Music-mad Spice Girls fan Liz West spent £2,500 of her cash on a green stage outfit worn by Ginger Spice herself during the 1998 SpiceWorld tour.
Liz West, 29, is currently the Guinness World Record holder for the biggest Spice Girl Collection with almost 5,000 items in her hoard and has confessed to blowing all of her savings on the collection.
It’s not just clothes she owns either, her collection includes thousands of CDs, posters and other music memorabilia from the 90s pop group.
And now most of her hoard is to be displayed in a special exhibition at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not attraction in London.
Liz, an artist from Manchester said: “I am delighted to have my Spice Girls collection in Ripleys Believe It or Not, being the largest Spice Girls collection in the world it’s the perfect match to sit alongside all the other incredible displays there.
“London is the perfect location for a Spice Girls exhibition as it is the city where the girls currently base themselves as well as being the location for many of their videos, photo-shoots and filming of Spiceworld: The Movie.”
At the age of 11 she was an avid Spice Girls fan, just like millions of other girls that age, but her love for the biggest pop phenomena of all time led to her breaking records herself.
“The collection started when people would buy me Spice Girl related Christmas presents when I was younger. Then when the Spice Girls would start bringing out merchandise and memorabilia which I would start buying that with my pocket money.’’
Her dad is a record collector himself, so from a young age Liz knew how she should treat her ever-growing collection, and it shows her patience has paid off with its success.
“In my bedroom I had this shelf, and I would arrange my Spice Girl objects on it. I would enjoy arranging and rearranging everything at the weekend and that was like my form of ‘play’.”
Also, if I knew an item was about to end on eBay, I would make sure I went to the Internet café to bid on it, or I would rope in friends to do it for me if I wasn’t able to”.
Liz says that boyfriends have all been really understanding of her hobby.
Research conducted by Ripley’s Believe it or Not found that more than half of Brits now consider themselves to be collectors and interestingly even with the introduction of downloadable music, CD’s were found to be the most popular item to collect.
It was recently found that ‘Now that’s what I Call Music 4’ is selling for around £400 so you can see the appeal for this category of collecting!
Ripley’s London research revealed that the most popular items to collect are:
CDs – 15.68%
Coins – 15.59%
Stamps – 13.10%
Concert / Gig tickets – 8.76%
Postcards – 7.84%
Collecting music memorabilia was found to be a considerably more popular past time than collecting sports memorabilia (6.55%) and only 1.11% now collect Royle family memorabilia.
Natascha Crump, General Manager at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London added: “The Ripley’s founder Robert Ripley was the ultimate collector curating thousands of unusual artefacts from around the world. We currently host many quirky collections at the attraction and SpiceWorld be a fantastic addition to the 700 exhibits we have on display.
We are the home of the unbelievable and there is no doubt the Spice Girls had unbelievable chart success. With the 20th anniversary of the number one hit ‘wannabe’ in 2016, visiting the Spice Girls exhibition is a great way to start reliving fun memories with friends or family.”
Liz West’s world record breaking collection will be on show at Ripley’s Believe it or Not in London from 28th March to May 31st.
Say you’ll be there!
ENDS
The research was conducted by One Poll on behalf of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London 21/01/2015- 23/01/2015.
About Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London:
With more than 700 amazing artefacts on display, the attraction celebrates the weird, wonderful and bizarre in all its forms. With everything you can imagine (and plenty more you can’t), Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London is a family day out that’s definitely out of the ordinary. For additional information call +44 (0)20 3238 0022 or visit www.ripleyslondon.com. Like Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/RipleysLondon
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