How To Beat Collecting Addiction.

[Artoo]

Well said. I have been slowly aging out of collecting new pieces now that I'm over 50 and dealing with elderly parents. It's really starting to hit hard how it's just tangible "stuff" that only matters to me.

 

[Darth Snoopy]

How to beat collection addiction?

That's easy to answer; Don't start collecting.

 

[ProtocolD]

For me it was starting a new addiction. It’s now clothes: Japanese denim, Japanese heritage brands and so on. I used to spend most of my time online browsing new toy releases, now I do that with jeans and jackets. And instead of buying 250 euro stormtroopers, I buy 250 euro jeans. It’s way more enjoyable, let me tell you, and you get more out of your ‘collection’, way more lol. Once an addict, always an addict.

 

[JMT1979]

For me it was starting a new addiction. It’s now clothes: Japanese denim, Japanese heritage brands and so on. I used to spend most of my time online browsing new toy releases, now I do that with jeans and jackets. And instead of buying 250 euro stormtroopers, I buy 250 euro jeans. It’s way more enjoyable, let me tell you, and you get more out of your ‘collection’, way more lol. Once an addict, always an addict.

I don't collect clothing, but I do buy quality clothing for the staple pieces such as jackets, jeans, shoes/boots etc. Most are heritage brands that most people won't know of, however the products from these companies are expensive because of the materials and craftsmanship. I'm with you there about the enjoyment factor of these clothing.
I do still buy some figures, but now it is upgrading existing figures or filling a gap in my pre-existing list.
I've never spent the equivalent of 250 Euros on jeans though - what brands do you recommend? I'm more of a clean, dark indigo guy and I'm not fond of trends.

 

[Zurdo95D]

Something sobering is Delta Force Chung died recently. And he was extremely active not just weeks before whatever happened ended up happening. Some of his stuff is ongoing in auctions right now. He was a notorious bulk/case buyer, and that was true even on the military side of the hobby.

Now, people's personal feelings about DFC aside for a second, if he was still alive, what would he say to the rest of us?

In my hometown, about half a mile away, I saw a crap load of power tools and tools on the curb near a driveway. I stopped and checked, asked if there was some kind of yardsale. What happened was the owner of the house died, his only relatives were normally living in Canada, and the person in front of me, the daughter in law, only had half a week to empty the house to prepare it for sale. In some of the boxes were things like trophies and clearly sentimental photos and mementos. She even said, take the picture frames if you want, they were nice frames, and throw out the pictures if you feel like it, the ones inside ( she didn't want to take them out)

That's what happens when you die. The things you cared about is just stuff someone else has to deal with and wishes they didn't have to do it.

If I died tomorrow, you know what I would say if I could come back for an hour to talk to all of you?

Sell everything but the top 10 figures/sets you truly love. Then spend that money going to do something that gives you passion. Or spend that money finding that passion. Go see a new place. Learn a new skill. Take a course. Go on a river rafting trip. Walk across the country.

Life is just so short. And often it's just plain unmerciful. I would say, if you can, or anyone here, if they can, make as many arrangements as possible to make the "passing" as trouble free as possible for them, if you really do care for them. I saw it with someone I knew. He has a lot of stuff. When he died, his parents had less time to grieve ( quite horrible to outlive your own kids) and were essentially forced to deal with all the stuff on short notice.

I loved my time in this hobby so much, but I haven't touched it in years. It's just boxes stacked on top of more boxes.

But yes, I believe your strategy is correct. Sell it little by little, chip away at it. It didn't stack up overnight, it won't process out overnight.

Clutter is a type of commitment. It's one thing no one ever tells you.

Much agreed, as difficult as this is to stomach, but a reality to accept. I think I've shared this video before, but I think it gives a rough idea of what to with one's collection when taking mortality into account:

 

[shells075]

I was squatting down the other day and when I went to get up, I made a little noise like 'ooh' when I felt my knees. Let me tell you that's the first sign, when you make involuntary noises moving about, I'm only 39 but I already feel my body is starting to tell me, the good days are gone buddy.

 

[Patriot666]

OP you're not alone. The struggle is real. I've sold off, switched scales, focused/went wild, it just seems to be the life of a passionate collector in an expensive world.

 

[Stryker2011]

I was squatting down the other day and when I went to get up, I made a little noise like 'ooh' when I felt my knees. Let me tell you that's the first sign, when you make involuntary noises moving about, I'm only 39 but I already feel my body is starting to tell me, the good days are gone buddy.

Like I always say, it’s not the years it’s the mileage.

 

[potato]

i have begun buying air jordan sneakers. but i dont buy them rrp knowing they would break over time.

so i just buy them used for around $20, doesnt break the piggy bank and i get to wear them without worrying too much about dirtying them. i still get annoyed how dirty the outsole looks after a day in the mall since my normal shoes dont do that.

 

[ProtocolD]

I don't collect clothing, but I do buy quality clothing for the staple pieces such as jackets, jeans, shoes/boots etc. Most are heritage brands that most people won't know of, however the products from these companies are expensive because of the materials and craftsmanship. I'm with you there about the enjoyment factor of these clothing.
I do still buy some figures, but now it is upgrading existing figures or filling a gap in my pre-existing list.
I've never spent the equivalent of 250 Euros on jeans though - what brands do you recommend? I'm more of a clean, dark indigo guy and I'm not fond of trends.

Wildly off topic, but I just bought a pair of TCB 50s for that price (hemming included), which would have been a bit cheaper had I bought it directly from Japan. I’m used to buying figures directly from Japan, so I’m hoping it will work out a bit cheaper with clothes going forward as I’m really digging brands like Buzz Rickson’s, Orslow and a bunch of others. This heritage lark has made looking presentable so much fun again.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

What beat my addiction is I got into a little bit of a financial strap of my own doing and attempted to sell some Hot Toys to help me out and fpund it extremely difficult as the aftermarket on them is crap. I, of course, got lowball offers and when I didnt take them the offers stopped. I clawed my way back financially and realized these things cost so much but are basically worthless. I had some leftover Masters of the Universe clasdicsthat I sold with no problem. So it made me reevaluate how much I spend on HT. I never collected for future value but its nice to know what you have can be worth something after all the cash one drops into it but I think now Ill just buy maybe drop to 1-2 figures a year and bank the rest(I already dropped all my preorders from BBTS and SS and with SS it was some more loss).

I talked to the previous owner of OSW, Ronin Six, about this issue years ago.

Something I did, and it was not quite intentional, it was just where my interests naturally went, was 1/6th weapons. Basically if there was a new set coming out and some dealer broke down the parts, I mostly just wanted the guns. And that fit, since most of my collecting was on the military side of the hobby. What I've found is most of my weapons still hold pretty strong value ( well Ebay is not the best gauge anymore, but it gives me a rough idea)

I have one of the hardware mini shelves, that has like 18 sub slide out shelf compartments in it. Meant for stuff like screws or nuts or nails or whatever. It's full of 1/6th weapons. I sort of rough estimated it once, there's probably 1500 dollars in weapons in there. ( I didn't pay 1500, but trades, ebay lots and little buys over the years added up) I know that sounds insane, but when a semi rare rifle or pistol can go for 25-35-40 bucks now, it's about right in terms of of eyeballing it. The issue of course is selling it. Like you said, it has a PITA factor to it. Pictures, listings, emails, packing, post office, etc, etc. I can't imagine your situation when you are probably dealing with boxed stuff.

One thing for sure I wished I had done, was I used to get an HT set, open it to admire it and look at it and pose it, then I'd forget to put it back in the box. Now I have some sets spread out into 10 boxes in 3 different places. In some cases, I would have been better off not just opening it at all. But then I wouldn't get to look at it and inspect it, and etc, etc. Also it's safer in the box.

The biggest PITA is vehicles. I realize this might be a bigger bane for military collectors as many of the core vehicles were sold at Toys R Us or the like, so collector access points were different. Also they were far cheaper in the old days. Nothing eats up space like a 1/6th vehicle.

The biggest outlet I see now is Craiglist and hope to do local face to face sales in the same city. Maybe FB marketplace.

Something one of the owners of Echo Base Toys said to me years ago was, when people would walk into his store, they would look at the cool rare set, that was now worth 10 times it's original MSRP. But he said for each one of those, he had 50 sets that he'd sell for 30 cents on the dollar just to get it out of his face and clear space. Because the longer it sat, the less it would be worth. Which makes total sense in a backwards way. He also said people think working in the hobby is cool, but they don't see me with a cup of hot water trying to pull boots off a figure on a Saturday night. ( in the old days, 1/6th boots were a single rubber mold item, and pre placed on non removable feet, so you had to dip the figures leg and foot, with the boot on, in a cup of hot water, to loosen it up, to pull the boot off. )

But yes, the aftermarket can be tough. The changes to Ebay over the years ( just more and more punitive) took away the major access point for the entire secondary market for our hobby. I used to know a guy who had a small ebay store for 1/6th, he said he wouldn't wish his selling experiences on the people he hated. That's how much grief it caused him in terms of stress.

This hobby is so niche, there is no easy way to dump a collection. Or even do a large downsize.

I have the original HT Powerloader, and I think to myself, I should sell this mother ........, then I realize it would never survive shipping, and again like I said before, I should have never taken it out of the box.

So, my friend, guns, lots of guns, that's the apex of the resale market for 1/6th.

 

[Antarion]

I have the same problems when it comes to selling. That PITA factor is high and I feel non-hotcake figures are really hard to sell these days. If people have money they often invest in new preorders as the market is being flooded with new great things. So unless you have a rare figure many people want in their collection, most of them rather invest in newer stuff (my feeling)

I'm in a rare situation that I like most of my figures just to make a fotoshooting with or some little projects and then I would like to sell them to fund other figures to make photoshoots with and create dioramas/new ideas. (I do collect some holy grail stuff just for myself which I will keep forever!)
But for all the others, I would rather need a loan system for figures lol

But yeah I spend too much money on figures these days - I often think: couldn't you buy sth else instead? But the temptation is too big, so many cool figs...

 

[Rondesmo]

Honestly, the hardest is to begin.
Once you realize you do not need all the stuff you grabbed during all these years, it’s easier to unload.
And I can assure you that everything ( or almost) can be easily sold, even 10 years old stuff.
Personally I decided two months ago to cure and unload my collection in order to keep just my grails.
Put everything on eBay at the good price and I already had a 1 500 $ cash back.
There are things that I sold a little bit under the retail price and others where I earn money.
Globally, I did not loose money and it gives you a wonderful feeling of liberty and lightness.
And after the effort you made to unload, you buy with less compulsion and much more attention.

 

[DParga21]

Have a family.

I find that when it comes to deciding whether it's more important to get a Tobey Maguire spidey for the triple-spidey display, or getting a meal for my kids at Disney World, I'll happily take the dinner. (BTW: One meal at the Biergarten for me, my kids, wife, and in-laws? $800+. Wowie.)

I still do collect, but I pretty much only get the Exo6 Trek figures now, which are still affordable. The basic price for a figure jumping to $285 really made a lot of that decision for me.

 

[Patriot666]

Honestly, the hardest is to begin.
Once you realize you do not need all the stuff you grabbed during all these years, it’s easier to unload.
And I can assure you that everything ( or almost) can be easily sold, even 10 years old stuff.
Personally I decided two months ago to cure and unload my collection in order to keep just my grails.
Put everything on eBay at the good price and I already had a 1 500 $ cash back.
There are things that I sold a little bit under the retail price and others where I earn money.
Globally, I did not loose money and it gives you a wonderful feeling of liberty and lightness.
And after the effort you made to unload, you buy with less compulsion and much more attention.

Or like me, you regret some of the sales a few years down the road. Then you'll not only want the new stuff coming out, but to reacquire what you used to have. It's a sickness. I know.

I can relate to the feeling of "lightness" after a selloff. That's nice, albeit temporary for a collector at heart.

 

[Jay1138]

Patriot666, I havent gone back to purchase things I used to own, but I've certainly made a mental note about maybe going back to an item. So we'll see. The feeling of feeling of liberty and lightness that Rondesmo refers to is a great one. Really trying to stay in that place as I get my collection where I want it to be.

The SW Black Series is a series I've still kept going on as I downsized. I could justify still getting figures between $20-25. But that seems to have crept up to $25-30 these days. With that, I'm about done with that line. Greedy company helping me make a decision isn't too bad.

 

[Antarion]

Have a family.

I find that when it comes to deciding whether it's more important to get a Tobey Maguire spidey for the triple-spidey display, or getting a meal for my kids at Disney World, I'll happily take the dinner. (BTW: One meal at the Biergarten for me, my kids, wife, and in-laws? $800+. Wowie.)

I still do collect, but I pretty much only get the Exo6 Trek figures now, which are still affordable. The basic price for a figure jumping to $285 really made a lot of that decision for me.

I can understand that, love for family is the best. But when it comes to myself, I hate spending money on short term pleasure. Like stuff you eat and feel great but a day later its gone and you need to eat again lol. I just dislike putting money into none-enduring stuff (except holidays into other cultures to expand my horizon on this pretty world). I would rather spend 200 on a figure I have for 10+ years and it brings me joy every time I see it than going out two times (that doesn't mean I won't do the latter, friends and a good night out is very important)

 

[BACON!]

The best parts of my collection are filled with childhood memories, and I was able this week to get a critical item from my list of things that will make me say "I have enough", and that is the JazzInc 66 Batmobile. Already I am using this during pre-ordering decisions inside my head by saying - I have the Batmobile; what more do I need? For me, everything else pales in comparison. And, oh yeah, inflation.

 

[Bo Shrek]

Very easy today's prices.

 

[Rondesmo]

I can understand that, love for family is the best. But when it comes to myself, I hate spending money on short term pleasure. Like stuff you eat and feel great but a day later its gone and you need to eat again lol. I just dislike putting money into none-enduring stuff (except holidays into other cultures to expand my horizon on this pretty world). I would rather spend 200 on a figure I have for 10+ years and it brings me joy every time I see it than going out two times (that doesn't mean I won't do the latter, friends and a good night out is very important)

We all know this feeling.
Why spend 100€ in a shirt, sneakers or whatever short term pleasure when you can buy a figure or something that will last forever in your collection…?
I used to do the same but this kind of feeling is maybe a warning that we went too far in this hobby and that this last controls you.
Every time I have this type of thought, I try to convince myself that it’s not a good practice.
Had become a dad helped me a lot in this way.

After had sell a part of my collection this last two months, decided to put of the resell amount on my PayPal account.
It allows me to clearly see what I managed to save and that I’ll have to deal with this budget for future purchases.
Don’t want anymore to get out of this determined budget.
It’s a good way to be very selective and careful and prohibits impulsive purchases.
The last items I would really love to have would be (IF they see the light of day) the HT 1/12 1989 Batwing and the Batcave.
As a 1989 Batman diehard fan, I know my biggest challenge will be to resist to the upcoming 1989 Batmobile by Joost.
But the eventuality of spend 2 000 € on one item already bugs me.
Hope I’ll be strong enough…