Shot Glass Collection

For quite a few years, I have collected shot glasses. Some people collect snow globes, some collect baseball cards, I collect shot glasses.

How did I get started collecting shot glasses? Honestly, I can’t really remember. I probably picked up one from some tourist destination because it looked cool, rinse and repeat a few times, suddenly I’ve got a good many of them and it’s just become my “thing.” I’ve been collecting them at least since middle school, as I have a few from my 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C.

Collecting shot glasses has its perks. For one, it makes souvenirs super easy. If someone tells me they’re going on a trip and want to bring me something back, I always ask for a shot glass. No need to shop around and find something they think I’ll like. If they pick up a shot glass, we can both know for certain that I’ll like it. Plus, they’re typically cheaper than other souvenir items like shirts and towels.

One facet of my collection that is missing, however, is some sort of catalog system. I have a lot of shot glasses, probably upwards of 50 at this point. It’s very easy to forget what places I have a shot glass from, or what styles I have if I want to get a different one from the same place. Obviously, I don’t take my collection with me everywhere I go, and I don’t really look at my collection enough to know what I do and don’t have. It would be nice to have some sort of software or database with all of my shot glasses listed and described.

What would I want in this sort of system? An image of the shot glass, or maybe a 3D scan if I’m feeling fancy, would be nice to see them at a glance. Going forward, it would be nice to record the date of acquisition, to know which I’ve had for the longest. Location would be nice, so I could filter by where I do and don’t have shot glasses from. If it was a gift from someone else and not one I purchased for myself, I would like to record who gave it to me. Finally, I would want a details or notes field for any text-based information.

With all this information, I would want multiple ways to look through my collection. The most practical would be searching by location, seeing all the shot glasses I’ve obtained from a place, or whether I have any from there at all. Additionally, I would want just a visual interface that I would look through and show off my collection to other people. Sure, I can show them off at home, but what if someone asks me about it when I’m away from home?

There would certainly be some growing pains to apply this sort of system to an already existing collection, but I feel like the benefits would outweigh the hassle. I don’t plan on stopping my collection any time soon, so it will gradually become more and more overwhelming to keep track of. Before it gets any more unwieldy, it would be nice to get everything in order to have a tidy list of the shot glasses that I have.

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