It’s better to place them on a shelf and allow them to breath, but humidity is probably the biggest concern. Books on a shelf will still be at risk of mould if conditions are humid and wrapped up books left in storage can develop mould if the surrounding environment isn’t controlled.
Man, that must've really been a blow. But I can relate to buying things faster than you can "experience" them. I'm not loaded enough to do it with HTs (although the fact that I went from 0 figures in the last 5 years to buying 3 and having 5 on PO, probably is a case of going too fast) but I did the book thing. Most hardcovers are pretty cheap, so you start off trying to get the classics and then you've spent 300 that month, while you've read maybe one out of the 10 things you bought. With comics I stick to Omnis/Absolutes these days, so they cost enough for me to be careful about what I buy. But still, the temptations are always there.
more about foxing and browning, something caused by air.
How did you manage to do it? Have you trimmed down your collection to just your few absolute favourites or was it just a general reduction?
I feel you on that "throw it all away to escape buying more" bit. Luckily I haven't bought enough in my life to face that problem, but I don't want to reach that point, which is why I'm trying to be as selective as I can even now. The hard thing, as you said, is that you're pulled to complete sets and sometimes you don't even care enough about what you buy, you just do it for completionism reasons. But it is hard to "break" sets, that's true as well.
I had to let go of my DX09 Batman and Medicom FMA Alphonse. The rubber suit on the Batman was breaking down and Alphonse’s feet were turning sticky. I spent today pulping a few Hot Toys boxes. Somewhere out there, a collector is having aneurysm, but it had to be done. They take up precious space.
can't you sell the boxes someone might be interested for few bucks (plus local shipping/pickups)
Under other circumstances, I would have listed them on eBay and taken my time selling them. However, I’ve had problems with mould and the last couple of months has been one long task to triage, clean and sanitise my belongings. It’s like spring cleaning but worse, you have to isolate items that are mouldy or potentially mould affected and this takes time.
I hope you end up with your preferred display! I'm too much of a completionist to get down to just the absolute favourites, but I'm trying to work it so that I can go down to the absolute favourite themes/franchises. I know that I'll never be content unless I buy all the Jedi, even the ones I don't care for, but that's alright since I'm a Warsfan in general. But there's no need for my "Movie Classics" shelf to contain every single memorable character from cinema. I can do without a Rambo for example. And just because I want a Punisher, doesn't mean I'll have to get the entire Street/Dark corner of Marvel with Blade, Ghost Rider and so on. That's more or less how I'm trying to control it. Drop down to the absolute favourite IPs/Themes, then break them off into the absolute favourite subgroups, and from them get the absolute favourite characters. If I did it your way I'd just get maybe 20 or so figures. But I'm not that strong, so I have to go higher. Not "500 figures all around the basement" high, but still, enough that I'd like to trim more.
I feel something similar sometimes, even if I haven't reached those numbers. But fo me it's more of a "guilt" of leaving things unfinished, so to speak. Not getting that Omni or that figure to represent that thing or the other. It's not a positive mindset though, as it can lead you towards hoarding, which is why I'm trying to cut it down. But I've felt this "guilt of graditude" with some other lines and things. It feels good to own a couple of specific items, and when you focus on them the noise of all the clutter clears.
i haven't bought any collectible for quite some time. i do still buy stuffs but they are more "expendable" like model kits that i work on, or toys like playmobil, tiny cars, stuffs that don't really take up much space or cost a bomb. but still gotta be careful about the spendings.
Well said. I recently moved cross country and we bought a house that is not conducive for displaying roughly 90% of my collection. I am going to have to be very creative in shoehorning any displays that will look good and also be acceptable to my wife in this environment. We both agreed this is not going to be our forever home (the housing market is bonkers everywhere now), but placing a pause on displaying the figures does not mean the eventual pre-order deliveries stop. At this point I have about 10 figures that I have either not opened or only opened to inspect.
