...when you are cleaning or reorganizing or something, take a mental inventory of all the stuff you have accumulated in a given amount of time... ...and completely feel overwhelmed and disconnected from it all? the other day on my top shelf photostory, i posted some hideous photos of the mess in our bonus room. today i really beared down and started cleaning up this stuff. i've been moving shelves, finishing the installation of lights, deciding what will go where. and now that i am getting close to done i am feeling burnt out, broke, and overwhelmed by too much what is it in me that keeps me buying this stuff when i am going to look at it in a few months and not feel good about it? it was like this before toys came back into the picture, and it probably will be if they ever go away.
man, I can relate. indulgence in material things is ultimately disillusioning. just remember that life is short and nothing really matters as much as you think it does.
I think it's normal. Regardless of pinpointing it on toys...I just think in general there are moments when everybody thinks..."what I am doing." I think that with this hobby it's very easy to buy items that you don't end up wanting in the long run. It's very hard to gain perspective on pieces when you can't look at them directly and have to order them over the internet. It'd be much different if everything was accessible and you can get a feel for it...but I know when I started I had no concept of what the newer sculpts were about. I didn't know how big or small or the texture etc. Some of them I haven't been fond of but others..I love. My heart belongs to the vintage stuff but I find that most of my collection has ended up being items that are new or recent.
That happens a lot to me. Whether its my kaiju, tiki mugs, book collection, vinyl records, car etc. I think why do I need this crap, I could live without it, I rather just be on a hammock by a beach with clear blue water eating fresh fruit and lobster everyday with enough cash to just do nothing. "There is some dignity about an acquirement, because it is a product of your own labor. It is wages earned, whereas to be able to do a thing merely by the grace of God and not by your own effort transfers the distinction to our heavenly home--where possibly it is a matter of pride and satisfaction but it leaves you naked and bankrupt." - Mark Twain's Autobiography I guess its just how you look at stuff at times. Then I will have a day where I really like my stuff and wonder how I would ever live without it.
You only need to make changes when your collection/hobby starts to blur your real life essentials. When you literally have no food to eat, no money for your basic needs etc. Otherwise you're ok. As long as your wife is cool with it and you're not selling the TV/ household goods for toys your not quite needing help yet. Good thing about this hobby is that you can recoup money when you decide you really need to focus. I've been quite lucky. When I look at my collection I don't ever see any impulse buys and have only sold 3 items since I got into it and only then to get things I considered super hard to find. Loaf you getting pre zag release jitters? C.
haha no - no one has even contacted me about the zag contest. i'm waiting for the "i'm sorry, but there seems to have been a mistake" email
I can also relate. The apathy toward the items you had slaved over to find and attain sucks the worst. When I get like that I try to have a "cleaning house sale", especially with the toys or posters/prints that had never seen the light of day, but then I just end up buying more and the vicious cycle continues. I have gotten alot better lately because home ownership has its own unique financial challenges.
no, i just figured i would hear something i realized my email address wasn't on my return address sheets inside the package, but my messageboard name is.
What I do in these situations is trim or rearrange the collection. The problem is, after we buy something new, there's a kind of psychological attachment made, as if we have to hold onto it for some reason. (Maybe some ancient food hoarding wiring in our hippocampus at work!) But then, as you say, we keep buying and buying, or we leave something on a shelf and don't look at it for days or weeks. So each new purchase becomes less special. Sometimes, there's habitual "auto buying" involved with collecting, which can lessen our apprecation of what we have...because we think, "Hey, I have to be completist on this or that" so acquiring a piece becomes the goal in and of itself. When that happens too much, the act of collecting directs you more than you direct your collecting. (if that makes any sense!) So what I do once in a while is look at the collection and force myself to trim it. Sometimes I hold up two similar figures and decide which to keep. (Though sometimes I'm vetoed by my girlfriend, and both figures stay. ) Anyway I find that creating more open space and a less crowded collection helps a lot. Backing off for a few days also helps - again forcing yourself not to buy. Or maybe try rearranging the display. Then you'll probably also find inspiration for a new photo story.
oh, i've been doing that and trying to work out the details of a photo story that would have 2 bemons playing at the park and eating ice cream. i have no idea why
this happened to me a bit recently. I went out and bought a bunch of acrylic from TAP plastics to build this kick ass display for my RxH minis. When filled, it will hold 70 of these little fuckers. I filled it up and have almost 50 in there, but for some reason, it doesn't look as cool as I thought it would. I think all the black from the 8 piece Chaos set and the TT sets are throwing off the whole thing. oh well, just gonna have to paint them all...... muuuuuuwwwwwaaaaahhhhhhhhaaaaa
i get these feelings to sell off a bunch of stuff... then i go to my collection to pick out what i want to weed out & alot of times i can't get myself to part with anything
I have a 4 detolf limit to the amount of toys I should have - this has been thrown off recently by some larger figure purchases such as Rangeas (6 cleanly to a shelf) and Dempagon (2 cleanly)and need to rethink maybe a 4 1/2 detolf limit for switching out key pieces - this also allows for me to trim down to the figures that trully stand out for me and what may have beeen impulse buying (seeing an item on-line but not having the ability to hold it in hand to really see (in case) if it will fit in, or just not feeling the figure fitting in to the environment once in display I am just thankful that I am not into collecting sports/trading cards
Nothing puts your collection into perspective like having to box it up when you move. When I saw the pile of boxes and tubs housing my collection, it gave me pause to say the least. As I've been forced to cut back for both space and monetary reasons, I think it makes each purchase a little more meaningful, rather than just 'another for the pile.' Sometimes less is more. But it is hard to hold back.
Having the same sort of disposition on things right now. I had made a neat little pile of the things I was going to list for sale, and then couldn't bring myself to sell them. I knew I'd regret it. I'd regret it even though they're extraordinarily expensive little toys that I never should have bought in the first place. I could have used that money to paint my house (needs it!) or to buy the new bedroom set my wife has been wanting, or even just to put into savings for our nest egg (ain't getting any younger). But I didn't. Why? Instant gratification, maybe. But really, all the things that make life worth living are just a series of satisfying moments. Where will my toys be in 20 years? Maybe on a shelf in my office, maybe in a box in my attic, maybe in a landfill somewhere. Maybe I'll be dead and it won't matter. Either way, whether it's collecting toys, playing music, riding (or repairing!) my scooters or just pulling out the sketch pad, we've all got to have something to keep us entertained in the meantime. I figure, if it weren't toys, it'd just be something else. Could I spend my money on something more relevant, something more meaningful? If toy collecting makes me happy here and now, it is relevant and meaningful. Hell, like I said... if it weren't toys it'd just be something else. And someday it will be. But as long as I enjoy collecting, displaying, cataloging and, oh yes, playing with toys, that's what we'll do. I always pay my bills and tuck a bit into savings with each paycheck so I don't end up homeless and toothless when I'm old and feeble; should I be lucky enough to live that long. I figure the rest is gravy. Long story short, I kept the toys I was gonna sell.
Damn, we all just missed out on some sweet stuff at killer prices maybe you should just sell the toys paulie
The only major sell off I had was for a real reason. Sometimes I just don't like something as much as I thought I would in person (I don't have a store to go and look at these things and they can have a different effect in person) or because something I wanted CRITICALLY came along and I couldn't swing it out of pocket so I'll sell. But to lose feeling for it overall? Nope. But the feeling to drop out, lose it all, no. Since it's not my life, and I don't allow it to consume my life, I've never felt that way. It's all just fun, and so I don't care to lose that. My wife says it's one thing that keeps me 7 years old at heart and would hate to see it die.
I admire people that are able to significantly prune their collections and sell off things. Or are able to keep their collections limited to a finite space. Mine has spilled into several rooms and is out of control. Do I feel overwhelmed by it? Occasionally. Sometimes I feel that my collection owns me versus my owning it. I'm also not looking forward to my next move and what that will entail. Yet, there's really nothing that I feel I can part with. Some days, I have thoughts of just selling it all off and what that would feel like. Liberating to a degree. But then I come around and continue to appreciate things in a much greater way. I mean, at least it's not a basement or two car garage filled with junk that I never use or care to look at.
I've struggled with these feelings of letting go before. My collection was never "huge", but one day I looked at how much money I spent on all this stuff in the past year, and it really was an eye-opener. I ended up selling 75% of the stuff I owned in vinyl toys. Now I only collect one toy line and just a particular sculpt from another. Itokin Park a little, but I'm limiting myself to one colorway per sculpt and I don't feel like I NEED to follow it closely. I'll sell/trade if I see something I'd rather have. I pass up a lot of other stuff I like just to stay within the limits I've set for myself. I'm looking to move soon so pretty-much everything is packed up. When you don't see it everyday, it can make you think "would I miss this stuff?", but I know the answer is "yes" whenever I need to open up a box for a peek or to add a new figure. If I feel that I'm getting carried away, I'll just stay away for a while until I get that balance back. if it didn't cost so much money, I wouldn't even think twice about it. it would be 100% more fun.
