Sean F. Collins 
My name is Sean Collins and I am a Forensic Chemist. I graduated from Clemson University on May 10, 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. Shortly after that I started an internship at the Greenville County Crime Laboratory in South Carolina. During the internship a Criminalist position came open and I applied for it. On July 22, 1991 I was hired as an entry level analyst in drug analysis. In July 2005 I was promoted to Principal Criminalist, which is the Laboratory Manager. As the manager, I oversaw the operation of the Drug Analysis, Firearms and DNA sections of the lab. In October 2018, after a thirteen year run as manager, I returned to a Criminalist position in Drug Analysis and have been there ever since. To learn a little bit about my job, and some of the other disciplines in the Greenville Laboratory, click on the link below.
What I do as a Forensic Chemist
At home I am a collector. What do I collect? Anything I find interesting. I have been a Spider-Man and Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember and that is what got me started. I also collected baseball cards for several years but lost interest in that around 1990. Over the years I amassed a pretty good size collection of all types of things. From 1994 to 1997 I was a part time employee at New Dimension Comics in Greenville. The store is now owned by a good friend of mine and has been renamed Richard's Comics and Collectables. I help out in the store occasionally for big events such as Free Comic Book Day in May. To get a better idea of what I collect please use the link below to see some of my favorite items.
Some of my Personal Collection
In 1995 I went to my first Comic Con International in San Diego. In 1996 I decided I'd go to a local comic show as a seller and see if anyone was interested in the stuff I didn't want anymore. That began several years of traveling and making just enough to keep me from quitting. In late 1997 I listed my first auction on eBay and I sold the item. I was hooked by the easy money. For a while I went to shows and sold on the internet, but internet sales allowed me to sleep late on Saturday mornings and shows started being few and far between so I gave up selling at shows. I still go to them, but now it's just to find things to sell or occasionally find something I want for myself. Since 1995 I have only missed the 2007 and 2010 Comic Cons in San Diego. 2011 was my 15th trip to Comic Con. I have also been to Orlando MegaCon a few times and to Wizard World Chicago twice. Over the years I have lost interest in the comics themselves but still collect original artwork from them. It is often a lot easier to find what I'm looking for on eBay instead of flying across the country hoping to find something.
On eBay I go by the name of "schemist". I originally took that name as part of my first email address because back then you were limited to eight letters in a screen name and everything I tried before that was already taken on AOL (my server at that time). I decided on it because my initials are SC, I live in South Carolina and I am a chemist. Throw all that together with an eight letter limit and you have schemist. About six months after I started using it on eBay my brother asked me "Do you ever have trouble getting people to trust you with the word 'scheme' in your name." I'd never thought of it like that, but fortunately the name has never been a problem. You can use the link below to see exactly what I'm selling at the moment.
My eBay Auctions
On October 15th 2002 I bought my house. I chose a house that needed a good bit of work to look good but was structurally sound. That way I could afford more space than I needed at the moment. It is a tri-level house and I will be using the basement for office and business space. That way I'll still have a regular home on the two upper levels. The upstairs work was not as major as the complete remodeling of the basement, but it was still a lot to do. After six months of remodeling, the house was close enough for me to feel comfortable in it. There will always be something that needs to be done but it's come a long way. I have spent quite a bit of time on the outside as well. I had some landscaping done to fix a water problem and I personally installed a french drain to redirect the drainage that come from next door. The slope on the right side of the house was a combination forest, jungle and trash dump. I've had forty-five trees cut down and I still have fifteen left. The assortment of vines and weeds, including mimosa (which I hate) and poison ivy (which I have a nack for getting on me), have been the most difficult to deal with. To date, I have reclaimed about half of the wooded area as yard. I don't have any photos of the yard, but to take a look at the work on interior of the house use the link below.
My Home
Most likely you now know more about me than you did before. If you have any questions or comments about anything you've read please e-mail them to me. Thanks.
This page was last updated on March 30, 2024.