Becoming desensitised to money due to collecting?

edd_jedi said:

TheJabbaWookie said:

Also you'd never hand over vast amounts of money to someone you didn't know without having the product you're paying for in hand, but nowadays we don't bat an eyelid at sending friends and family to a complete stranger with no protection if something goes south :shock:

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A lot of people do, and sometimes it comes back to bite them. But I've always been quite wary of doing this and only send gift payments to people I know.

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Same here. It also covers any postage issues is something goes missing or is damaged.

cheers Jason

I've never spent beyond my means on anything, but I have always felt guilty about buying vintage stuff that's more than a couple of hundred pounds. The most I've ever spent on one item is £400 all in and I just didn't buy anything for ages after. The investment thing is something I've always used as a good reason and lets face it over the last 10 years you would have been better off investing in vintage Star Wars than putting the money in a high interest account. My problem is I never have any intention of selling anything, although you can never say never I really don't believe I will sell up. That said I always have in my mind if anything happened to me the wife would be able to sell most of it for more than I paid.

I'm not sure we will see a major price drop in our life time but that's just my opinion, knowone really can say either way. I have gone through times where I look at what I want to collect and really can't see me ever finishing the debut Kenner run, I mean Yakface, Anakin Skywalker and Boba Fett your talking about thousands. Although for me if I feel like I'm getting a good deal I will spend more than usual. So if a beater Anakin Skywalker became available for a good price I would find it hard to resist, but their would be a long cue I know!

Since having children I have struggled with the fact that many kids around the world die of hunger and poor medical care. Then there is me spending hundreds of pounds on old toys, would I really miss it and how much better would I feel if I donated that money to charity instead. But then again I work hard my family never go wanting for anything and life is pretty dull if you never treat yourself.

What I have done in the last year is started colllecting other items that are under the £20 mark, like card backs and also Hoth Rebel Soldiers. I find a lot of the satisfaction comes from knowing something is in the post and the difference in feeling from waiting for a loose beater to a MOC actually isn't much for me.

One that always gets to me is that I can spend $100s of dollars for an item online with no issues (via eBay, FaceBook, etc.) but when at an actual toy show, with physical cash in hand (and with the actual item in hand as well), it ALWAYS is much more difficult to justify purchasing said item.

smarchitelli said:

One that always gets to me is that I can spend $100s of dollars for an item online with no issues (via eBay, FaceBook, etc.) but when at an actual toy show, with physical cash in hand (and with the actual item in hand as well), it ALWAYS is much more difficult to justify purchasing said item.

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Totally relate to that. My heart was pounding first time I paid a lot in person at a show

for me its a tricky one, I'm uber cautious about money, i have a separate account for sw and rarely go past that, in fact it's the sage words of my wife who reminds me its money, we have enough and I should enjoy it... if not for her would have a very different collection :lol:

smarchitelli said:

One that always gets to me is that I can spend $100s of dollars for an item online with no issues (via eBay, FaceBook, etc.) but when at an actual toy show, with physical cash in hand (and with the actual item in hand as well), it ALWAYS is much more difficult to justify purchasing said item.

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Probably because the toy show is 2x cost of ebay

Over the years you just get used to spending more on stuff and as your working career (hopefully) progresses you have a little more disposable income to support it.

I remember my first £10, £100, £500 and recently £1k purchases. Each one a milestone, but justified if you are getting a decent deal that at least won't depreciate significantly in the next few years. Time to consider that purchase and recoup if needs be (as long as you spent wisely initially).

Don't get me wrong, the instant cashless payments really help, but for the most part I consider it relative to other things. I have a separate collecting account, and no one goes without. I can always sell something if needs be, thats what allows me to be honest with my wife about any high end purchases I make. I'm actually selling a few bits currently to reduce a small debt I deliberately allowed to build up over the last 12 months as I purchased a few things I knew I could recover costs later on. No panic or guilt.

Interesting subject matter Edd & something I have found myself considering more & more over the last couple of years, I've been at this a while now & when I first got into collecting again I did the buy anything & everything thing we most have & had a right jumble of stuff which did not feel right, when I dropped on my 1st ever baggies totally by accident in a mission to try to find the last few figures for my loose run I found that something that really felt right to me & I offloaded pretty much everything else bar my run of loose figures.

Now at the time it was great as it was an area of the hobby not many seemed to care about & baggies & even multi packs were cheap & plentiful, that coupled with the fact I was delving into an area of collecting there were still many many things to be learned & discovered really drove my collecting bug onward, through the years I've learned a lot & had a lot of fun in the finding out & documenting everything as I go, it really has been a joy & I have had a lot of fun with it & made some good collecting friends through the process, everything felt right.

Sadly in the last few years the prices have skyrocketed even that of what were once cheap & plentiful items that most had little to no interest in at the time & all the fakes coupled with the expense & scarcity of items has been making me reevaluate what I am doing with my focus, I have always been on a pretty tight budget but have invested some large chunks on long term payment plans when those special items have come up that I know I will likely never see again or at least not within my budget, I've been very lucky in terms of getting things at the right time & at the right price, but over the last 2 years this has done quite the turnabout & nothing seems to be available without doing some serious saving & I find myself questioning my collection, don't get me wrong I still love it & the family are never short of anything as anything I spend on my collecting is not cash intended for bills & such, but the collecting has turned very much to a slow trickle at best & TBH I am happy about it with prices the way they are now.

I still buy the odd price if infrequently but have also started to collect a few other modern bits which have been on clearance in discount stores, never thought I would see the day of me buying modern, but TBF the new 3.75" figures are dam good & seem to marry well with the vintage, I'm only on imperials & droids, but they have been making me just as happy & quashing the bug to add as much as a 2k multi pack would & that feels really good & lets face it, thats what it's about.

So that in tern thats made me think long & hard about the bigger ticket items I have sat there & if I should think about it being time to let some of it go & free up funds which could be wiser spent, kids will soon be at the point of leaving home & needing things like deposits & a car etc etc so & getting away with the other half more before my health issues limit what we can do even more.

In real terms I have thought about it & told myself not too be daft as I love the stuff & had so much fun over the years collecting it, but it may well be I should keep thinking about what I am doing & when enough is enough, oh the conundrum of collecting these days eh guys :lol:

Hopefully things level out, I've lost all interest myself at the moment regarding collecting vintage Star Wars. I hope price is the reason for this but I'm not sure.

Sometimes I wish I could desensitise myself as I usually feel anxious before I buy something and guilty afterwards. I ask myself am I paying too much, will my money be safe in the purchase, could I sell it for the same price I payed for it. I can afford to buy the things I buy but it takes me a couple of months to properly settle after the purchase before I can enjoy ownership of the item. What worries me is when everything else is expensive but collecting is not.

i know how you feel edd, for me, when prices took a massive jump, i looked elsewhere.

i now have a very nice loose m.a.s.k collection, and an even better real ghostbusters collection.between bits i had already picked up in joblots, trades for spares and a bit of wheeler dealing on double items,they have cost me next to nothing. they each take up an ikea detolf unit in the living room and are providing a real fix to the hobby bug. they are fantastically cheap compared to star wars, although mask is steadily creeping up, and its lovely to pick up big job-lots for 20-30 pounds. they are also more colourful and exciting in a lot of ways, being far more advanced and detailed figures that were being produced at the same time as or just after the star wars line, and all by kenner!

TrooperWill said:

i know how you feel edd, for me, when prices took a massive jump, i looked elsewhere.

i now have a very nice loose m.a.s.k collection, and an even better real ghostbusters collection.between bits i had already picked up in joblots, trades for spares and a bit of wheeler dealing on double items,they have cost me next to nothing. they each take up an ikea detolf unit in the living room and are providing a real fix to the hobby bug. they are fantastically cheap compared to star wars, although mask is steadily creeping up, and its lovely to pick up big job-lots for 20-30 pounds. they are also more colourful and exciting in a lot of ways, being far more advanced and detailed figures that were being produced at the same time as or just after the star wars line, and all by kenner!

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Oh do post some pictures in the other vintage collections section in the Off Topic part of this forum of your non SW collection, I'd love to see it as I'm sure others would.

Ian