Hey gang, I'm laying here stressing about my upcoming move, which got me thinking about figures to sell, which got me thinking about sales threads in the past and how well/poorly some figures have sold, which got me thinking about why I wanted to sell THOSE figures in the first place. Sometimes it's just because I bought way too many and wanted to thin the herd. Sometimes it's because I'm saving for something big. This time, it's the move. Either way, I know I'm not the only one here who has posted many sales threads. It's an endless cycle of buy and sell. What I'm wondering is, why? As our collections grow and shrink and evolve, what are the top (two, I suppose?) reasons you sell off (some, if not all of) your figures? Take the poll, share your stories, plug your sales thread, etc etc.
Over 2000 TFs and with doubles and whatnot it's close to saturation level for physical space so that. Plus the money can be useful too.
I could probably say its a little bit of all the above save for moving. I have sold some TFs for money when things were tight but the biggest factor is space. I have a limited amount of space where I can display or store my TFs so I have had to narrow my scope to Classics and MPs and anything else not fitting that had to go. Then I further cut that down to keeping one version per character (with a few exceptions like Ratchet and Skywarp since they are two of my favorite characters). If a better version of a character comes along, I put the previous figure up for sale to make room for the better version.
I had plans to sell my entire collection back in 2011 after my family decided to not cosign my college loans due to...political differences. I needed cash for food, rent, and medication and I was able to secure a buyer and sold about 60% of the collection. I sadly still ended up on the street without internet access for a while, which put me in the awkward position of not having access to anything I owned, and couldn't finish the final portion of the transaction. I ended up with some Paypal fines but, on the plus side, I was able to keep a portion of my collection when I was finally able to get access to my stuff again after a super rough year of living on couches and camping in the woods. That said, while there are more than a few figures I miss, I never had space for most of them and had to keep the vast majority in storage. I'm finally in the position that I can actually afford to start buying more figures again, so it's weird looking back at a time when all I saw my collection as was a source of food and rent money. In short, a mixture of 1 and 4. I now have almost all of my complete figures on display with room to grow, so something good came of the situation. There are a few figures (especially from the Energon Autobots) that I would consider selling to make room for some other, better figures, so I might do that in the future.
I would select all of the above EXCEPT growing up. The second I grow up, I'm gonna leave all you suckers behind (which won't happen). I may be rockin' a sexy old almost mid-forties body but I'm forever trapped at 12.
I rarely have buyers remorse, since I seldom make impulsive purchases and watch several reviewers before I sink big money into a plastic toy. Usually when I let something go, its due to focusing on one line, or simply replacing with a new and better version. Parting with collectibles is as easy for me as obtaining them.
Goodness, so many reasons. Including all of the ones you have listed above. I moved counties recently and it's made me realise that even with more display space, there are still some toys I am not compelled to display and under those circumstances, there's no point keeping them. The amount of space some of these things and their packaging take up, this also bothers me so I do the occasional downsizing. Focusing my budget is important, so selling off things I am no longer keen to complete or collect or display means that I can focus funds on what i like the most, as I cannot afford to collect and have everything I am interested in all the time. Sometimes it's as basic as rotating my collection to keep it interesting. On other occasions it has been a catastrophic loss of interest or a major life event that has necessitated large swathes of toys being sold, or me giving up entirely for a period of time. The reason for most of my vintage Diaclone and variant G1 sales has been a more long term goal of amassing enough money for a significant downpayment on a property I hope to buy one day soon for my family, to be able to leave something for my daughter. I remember one Diaclone managed to pay for us all to spend two weeks in the Cape Verde Islands, and those memories are worth more than the rarest Diaclone. All the best Maz
Interesting you should mention the impending new movie as the first movie was the impetus for my first big sale. I found it so jarringly opposed to love and perception of the brand that I felt almost guilty or embarrassed to have dedicated so much space and time to it. So I began 'Narrowing down my collection' to just what made me happy, my favourite characters from my favourite shows/comic books. I was soon down to two and then one Detolf from a collection of over 600 figures. Since then my main reasons (the ones I voted for) for selling figures have been: Clearing out space/Making room I now live in a small flat and don't have the space for the sort of collection I once had, I limit myself to roughly one Detolf, and that also includes room for my superhero figures. If I find myself spill out out too much I start looking at what's not on display and think about selling it or donating it to charity. Better versions of the same character came along I tend to only display one version of each character/design and as such often sell on the ones I chose not to display, especially if they have been out of there Detolf for a long time. My collecting 'strategy' is very much focused on getting the best representations of the characters/designs I loved from the fiction, so having more than one often seems a little excessive to me.
Mostly so I can buy other figures so my brain can release more dopamine into my body so I can get that 'new toy high' again and again. Also, clutter.
Space for me, ultimately. Heck, I tend to just give 'em away since the hassle of selling usually makes it not worth it. Sure, I can get $40 for that box of figures...but if it takes me six hours to put it all together, list it, and ship it out, then I could have made more money at a minimum wage job. I keep telling my psych friends to do a paper on this. I can provide them with loads of case studies.
Every year I do a "cull" of comics, games, and toys, to make room on the shelf and move things along.
I've sold some figures, but it was mostly stuff I didn't like, and it was to buy something new and awesome. The one thing the figures had in common was me not liking them, but the real motivator was buying something I really wanted. Also, because one figure was an MISB copy of something I already had.
I'm overdue for a purge. I keep hoping to find a nearby show or con I could get a table at. I also have been thinking about starting a trade thread on Junkion but shipping would eat up too much or go outside of my toy budget.
TFC's Poseidon cost over $600 and is massive. So cash and space were a concern. Thankfully it's like pulling off band-aid and I've been able to start narrowing my collection in the process.
I do the same, except sometimes there's some toys of characters I just can't rid of. Those go in a box...to which I can slowly warm up to the idea of getting rid of because I"m no longer enjoying them anyhow.
I went with the popular choices, making room and narrowing the collection, but in truth the main reason I sell figures is to finance the purchase of more figures and to make convention trips more enjoyable. I considered picking the "wanted extra cash" option, but that felt like a more "general purposes" choice, whereas my fundraising is for far more specific and targeted reasoning.
