There is only one person in the entire world who can claim what I’m about to write: Tracey Nicol-Lewis holds TWO Harry Potter world records! On July 22, 2021 Tracey was notified that she now has two Guinness World Records – for having the largest collection of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts items, and the largest collection of only Harry Potter items.
Tracey earned the first record, with includes both Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts items, back on April 23, 2021. I wrote an article after she earned that record about how I had met her, and what it was like to watch her go for this record, a process that took about a year, and you can read that here.
Tracey at the House of MinaLima with her world record for the largest collection of Wizarding World memorabilia.
The record for the largest Harry Potter collection was previously held by Menahem Asher Silva Vargas since 2014. His record was for having 3,092 items. Tracey broke his record with a total of 5,284 magical items, beating Asher’s record by 2,192.
When Tracey started her journey to a Guinness World Record, she thought that she was going for the largest collection of Wizarding World memorabilia, which includes both Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts merchandise. She won that award earlier this year, but someone from the Guinness World Record contacted her to discuss the other category of the largest collection of Harry Potter memorabilia. She was told that she had broken Asher’s record and they encouraged her to apply for this one, too. The person told her that she’d already done everything she needed to for the award, she wouldn’t have to repeat the year-long process to get it.
You can see Tracey’s entries on Guinness’s website here.
Tracey knows Asher and had a discussion with him about how she has more items than he had for his record. She didn’t want to accept the record without talking to him first. She explained to Asher what she was told by the person at Guinness World Record and after their conversation she agreed to go for it.
Today (July 22nd) Tracey was notified that it’s official, she’s the new record holder. Which means she now holds both records. She texted me this morning about being told that she got the second record and I asked her how she feels. She said, “I think I’m still in shock.” I laughed, and told her that’s totally understandable.
I asked Tracey what her favorite item is and she said that it changes all the time. As of this writing, her favorite item is actually several things. These are very rare promotional bags that took her a while to acquire.
Congratulations, Tracey!!! This is so exciting and I can’t wait until the pandemic travel restrictions are lifted so that you can visit the US and I can give you a celebratory hug.
