The Awesome Ang Pow Packet Collection (^_^)

Ah... ang pows. Those little red packets filled with money and given away during Chinese New Year traditionally from those who are married to those who are not. Which makes CNY much more enjoyable for those who are single, such as yours truly... although considering I'm already a working adult and almost hitting my 30's, it does get a bit weirder every year that goes by that I'm still getting 'ang pows', especially coming from friends my age who are already married (I haven't gotten from married couples younger than me... and I don't think I would really want to though technically I still can).

For me, however, the fun of receiving ang pows isn't just in the money (I actually give ang pows to my two kid nieces, and the amount I give is enough that the money I still make a net loss after deducting the amount of money from ang pows given to me!). I collect ang pow packets (I only keep one of each design) and have been doing so for quite a few years now. It's pretty much the only thing I actively collect, coz' the for one thing, ang pow packets come in all sort of interesting and nice designs, for another thing, most ang pow packets are in the most awesome colour of RED, and for another other thing, ang pow packets are usually free, so I save a heckuva lot of money compared to if I made a hobby of collecting superhero toys or other expensive whatnot. Except when I actually buy sets of ang pow packets from those Chinese prayer shops just for the sole purpose of adding these to my collection. I only buy sets that have differently designed individual packets, and those are usually much nicer than the free ones.

Anyway, after years of diligently hoarding the little red packets given to me, buying some from the shop, getting stashes from my friends, and even snitching ang pows from shops using them as decorations (it technically doesn't count as shoplifting since they would get thrown away after CNY is over anyway :P), my collection of ang pow packets, all of which have different designs, has swelled to a nice amount number of 580! Woo hoo!

And I still expect to get more this, especially from my wonderful friends who see me regularly and happen to be reading this post. Hint. Hint. Double hint.

I'm also a bit OCD in that it was very important to store my stash in such a manner that is neat and orderly and allows easy perusal of my collection by visitors. Therefore my prescibed method was sticking each packet into a clear sheet and arranging them in folders, such as follows.

Looks like a lot of work? You betcha! I already have TWO folders that are full, so I need to get myself a new one for next year. :)

It gets even MORE OCD in that I love arranging my ang pows according to 'themes'. Yeah, so all those packets with pictures of mandarin oranges go together, all those with pictures of chinese fans go together, etc, etc...you get the idea. So my ang pow design 'themes' include flowers (these are the most common ones... especially ang pows with cherry blossom designs), mandarin oranges (I even arrange then according to designs with pairs of oranges, and oranges in baskets :P), koi fish, gold or money, chinese fans, chinese lanterns, the Chinese God of Prosperity, and the animal of that lunar year. And then there are the ones which don't fit in any 'theme' and just drive me kinda crazy trying to figure out where to put them, and eventually they all just went under a big theme of 'whatever'.

Oh yes, I just had to show off the fruits of my ang pow collecting labour here. Here are some of the coolest ones I have. The one below is my favourite design, coz' I like the way the red and yellow blends into each other (same for the second pic below, for the packet on the left), and it has gold font, and the pic is just cute. :)

The two below are also the really nice ones, and made it on the cover of one of my ang pow folders.

Here are some from my 'mandarin oranges' collection (all those with pair of oranges).

The koi fish ang pows! Note the coolness of the similar way in which fish on ang pows are designed, although these are all from different companies. You might as well write 'geek' all over my forehead now. :P

GOLD koi fish!

Ah, these are some from the super huge collection of ang pows with flower designs. As I said, the cherry blossoms are really common.

And here are some flower designs arranged according to colour (am I freaking you out with my OCD tendancies yet?)

I REALLY like this set coz' it's a similar design among all three, but again, all three were made by different companies.

Packets with chinese lions.

And chinese lanterns.
Fireworks...

And chinese fans. The fan for the ang pow packets on the top right is actually glued onto the packet, so it adds texture. And the design for the one below (where the top part of the fan forms the flap of the packet), that is really cool.

This is a set with the same common chinese word. I can't read Chinese for nuts, but I believe this word says 'prosperity'. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Same theme, but all same size packets. All of the ones below were made by Public Bank, except for the one on the bottom right. I'm not sure, but I think Public Bank came out with a new design every year and I just happened to get quite a few of them.

Another couple of sets with chinese words. I have no idea what the words are though! :P

The typical Chinese boy and girl design.

Same theme here, but different look of the boy and girl, and all these are from Drinho.

Ooh, the next couple of sets are all those made by the same company, with different but similar ang pow designs. I totally LOVE getting sets of ang pows like these! Right now I have the set from Proton....

As well as from M&M's.
I dunno how many companies have done these kind of ang pows (unique designs for each packet in one set), but I would surely appreciate anyone who gets these and pass the whole set to me. Hint. Hint. Double Hint.

The ones below are all from Ambank Group, but these aren't so much a set, as I think the different designs were produced in different years.

Mickey Mouse angpows! You get buy these easily from the shops, but the free ones are more fun. :)

And then there are the angpows with designs of the animal represneting that lunar year. I have angpows with designs of most of the animals, but the ones I really like is this set for the year of the chicken, from UOB bank...

And these tiger design ang pows, from all different companies. The designs are unique in that the tiger forms a chinese word in the top two.

For this year, I only have TWO rabbit themed ang pows. And I would love to have more. Hint. Hint. Double Hint.

Alrighty, enough of my soliciting for more ang pows from my poor readers. Hope you enjoyed it and Gong Xi Fa Chai to everyone again!

The Awesome Ang Pow Packet Collection (^_^)