Quitting/putting collecting on pause

[Justice]

Ah, yes...but do you have the true sickness?

The one where you've sold off entire collections, only to turn around and buy them back later?

I've bought and sold my Joe Classified collection three times now. I'm officially out and done, not doing that again. I sold many NECA horror figures through the years--only to buy most of them back. Same with Marvel Legends. Right now, I'm piecing together my Mezco Popeye figures from the early aughts, planning on Palisades Muppets next once that is done.

What is wrong with me?

I did that with my 200x MOTU. Sold a complete collection for a super good deal. Bought back for way more and still don't have the rare exclusive figures I originally sold.

Never again!

 

[TheRealSmallville]

I appreciate the kind words, all!

If anyone wants to check out the channel, I'll link it and the corresponding Instagram account below; trying to build the audience of both currently. Full disclosure- I'm pretty terrible at technology (my first couple videos, I was editing using a laptop over a decade old). A couple videos in, I finally upgraded my laptop, so there may be a bump in quality (but they're still pretty terrible ) I'm learning as I go, but as long as you don't expect high quality content for a bit, you may find them palatable. There's currently no schedule, just whenever I feel like it. Oh, and I absolutely hate my voice, and many others do as well, so I can't promise it'll be pleasant to listen to, but if you watch on mute, it'll boost the experience!

Ironically, I started the channel to help with learning a new skill and boost my self-esteem, and look at me putting myself down. I digress. I'm always down for feedback too, so don't be afraid to rip me to shreds.

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thecrowllector

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrowllector/

Hey, cool channel dude (and nice "intro/trailer" video, I need to think about doing that on ours). I am lucky subscriber #13 to your channel Bring on the cosmic 13-isms! lol

My lady and I started a channel almost a month ago, reviewing toys and collectibles. I just started doing physical media videos, and trailer reactions. I completely understand not enjoying your own voice, I also dislike mine lol I also never noticed how much I use "um" and "uh" and "ah" when I talk until I watched myself From what I can see, you're doing great! Youtubing is hard lol Not just the technical parts, but the "sitting down and hitting the record button" parts. It is for me, anyway. Hats off to you! It looks good. Anyway, at any rate, Scarecrow is very underrated and I'm going to enjoy being a subscriber!

Is it ok if I share mine, as well? It's technically "ours", but the missus doesn't post here so it feels weird to keep saying that. Like I have a mouse in my pocket, or I'm hearing voices or something. http://www.youtube.com/@AuDHDReviews if you're interested. Still trying to find our voices, so to speak.

 

[yojoebro82]

This seems as good a place as any to put this because what I'm bringing up might lead one to want to quit collecting and it has nothing to do with tariffs.
What the hell is going on with this cheapening/dumbing down of "adult collectibles"? I'm looking at pictures of two drops from yesterday but there are more examples than these. Keep in mind how far out toys need to be planned. 6 months to one year....something like that.....all of these things were in the pipeline before Trump's reelection and the tariff fiasco.

A $50 mega figure......THREE POA?????

Star Wars frog man figure, allegedly made for adults.......Knees? Elbows? The robots look like something that you'd get from one of those quarter machines with a prize inside the little plastic egg.

There are other things I've noticed recently mostly from the Marvel, DC, and Star Wars camp that make it seem like we are being charged the maximum and getting the bare minimum more often than not ($40 Electro because he has two lighting bolds, $28 Two Face, all reuse and no accessories, the Maximum Series). And that's BEFORE a 250% tariff? Is this because toy companies are so hard up or have we shown them that we will buy anything regardless?

I bought the Jada Blanka and Sagaf a few days ago. For $30 ($5 more than the average figure) I got two HUGE figures with alt heads, alt hands, and a power effect. Everything they were packed with had a use. They are painted and articulated incredibly. I felt real satisfaction with both. I don't get that feeling much (ever?) with most of the other stuff I buy. Are those kinds of purchases a thing of the past?

 

[Justice]

I fear that this is soon to be the norm for $25 figures and standard sized figures are all getting shoved into a new premium category much like the Maximum Series in Marvel Legends. I too think that was the trend even before tariffs and however the tariff situation shakes out I think a lot of these companies will use it as an excuse to try and force us into accepting it.

 

[Justice]

To add to my ominious prediction, once they get us accustomed to the "Maximum" pricing, they will slowly start cutting accessories until we are back to the point we were with $25 figures, only we will be paying $50 for them.

 

[joshsquash729]

Hey, cool channel dude (and nice "intro/trailer" video, I need to think about doing that on ours). I am lucky subscriber #13 to your channel Bring on the cosmic 13-isms! lol

My lady and I started a channel almost a month ago, reviewing toys and collectibles. I just started doing physical media videos, and trailer reactions. I completely understand not enjoying your own voice, I also dislike mine lol I also never noticed how much I use "um" and "uh" and "ah" when I talk until I watched myself From what I can see, you're doing great! Youtubing is hard lol Not just the technical parts, but the "sitting down and hitting the record button" parts. It is for me, anyway. Hats off to you! It looks good. Anyway, at any rate, Scarecrow is very underrated and I'm going to enjoy being a subscriber!

Is it ok if I share mine, as well? It's technically "ours", but the missus doesn't post here so it feels weird to keep saying that. Like I have a mouse in my pocket, or I'm hearing voices or something. http://www.youtube.com/@AuDHDReviews if you're interested. Still trying to find our voices, so to speak.

Appreciate ya, my friend! I subscribed to yours as well! Love the channel name- sounds like it's right up my alley!

Yeah, right now, it's mostly figuring out how to get out of my own way. How to eliminate those "ums", "uhs", and other mouth sounds. I'm sure it would help if I actually invested in a good microphone, but you know how it is- do I bite the bullet and just do it, or do I keep that money for other necessities (food, rent, toys, etc.) Also, getting comfortable with just freestyling. I gave myself a script for the first couple videos and have slowly been relying less and less on it, but I'm still not at the point where I feel like I can improvise about a figure, which feels strange. I was super into theater in school (still am, really), and did acting/improv classes all throughout, so I know how to talk/ramble, but something about this is new enough that I just freeze up. But I'm getting there!

Part of being technologically inept also means I'm clueless about the algorithm and all the little tricks (if there even are any). I've been using hashtags, changing wording on video titles, etc., but I don't know how to get more views. I know it's just a matter of sticking it out and letting things build over time. I'm not looking to get famous or make a living off of it- I know that's basically an impossibility (though a freebie or sponsorship every now and then might be nice ) It would also help if there was even the smallest semblance of consistency on my part, but the AuDHD is my Green Goblin, and it talks me out of productivity. Right now, with my lack of skills, filming and editing one video can take me all or most of the day; I know that'll change as I get better at it, but part of me just kinda knows I'll never be as quick with the tech as the kids these days, so time is another big factor.

Anywho. Like those kids in High School Musical said- "We're all in this together!" Can't wait to see more from your channel as well!

 

[Justice]

If all the other YouTubers are any indication, you need your face in the thumbnail/preview pic with wide eyes, mouth hanging agape, looking at something that probably even isn't in the video and a caption describing how you have finally had enough and this may finally be it. Do that and you'll have a million followers in no time.

 

[akajomiha]

This seems as good a place as any to put this because what I'm bringing up might lead one to want to quit collecting and it has nothing to do with tariffs.
What the hell is going on with this cheapening/dumbing down of "adult collectibles"? I'm looking at pictures of two drops from yesterday but there are more examples than these. Keep in mind how far out toys need to be planned. 6 months to one year....something like that.....all of these things were in the pipeline before Trump's reelection and the tariff fiasco.

A $50 mega figure......THREE POA?????

Star Wars frog man figure, allegedly made for adults.......Knees? Elbows? The robots look like something that you'd get from one of those quarter machines with a prize inside the little plastic egg.

There are other things I've noticed recently mostly from the Marvel, DC, and Star Wars camp that make it seem like we are being charged the maximum and getting the bare minimum more often than not ($40 Electro because he has two lighting bolds, $28 Two Face, all reuse and no accessories, the Maximum Series). And that's BEFORE a 250% tariff? Is this because toy companies are so hard up or have we shown them that we will buy anything regardless?

I bought the Jada Blanka and Sagaf a few days ago. For $30 ($5 more than the average figure) I got two HUGE figures with alt heads, alt hands, and a power effect. Everything they were packed with had a use. They are painted and articulated incredibly. I felt real satisfaction with both. I don't get that feeling much (ever?) with most of the other stuff I buy. Are those kinds of purchases a thing of the past?

Yeah, I definitely don’t feel the same value for cost as I used to, generally speaking. Going to get worse, I’m afraid.

 

[yojoebro82]

To add to my ominious prediction, once they get us accustomed to the "Maximum" pricing, they will slowly start cutting accessories until we are back to the point we were with $25 figures, only we will be paying $50 for them.

This will absolutely be the case.

 

[TheGillMan]

I come at this from the other direction: my folks keep their house like a museum and have a housekeeper come in a couple times a week. My mom is legitimately pathological about what she perceives to be “mess”, and also used cleaning and organizing as punishments when I was growing up.

Oh man....your parents sound SO much like mine. My mom is insane about having an orderly, clean house, and following ridiculous etiquette rules. When I was a kid, she'd vacuum the carpets, then have us kids get down on our hands and knees to pick up any things the vacuum missed. I remember one year in High School wearing something white to church, which I only did because I thought it was something SHE would find acceptable (my clothes rarely venture far beyond black or various shades of black). She flipped out on me because it was after Labor Day, which I didn't even know was a thing up until that point. Needless to say, that was the point where I stopped remotely even trying to keep her happy about my appearance.

for my 12th birthday I got a card with a cardboard cutout of a rabbit in it, which they said would be my last “little man”, no more action figures.

I too was forced to give up figures, and my mom gave them all to the kid that lived next door. That lucky lil' bastard got a ton of original Kenner Star Wars figures and playsets, lots of Real American Hero era Joes, the first couple waves of MOTU as well as Castle Grayskull. Funny thing about it was, at this point I wasn't really playing with the figures, so much as posing them in scenes. My parents being SO concerned that I wasn't becoming a "normal" teen fast enough couldn't see that I was more holding on to those things because I liked what they represented more than I did actually playing with them. I didn't get any more figures until I got a car in High School, and bought a Spider-Man that had suction cups on his hands to put on the inside of one of the windows. They weren't happy about that, but I had a girlfriend so they let it slide. I guess as long as I wasn't gay they were willing accept it.

And so it has gone in the 25+ years since. I got it all: “no one will want to date you/marry you if you like these things”, “don’t you think life would be easier if you were ‘normal’?” All that stuff. Again: they have backed off, mostly because I finally got married.

I'm still the black sheep in my family. Being the weird, theatrical, nerdy, horror obsessed goth kid was NOT what they wanted. I have no real interest in sports (I enjoy going to a game sometimes with friends, but I have no interest in following it or watching it on TV), I'm not mechanical at all, and I'm not a conservative....I'm pretty much useless to them. They HATED that I did theater, and while my dad started off somewhat supportive of it, he pretty much bailed after I was out of college and doing more indie shows. Heck, I did a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2004 that I also produced, and my brother (who is the "golden child" to them) helped on some of the technical aspects. Not even my worshipped sibling's contributions made them inclined to come see the show, which honestly was fine with me.

Needless to say, my figure collection just gets eyerolls and head-shakes from them. The nicest thing I've heard was when my mom said "well, this would be very difficult to dust". Anytime my dad sees a picture I post about a toy, or of me in a cosplay, he lectures me about how potential employers look at social media, and they might judge me harshly for those things. He still hasn't figured out that I just don't give a shit. I have three other siblings they can be proud of...I don't care if I live up to their expectations. Honestly, I would NOT want the pressure that my siblings feel from being so scrutinized.

It’s definitely why I own the giant Mondo vinyl Scare-Glow: I viscerally remember my mom gaslighting me out of buying him when I was a kid (talk ME out of buying a glowing skeleton man in a purple cape????), so every time I see a cool Scare-Glow thing, I grab and say “fuck you, Mom” out loud.

HAHAHAHA! This was me a few years ago, when I bought an old Clash of the Titans Perseus figure. When I was in about fourth grade, my mom got mad at me and broke my CotT figures as punishment (she later justified it that they were "Satanic"). These were figures I had bought with money I had earned mowing yards, and looking back on that it really sticks in my craw. I definitely raised a middle finger to her when that Perseus showed up, and I still give her the bird every time I look at it.

Anyway: all that is to say that it is hard to find balance when you were told most of your life that action figure collecting was functionally as bad for your life as drugs.

I heard, almost daily until I moved out, that I would "never amount to anything" as long as I continued being interested in such "childish, stupid things".

Ooooohhh “too gay for the straights, too straight for the gays” totally resonates with me. Like I’m definitely only attracted to women, but that’s about the only thing that concretely separates from my many gay friends (I work in theatre, so I’m kind of a minority as a heterosexual man, and that is just fine). There have been many times where assumptions were made about my sexuality due to my gender presentation, and that has been awkward and sometimes unfortunate with hurt feelings and such. Also as a 90s teen, “hurr hurr you’re a f*ggot” was the de rigueur insult: I just started firing back with “sorry, bro, I get that you’re struggling and feeling a certain kinda way, but I’m just not interested in dating you”, and then hit them with a BIG smile. The bros did not like that, nope, not one bit.

Oh man...I have been messing up folks "gaydar" for most of my adult life! In theater, I'm usually the token straight guy, but it's usually just assumed that I'm gay. Thing is, I get it...I'm not hyper masculine most of the time, though I certainly can present that way sometimes. I tend to be very expressive, emotional, and very empathetic, and I also am very physically affectionate to my friends. At times I've wished I WAS attracted to men, as I'd certainly have gotten a lot more action!
Of course, that definitely led to me being bullied when I was younger, but as I got older I learned to use it to my advantage. I remember one time I was in full Frank N Furter garb, as I played in a Rocky Horror shadow cast when I was in-between theater gigs. While in the bathroom before the show, some drunk dude stumbled in, took one look at me and said some slurs, then decided he wanted to fight me. I turned around, looked at this idiot who could barely stand, raised my fists up and said "okay man, but you need to ask yourself...do you really want to have your ass kicked by a guy dressed like this?". The look on his face was priceless, as it dawned on him that a light breeze could take him out, so there was no way he was going to be able to take me on. His eyes got wide, he muttered "shit", and he proceeded to stagger out the way he'd came. I assume he just pissed in his pants, since he never used the facilities while he was in there.

So I guess that is one reason I don’t quit: so that maybe some young weirdo will see me living my weird life and go “hey, if that guy can be a toy-loving weirdo and also an adult, maybe I can too!”

I've had several of my now-adult kid's friends tell me that coming over to our house when they were kids was a revelation to them. While other dads were obsessed with football or whatever other "manly" things they were into, our house had the cool toys in the game room. Some have told me that it led to them starting their own collections of things they love. Some were figures, others things like records or trading cards, but I'm just happy that these kids saw it was okay to embrace things that make you happy.

I have this crazy vocabulary where I can use these wild words correctly but sometimes can’t actually *define* them because I picked them up from binge-reading books as a kid. It’s pretty nuts.

Funny, because my mom used to tell me that comics were "trash" and that they were going to lead to me having a limited vocabulary. The exact opposite is true, in that I learned SO many words from reading comics! When I started reading novels in about third grade, I had very little trouble understanding what was going on because comics had already wired my brain to pick up on things like context clues. These were books meant for adults, not children. When I got into High School I had a couple teachers accuse me of plagiarism when I'd write a report because they didn't believe someone my age could have such a grasp of vocabulary. Like you though, I often can't "define" the word, but I absolutely use them correctly in a sentence. I

My wife calls my ability/compulsion to store knowledge about my special interests my “superbrain”. I don’t know how “super” it is when I also wind up stuck with mental recordings of really old commercials that “stuck” because I was watching some cartoon I loved and was already in hyperfocus when they came on. Sigh. “They will move into your heart and give you love right from the start, Bouncin’ Babies, FROM GALOOB!!” Yeah, that lives rent-free in my head and I’d love to let it leave.

I was once told that my brain is a vast repository of completely useless knowledge. I can't argue with that.

This past week I've had the "I hanker for a hunk of cheese" commercial in my head. I frequently have various commercials from the 70s & 80s start playing in my brain, and I have no idea how to shut the damned things off!

I played George Bailey in a stage version of It’s A Wonderful Life over the last holiday season, and was so “into it” that I absolutely horrified my mother. “I was really uncomfortable watching you suffer and fall apart like that!!” Heh, it’s acting, Mom.

Heh...back to when I played Hedwig, my mother asked me how I could play a gay character if I wasn't gay myself. Same answer: "it's acting, mom"! I told her, "do you really believe Anthony Hopkins eats people, or that Christopher Reeve was able to fly? It's acting! That's the entire POINT of the thing"!

if you love collecting GI Joe Classified but something comes along that makes it nearly impossible for you to keep buying (oooohhh, I don't know......say tariffs for example) do you just get rid of everything you have? Is it only fun if you can add to it in perpetuity? Or can you enjoy what you have without adding to it/updating it? I know for sure I am the later, just wondering if I'm alone.

I definitely don't dump lines I've completed. I may prune out some of the pieces that don't really do much for me, but the only time I find myself completely jettisoning a line is when it becomes clear that it is ending without getting to key characters I find essential. I also will sometimes reach a point where I find my collecting of a line reaches its conclusion, even if it is still going, because they have done all the characters I want. In those cases I definitely hold on to those figures, because for me it's wonderful to see a set of complete characters together on my shelf.

 

[joshsquash729]

I'm very lucky in that my Mom has always accepted my nerd tendencies and supports my collecting. She's even said that seeing my joy convinced her to start collecting a lot of the things she likes herself. My boyfriend's Mom is the opposite, though. Don't get me wrong- she's a lovely person, but there's always the eyeroll and sigh- if not outright guilting- every time we even want to look at figures or something. Part of me gets it- we live in NY, our apartments are small, and everything is expensive as hell- but the other part of me wishes she'd just let it go. Such a motherly thing to do, to treat even your adult kids as children, and I know it all comes from a good place, but still. We're both responsible enough with our money; we ain't become homeless just yet! She's never been over to my apartment, so while she knows I have a lot of collectibles, she doesn't know the true extent. My boyfriend and I are thinking of moving in together in the next year or so, so when she finally does see all my stuff, I wonder if she'll rescind her approval of her son dating me.

So cool that you've played Frank and Hedwig, @TheGillMan ! Those are 2 of my dream roles as well, though I get too anxious singing around other people, so I don't know if that'll ever happen. Nothing wrong with being the token straight guy in theater, either. Once chicks find out a guy doing theater is straight, he usually cleans house!

 

[Justice]

I'm lucky in that my mother never discouraged me from doing anything I wanted to do outside of drugs or illegal things. A few weeks ago I took her to a restaurant out of town that she likes to go to and we stopped by Target afterwards. I was walking down the action figure aisle with her and she handed me $60 and told me to buy myself something. I was both embarrassed, as a 45 year old, and thrilled at the same time. She is the greatest.

 

[joshsquash729]

I'm lucky in that my mother never discouraged me from doing anything I wanted to do outside of drugs or illegal things. A few weeks ago I took her to a restaurant out of town that she likes to go to and we stopped by Target afterwards. I was walking down the action figure aisle with her and she handed me $60 and told me to buy myself something. I was both embarrassed, as a 45 year old, and thrilled at the same time. She is the greatest.

So nice that you have that! My Mom is similar. I almost can't tell her the things I'm looking for anymore, because more often than not I'll either find that thing sitting on my doorstep one day, or mysteriously find the exact amount in my bank account. Bless her heart, she's always tried her best to understand my and my sister's nerdy loves, if not outright educate herself on them so she'll know what we're talking about.

I definitely catch myself having those moments too- the "I'm way too old for this" at times when describing a figure to someone, or walking down the toy aisle and seeing only younger kids (or the odd adult here and there, who's more than likely buying for their kids). But the moment quickly subsides when that plastic-induced dopamine hits. Of all the things I could be into, action figures are pretty harmless.

 

[RicksNerdLife]

Man. I thought that my mother was a helicopter parent.

Three things she discouraged me from doing:

1) Drugs.
2) I wasn't allowed to roam the neighborhood as a kid until I was like...12, 13 years old. And even then, I had to call from a buddy's house when I got there, and call to let her know when I was leaving to head home.
3) Joining the military. She did not want me going into the Army. Actually refused to even buy me G.I. Joe's one Christmas, until my Dad ended up grabbing them for me because "I had them as a kid, and I had no desire to go into the military. Chill out".

But hearing some of this shit makes me realize that overall I didn't have it that bad.

Until I think about how racist and MAGA and transphobic she is, and recall back to specific instances where the signs were there that I ignored and I'm like "Oh, you were conditioning me to be just like you. Thank God THAT never stuck".

And also how my wife pointed out my mother's narcissistic and vanity issues and how she would always insult me with "You're gaining too much weight, you've lost too much weight, that haircut looks stupid on you, stop making that ugly face, the way you cut your beard is atrocious"...ya know, all of the loving things a mother says to their child.

But hey, she never discouraged my nerd habits, so...

 

[DarthDre758]

My mom has always been pretty accepting of my collections. She has never really shown any disdain for it all. In just the last couple of years when she's asked me if there was anything I wanted for Christmas, I would send her links to BBTS. Usually it's for pre-order stuff and she tells me I won't have anything to open. I talk to her about some of my figures, and she gives me the usual smiles and nods, and "oh that's cool". My father, while not deterring me from anything I collect, I can tell there is some slight disappointment. He's all in to tractors, and farming...and I'm...not. I have four shelves of figures in my work office, where I work with my father.