I'm not a big fan of fads.

As a rule, they burn themselves out quickly, and frankly, they're annoying.

From pet rocks and mood rings to Rubik's Cubes and Cabbage Patch Dolls, we look back at them now and laugh.

I have to admit, however I, myself, have gotten caught up in a few fads over the years. I had many mood rings as a child. They never seemed to last very long. I remember becoming so frustrated with the Rubik's Cube that I removed all the colored stickers and replaced them so it would look as if I had solved it. Not very satisfying, but my sister thought I was a genius.

The public's willingness to pay $10 for a rock or piece of plastic with color stickers is not lost on American entrepreneurs. It's a simple case of supply and demand. If the public likes it, the price will rise.

I recently stumbled upon a new fad that proves my point well.

While doing a little unseasonable spring cleaning, I decided to finally go through the boxes of photos that were taking up too much space in my hallway closet. I painstakingly went through each box, sorting the photos, first according to age and then to subject matter.

Looking through the old photographs filled me with inspiration. How could I have neglected this project for so long? Photos are, after all, one of our greatest links to the past. Through them, we relive the best times in our lives. Rarely do we choose to document the bad times. Consequently, we end up with an incomplete, rosier version of our pasts, filled exclusively with Kodak moments. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.

Judging by the size of the photo stacks, I figured I would need about four scrapbooks to do the job properly. A trip to Wal-Mart should do the trick, I thought.

On my way, however, I fell victim to a fad I didn't even know existed.

The sign caught my eye immediately. A new store had opened, catering exclusively to scrapbooks. Wow, talk about fate.

I walked into the store expecting to find a few aisles of scrapbooks, filler pages, scissors and paste. What I found were stickers as far as the eye could see. There were stickers for every occasion. There were big ones, small ones, long ones, short ones, decorative ones and descriptive ones. Apparently, no self-respecting person would paste photos in a scrapbook without an accompanying sticker to either identify or accentuate the photograph.

I made my way through the aisles, looking for anything resembling a scrapbook. Finally, I spotted them on the last aisle, in a small corner. It seems the actual scrapbook is not the most important part of the process.

I pulled one from the shelf. It was exactly what I was looking for, nothing fancy, just two plain covers with blank pages in between. They even had four different colors, perfect for my project.

Turning one over, I noticed the price tag. Now, it's been a while since I've bought a scrapbook, but I know I never paid more than a few dollars for one. Apparently the price of documenting your past has gone up over the years. The books cost $25 each.

I could not justify spending $100 for scrapbooks. I decided to start out slowly, buying only two.

My curiosity was piqued. I walked back to the stickers to take a closer look. They were displayed in giant rolls with perforated sections. Each section contained anywhere from two to 10 stickers that cost anywhere from $1 to $4. I don't even want to think about the profit margin on that.

I made my way to the checkout counter to pay for my two, plain, $25 scrapbooks. As the checkout lady helped a customer find just the right kind of glue stick (yes, there are many now), I wandered over to a magazine rack. Expecting to see Newsweek and Time, I found scrapbook magazines, full of scrapbooking tips. Who knew there was a wrong way to paste photos in a scrapbook?

For more advanced scrapbookers, there are countless Web sites. Scrapbookaddict.com gives visitors the opportunity to chat live with other scrapbookers across the country and the world. There are scrapbook clubs in just about every major city you can think of. There are scrapbook conventions, marathons and classes. There's even a scrapbook cruise planned for next month.

I'm still working on filling the two scapbooks I purchased. Even without the stickers and stencils, it takes a while. Once they're full, I think I'll put the rest of the photos back into the boxes, along with my pet rock and Rubik's Cube, and wait for the fad to pass.