Amassing up to 23,000 neckties since July 2013, her ''obsession'' should be enough to unseat Dr Derryl Ogden, of the United States, who counted his 16,055 ties, on June 15, 2005, Mrs Sparks said yesterday.
Dr Ogden started his collection in 1934.
In four years Mrs Sparks spent more than $10,000 on her ties. About 80% of them came from op shops, in which she spent about $9700.
She had not visited every South Island op shop, but because they were typically closed on weekends, she would take Thursdays and Fridays off work ''and go as far as I could''.
She crossed Cook Strait on one occasion to visit her sister - and op shops in Palmerston North, Levin, and Whanganui - and returned with 1000 ties.
And then two years ago, the Otago Daily Times' The Wash columnist Dave Cannan put out an appeal and donations began to roll in.
''When The Wash got on board - that was about 3000 ties [donated] - I knew I was going to get it,'' Mrs Sparks said.
''I knew there were enough ties out there, to get it.
''It kept on coming. Even last week, the ODT rang me up and said, 'There's a bag of ties here for you','' Mrs Sparks said.
Now 20 volunteers were coming to help to be witnesses, counters, and to provide the video and photographic evidence that Guinness World Records required.
When the record had been surpassed she hoped to exhibit the ties. And she had several wall hangings, or other art pieces already on display.
She would not sew the ties in her collection together, but interweave them into ''big daisies, big kaleidoscopes, big pictures''.
The public is invited to Mrs Sparks' count, which begins in the old bank on the corner of Coquet and Thames Sts in Oamaru on Saturday at 9am.
