I am a very communicative guy and always enjoy to meet fellow collectors. So when I realized that I have bought some new figures from an ebay seller not far away from me, it was a no brainer to catch up the new stuff in person.
Personally I see my collecting hobby as exactly that: a hobby. Nothing more. Whenever I find the time to enjoy it, I do. When I am busy, I dont. Usually I am a busy guy with my studies + everyday job and of course the family, so time for my hobby is rare, but I am fine with that. Life has priority for me.
So when I met the seller in person at his home, it was totally different. He is in his mid 40s, divorced, 2 sons. When I arrived, at the appartment, the key was left outside to let me in myself. I entered the appartement (half being afraid, half being courious). First thing I heard was a screaming guy telling me to take my shoes off. The appartement was relativly clean, so I had no problem with it. The floor was quite small, yet big enough for 4-6 cabinets to hold different Mcfarlane stuff. When I entered the living room father and son were sitting in front of a PS4 playing some Call of Duty like game. It took about 45 minutes before any of the two guys was looking up at me. No conversation, no introduction, not even an easy "hello" for 45 minutes. I used the time to look around. The living room was full of cabinets too. One wall was full of DVD, PS games. The rest was full of action figures. After roughly an hour he wanted to present his collection to me. We went into another room that held another 20-30 cabinets. This guy was collecting everything. NECA! Resident Evil, Mcfarlane, He-Man, Hot Toys, Sideshow etc. The list goes on and on...
We started talking and I realized that he must have been a comic collector since he was a small child. His childhood appeared to be not the easiest. He told me about his divorce, his two sons and how tight money is. Also he told me that he is spending all his money for his collection. No saving, nothing. It looks really like this guy lost everything because of his addiction/collection but still cannot stop. He appears to being out of money despite a collection that would easily make 10k.
This was really the first time that I have seen a guy like this. As wonderful as this hobby is, I know it is very addicting - but until this weekend I had no idea how much.
Personally I see my collecting hobby as exactly that: a hobby. Nothing more. Whenever I find the time to enjoy it, I do. When I am busy, I dont. Usually I am a busy guy with my studies + everyday job and of course the family, so time for my hobby is rare, but I am fine with that. Life has priority for me.
So when I met the seller in person at his home, it was totally different. He is in his mid 40s, divorced, 2 sons. When I arrived, at the appartment, the key was left outside to let me in myself. I entered the appartement (half being afraid, half being courious). First thing I heard was a screaming guy telling me to take my shoes off. The appartement was relativly clean, so I had no problem with it. The floor was quite small, yet big enough for 4-6 cabinets to hold different Mcfarlane stuff. When I entered the living room father and son were sitting in front of a PS4 playing some Call of Duty like game. It took about 45 minutes before any of the two guys was looking up at me. No conversation, no introduction, not even an easy "hello" for 45 minutes. I used the time to look around. The living room was full of cabinets too. One wall was full of DVD, PS games. The rest was full of action figures. After roughly an hour he wanted to present his collection to me. We went into another room that held another 20-30 cabinets. This guy was collecting everything. NECA! Resident Evil, Mcfarlane, He-Man, Hot Toys, Sideshow etc. The list goes on and on...
We started talking and I realized that he must have been a comic collector since he was a small child. His childhood appeared to be not the easiest. He told me about his divorce, his two sons and how tight money is. Also he told me that he is spending all his money for his collection. No saving, nothing. It looks really like this guy lost everything because of his addiction/collection but still cannot stop. He appears to being out of money despite a collection that would easily make 10k.
This was really the first time that I have seen a guy like this. As wonderful as this hobby is, I know it is very addicting - but until this weekend I had no idea how much.