He has spent much of his life in Brantford — the last 22 years to be precise. When Krystian Kozinski is not busy with work or his personal life — he’s probably out scouting for new license plates or spending some needed time in his man cave.
When it comes to his collection there’s a vast variety — European, American, Canadian and military plates. He even has an old Ontario rubber license plate from 1907 that is worth $2,000. On top of all that, he even has bicycle plates, taxi tags, street signs and a stoplight.
Of course they’re all obtained legally — a common misconception being the contrary.
“A lot of people think it’s an illegal hobby. A lot of people think you steal plates — but far from it,” he said.
Kozinski says it’s a common misconception that comes from people not being educated on the subject.
But that’s not the only misconception that he faces as a collector.
“So my initials are K-K-K — Krystian Krystofer Kozinski — extremely hard to get plates with triple K’s on it, but in Canada, Quebec still has K-K-K plates on the road. In the United States, Hawaii is the only state with K-K-K plates on the road,” he said as he points to different pieces in his collection.
Of course, this could be deemed wrong to collect or even entertain keeping plates like those. But for Kozinski — it’s just his initials.
“In Canada it’s nothing really, but in the United States they think it’s racist. I have been approached by collectors — ‘Hey are you racist?’ So I ended up getting a Martin Luther King plate, just to show it off that it’s simply just my initials,” said Kozinski.
It’s also an expensive hobby. His whole collection, he says, is worth close to $50,000.
With a collection that pricey, he’s hoping that his daughter will take it over one day when he’s left this planet.
“My five year old daughter has definitely got the plate fever — (she) checks the mailbox with me everyday. We have got a bunch of Rose plates for her — her name is Rozalia. Yeah I definitely think that she would (continue the collection),” said Kozinski.
If you ever were to stop by his place he’ll have to sign a guest book and you could even check-in on his Facebook page K3pla8addictorium.
A man on a mission, Kozinski still has a lot of collecting to do — and he is even willing to dish out more dough on his collection.
“I have $20,000 for the first person to find me a 1903 leather plate — come take my money, he said.”
His wife, who has less of a liking to the hobby than he does, has put a rule in place for him.
“I’m only allowed to talk about licence plates once a day,” said Kozinski.
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