Quitting/putting collecting on pause

RicksNerdLife said:
::looks at 190 item preorder at BBTS, AFTER dropping close to 70 other items::

*cough*
*ahem*

Ahh. Uhh.

That also doesn't include the Army of Darkness set, the Scream Greats Series 3, and 2 comic Crow figures I just pre-ordered from Trick or Treat Studios today.
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I don't know where you put it all. You've got my entire collection plus 30 figures on preorder.
 
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Thankfully, I haven't put in any new PREORDERS, but I have bought a couple things that were in stock from around the net.
 
I think the most I ever had on preorder at BBTS at one time was ~7 pages worth. The day finally came where I was trying to find something and simply couldn't, at least not in a reasonable time. I decided then that my PO's could not exceed 2 pages at any time, and if the 2 pages are full then I have to cancel something to put something new on it.

So far, so good. At least as far as BBTS and 1/12 is concerned. Like most of yall here with the "tism, I tend to get hyper-focused on things and often neglect to look at the more long-term aspects of it. I recently got hyper-focused on Hot Toys, and went on quite a big spending tear. Combining my Christmas bonus, birthday money, and some damn fine mental gymnastics, I was able to spend about 2.5 grand picking up all manner of things, from Star Wars to DC to Marvel. And it was all good until the contract was changed where I work, and as a result of tariffs and Trump's economy, this new contract cut me down to 40 hours per week, zero overtime, and I lost about $2500/month of income. Mrs Smallville works there too, so she was hit as well. That's about $5K a month between the two of us, gone. Suddenly, bills that were attained with one salary are now having to be paid with a lower salary. Tightening these belts, but...easy come, easy go, I guess. I think a good portion of these Hot Toys are going to have to go to try to keep heads above water for a bit. I haven't been around much because of all of it.

Sucks a lot, but I guess I also feel a bit fortunate that I have something worth a few dollars when I need it. But man oh man, I have to admit...dopamine from Hot Toys hits a bit different than the dopamine from 1/12. Probably because I was up to 7 pages of preorders at one point and I didn't have a square (of dopamine) to spare.

Maybe I have a spending problem.

.......nah.
 
Nah... :)

I hate the way this hobby has turned to pre-order culture, but I play the game when the POs are at old MSRPs - like the ML Mini Comics Wave 2 or the new Deadpool wave.

The only things I try to PO are the limited run stuff - Haslabs, MTO ML, McFarlane Harley Quinn. Pre-ordering is always full price and I really hate locking in a figure at full MSRP without the chance to return/exchange. That messes with my brain, and has left me with way too many duplicates of figures I should have just *waited* on.
 
But that's the risk anymore. You *don't* preorder something that you expect to be an easy find, they end up crazy rare.

Looking at you, half of the Masterverse line.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
But that's the risk anymore. You *don't* preorder something that you expect to be an easy find, they end up crazy rare.

Looking at you, half of the Masterverse line.
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Fucking Blade, man. One of the few Masterverse figures I didn't pre-order after almost every figure I owned was available later, often at a discount. Sold out pretty much as soon as he released and I've never seen him again - except on the secondary market for double retail.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
But that's the risk anymore. You *don't* preorder something that you expect to be an easy find, they end up crazy rare.

Looking at you, half of the Masterverse line.
Click to expand...
Here in Communist Canada if I don't PO it at locals or EB, I'm never going to see it. And POing can be locked down the very afternoon they went up.

And refreshes don't exist.

Honestly one reason I'm sliding more and more into third party and anime stuff. The opportunities to PO and aftermarket take the stress off.
 
The likelihood of finding something past pre-order is directly proportional to how badly I want it. If I do really want it, it will be impossible to find. If I don't, it will be plentiful. If, for some reason, I change my mind after seeing how plentiful it is and decide I want it, it will then become impossible to find. This is the Figure Phenomenon. The Figura Obscura, if you will.
 
Here lately, I thought I've been doing pretty well when it comes to downsizing. Still have a ways to go, of course, but I've made some pretty good strides. But all it takes is one quick little occurrence to make you see how far you have left to go. There's been some plumbing issues in my building recently (it's an old pre-war building owned by a landlord who is notoriously stingy), and even though it isn't originating in my apartment, the bulk of the pipes that are rotted out are located beneath my floor and in my walls. So the Super and his team, who are already overworked as is (3 guys are the sole workers for like 30 buildings, he said), and they're about as gruff and humorless as you'd expect. Well, they absolutely don't get the whole collecting thing. They've been in my apartment a handful of times over the years, and seemingly forget every time, or are just so amused by it every time. Thank goodness I've either secured things enough or they've just wisened up a bit, because the first few times they came over, they were knocking stuff over left and right and getting annoyed by it.

Now, I've probably cut back on all my stuff by maybe 1/3 or so since living here, but even still. Today they had to get into my hall closet and rip into the wall, which meant I had to take all the extra boxes and stuff I keep in there out. I don't know if I quite realized how much was down there- it's a deceptively large little nook. In my defense, I only keep the boxes for stuff that's super fragile, that, whenever I move, will need extra protecting. But there's nothing like having to quickly take a whole bunch of stuff out of a closet with 3 big, impatient dudes standing over you waiting to do their job, to make you realize just how much of it there is. Truly, I thought I was doing pretty well, but a lot of this stuff I'd forgotten about- boxes, or small bins and bags of stuff I'd consolidated and put away for one reason or another and totally forgotten about (time has been really weird lately). I've had every intention of going through it all and downsizing more, but you know how it is- life keeps getting in the way. Anywho, now all that extra stuff is just sitting in a pile in my bedroom, making it feel even more cramped. I have no intention of ever stopping collecting fully, however irresponsible that is, and I'm really starting to get to a point where I don't feel the need to explain my hobby and why it makes me happy to people who don't get it. Still, it's moments like these where I suddenly feel the amount of it and am forced to confront it, and I kinda wish I could just hit a reset button. Probably a good thing in the long run- I probably have another day or so before they're done with the work, which means I'll be able to go through it all before putting things back. So it's just life's funny, forced way of making me learn a lesson, and ultimately it's not thaaat much stuff, but yikes. Nothing like a bunch of judgmental gazes and a forced time limit to make you question everything. 😅
 
I give fuck all what anyone thinks about my collecting habits. In that regard, at least.

I used to get that shit all the time when Toys R' Us was open. Go to the register and "Uh-oh, someone's got a birthday coming up! When is it?"

I'd always look at the (typically) adorable or outright gorgeous cashier in the face and say with zero shame "No, my birthday's in December. I just bought this today because I did a good job at work, and I have adult money".

Which, in hindsight, seems dickish in delivery. I meant it more jovial, but hey...don't assume. Regardless, they'd always say "Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry. Uh...so you collect toys?", followed by confused or unintentionally judgmental looks.

Sure do, sweetheart. Sure as fuck do. And if you were to come back to my place, you'd have to follow the golden rule of "Do not touch, lest ye be touched".

But then I met my wife and my give a fuck's disappeared completely and I would typically volunteer the information before they asked.

"My mom says I can have this for being a good boy, and getting good grades".
 
I don't think I've ever really met any static at all when buying stuff. Granted, I buy a lot less in person than most of you probably do because Western Canada is a wasteland that sucks joy from the very air. But yeah, I almost never even get comments on the thing I'm buying because most cashiers don't give a shit what you're buying anyway. But the handful of times in my life when I've had to say something like 'nope, it's for me,' the answer was almost universally 'oh, okay' with no snideness or anything.
 
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