Hi everyone. I've been going through my collection trying to thin it down and get rid of the fluff. I've said for years that I've got too much. I keep thinning and thinning. Buying less and less, but it seems like there's still always too much. As an example. I have an entire bedroom in my house for my toy collection. In my oldest son's room, we've put up 3 10 foot long shelves. He and I collect some things together, and therefore he wants to put some of our mutual toys on his shelves, so our entire Takara bookstyles and exclusives are in his room, thus part of another room. We've also got the scattered bots around the house. Now, add to that, 2/3 of my collection are not on display. Nothing beyond RiD is on display in my collection room, and it's got about 15 feet wide of shelf space. I do collect a few other series, modern MOTU, some Joes, some Gundams, but not a heck of a lot of other stuff. When is it too much? At times, it feels more like a burden than a hobby, which is what's prompted me to post this. I know I've seen Kid Dynamite's room, and I understand that it's not just me. Thoughts....
I'm in the same boat, i'm just going to keep some really hard to get items and the rest are gone. i got a whole room also with nothing but tfs and shipping boxes. i hate selling and I hate shipping even more, but hey, i got myself into this hole, just gotta dig out a bit.
I plan to just buy a bigger house one day. I'm in no rush, even though storing the stuff has become a bit of a hassle--and moving it every few years is even worse. I just like 'em enough that I look forward to the day when I can just have them all out, displayed in all their glory.
I'm trying to get rid of some stuff due to lack of space... It's seriously to the point where I CANT keep anything MIB any more, regardless of if I want to or not. My shelves are clogged with CRAP (I refuse to display anything of value because I'm afraid I'll walk too fast and the shelves will fall over)... I'm trying to thin it out A LOT, but I don't have anything worth selling at this point ($10 for a figure I paid $25 for 6 months ago doesn't really make it worthwhile to sell...) I've got stuff under my bed, the bed I have set up for my dogs (that they don't use because lack of space has forced that to be another storage area), 8 or so (think 24 pack of soda sized) wooden boxes PACKED, crap in front of those, 2 big tubs beside my bed, an egg shipping crate full of stuff in front of those... My closet has plenty of space, but it's filled with old clothes that we won't get rid of for some reason that makes virtually no sense. I think I have Superpants Prime in a gym bag in there... As for the rest of the house, All of BW and some of BM is in another egg shipping box in the basement... I won't move that until I can find a few more missing pieces down there... My desk has FAB Frenzy, Movie Arcee, Concept Bee, BB Pen RC, KO RM Laser Cycles, and a screw driver... I've taken over the piano, too... Movie stuff, Classics (and a few older things that I consider to be Classics), my 3 Road Bots, all my legends, and Armada + Energon Perceptor... Too much stuff, nowhere to put it, and nothing worthwhile to sell...
Count me in this group has well. I practically have Transformers coming out of my ass, and I really don't know what to with what i got while new stuff is continously coming in.
guys, we have an addiction, face it. we love toys. and if they continue making new ones, we want those too. sometimes i wish they would stop making new toys, so wouldnt have to WANT MORE. any of you guys want to buy some toys?
Yeah, my mom always tells me that I have an addiction, and as of recently, Im starting to believe she is right. So, right now Im going to thin out my Movie bots while they are still worth a bit, and try to get some of that cash back, as well as some other stuff that I have no need for, like extra BWs, some stuff that just lays on the floor taking up room. I display my toys loose, but I have all of the boxes in the backroom in the basement(the front room of the basement is my room) and the boxes take up a TON of space, and I have TFs laying all over my room. That, and the fact that I have about $400 worth of debts, and I keep buying more TFs, I guess I really do have a problem. WOOT! Step 1, admitting I have a problem done. Step 2, solving the problem, most likely wont happen.
I only sell the TF I really don't care much for. Once i sold my entire Actionmasters, Pretender and Micromasters collection. Regretting it I later build up 3 ok sized collections of them. The Pretenders I've grown to like a lot, but the Actionmasters and the Micromasters still don't really appeal to me so I let them go for good. Else I only collect G.1 84-88, Cybertron,Classic,Movie figures so that keeps the figure count down a bit.. But when enough is enough is really up to you... but I can say it's too much if you'd rather spend your saturday surfing on ebay for some new figures rather than hanging out with some good friends, then it's time to stop or at least take a break and make some new priorities.
Well, I'm not so much addicted as that this is my most cost effective hobby, and it's something I can do with my kids. During the summer, my kids and I will get up and hit flea markets and yard sales to toy hunt. My other hobby is VERY expansive. We have 4 antique cars. Nothing is cheap, and I don't have as much money to spend on them as I used to. So, my thing is that the kids and I can enjoy ourselves toy hunting for $50 or less, where as I'll be spending hundreds or thousands on the cars. I really want to start back on my... Hell, any of my cars, but it's just not feasable. Anybody want some Armada, Energon, or Universe?
Oddly enough my wife bitches more about my TF's than my 4 cars. I just don't think she realizes the amount of cash that goes into the cars. With TF's she can actually see the size of the collection grow, which sets of a an irrational response.
I've gone past the point of way to much. Yeah, I know this; but I seem to keep going. Aparently it's an addiction, because I've tried to stop at least some of my collecting. Even that doesn't seem to work, it pretty much ends up as me just holding out a little bit longer than usual or buying a few pieces at a time rather than everything at once. See I was going to limit myself to Transformers only, but I eventually (rather quickly actually) broke down and bought the new 25th Ann. Joes. For the amount of space I have here, my collection is beyond way to big. I have only the room to display only the newest figures (pretty much only one series at a time) and most of my vintage boxed collection and loose reissues. Everything else is in storage in a back room of the house. It's a small room, but it's packed from floor to ceiling. In there you would find Transformers from Car Robots all the way up to the Classics line, Star Wars figures from the 96 line all the way up to the Saga Collection. 7 years of TFs and 10 of Star Wars.... and man does it ever stack up. Add in all the extra stuff I collected over those years and I think I'd say I crossed the line about 5 years ago, but didn't really even notice how bad it was until just this year. I know for a fact, I have more collectibles than I will ever need to represent my interest in these shows, movies, etc. I have more stuff than I can ever truely appreciate (if you get my meaning). Even if I had the room to have everything out on display, there would be so much of it.... that it would over load ones sences. Not long ago I had a new friend over and he saw just what I had in my bedroom on display and he said " I've never seen so many collectibles in one place before".... and that was only maybe at best 15% of my stuff.... the oldest (G1 MIB/MOC) and newest items. At first I was a bit proud of the awe struck wonder it produced in him... but with it came a reinforcement of my realization that I have gone way beyond any kind of acceptible limit. I know there are plenty of people that have much larger, better and more beautiful collections than I do. That in the schem of things I'm not even close to the top rungs of hard core collectors in the world. I love huge collections, always have. I love checking out peoples collections online and admiring all the wonderful vintage rare peices that I still dream of owning. I've never once felt or thought... these guys have a real problem, someone needs to tell them to stop and get some help. On the contrary, I simply admire them for all the effort that went into massing such a wonderful collection. For me though, it just doesn't feel right to have this much stuff. Meaning my own collection. But, I'm starting to come to grips as this being a part of my personality. Sure it's a flaw, and a part of me does want to change it.... but in the end it's only a small part. Even as a kid I was like this. I collected Star Wars, and got just about everyting. Then Transformers, I went nuts and got it all for the first 4 years. The thing is, I had this habbit of massing a bunch of stuff and then selling it, or giving it away to young kids within my family. So my collection never got near the tipping point of crazy big. Then came the age of regret... the "I wish I hadn't got rid of those" feeling. So when I got back into collecting, I pretty much made up my mind to never let anything go because I knew eventually I'd want it back. So now when I tire of some line, or it gets pushed out by newer stuff.... it just gets packed up and stored away. Now I have more than I've ever had at once... god only knows by how much. And, what I have now doesn't even come close to everything I want. So, what does this all mean? Am I against having such a large collection for myself? Do I think it's an addiction that I must put an end to? Do I think it's a problem? Do I want to stop? My characteristic contradictory nature would say yes to all those things, and yet at the same time would say no. I'm not so blind as to not notice that I've gone over what I would consider a rational sized collection. I know, that it this point it's over kill to keep going. Yet, I like this about myself; as strange as that may sound. I mean I truely love collecting, I love the hunt, I love finding that next piece, I love watching my collection grow and become more complete. I more than love my vintage TFs, they feel so much a part of me. To alot of people it's a sence of nostalga, but for me it's like an ever present part of my life, even when I didn't have anything tangible to represent them. Not so much a link to my past, as a direct link to who I am at all points of my life/mind/existance. Well, in part any way. So I feel more myself owning these things. In the end, it's done wonders to improve my quality of life. I've almost never collected to escape issues or problems in my life. I didn't love transformers (or any of the other multitude of things I've been into) because I wasn't accepted by other people. On the contrary all my life I've naturally gravited to such escapest flights of fantacy. From Batman at age 4, to Superfriends, to star wars,to Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers, to Joes, eagle force,Spiderman and his amazing friends, Mighty Orbots, Pole Possition, Super Powers, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Robotix, Visionaries, Inhumanoids, Jem, Robotech, then a whole new world opened up in the relm of Anime. My introduction to anime.... Macross DYRL, Bubblegum Crisis, TF Victory, Project AKO, Saint Seiya, Megazone 23, City Hunter, Vampire Hunter D, fight iczer one, outlanders, dangaioh, ramna 1/2, lum, gal force, gun buster, riding bean, Gundam, dragon ball, appleseed, black magic...... This is who I am. If I remove it from my life... I'd be an empty shell. All my passions gone. Not that it's the collection it's self that defines me, but in order to stop I'd have to eliminate my interest in these shows, ideas, wonderfuly invented worlds. Doing that is what would destroy who I am. My love of animation and movies leads into my desire to collect. .... and it is a love that never seems to die.
After seeing my room's space being taken up inch by inch and realizing how low my funds are, and that any funds I do get usually go into TFs, I knew it was time to tone it down. I'm not quitting collecting, I'm just going easy until I can afford it more and until I have more space. I think that's when you know it's time to chill out, when you're running out of money and space. If you can afford them and still pay the bills and buy groceries comfortably and you have room to properly display them and not just stick em in boxes, then it's cool. I totally get what Backpack is saying, it's part of why I'm not totally quitting, and it's why I'm not gonna sell anything. This shit is just part of who I am and I'm not giving up on it. I'm just taking it easy for now. It's ok to step away, you can always come back.
