Westborough Man Has More Than 8,000 Paperclips

When Westborough resident Skip Richards was featured in a Boston Globe article in July 2003, he owned a collection of just under 3,000 paperclips. Since then, his collection has nearly tripled and has reached — at last count — 8,318.

These aren’t just your regular office supply clips, however. The computer consultant’s collection includes styles from the 1930s and 1940s and some clips that date back to 1894.

A lot of them were given out as advertisements, including many from drug companies and some from airlines, insurance companies and banks, Richards explained as he pointed out pieces of his collection recently at his home.

“The drug companies are just over the top about giveaways,” he said. “They’ll design unique clips.”

The whole thing started when his daughter, Sarah, was about 7-years-old, Richards said. She found some nonstandard clips in his desk and decided she wanted to start collecting them. That was about 25 years ago and Richards remembers bringing clips home for her until she lost interest and he took over the collection.

Now he has Coca Cola clips, Smokey the Bear clips, Angry Birds clips, clips that were promos for movies, clips that were given away in Cracker Jack boxes and clips in all shapes including arrows, penguins, umbrellas, dollar signs and cats. There are Minnie Mouse clips, a rooster clip that crows and clips that depict Sesame Street characters. There are some regular clips, too, but Richards has them in about 100 different shades and colors. They also range in size from half an inch to 22 inches.

While he gets most of his clips through eBay — he once bought someone’s collection of about 100 to 150 clips — Richards recently picked up some “Silly Clips” from CVS. The “Silly Clips” are of those acronyms used in texting and computer chat language, such as TTYL (talk to you later), BRB (be right back), LOL (laugh out loud) and BFF (best friends forever).

He also has some clips that are sold as scrapbooking supplies.

“But they’re paperclips,” Richards said.

He doesn’t buy clips every day and sometimes goes through long periods of times without purchasing any, he said. Some are gifts from his daughters or friends.

“The funny thing is that there are some I’ve only ever seen once,” Richards said, adding that he’ll purchase new clips for his collection “if they’re different enough.”

Richards has also found a clever way to combine two hobbies by bringing plain paper clips to book signings and getting signatures on them from mystery writers.

And while most of his collection is displayed on shelves or hanging on walls, Richards also has some on his fridge that he actually uses.

Asked how the collection makes him feel, Richards said it, at times, makes him feel ridiculous.

“It’s just such an oddball thing. I never know how people are going to react,” he said. “Most of the time, they’re impressed.”

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