‘Eclectic, strange or weird?’: Meet the collectors who treasure hunt across Ontario

Collectors like Sacrey — who treasure hunt across the province for items to add to their niche collections — say it's not just about accumulating objects.

Tristan Sacrey says he reached rock bottom five years ago.

He went through a breakup, lost his job and had to move back in with his mom, and he was still trying to process the death of his father two years earlier.

His therapist urged him to find something that would help him feel connected to his dad. Shortly after that, Sacrey’s mom found his childhood collection of Scooby-Doo books in the basement. Immediately, the memories flooded in.

“It was the deepest, darkest depression of my existence,” he says. “It was like this spotlight shined down. I was like, ‘What’s that over there? Scooby-Doo.'”

Sacrey remembers going to Blockbuster with his dad, who’d always let him choose a Scooby-Doo movie. One Halloween, his dad bought him a wizard costume to match a plush wizard Scooby-Doo doll.

The memories propelled Sacrey to commemorate their relationship with a “Scooby room” in his Brampton, Ont., apartment filled with more than 1,000 pieces of merchandise emblazoned with the famous Great Dane and his gang.

Collectors like Sacrey — who treasure hunt across the province for items to add to their niche collections — say it’s not just about accumulating objects.

Their collections are life changing, they say. The prized items evoke joy, nostalgia, comfort, entertainment — and most of all, community.