Guinness World Record for the Largest Brick Collection

Some folks collect comics, stamps, or coins—classic, respectable hobbies. Others, well, they take collecting to an entirely different level. Honestly, if it exists, someone out there is probably collecting it! But let’s talk about the unsung hero of the collecting world: bricks. Yes, you read that right. Good old-fashioned, heavy-as-a-small-dinosaur bricks.

Enter Clem Reinkemeyer, a dedicated great-grandfather from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who unknowingly became the king of brick collectors. In 2023, he shattered expectations (but thankfully, not his bricks) by setting the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of bricks. His total? A mind-blowing 8,882 bricks from all over the world are stacked up in his barn—because, let’s be real, even the sturdiest IKEA shelf would tap out immediately

The best part? Clem had no clue he was about to be a world record holder. While he was away, his daughter and her husband secretly had his collection assessed, making his record-breaking achievement a complete surprise. Imagine going out of town and coming home to find out you’re officially the world champion of bricks! Talk about an unexpected “brick”-through moment!

It was while he was out of town that his daughter Celia and her husband Dan Bissett, who helped Clem build his special brick barn, gathered together a group of friends to count the bricks. They’d secretly applied for the record and were able to surprise Clem with his very own Guinness World Records certificate.