From Little Debbie to NASA to Chilean beer, chemistry professor John Pojman’s wife is just glad his collection is not of cars.
Pojman has 1,720 different pocket protectors from four different countries, collected over 13 years. One of his items has even made it to the International Space Station.
“I kind of slipped one to a guy who gave it to a Russian cosmonaut to take up there,” Pojman said. “I like the NASA ones, but those can be kind of expensive.”
The collection began at an American Chemical Society meeting about 15 years ago. At that time, Pojman had not seen a pocket protector in several years.
Now he is an expert in that field.
“There aren’t other people that I know that are collectors,” Pojman said. “I’m king of the valley of the blind.”
Though he may be the only collector of his kind, there are others interested in the same items. Pojman said those collecting a certain brand could sometimes drive up the price of potential collectables.
“There are people who collect advertising stuff,” he said. “People may collect everything related to Ford Motor Company or Vernors Ginger Ale.”
Pojman said he has been in bidding wars against many people, but a special edition Apple item was the one that got away.
“Apparently, only once did Apple make like 100 of them for a special event,” Pojman said.
He lost the auction to an Apple product collector who paid about $100 for the item.
But others make up for the loss. The self-proclaimed chemistry lover is proud of his pocket protector signed by the Apollo 14 astronauts, which he bought for about $50.
As for the total cost of his collection, Pojman said it’s not something he wants to think about. He estimates it’s around $10,000.
“That doesn’t mean the collection is worth that,” he said, “Because there is a market of one.”
Many organizations have been interested in his collection, however. The Boston Globe has interviewed him, and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology linked to his “webseum” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first pocket protector patent.
“In fact, I just got a letter from a company in Waltham, Massachusetts,” Pojman said. “They said they donated one to the collection because they wanted to preserve their engineering tradition.”
Still, one organization eludes him.
“I’m still trying to get the Smithsonian,” he laughed. “I offered to lend it to them, but I can’t get them to respond.”
Pojman said he is currently in the market for pocket protectors in different languages, and he hopes to devote an entire wall to the display of his collection.
“Or I could donate them,” he said. “Have a huge tax write-off.”
Pojman said his collection goes beyond owning something no one else has.
But for Pojman, every time he wears a pocket protector, it is as much a fashion statement as a personal one.
“In a rise of the anti-intellectualism, it’s saying that I believe in science and technology,” he said.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Ronni Bourgeois

Polymers & Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics professor Dr. John A. Pojman, presents a portion of his pocket protector collection on Jan. 20, 2015.