For M&M collectors, sweet treats are serious business

Sure, Richard Stern said, it started with liking M&M's. The milk chocolate — "Don't call them plain" — are his favorites. He used to keep a big bag in his desk at work, where coworkers gathered in the afternoons to snack.

But it was one of those coworkers who helped this go far beyond the candy. One day, she gave Stern a smiling M&M's figurine. From that day 20 years ago, the Pennsylvania man became a collector.

"For some reason, she thought I liked the characters," he said, before admitting that he has, indeed, come to like the characters. "[Collecting] starts out because they're just funny. Even just standing there, or on the commercials, they're usually pretty amusing."

It has, he admitted, become so much more. His collection could easily fill a large bedroom. On Wednesday, he was joined by 50 or so other people, many wearing various forms of M&M's clothing, at the 24th Annual M&M's Collectors Club Convention at the Embassy Suites in Bloomington.

Surrounded by tables stacked with jackets, puzzles, toys, lamps, candy dispensers, backpacks, bedsheets — all featuring the Blue, Red, Yellow, Orange, Green and Brown M&M's characters — many acknowledged their love might just border on obsession.

"Does it seem a little crazy?" asked Vickie Brown, who lives in Ohio with her husband, Greg. They met at an M&M's collectors convention. They got married 19 years ago at M&M's World in Las Vegas.

"Yeah," she laughed. "Maybe."

Carolyn McAlarney, M&M's Collectors Club treasurer, said the club began in 1998 with 8 to 10 people who'd found a common affection for M&M's stuff. Now, more than 100 folks attend the conventions. This year is smaller, she said, thanks to fuel prices and spotty flight schedules. More than 15,000 members belong to the club's Facebook page.

McAlarney, of Kansas City, Kan., said she missed the first three conventions. None since.

"We will mostly have fun, play games, network. Get to know each other. A lot of the things that come out in one part of the country don't come out in others," she said, adding that people fill their hotel rooms with merchandise to sell or trade. "We call it room-hopping. People go room to room with their arms full of stuff."

The most common pieces in members' collections, McAlarney said, are the simple dispensers that came out in the '90s. And the rarest?

"Probably store displays. Things that you can't just buy. Things you need to be sneaky about, bug the store manager for three months," she said. "People have a route. They check the trash cans. You beg, borrow or steal."

McAlarney has approximately 10,000 M&M's items filling her basement, she said. She tried keeping an inventory on a spreadsheet but gave up.

"It got overwhelming. You didn't want to know how much I have."

Karen Hawkes, from Adelaide, Australia, said she's lost count of how many conventions she's attended. But she flew for more than 30 hours to attend this one "because they're my friends."

Hawkes said she and her husband became collectors after a long-ago trip to America took them to a flea market — where they found a cheery M&M's dispenser.

"And we thought, how cute is that smiling face?" she said. "It just makes you happy."

Hawkes too has lost count of the number of items in her collection. She has thousands, from all over the world — Orlando, Singapore, Hong Kong.

The club, the conventions, the collections. It's all meant to be fun, Hawkes said. All meant to foster friendship. Happiness.

"Isn't that the idea?" she said.