Why Collecting Toys is Like a Heroin Addiction.

[5FDP]

This much inflation http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Transform...-/120964705959

To be fair though, you can't use that as an example. AFA'd toys are grossly over-priced for what they are.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think this article's comparison of toy collecting w/ heroin addiction is only meant as a hyperbole, and not meant to be taken literally -- just like when people say "plastic crack," they don't literally mean to compare it with a crack addiction, it's just an exaggerated metaphor. So let's move away from this arguably awkward or inappropriate metaphor and focus on what the crux of the article is saying: when does toy collecting become a kind of detrimental addiction?

The problem I see with the author is that he's spending a lot of time and money into building a collection that he doesn't even enjoy. By his own admission, he spends over a thousand dollars a year on toys that he doesn't play with or even display, and has come to ask himself, "What the <expletive> am I doing?!" - which, in his situation, is a bloody good question! This is where I think the author's problem lies, and where I see collecting as becoming a detrimental addiction:

the displaying, while nice, is secondary to the collecting - or to paraphrase, it's not the having, it's the getting. Owning toys kind of blows, which is why I don't really care if my toys are out or not. But finding a figure you want in a toy store? Getting that package from UPS, ripping it open to get the figure inside, checking out the accessories, and getting a whiff of that new toy smell? That's pretty sublime. *snip* Despite the aggravation, the cost, and the (B.S.), getting a new toy is still a sweet, sweet hit of nerdiness and joy. It doesn't justify all the bad stuff - it doesn't even come close - but it doesn't matter. Because I'm going to keep doing it anyways. I've got to.

^right here. It's a themed shopping addiction. He's not actually addicted the toys themselves (since he doesn't even use them), he's just addicted to buying toys. As he confesses, for him it's about the getting not the having. But I'd say most of us here aren't like that - I think for most of us, it's about the having over the getting. Yes, acquiring new stuff feels great, but _having_ that toy to use feels even greater. This guy's not so much a toy collector, but a toy purchaser. His collection is merely the by product of his hobby of toy purchasing.