs at the same moment that you start to love them.)

-NINETH: I started to trade mugs on sites like FredOrange.co

-TENTH: I started to study a stopover time at the airport that gives me the time to pass by Starbucks and buy all the mugs that I need for myself and for trade.

-ELEVENTH: I started to study a holiday trip in places where there are Starbucks, otherwise if there are only common coffe and so it’s not in my interest.

At the moment I’m there…who knows which will be the next change in my life…?

But buy mugs on the store or on the Internet isn’t the only way to collect the most rare or most far mugs, there is also the trading, a secure and affordable way to contact collectors and swap mugs with others people around the world. In the next post I will explain better how works the starbucks mugs trading.

AT THE BEGINNING…

At the beginning there was only the China Icon Mug…

In the first article of my blog I would describe how my passion was started: strangely it wasn’t my choice. Many years ago, in 2010, my dad brought to me a Starbucks China mug from a work travel. Nice present. Four years ago I was gone to China and it was a beautiful travel, I have many memories about the things that I saw in Beijing, in Shanghai and in Hong Kong.

The last winter I was drinking my morning peach tea in a frosty and rainy morning. In the northern of Italy winter mornings are too cold. I was having a bad wake up because I was tired and sick but I must do the English FCE test. Sip after sip the thea was running out, like the breakfast time at disposition before the test. I made a long and deep breath and I sniff the perfume of the peaches, then I looked at the image in the mug: it represents the China Dragon, a mythical creature that was the symbol of power, strenght, good luck and longevity. I closed my eyes and I remember my summer in China when I was visiting the historical Forbidden City and I was admiring the Nine Dragons Screen in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity. The dragon in the mug it’s the same dragon of the wall that I had see in the Forbidden City. When I have reopened my eyes with the savouring of the flavour of my rithual peach green tea, sniffing the smell of the tea, and remembering my travel in China, I was feeling like I’m in China also in that moment and this made me feel better like a hot blanket in a rainy day. My horrible day was changing and becoming a positive day.

Nine Dragons Wall in Beihai Park

Now I have made the exam, and I have the English FCE graduation, after the result of the exam I have decided to collect the Icon Mugs from the places that I had saw, only from the places that I had visited because when I drink a tea or an infusion from the mugs I can remember a beautiful slice of life.