How To Beat Collecting Addiction.

[Rondesmo]

Easiest way to beat addiction is to avoid this forum…

 

[jye4ever]

Just charge $2k for a 1/6 figure and your desire to collect figures will quickly diminish lol

 

[JMT1979]

Same. I have coats still going after 12 years or so because I spent some money on them. As a runner I will destroy the shoes I train in, but have a couple of pairs of leather shoes I spent *quite* a bit of money on that will last for a lifetime if I take care of them and are of the kind that can be repaired or re-soled.

I'm also well-aware that I'm in a position of privilege to be able to afford to do that. Telling someone who's just hanging on to go spend $$$ on shoes is of course unrealistic; but we're on a forum where people spend $400 a pop on action dolls so it's a conversation that remains in context.

Honestly, I find it easier to justify spending $400 on a pair Goodyear welted shoes or boots that can be resoled many times, rather than an action figure (which I still do). My Allen Edmond Park Avenues in brown and black which I used for work are still going strong 11 years later. They're better and more 'prestigious' brands, but these more than do the job.

You're right about us all being in a position of privilege, otherwise we couldn't buy the collectibles we do.

Ultimately for me, it's a balance of paying off my mortgage ASAP, saving, investing, travelling, and enjoying life.

 

[JMT1979]

A lot of people think "minimalism" is one-note and Spartan, but there are many ways to do it based on your situation (kids, no kids, etc.) and what you genuinely care about. I do think most people in North America (after a certain income threshold is reached) have just too much of most things.

For myself I've gone through cycles of very stark minimalism to what I'm doing now, which is definitely a little more comfortable and layered but still driven by a sense of mindful "essential-ism" --- do I love this, do I use this, and always in the back of my mind -- "Is this too much?". It goes well beyond collectibles for me.

The general public perception is all over the place. Some of what gets touted as "minimalism" on social media is:

(a) Almost impossible without substantial wealth
(b) Blandly curated imitations of some beige Platonic ideal cribbed from popular (and tunnel-visioned) notions of Scandinavia or Japan.

As far as collectibles go, rule no. 1 is sheer love, rule no. 2 is no compromise. That'll make you pass on any number of items.

I'm not a minimalist, but I do apply some of the principles. You have to enjoy life too, and living with no possessions isn't enjoying life. But, I Ryley and limit it to what I really love, rather than just like. It's hard, but I don't dedicate hours thinking about what I cull, instead I just know that I don't truly that character or figure- of course this always happens after I've bought it...

 

[a-dev]

Easiest way to beat addiction is to stop come on this forum…

Couldn't do it. This forum is the internet to me.

 

[Zurdo95D]

For me, it wasn’t finance but realising I had too much stuff in my life Boxes and boxes of comics and shelves of books I had read once or intended to read (book sales…). As well as that, a mixture of intense personal issues and lack of time meant I got to a stage where I wasn’t enjoying many of my hobbies and interests. It was almost like experiencing burnout.

These days, I practice a more minimalist lifestyle and I’m more mindful of what I buy and bring into my home. My book collection only includes coffee table type volumes and my most sentimental books, most new books being on a kindle. I sold off my entire Nikon camera and lens collecton, switching over to a more compact Fujifilm camera. Clothes consist of only the things I actually wear, most redundant or seldom worn items having been disposed of. I took a good look at my twenty or so figures, deciding to part with those I bought on impulse or because of the hype. I kept my favourites (including my Hot Toys T2 figures and a few Medicom figures) and have occasionally added new figures, always mindful of buying on impulse

I’m of the same mindset when it comes to limiting what I display. It also helps me appreciate my small collection, as I rotate what I display every few weeks.

Yep! Time, time is of the essence! I found that I don't spend as much time as I'd like with the figures I get, save for some I ask in my mind: Do we take the time to fully 'play around' with and appreciate all our figures and/or statues? How much time do we realistically spend with them? But of course, with work, responsibilities, life events, and other precarious situations, there's only so much time one can dedicate to many things.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

So many quotes from Fight Club come to mind.

Fight Club is interesting as it applies to our hobby because on one hand, all this stuff at some level is utterly meaningless. On the other hand, without a vice or distractions, idle hands can be even more self destructive.

Coping strategies, in and of themselves, aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's when they become permanent and a part of that person's core identity, that's where it can spiral out of control.

The collecting itch is often part pathology ( how we associate value, wealth, possession and material items, usually stemming from our upbringing) and part not having a substitute for something to look forward to down the road.

I suppose that's the change that would help the most. Finding something else to look forward to and aim at in both the near and long term future.

 

[Zurdo95D]

To quote @goatchumby :

My Phase I-III limit keeps my Hot Toys collection from becoming a Hot Toys pile

 

[omegaglory1]

To quote @goatchumby :

I didn’t immediately understand what phase I-III meant but now I do!

I never got into the Hot Toys Marvel craze, the only Marvel figures in my collection being the original Mk 4 and Mk 6 Iron Man which I ended up selling last year. They’re entertaining movies, fun to watch but not something I would rush out on release day to buy a ticket for. The possibility I might develop the urge to buy the entire Avengers lineup (and villains) was reason enough for me to avoid it!

That being said, I bought myself an IG-11 after watching the Mandalorian and put down a pre-order for the deluxe chrome Din Djarin, as they go well together. So I guess Disney did kind of snare me with Star Wars I should be fine as long as I don’t start buying more Mandalorian characters!

 

[agonistes86]

(I always read this thread whenever people post, but I rarely take the time to reply immediately or write long posts in general. So this will have a lot of multi-quotes. )

To preface, I know this sub isn't necessarily a help line, or an area where the hypothetical psychology of collecting needs to be brought up, but has anyone who anticipates downsizing their collection, or in general people who want to start buying less, tried hiding away the majority of their collection to only display a select few at a time? While some people might find it more convincing to buy more things when your theoretical self is not being constantly reminded of what you already have, I am curious whether forcing prioritisation on a limited portion of a collection could help reduce the idea that more is needed when you're limited on what you can interact with.

It looks like some people here have cited finances being a primary incentive to start disengaging from the hobby--but do people in that situation tend to return to the hobby once you're better situated or do you discover a renewed sense of "freedom" from this hobby's addictive tendencies altogether when that happens? And for the latter, is there something else that you have now to fill the hole, or is it still a financial reason which primarily drives the decision to keep away from the hobby?

Regarding your first point here about hiding figures, for me that's rather a strategy to decide whether I want to get rid of that figure. I understand the idea of rotating, but I prefer displaying everything I have, and selling off the rest. Of course that does come from the privileged position that I have the space to display the number of items I want to. If I put a figure away for a while and don't miss it, that's a sign for me that I don't "need" it anymore.
Every time I moved and had to box up figures, I went with this strategy of not putting everything up on display straight away, and usually sold 1-2 figures afterwards because of it.

Regarding the finances, I find that difficult to answer. I'm at a really good place where I don't consider my collecting habit an addiction per se, but actually a really fun hobby that brings me a lot of fulfillment, with little to no negative side-effects. So I'd like to say that with more money, I wouldn't feel the compulsion to buy more. On the other hand, there are some larger more expensive items (like the queen studios 1:4 bloodstorm batman ) that I would love to have, but it's simply so far out of my self-imposed collecting budget that I don't even consider it.

As JMT said:

You're right about us all being in a position of privilege, otherwise we couldn't buy the collectibles we do.

Ultimately for me, it's a balance of paying off my mortgage ASAP, saving, investing, travelling, and enjoying life.

This sums up the financial aspect very well for me. I started 1:6 figures basically in my first year in college, so I didn't have much money. As I started working and my salary is increasing over time, so did other aspects in life - I met my wife in college, we love travelling, we bought a house, we want to remain financially secure in the future, and we became parents last year. So while I could spend more money on figures, I have so many other more important priorities in life that I simply don't want to.
So if I had more disposable income, I do think I probably would spend more money on collectibles. But probably in roughly the same ratio relative to my income as I do now.

For me, it wasn’t finance but realising I had too much stuff in my life Boxes and boxes of comics and shelves of books I had read once or intended to read (book sales…). As well as that, a mixture of intense personal issues and lack of time meant I got to a stage where I wasn’t enjoying many of my hobbies and interests. It was almost like experiencing burnout.

These days, I practice a more minimalist lifestyle and I’m more mindful of what I buy and bring into my home.

Same here. I recently sold off a bunch of stuff, clearing up a lot of space in the attic. Single issue comics, DVDs, CDs, and my entire McFarlane/Spawn collection from the 90s and 2000s. Most of this stuff was sitting in boxes for 15 years, slowly rotting away. In the past I still felt an attachment to these things, which kept me from selling them. But making the decision to simply sell it all off felt really, really good. And the money I got in the process was a nice reward.
I used to identify myself as a "collector". In general, I rather put something away in a box, thinking I might have some use of it in the future, rather than simply throwing or giving it away. This could be anything like SW figure card backs, cinema tickets, cereal toys, small gadgets, etc. But I've slowly but surely moved away from this, getting rid of so much of my 'stuff' and my 'things' that simply sit around doing nothing. The idea of simply owning something without getting ANY use out of it just seems so weird to me now. I think it also ties in to me generally shifting away from putting too much value into material objects as a whole, as my perception and idea of objective reality has changed drastically over time.

ZE_501 makes a good point about minimalism. It doesn't have to be about having a home that's spartan, but about having a living space where our belongings don't own us. It's about avoiding the impulse to constantly accumulate things, instead being more mindful of what we do buy and making the most of them. I've found having a more minimalist home has also resulted in a less stressful life. Having less stuff has meant I don't have to think about it.

Very well put.

A lot of people think "minimalism" is one-note and Spartan, but there are many ways to do it based on your situation (kids, no kids, etc.) and what you genuinely care about. I do think most people in North America (after a certain income threshold is reached) have just too much of most things.

For myself I've gone through cycles of very stark minimalism to what I'm doing now, which is definitely a little more comfortable and layered but still driven by a sense of mindful "essential-ism" --- do I love this, do I use this, and always in the back of my mind -- "Is this too much?". It goes well beyond collectibles for me.

The general public perception is all over the place. Some of what gets touted as "minimalism" on social media is:

(a) Almost impossible without substantial wealth
(b) Blandly curated imitations of some beige Platonic ideal cribbed from popular (and tunnel-visioned) notions of Scandinavia or Japan.

As far as collectibles go, rule no. 1 is sheer love, rule no. 2 is no compromise. That'll make you pass on any number of items.

A bit off-topic, but I always wonder what your display (well, of the 1 figure nowadays) and your living space in general looks like. From what I gather from your posts, you value aesthetics and put a lot of care into your surroundings, so I'd love to see what that actually looks like.

Couldn't do it. This forum is the internet to me.

I also spent A LOT of time on this forum, Facebook (where 90% of my feed comes from collectible groups) and sites like toyark. But instead of triggering me to buy more, I think it actually acts as a form of catharsis. By seeing and reading about so many collectibles, particularly the ones I am interested in, it reduced the urge to buy them, because I already experience them quite a lot. I can enjoy them from afar, because I see how people customize them, what went into the production process, what new features were included that elevate the state of collectibles, etc.

Fight Club is interesting as it applies to our hobby because on one hand, all this stuff at some level is utterly meaningless. On the other hand, without a vice or distractions, idle hands can be even more self destructive.

Coping strategies, in and of themselves, aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's when they become permanent and a part of that person's core identity, that's where it can spiral out of control.

The collecting itch is often part pathology ( how we associate value, wealth, possession and material items, usually stemming from our upbringing) and part not having a substitute for something to look forward to down the road.

I suppose that's the change that would help the most. Finding something else to look forward to and aim at in both the near and long term future.

The idea of looking forward to something being a main driver of collecting is quite interesting.
I get a lot of satisfaction from just looking at my collection, but you're right that most pleasure probably comes from what comes next: the next pre-order coming in, finishing the custom I'm working on, improving the display space. The desire for progress (and change in general) are powerful drivers for many things, so it makes perfect sense here as well.

 

[ZE_501]

A bit off-topic, but I always wonder what your display (well, of the 1 figure nowadays) and your living space in general looks like. From what I gather from your posts, you value aesthetics and put a lot of care into your surroundings, so I'd love to see what that actually looks like.

I've been asked this here once or twice before; I used to be way more open online but these days I'm more private and would maybe feel weird posting a house tour ... LOL ... but I'll take a shot later of the lower level lounge (I live in a mid-late 60s ranch style bungalow with a fully finished basement) wherein Classic Spidey now resides while I drink whisky and listen to tunes.

I still don't own much but what I do is carefully curated mid-range furnishings (the hardest to choose because you want to avoid trends and find good build quality) with the odd higher end item here and there.

My overall style is very casual, contemporary and a little eclectic. Grounded in neutrals but punctuated by saturated colour.

 

[More Battle Damage]

These days I am considering display much more than getting more toys. Now that I have said "I have enough" to myself, my internal converation turns into "what do I want to do with my collection?" I moved recently and seriously downsized my display area. I never really appreciated the way other people displayed individual figures lined up on a shelf or in a detolf, and good lighting is key to a good display. My plan is to set up intermittent displays throughout the house (as much as my wife will allow), but most of them will probbly be in the basement, where the collection is stored. One day I hope to have a dedicated space to display as much as I want and switch it up as much as I want. Until then, I will take what I an get

 

[potato]

Fight Club is interesting as it applies to our hobby because on one hand, all this stuff at some level is utterly meaningless. On the other hand, without a vice or distractions, idle hands can be even more self destructive.

Coping strategies, in and of themselves, aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's when they become permanent and a part of that person's core identity, that's where it can spiral out of control.

The collecting itch is often part pathology ( how we associate value, wealth, possession and material items, usually stemming from our upbringing) and part not having a substitute for something to look forward to down the road.

I suppose that's the change that would help the most. Finding something else to look forward to and aim at in both the near and long term future.

Impressing others one of the last thing for me about this hobby as i see this as a sin i am ashamed of.

 

[potato]

Easiest way to beat addiction is to avoid this forum…

I find visiting this forum and looking at photos ease the urge to buy 1. Saved me alot of buyers remorse.

 

[Remembermyname]

Interesting thread and comments, for me I have had very little and far too much, I am currently somewhere in the middle. Less is more....the quest continues.

 

[karamazov80]

I've been slowly downsizing over the last year (constantly listing things on eBay, but I have SO MUCH STUFF that it is very slow going), and for me, there is a simple factor for getting over the irrational collection habit--realizing that you don't really need these things, and that you won't feel regret once they are gone. If you get to that point, which I think naturally happens over time, then it gets easier to slow down getting new things, and much easier to get rid of older things. I've sold all my statues except for two, and am on the way to culling my collection down to whatever I can fit in my current Detolf shelves comfortably (i.e., not all bunched together like they are in a mosh pit). There is almost nothing I own that I couldn't sell, though I do enjoy having some things and don't want to get rid of it all.

 

[agonistes86]

I've been asked this here once or twice before; I used to be way more open online but these days I'm more private and would maybe feel weird posting a house tour ... LOL ... but I'll take a shot later of the lower level lounge (I live in a mid-late 60s ranch style bungalow with a fully finished basement) wherein Classic Spidey now resides while I drink whisky and listen to tunes.

I still don't own much but what I do is carefully curated mid-range furnishings (the hardest to choose because you want to avoid trends and find good build quality) with the odd higher end item here and there.

My overall style is very casual, contemporary and a little eclectic. Grounded in neutrals but punctuated by saturated colour.

I actually wanted to add a sentence whether my asking is too much of an invasion in your privacy, since I haven't seen you post images for years now, but something came up and I had to wrap up the already long post...
But if you're willing to post that basement set-up, I'd love to see it!

Part of the reason I'm asking is that my wife and I bought a house a few years ago and I'm essentially our interior decorator (I suggest things, and she can veto). I'm new to this, and discovering our style as we go along. We also want to keep it minimalistic (as much as having a one year old around allows for that ), and we've settled on earth tones (brown, black, green) with higlights of saturated red here and there.
So any additional inspiration is very welcome, and the way you describe your approach has always resonated with me.

 

[ZE_501]

I actually wanted to add a sentence whether my asking is too much of an invasion in your privacy, since I haven't seen you post images for years now, but something came up and I had to wrap up the already long post...
But if you're willing to post that basement set-up, I'd love to see it!

No worries; I'll try to take a couple of decent photos later in the week. I'm doing dailies on a show right now that are pretty heavy, but I should have time off towards the end of the week. It's actually not much but it's not much by design LOL.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

I've been slowly downsizing over the last year (constantly listing things on eBay, but I have SO MUCH STUFF that it is very slow going), and for me, there is a simple factor for getting over the irrational collection habit--realizing that you don't really need these things, and that you won't feel regret once they are gone.....

I haven't bought anything in years, until just recently, I picked up a few loose parts to build my own John Wick. And when I finally got some pretty cool parts in the mail, it was literally no excitement at all. Maybe the spark is gone.

Like you, the thrill is maybe gone.... didn't think that would ever happen.

P.S. ( or maybe more like a PSA ....) The best thing I've found to "downsize" and cycle out of your life are inlaws. Just find a big box, throw them in, and send them packing.

 

[Jay1138]

Agreed with several of you. My spark for collecting most things is gone and my excitement for reveals is now 'ho-hum'. There are things I'm still excited about, and there are some items I'd love to get in on and acquire. But they take more of an investment of money and a lot of time which is fine with me. Downsizing, organizing, curating is my main collecting interest at the moment.