How has your collecting developed?

Thinking about two recent threads on rare figures from childhood and affording the good stuff, for those of you new and well established in collecting, how did your collecting start and develop over the years as you became more experienced (and possibly poorer!!) How did you choose your focus...if you have one?

Yeah interesting topic for discussion Gaz.

I started collecting with the aim to get one example of every figure. I got to around 40 or so and lost interest. I had mainly Kenner cards but decided to go down the dark path of Palitoy MOC collecting.

I was initally going for the 12/20 backs then again got bored as I couldnt get a Luke or Chewy.
I have always prefered the ESB logo and more recently I have realised that I will never get all the palitoy esb mocs that I want to find,due to rarity and silly,daft prices. £1000 for a moc really limits the amount of purchases I can make. Thats why Im a little more relaxed now and let a few go to fund a new focus Kenner ESB 48 bk revenge offer moc's........probably wont be long before I get bored with this also.

Ill probably sort under the category "new"

When I was a kid, my older brother always tried to convert me into being a Star Wars fan in between his attempts to flush me down the toilet and him wrecking all my posession with his alter ego "The Black Cape".
I remember I used to think his Kenner figures were boring compared to my GI Joes and therefor the Kenners always played the bad guys. I think I must have been around 12 when the Star Wars interest really kicked in. In the early->mid 90s Star Wars Figures virtually had no fanbase in Norway, or at least not in the parts Im from, so collecting was really easy when it came to loose figures.
I would collect everything aslong as it had stamped, printed or written Star Wars on it.

The vintage figures and vehicles made up the majority of my collection and I recently found a picture of them all lined up.

Over the years up to about 17 I kept records of all my collectibles and had quite a massive collection of figures, cards, vehicles, lots of vintage comics, Ralph McQuarrie stuff etc. But around 2000ish, I for some reason lost interest as fast cars, beer, girls etc started to play an increasingly important part of my life. So.... I sold most of my collection, a decision I to this day regret and probably will regret for the rest of my life. I kept some small items out of nostalgia, like Yak Face (I already back then knew was rare/rareish), Wicket and a few others.

The years since, until last year, Ive always kept searching for Vintage Star Wars stuff, without buying, because I enjoyed doing research and seeing whats out there.

Then last year I decided to finally start Trooping, so I got a hold of an SDS suit and upgraded/modified it in a few months, got approved as TK3930 by the 501st and met up with other Star Wars fans in the region. Paid a visit to one fellow Trooper and voila! I just had to start collecting again.

Started of with some purchases here on the forum, and when the first ones arrived there was no way back!

At the moment Im pretty happy collecting cheap common vintage stuff, but Im sure Ill develop into a collector of rarer stuff.
Im trying to take it slow and enjoy collecting rather than rushing into it and loose interest.

Well, haha, turned more into a story about how I got here rather than development.

Great thread.

My collecting started one pissed up night about 5-6 years ago where me and my brother bought our first 'vintage toy' on ebay.
It was Kup, a Transformer we had as a kid.

This lead me onto furiously buying all manner of toys we had as kids.

A few months later this lead onto me concentrating on Star Wars.

Loose run first with some carded
Foreign variants
Boxed vehicles and playsets
Then specialised runs, Glasslite, Ledy, Takara, Palitoy

Then Lego started to work it's evil ways back in and the bug hit.

Then the biggest hiccup to my toy collection - costumes and movie props.

I still have a large collection of toys in my loft but my passion now is movie props and memrobillia.

I'm finding now that I'm selling off some of my vintage to fund other areas which is fine as I think your collecting bug changes over time.
I really can't see me ever selling off my original loose figure run.
I am selling off variants and some of the more expensive figures like last 17 and Ledy etc
But thise other original figures I think will be with me a long time....

Around 1992 I sold all my Silver age Marvel comics and a boatload of golden age comics (Used all the cash to start the vintage collecting). No focus just bought anything and everything vintage. Today I have slowed a bit, as I am running out of room.

I started in the very early 90's hitting carboot sales. Had no real focus other than to get stuff I didn;t have as a kid and as much as possible of things I really liked such as stormtroopers, AT ATs etc.

I knew nothing more than what i knew as a kid in the 80's. I only had 5 last 17 and new nothing of the other 12. I thought the only figures I was missing were Han trenchcoat and B-wing pilot. A few CB sales and I started to see quite a few that I never knew existed which was pretty cool. I got theones I could (Yak, Amanaman, Lando, Luke stormtrooper) and just bought as much as i could as it was all so cheap.

by about 94 it has pretty much dried up as collecting had become popular and prices were going sky high. I pretty much stopped as I knew nothing about shows ot collectors shops and there was no internet!. End of 94 I got the Swansweet book which showed me everything that was available, all the figures, and all the vehicles playsets, especially the ones we never got here!! I really wanted a lot of the items I saw in there but figured I could never justify the prices or had a clue how I'd go about getting one (The remaining figures or R/C sandcrawler for example)

Late 90's i found my first collectors shop and started collecting again and braved my first expensive purchase of two of the last 17 for £25 each

Then by 99 I went to my first show saw just how much was there and decided to really go for it. My initial focus was every figure, vehicle and playset (UK and US versions) I'd manage this by 2000 I think, and upped it to boxed vehicles/playsets and key variations of VC jawa and Blue Snag.

Then the first biggest mistake, I bought my first carded figure!! Focused on getting every figure on their film related cardback, though decided on the last 17 on trilogo... not sure why, think it was because I didn't like the POTF packaging. I had no idea about the difficulty of some of them so it certainly wasn't because of that. Good choice though!!

I did say to one dealer at a show, quite early on that I would like the first 12 on Palitoy as that is how I would have had them as a kid. He told me, as did several others, that it was impossible and that the cost would be ridiculous. I sort of excepted it and completed the set on Kenner, right the way through to the last 17.

The following year (2002) I completed the set of the first 20 on Palitoy!! 8) :lol:

That changed my focus on to getting every figure on a palitoy film related card and that's what I set about doing. Once I finished that in 2003, I decided to complete the Kenner set properly and completed the POTF set. Then I slowly become tempted to get every figure on its debut card. I did that by 2004, with the exception of a Dengar on 41 back...which I'm still waiting to get!! :?

Focus is now pretty much Palitoy. In addition to the debut set I focused on certain cards, such as the 45 (a.b &c ) sets to try and complete them. Also a few character focus runs and I also set myself the challenge of having the first set of 30 backs on 30a and b.

I branched out in Palitoy 12" dolls (of which there are only 2!! Though started going for a complete sets of Dolls anyway) Diecast guns, boardgames. Also started picking up trilogo miscards. Have sold off virtually all my Kenner MOC and most vehicles playsets except for the ones that are different to the Palitoy version.

Palitoy has been the only goal I've stuck with when completed. I may focus on other things in the future but I don't think my Palitoy collection will lose its appeal unlike other pieces I have had. But I guess we'll just have to see!!

Gary, you are an ancient collector like myself. I started before Ebay. This is when all you had was Toyshop magazine, collectors toy shows and comic book shops. It has all changed now and I always wonder if it has changed for the better.

I certianly wish I knew back then what I know now!!

It's a very different hobby now for me. What's strange is that I don;t just have nostalgia for when I was a kid, I have nostalgia for when I was first collecting from the early carboots in 92 and the early days at collectors shows.

Not sur if its the hobby that's changed or me? I do miss the thrill of picking up loose figures and wanting to buy a load. Or seeing my first Blue snag or VC jawa in the flesh. Those days were awesome.

Now it's lost a lot of it novelty. It's all about the biggest, the most expensive, the rarest. Who conned who

Just found these pics the other day, they pretty much show how the collecting started, from toys I found in the attic to persuading my neighbor to sell me his G.I.Joes, and eventually I found a lot of vintage star wars in a shop called Dreamlands, needless to say, I bought them all
These pics spanned over a period of 6 months I guess, 1998/99...
I was 19 at the time, and sadly all of my vintage star wars I had as a kid were either buried somewhere in a sandbox, given away, blown up, traded or just plain lost over the years, however I gave my cousin my Wicket figure back in 1989, and she still has it
Oh, sorry about the poor quality pics...something happened with my scanner...

A nice idea for a thread Gary.

Well I acually started collecting Vintage in about 1998 by collecting loose figures. My mum is an antiques dealer and so she started me down the dark path quite young (about 14 or 15) We used to go to a shop in shepperton called the Toy Box. The owner used to sit in his shop all day smoking and the place stank. I always used to take the figures I bought home and wash them in warm soapy water with a toothbrush to get rid of the dirt and smell.

I got most of the first 79 figures from this shop. The owner also gave me a poster with all the figures pictured on it. This then stirred me on to get some of the rarer last 17. He hardly ever had any of these in the shop and so I soon started going to Toy Fairs and Sci Fi fairs. In particular the fairs at Cheshunt were where I remember it being at. They had loads of stuff at these fairs. Not like now at memorabilia. There were lots more vintage dealers and some amazing stuff. I was just a teenager and so spent birthday money and pocket many but by the year 2000 I had pretty much a full run of loose figures. I also had a boxed Tri Logo Endor Forest Ranger, two boxed mini rigs a rebel troop transported, imperial troop transporter and my first carded figure ......... a Tri Logo Prune Face. Man I used to love that guy. He stayed blue tacked to my wall for years.

(Ive attached a pic of my collection from many years back. Around 1999 I think.)

I took a break from collecting while I went to uni and didnt return to it until around 2006 when I had a bit more dispsable income and decided to upgrade my loose collection. I did that then got into carded figures. First on ebay and then at the start of 2010 I joined here.

I decided to try to put together a run of all figures on their offerless Kenner debut film cards. I did really well on the run getting to around 75 figures (some of the ESB ones are really tough) and decided I was running out of space and wanted to streamline the collection.

I already has the Green Droids three pack and had recently acquired the White Engineering Test Pilot (my avatar) and so I decided to go down the route of three packs. Opportunities came up which I couldnt refuse (I knew they would never come up again) and I sold all of my carded run, all of my loose figures and all of my boxed bits to buy the bits you see now in my focus.

Since then Ive never looked back. It does amaze me to think where it all started from with loose figures at the smokey shop to now collecting three packs and preproduction but thats the thing about this hobby. It really does suck you in!

Ive included pics of how it has changed.

First Pic - 1999 roughly
Third Pic - Three pack Collection - Late 2011

I guess I started collecting in about 2005. My girlfriend bought me a modern carded yoda for Xmas which prompted me to dig out my original star wars toys, the first 12 figures and landspeeder. All the weapons were still there apart from Leia's gun so I started with the gun as my first purchase. Then I moved onto the next 8 figures which I never had as a kid.

Went onto all the playsets and ships I never had as a kid after that and got my first MOC purchase which was a 12 back Palitoy Vader my girlfriend spotted in a shop in London.

Decided to go for the first 12 palitoy MOC followed by the next 8 palitoy MOC. Decided I was miles behind Gary and didn't want to be bidding on the same auctions, so decided to go for every palitoy cardback I could find which lead me to pick up loads of other figures etc.

Also started an AFA 90 Palitoy ROTJ moc focus round this time so I could get more MOCs.

Started branching out into foreign cardbacks once the palitoy cardbacks became more difficult to find.

Once the AFA 90 's got tricky I started a 2-1b focus.

Haven't added any new focus since. Still don't have the last 17 yet, so maybe that's next!

Jason

I still had all my figures from childhood, when I was around 16 I was going to sell them but my mom went nuts and told me not to, thanks mom!

I kept them in a box in the loft and when I went to college in the early 90's I discovered a stall in Walsall that were selling mint figures, so I picked up a few then which still have now. After another bout of storage and a decade later my dad decided to clean the loft out early last year.

I popped up to visit him and all the ships (almost complete falcon, complete AT-AT ETC) and figures were in the corner of the room. I packed them up and brought back home to London, this reignited the collector in me and niw have a cracking little collection which is happily taking over my front room. Luckily my housemate loves star wars too so he's not bothered by the volume of stuff. Though occasionally I come home and find the ewoks have been rearranged into bumming parties etc..

So glad my mom never made me sell them!,

Caswellbot said:

In particular the fairs at Cheshunt were where I remember it being at. They had loads of stuff at these fairs. Not like now at memorabilia. There were lots more vintage dealers and some amazing stuff. I was just a teenager and so spent birthday money and pocket many but by the year 2000 I had pretty much a full run of loose figures.

Click to expand...

Cheshunt was my first fair. It was November 99 and I thought I'd died and gone to Star Wars heaven. Never thought I'd see anything like that and in all honesty i don't any show since has compared to that first one. I don't think I bought much as my then girlfriend was with me and she was a bit discouraging. I think I got a few stormtroopers another X-wing, may have got a luke Poncho as that was one of the last 17 I needed.

I genuinely miss those days. It really just isn't the same anymore. I'm nostalgic for nostalgia!!

I couldnt have put it better Gary. The Cheshunt Fair was incredible. I remember buying Toy and Model Mart (An old magazine) and trawling throught the pages looking for the dates of the next fair. There were also some interesting items and articles in those old mags. I wish Id kept some.

I also wish Id taken photos at the Cheshunt Fair. Right Im off to try and find some online!

Chris. 8)

I have some old copies of model and collectors mart too. I got some good stuff that i couldn't find at fairs from there.

Thanks to the internet the level of these fairs as dropped, as has collectors shops. Cheshunt was great up till around 2001 then it slowly began to drop. The last one I went to several years ago was basiclly about 10 tables selling a whole range of stuff, very little vintage, and ten tables of 'celebrities' signing authographs.

I know the internet makes things a lot easier and I'm certainly grateful for it, but at the same time it has taken the joy away from parts of the hobby.

God I sound old :?

sith-smith said:

I have some old copies of model and collectors mart too. I got some good stuff that i couldn't find at fairs from there.

Thanks to the internet the level of these fairs as dropped, as has collectors shops. Cheshunt was great up till around 2001 then it slowly began to drop. The last one I went to several years ago was basiclly about 10 tables selling a whole range of stuff, very little vintage, and ten tables of 'celebrities' signing authographs.

I know the internet makes things a lot easier and I'm certainly grateful for it, but at the same time it has taken the joy away from parts of the hobby.

God I sound old :?

Click to expand...

I agree with missing those early days. It was fun to actually meet dealers, haggle with them and hold the item in your hands. It was more of a hunt back then. The internet made things more available,but at the same time it made it less of a challenge to find things (If you had the money,you could have any item instantly). It did drive some prices down, but at the same time it drove more prices up due to more people wanting the same thing. Yes, I am an old **** too.

I think without the internet my collection wouldn't be as developed, that's for certain.

It terms of private deals where you can go and see the items in person then some of the original joys of collecting are still there. i can remember still with a lot of nostalgia when I drove for hours up the UK to see a collection of Palitoy 12 and 20 backs I was buying. I found them thanks to the internet but there was still that chance to meet a view items.

That's happened a few times since, even a few of those dodgy meeting someone in a service station carpark, have happened in recent years!!

Collectors shows are where I notice things have really changed for the worse and that's because internet sales are just eaiser and cheaper for a lot of people.

I think another aspect is probably because my collection has developed so much, that unlike when I first started going to these show, I have or have had, most of the items on sale. Back at the beginning it was all so new.

Perhaps collecting hasn't change, but I have? :?

I started collecting as a student in the early 90s, buying up figs from loose car boots and flea markets to recapture my youth and waste my student grant.

I used to get a lot from some dealers who went to York Races Car Boot, and a few toy shows there as well. Once I started working I picked up a few rarer figs from dealers at Camden Mkt and in Greenwich.

It wasn't until I got connected online in the early 2000s that I completed the loose collection, and that led to buying carded and boxed items and the foci led from there.

I didn't have room for all figures on their cards so I went for a Han Hoth focus, he's one of the cheaper carded figs and a favourite as a kid. Don't buy a lot these days, but a couple of recent deals have made me think about packing it in but It would be hard to see it all go.

I still need to finish my die cast runs, so there's still stuff out there

I started over in the late 90s picking up pieces off toy fairs and boot fairs that seem to be every weekend back then. Sadly it seemed to be at the same time as the repro stuff appeared and I got stung a few times. Then as the 90s closed I had pretty much got a loose collection and started picking up some of the modern lines. They were fun for a while, filling in the blanks that never made it into the vintage line but I grew tired of them and ditched them. Now I collect Trilogos and the odd vehicle with its box. I should of started doing this a long time ago.

It seems strange to me, as I read through this thread, that I'm often more nostalgic about collecting than I am abouthaving these toys as a kid!! :?