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When Toy Hunting is Annoying


Wheeljack35

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http://canonball.thefwoosh.com/2010/11/28/when-toy-hunting-is-annoying/

 

found this article and wanted to share....

 

When Toy Hunting is Annoying

 

 

Toy hunting is something I usually enjoy. The weekly ritual of hitting Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us (wash, rinse, repeat) looking for the newest Transformers, Marvel, or DC figures is just a part of my weekly routine. There’s always something to look for, and whatever success I have varies from week to week. Now, these three stores are the usual spots for the average colletor, but those of us in the Pacific North West are also fortunate enough to be surrounded by Fred Meyer stores which are also very fertile hunting grounds. Nine out of ten toys I buy, of those available at retail, come from one of these four stores. But every now and then toys show up in random places that throw my hunting routine all out of whack and push my sanity to the limits.

 

 

This past week two very much sought-after Transformers figures – “Reveal the Shield” Jazz and Tracks – have been showing up early at Walgreens stores. WALGREENS, for crying out loud. This is not a store that should be getting hot new toys first ahead of the big boys. See, there are plenty of Walgreens locations everywhere. Getting to the stores to do the hunting isn’t the problem. The problem is the way Walgreens stocks their figures/toys. Each store doesn’t receive a case of figures like every other store does – the Walgreens distribution centers get the cases, and then break the cases up and send each store what it needs. Walgreens has a one out, one in policy when it comes to stocking and restocking. Meaning if they sell one Transformer, then they get one Transformer to put back on the pegs with their store shipments. Say a new Transformers wave comes in a case of four (four different figures), and a Walgreens has just sold one Transformer and is getting a restock. It could be any of the four figures from that case that will be sent to that store, and there’s no way to know which it will be. Realistically, ONE case could be split among four stores throughout the city, which makes hunting down one or two figures decidedly inconvenient. It’s a royal pain-in-the-ass, is what it is. I managed to find Jazz, but Tracks still eludes me. And I am so sick of going to Walgreens after Walgreens when the odds are definitely not in my favor of finding it. Ugh. It’s taken toy hunting into new realms of depressing hell. Seriously, if you want to feel like you hate yourself in a jiffy, spend an afternoon going from Walgreens to Walgreens. MAKE. IT. STOP.

 

Ross. Yup.

 

Ross stores have also been added to the “route” this past week as well. Some Ross stores have been receiving Transformers Ultra Class figures – Hardhead, Powerglide, and Skyfall – that were Walmart exclusives a year ago. These figures sat around most Walmarts virtually untouched for months, even on clearance. Then a new upgrade set was made for Hardhead by a third party company and suddenly a shelf-warming repaint became a very in-demand figure almost overnight, fetching anywhere from $65 to $100 on ebay. It’s nuts. Then, out of nowhere, someone in California finds a Hardhead at a Ross for $15, and suddenly every Transformers fan is going bananas running from Ross to Ross in search of this very elusive figure as well as the other two. The typical Ross has a toy department no bigger than the average port-a-potty, so they’re not exactly getting a lot of these, if any at all. Most sightings have been for only two of these Ultras at a time, one of which MIGHT be a Hardhead if that store happened to have the luck of the draw. AND, on top of this, Ross isn’t exactly known to restock. They just sell what other stores couldn’t, so if a store received one Hardhead, that could very well be the only Hardhead that store receives, thus making the competition for these fierce between not only collectors, but scalpers who are aware of the sure-fire “cash in” opportunities that accompany such a figure. This is something that will drive even the most dedicated and resilient toy hunter stark freakin’ INSANE. And I was almost to that point.

 

 

On “Grey Saturday” (the day after Black Friday) I rolled the dice and drove to a Ross that is really nowhere near where I live, but still within driving distance. I walked in not expecting to find jack-diddly-squat on this fool’s errand, but what’s the first thing I saw on the shelves? Hardhead. HARDHEAD! It was the only of these Ultra figures in the store and it was just sitting there. On the top shelf. At the front of the store. Where ANYONE could have seen it and snatched it. Needless to say, I practically dove for the thing and bolted to the register and then to my car like Smeagol clutching the precious. MY precious!

 

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes toy hunting can take my beloved hobby and turn it into something I wouldn’t inflict on my worst enemy. The lengths we go through to build our collections as collectors is worthy of serious sociological study, in my opinion, and it’s something I can’t decide is hilarious or depressing. It all depends on the context, I guess, but all I know right now is I’m still hunting down a Tracks, so I’ll be hitting more Walgreens this week. Son of a #@$#@.

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Does this loser want some cheese to go with his whine?

 

Y'know I have no sympathy for someone that chooses to think harder, rather than smarter and who then complains about it.

 

He talks about the lengths and effort he has to go through to build his collection and how hard it is--and how that effort isn't something he'd inflict upon his worst enemy.

 

 

AND YET HE CONTINUES TO DO IT AS IF ITS HIS ONLY OPTION!

 

And its not.

 

Someone want to email the guy and tell him there is such a thing as shopping on-line, such a thing as getting a friend or acquaintance to pick up an item for him??

He gripes about how the hobby isn't as fun......and yet he's not doing anything to change it so it is fun.

 

Doom on him. He's worked hard for his misery--let him have the whole platter.

The amount of time and effort he puts in clearly adds up........so if his reason that he doesn't shop on-line is that it costs too much more......then he's obviously not seeing how much he'd save in terms of aggravation.

 

The greatest boon to my toy collecting hobby came when I starting interacting with people on-line. I was no longer dependant on retail stores, no longer facing limited access to the stuff I wanted, no longer had to run the gauntlet of scalpers or even other collectors. My search area isn't defined by the stores I can hit within my locality, I can shop GLOBALLY if I choose. That and I get the fellowship of other collectors who I trade with

 

Wow.

 

And the hobby is still fun.

 

Its no big secret.

 

Maybe someone should share it with the guy so he can have some fun too.

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Y'know...for me personally, collecting toys became so much more enjoyable when:

 

1. I stopped being a completist and could live with "incomplete" collections, and...

 

2. I accepted the fact that I may never own a given piece, no matter how much I loved or wanted it.

 

Nine times out of ten, worst scenario...whatever I'm looking for will be on eBay. It may cost me five times or more what it originally sold for at retail, but hey...that's the nature of the beast. If I have the money, I'll pay for it, whatever it may be. If I can't afford it, so what. I'll live. (lol) As a matter of fact, I've recently learned to look inward so to speak and enjoy the things I do have instead of worrying about what I don't since times have been tight for me lately. Sometimes I think we as collectors worry so much about that next score that we fail to enjoy our collections as they are. And I'll admit I'm as guilty as anyone else when it comes to that.

 

Having said that, I'm not gonna brow-beat this fella and those like him that are disappointed when they can't find something they're looking for. I know it can be disappointing. I've been there. But personal priorities have changed for me in the last three months, and collecting is no longer the priority it was in my life, and I'm completely fine with that. As a matter of fact, it's almost been theraputic. It's further helped to make me a more laid-back and less-tense collector actually.

 

One more thing to thing to consider...just wait. Or, to quote the great and wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Patience!" If you just wait and don't stress yourself out, stuff will pop up right out of the blue when you least expect it, usually for a great price. Case in point...the focus of my collecting consists of Star Wars items, mainly the Gentle Giant mini-busts. So the other day I logged onto eBay just to fool around and see what I could find. Fortunately I had just gotten paid before Christmas break, therefore I just happened to have a little money to spend. I typed "Star Wars Gentle Giant" into the search box, as I had seemingly thousands of times over the years, and what do I find? A Count Dooku mini-bust, still sealed, never opened, for the "Buy It Now" price of $75.00. I jumped on it. Why? I've been on the lookout for this mini-bust for literally years. I almost never saw it on eBay, and when I did, I almost never saw it go for anything less than $150.00, and half the time it was loose or had been opened.

 

I always felt like it was a great piece to have in my Star Wars collection, one of my personal "holy grails" you might say. To me it was a very cool, stoic, and accurate representation of Christopher Lee as one of my favorite Star Wars villains, but...I was okay without it. I still enjoyed collecting Star Wars stuff, even though there was that "hole" in my collection that so many collectors make reference to and bemoan. So you may have to wait a little while, years even, for that special item you're looking for, but it will happen if you just have a little patience. Just enjoy what you can find and what you do have, and you'll have alot more fun.

 

P.S. I also find it a little comforting to know that there are always gonna be things out there that I want. If I had everything I want, then what would there be left to look forward to as a collector? (lol)

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Gotta agree with DB here.

 

 

The moment one unclenches about collecting, that is when it seems to become not only fun, but a LOT easier.

 

My experience has been that if you want it badly enough, it WILL come to you, and at a price you'll be willing to pay.

 

I mean, just holding such a thought in your mind takes a lot of the angst out of collecting--because at some point you'll get what you want.

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While this individual rants about the often "annoyances" that toy hunting and collecting can inflict upon it's practitioners, they admit to still being in the the game. Unfortunately, some of these "annoyances" have in fact discouraged collectors and driven them out of the hobby.

 

This business of toy collecting is all compulsion driven anyway, so the compulsive rants of a collector don't really bother me much. If "serenity now" works in dealing with the crazy ups and downs of trying to collect toys, I don't see why it isn't put to use in dealing with crazy and frustrated collectors? For sanity sake, I sometimes think it would be better to be interested in collecting something that nobody else wants to, instead of trying to play all the collecting games with hoards of collectors that want them as bad as I do. Low production numbers, scattered availability, scalpers, hoarders, army builders, customizers, online dealers and good citizens buying for their foreign friends or cross state collecting buddies. <_<

 

Lots to be annoyed about, especially for a novice. Sitting in a room, on the computer is a big part of it already, so I think some physical excercise, getting off our lazy asses and actually going to the ol brick and mortar and finding some fun toys to bring home the old fashioned way, is a nice perk to the hobby. I can certainly relate to the headache that this hobby can give at times, but a headache is all it is and nothing to throw oneself off a bridge over. To me, hunting for the actual toys we played with as children is something that requires a lot of hours searching ebay and checking for toy shows and yard sales and having lots of "patience" with it until you come across the hard to find and rare VINTAGE item you seek, that is going to take you back to your childhood. Having to go thru all this for CURRENT brand new toys, just hitting retail, is a big pain in the ass.

 

Out of all the ways one can acquire a new action figure toy these days, for me personally, I would still much rather walk into a toy store and pick it up off the shelves. When I'm 88 and in a wheel chair, and I want Snake Eyes version #210 that just came out, maybe THEN I'll utilize the social networking and online advantages a little more, but I still enjoy the thrill of hunting and finding these things for myself and locally.

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Is that guy serious? THEN JUST DONT GO TO WALGREENS!!!

 

Why? Cause guess what I just saw at Target yesterday? Yep, reveal the shield Jazz, Traxx and the newer Tomahawk, Blur, etc... I'm betting money he wants some of those rare figures to turn around and make a profit. Why else would he be complaining and then acting like Gollum(not smeagol.. this guy def is Gollum), when he found the "rare" transformer? If he was such a devoted collector, he would have bought it when it was marked down and clogging the shelves in Walmart... heck, there's even a couple of WMs here that STILL HAVE THEM, and they still have those damn RotF repaint seeker exclusives, lol.

 

This guy needs to stop taking his collecting so serious, and post something that really gets annoying, like fat sweaty guys pushing your son over to get to the new DC figures, or the sneaky re-packer that returns old/customized/dollar store figures in new packages(I mean, does a vintage Roadblock really look like the card art of Movie Scarlett???)... and now the new scan and print UPC returners that are returning old stock that they've been sitting on with new UPCs stickered on the back... Those are things that get collecting annoying.

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Another example...about two weeks ago I was at a local Target store, and my wife and I were doing a little Christmas shopping for our nieces and nephews. I had recently sold a couple of things on eBay, so I had a little to spend. I wandered over to the action figure aisle, and I see this guy carrying the Target exclusive TIE-Fighter in the ultra-cool vintage-style "Empire" packaging. Like I said before, I'm a big-time Star Wars collector, and since this year is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, I'm all about anything Empire related right now. But I just knew I'd never find any of the store exclusives. I just don't have time for hunting anymore. I did find the TRU exclusive AT-AT in the vintage-style box awhile back by accident, but there's no way I could afford it at the time. I just looked at it lovingly with great memories running through my head, and I walked away. Now the TIE-Fighter and Snowspeeder are more in my price range, however, but like I said I was just certain and had accepted the fact that I'd never see them at retail. So I see this guy clutching the TIE-Fighter and rambling on his cell-phone, and I immediately start looking on the shelves, and much to my suprise, I actually find one lone Snowspeeder. Yes!! I snapped it up. After looking around with my wife for awhile, I stopped by the toy section again, and there I find not one but two TIE-Fighters! What?! Later I saw the guy that had one of them was empty-handed; for some reason he had put the one he had back. So I grabbed one, so excited that not only did I find two store exclusives, but I also found them in mint packaging; I would have considered myself lucky if they weren't mint, so I was beyond thrilled. When I got them home, I couldn't stop looking at the retro packaging. The graphics just mesmerized me, bringing back so many fond memories of playing with the vintage stuff as a kid.

 

My point is, I find that when I happen upon stuff by accident like that, it's so much more fun and rewarding than stressing myself out looking all over creation high and low trying in vain to find stuff that I just "have to have". I would have been just fine and content with my current collection without these items, but I lucked out and got them, purely by chance. And yes, I'll admit I'm as pleased as I can be that I have these. I won't lie. But life would have gone on just fine had I not found them.

 

I think the main secret to my own personal collecting happiness is the fact that I have things that are representative of a larger collection. Does that make sense? For example, another line that I like to collect but I'm not so serious about is the Transformers Encore collection, along with some assorted re-issues. (Do you get the sense that I'm a retro/sentimental kinda guy by now?) (lol) Anyway, I only have the Encore Optimus Prime, Hoist, Skids, Jazz, and I have the Japanese re-issue Tracks, Kup, and Stepper. There are many, many more of these I'd love to have of course, but hey...I still think it's cool that I have even a few old-school Transformers sittin' around that remind me of coming home after school back in the day to watch the cartoon and play Transformers with my little brother. To me, it's more fun and feasable (not to mention space-saving) to just have a few key pieces of what could be a much larger collection. I think you just need to decide what you absolutely must have and eliminate what you can live without, 'cause if you're like me, unless you win the lottery, or a wealthy relative (God forbid) passes away and leaves you a fortune, you're never gonna own everything you'd like to have out there.

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I'm a lot like you DB. I used to be one of those "MUST COLLECT EVERYTHING" type of guys. Even if it meant I was having a hard time paying the bills.. as long as I could afford the figures "at that time", it was all good.

 

Till I moved. It really opened up my eyes. I saw how much crap I had, I literally had 22 Darth Vader figures.. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Was I that naive? Yes, lol... anyway, when we started moving, I put almost all my collecting on hold. I would get a small thing here and there, but while doing this. I was looking back to my colelcting habbits, and I didn't really have a place to set everything up, so I'd usually buy it, open it, look at it, then box it away.. then sometimes I wouldn't even open it up. With all the sites out there, posting pics of figures in advance or doing reviews on the figures, by the time they hit retail, I was already ready for the next wave or two down the line. So, seeing how I wasn't going to display it, I'd get it and just box it away.

 

Looking this over, I decided to just cut back and I noticed just looking at the stuff on the internet was enough for me. I mean, if I see a nice detailed picture and breakdown of a figure, and then also see a nice collection shot of someone else's collection, that had the room to display it all, I was good. So I started selling off a lot of the stuff I knew I was never going to have the room in that "dream SW room" I was thinking I'd have... I mean really, the amount of stuff I had I would have needed a dream SW HOUSE!

 

Doing this, I've seen there are more important things to spend my money on. Then the last couple of years, we've had a buttload of health problems, and with health problems come health bills.. so that too woke me up and made me realize there was something else out there besides action figures... I still do get one here and there, and mostly the stuff I get is to customize, and don't get me wrong, I still love the thrill of the hunt. I'm part of a local SW collecting group, with about 15 members, and someone's always looking for something. There have been times where I've gone out, hit about 10 or so stores, bought a ton of stuff, and none of it was for me... My son also loves transformers, so we're always going out, hitting stores so he can see the next new figure that's out. But I think he's becoming like me.. he's content with seeing them in the store, and then going online and seeing them upclose, watching youtube videos on how to transform them, so when he does get a transformer, it's a little easier for him(especially some of those complicated movie ones).

 

I recently bought myself a nice large shelf so I could display the stuff I wanted to keep. My intentions are to get another one, and then attempt to fit everything I want to keep on those, and then sell the rest. It'll be hard, especially widdling it down.. but to be honest, if it's been sitting in a box for over 10 years. I'm really not going to miss it, lol.

 

Oh, and DB... Sam's Club is rumored to have the AT-AT for $50, it's not the vintage one, but hey... maybe you can trade it for one down the road... wink.gif

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I have never been a must have evrything from the line person .The only thing close to anything like that was in 2005 when Revenge of the Sith came out I had to have two of every figure one in package the other open But I gave that up and sold the moc figures

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When the ARAH line came out in the early 80's I was 23 already and had my childhood years with the 12" Joes. I started collecting these little guys on a whim just out of sheer facination with them and all the characters that were coming out for them.

 

Collecting back THEN was much more laid back and easy going. No rush, no outrageous prices and everything I ever bought was purchased at the brick and mortars and I knew I always had TWO FULL YEARS PLUS to complete a wave and pick up mulitiples of the Cobra guys. Before a new wave would come out, they'd mark down any figure from the previous 2 years, trying to get ALL the wave from 2 years ago out completely and then the new wave would mingle for another year or so with the one before it.

 

Going from THAT experience, to how things HAVE to be done today, is certainly an "annoyance" and one that I can relate to. I don't know how serious the author of the article is and if he's just ranting to be ranting and have an article to share to begin with, so I don't know if it's just another collector thinking out loud and expressing some htoughts o nthe hobby and something we've ALL probably thought about or have done before. I just know when I was reading it, I could certainly relate to some of the situations brought up and no big deal. The funny thing with TOY collecting, is that if it can be said that there are better things to worry about and complain about than something like the "annoyance" of toy collecting, same could be said for collecting TOYS period, even if you're not complaing, but just collecting. To each their own I guess.

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haha that was hilarious....just goes to show how some people never get to know their hobby and what works and what doesnt.

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http://cgi.ebay.com/TURBO-TRACKS-Transformers-Reveal-Shield-Figure-2010-/130461638769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e601ea071

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/TRANSFORMERS-TURBO-TRACKS-REVEAL-SHEILD-MOSC-NEW-/290506937820

 

http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Reveal-Shield-Deluxe-Class/dp/B0045WKBHQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1293055723&sr=1-1

 

Here's a good one...

 

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/SearchResults.htm?SWD=turbo+tracks&CDT=1293055966

 

OH SNAP!! OUT OF STOCK

 

http://www.toywiz.com/turbotracksdeluxe.html

 

or even...

 

http://www.target.com/Transformers-Reveal-Shield-Deluxe-Class/dp/B0045WKBHQ

 

OH SNAP!! OUT OF STOCK

 

 

So what does this thing normally go for, if so lucky as to pull one off the pegs at a brick and mortar...$9.00? @hmmm@

 

So what's the beef with the guys beef?

 

Is it all part of the hobby now, to have something that others don't? It's another expression of having the biggest d!ck in the action figure collecting world, to have something others could not find? Others could not afford? Others weren't "special" enough to get? Others weren't smart enough to get?

 

It's definitely a major pain-in-the-ass sometimes to try and find these toys. Of course, if we have an excessive disposable income and PRICE is of no matter, that's just another inch to our penis size when bragging. If we have "friends" that can do the hunting for us, I suppose that's a nod to our extra penis size in how we're able to manipulate people in order to get what we want without the effort of actually hunting for it. Hunting isn't as enjoyable as HAVING for some folks.

 

My collection is HUGE and my investment is HUGE and my time spent hunting is SMALL, thus I'm the best collector is the WORLD!!!! 1ataunt2.gif

 

C'mon now peoples. This collecting thing can most definitely be a major pain. It's like being a NFL fan, loving professional football and being a Cleveland Browns fan. Talk about FRUSTRATING!! ^_^ So what's the suggestion for something like that...start liking another team that WINS?? Yeah, suuuuure...so simple, why didn't I think of it. B!tchin' and complain'n isn't exclusive to toy collecting and isn't necessarily a detriment to our enjoyment of it.

 

Whether it's a hobby, a career or a relationship.....something isn't going to go as we'd LIKE and a minor or major complaint is going to arise. It's all natural and all good, and all totally commonplace. Even the ANTI-complaint crusade is just another complaint about complainers, so who's foolin who here? ;)

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So what does this thing normally go for, if so lucky as to pull one off the pegs at a brick and mortar...$9.00? soupson.gif

 

So what's the beef with the guys beef?

 

Is it all part of the hobby now, to have something that others don't? It's another expression of having the biggest d!ck in the action figure collecting world, to have something others could not find? Others could not afford? Others weren't "special" enough to get? Others weren't smart enough to get?

 

It's definitely a major pain-in-the-ass sometimes to try and find these toys. Of course, if we have an excessive disposable income and PRICE is of no matter, that's just another inch to our penis size when bragging. If we have "friends" that can do the hunting for us, I suppose that's a nod to our extra penis size in how we're able to manipulate people in order to get what we want without the effort of actually hunting for it. Hunting isn't as enjoyable as HAVING for some folks.

 

My collection is HUGE and my investment is HUGE and my time spent hunting is SMALL, thus I'm the best collector is the WORLD!!!! 1ataunt2.gif

 

C'mon now peoples. This collecting thing can most definitely be a major pain. It's like being a NFL fan, loving professional football and being a Cleveland Browns fan. Talk about FRUSTRATING!! happy.gif So what's the suggestion for something like that...start liking another team that WINS?? Yeah, suuuuure...so simple, why didn't I think of it. B!tchin' and complain'n isn't exclusive to toy collecting and isn't necessarily a detriment to our enjoyment of it.

 

Whether it's a hobby, a career or a relationship.....something isn't going to go as we'd LIKE and a minor or major complaint is going to arise. It's all natural and all good, and all totally commonplace. Even the ANTI-complaint crusade is just another complaint about complainers, so who's foolin who here? wink.gif

 

I think that's the main thing.. probably has something to do with him having a blog and posting to his millions of fans(prob more like 12) that he got them too.

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I think such rants are the same as our hobby in general.....very compulsive and irrational sometimes. ^_^

 

Just some guy firing off thoughts off the top of his head. When it's all said and done, he still loves the hobby and his Transformer toy collection.

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I'm a lot like you DB. I used to be one of those "MUST COLLECT EVERYTHING" type of guys. Even if it meant I was having a hard time paying the bills.. as long as I could afford the figures "at that time", it was all good.

 

Till I moved. It really opened up my eyes. I saw how much crap I had, I literally had 22 Darth Vader figures.. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Was I that naive? Yes, lol... anyway, when we started moving, I put almost all my collecting on hold. I would get a small thing here and there, but while doing this. I was looking back to my colelcting habbits, and I didn't really have a place to set everything up, so I'd usually buy it, open it, look at it, then box it away.. then sometimes I wouldn't even open it up. With all the sites out there, posting pics of figures in advance or doing reviews on the figures, by the time they hit retail, I was already ready for the next wave or two down the line. So, seeing how I wasn't going to display it, I'd get it and just box it away.

 

Looking this over, I decided to just cut back and I noticed just looking at the stuff on the internet was enough for me. I mean, if I see a nice detailed picture and breakdown of a figure, and then also see a nice collection shot of someone else's collection, that had the room to display it all, I was good. So I started selling off a lot of the stuff I knew I was never going to have the room in that "dream SW room" I was thinking I'd have... I mean really, the amount of stuff I had I would have needed a dream SW HOUSE!

 

Doing this, I've seen there are more important things to spend my money on. Then the last couple of years, we've had a buttload of health problems, and with health problems come health bills.. so that too woke me up and made me realize there was something else out there besides action figures... I still do get one here and there, and mostly the stuff I get is to customize, and don't get me wrong, I still love the thrill of the hunt. I'm part of a local SW collecting group, with about 15 members, and someone's always looking for something. There have been times where I've gone out, hit about 10 or so stores, bought a ton of stuff, and none of it was for me... My son also loves transformers, so we're always going out, hitting stores so he can see the next new figure that's out. But I think he's becoming like me.. he's content with seeing them in the store, and then going online and seeing them upclose, watching youtube videos on how to transform them, so when he does get a transformer, it's a little easier for him(especially some of those complicated movie ones).

 

I recently bought myself a nice large shelf so I could display the stuff I wanted to keep. My intentions are to get another one, and then attempt to fit everything I want to keep on those, and then sell the rest. It'll be hard, especially widdling it down.. but to be honest, if it's been sitting in a box for over 10 years. I'm really not going to miss it, lol.

 

Oh, and DB... Sam's Club is rumored to have the AT-AT for $50, it's not the vintage one, but hey... maybe you can trade it for one down the road... wink.gif

 

Gah!! Fifty bucks?! I've already spent what limited disposeable income I have for collecting this time of year, so...I guess I have to practice some of that patience I was talking about. (lol)

 

Joe...from what I've gathered about what you've said, we could have been brothers my friend. (lol) However, no matter how many Star Wars figures I have bought over the years, I have yet to sell the first one. I've never realized that until just now, and perhaps it's no coincidence that my toy collecting as an adult began with Star Wars figures. Huh. That's interesting...

 

And speaking of health issues, perhaps you've talked about it before here on the boards Joe and I've just forgotten, but I do hope everything's okay now.

 

Also, you mentioned other people's collections online...the best collections I've seen and the ones that have inspired me the most have been the minimalist ones, or the ones that have the least items on display. It just looks great and you can clearly see each item showcased. My eyes cross whenever I see for example the Transformers collections where it just looks like one big jumbled mess and there are so many figures the eye doesn't know where to focus. Ugh. I mean, I can appreciate those that are fortunate enough to afford such collections, it can be impressive, but...it can also be overwhelming. There have been times in the past where I have looked at the boxes and boxes of stuff I've had stored away, and I've thought to myself, "What is all this crap?!" (lol) Or I've wondered, more importantly, "What am I gonna do with all this stuff?" My collection hit a peak about four years ago, and I sold a bunch of it. There are a couple of sub-collections I've really regretted selling, but I guess if you collect long enough, that kind of thing happens, and hopefully you grow and learn. I was robbing Peter to pay Paul so to speak, selling one collection off to fund another, but I've learned over the years that I've always bought something for a reason, and I should never sell it in order to buy something else, because nine times out of ten I've always ended-up regretting it.

 

The key is to distill what you love down to a few key characters, themes, or individual pieces, and don't sell anything...ever, unless it's just an absolute emergency or something.

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