How do you know it's time to move on from Transformers collecting

[Megatran]

Like any collecting, people do start and then sometimes lose interest in collecting for whatever reason. As the title goes, How do you know it's time to move on from Transformers collecting (if it ever got to that point)? Or what scenario would steer you in that direction?

Please note I'm not asking to pass judgement.

[janda the red]

When it's not fun anymore.... That's when I'll bail

Or financial difficulty... I'd cut off my hands for my wife and son, selling my collection would happen in a heartbeat if I needed money for them.

Let's hope it never comes to that! Lol

[Micktimus]

Friend of mine lost his job and now he wants to sell a majority of his collection. So yeah I think money would be a big motivator.

[GoktimusPrime]

Never.

Like many of us here, I've been collecting Transformers continuously since 1984. Never stopped before, don't intend to either. Even if the franchise itself were to perish (knock on wood), my passion for Transformers would live on (as it did during some of the weaker years of Transformers when my collecting significantly slowed down (but never actually stopped), e.g. early to mid 1990s))

[5FDP]

My buying has slowed to almost nothing but I still consider myself a collector, it's just that there's little product that interests me these days. I still get immense enjoyment from the collection that I have with no plans to EVER sell it off.

I guess my point here is that there are two kinds of collectors - those that are not actively purchasing and those that are mainly in it for the thrill of the hunt. The later are the ones most likely to sell off what they accumulated because they no longer feel the rush they once did.

Having been a fan for so long means that you get used to waiting patiently for toys to be released e.g. Generations Arcee, therefore there is always something to look forward to.

[Bidoofdude]

Since I have started collecting only 2 years ago, the amount of any form of regret or anything like that has diminished (it wasn't very big from the get go) to nothing. I just keep getting sucked in. I'll watch TFTM every now and then and bam, I go wanting all these figures, or I'll have a play with my MP Thundercracker and feel the need to get more Masterpiece figures. Just when you think you're out, you get sucked back in. And I like every bit of it.

[klystron]

I guess when the financial cost outweighs the derived enjoyment?
Or maybe when you find yourself packing your whole collection away into boxes, with none left on display? (This happened to me with Zoids).

Even if I quit collecting, I think I would probably only part with about 50% of my figures.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I'll be collecting as long as i can comfortably live & afford to. I'm not going to let my purchasing habits affect my way of life.
If i was faced with a situation where it was necessary to sell them, then so be it.

Good answer

Never.

Also good

When it's not fun anymore.... That's when I'll bail

Or financial difficulty... I'd cut off my hands for my wife and son, selling my collection would happen in a heartbeat if I needed money for them.

Let's hope it never comes to that! Lol

Excellent Answer



Personally I took a decade off. G1 finished and I wasn't much interested in any of the toys after the Predator team came out - didn't think much of G2, and didn't like BW or BM at all. What I did collect at that time - believe it or not - was stuff from the Home Improvement sitcom. Ended up with nearly 100 bits of clothing (boxer shorts, ties, dressing gowns, socks etc) as well as posters, swap cards etc etc.

Anyway, that ended too, and I was more interested in my late teens and at Uni with hanging with friends, partying, getting laid etc etc. It wasn't until a friend gave me for my (first) wedding in 2001 a G1 Optimus, Chop Shop and Wreck-Gar that the TF collecting spark reignited within me. At the time I had one gross of figures (144), now I am only about 50 figures off having timesed that figure by 10

Like Janda, I'd sell the collection in a heartbeat if I needed the money for an operation for my wife or son, but otherwise I can't see me ever really stopping collecting - it's a hobby I love too much

[Omega Metro]

I've tried giving up collecting a while back. But you basically have to give them away so decided to keep collecting. But very selective in what I buy now.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I've thought about 'kicking the habit' a few times, and selling most of the collection off while just keeping a few favourite items. I've actually managed to acquire a lot of the TFs I want already, so the collecting has slowed right down over the past year to year-and-a-half-odd. Japan's good like that.

Then I'd look through my packed-away-due-to-lack-of-display-space assorted TFs (most of them are in boxes in Tasmania, most of the rest are in boxes here in Osaka) to see which ones I'd want to keep, and I'd come across some I'd forgotten I had, and/or others that I'd forgotten how they were actually pretty fun to mess around with or how the design was actually pretty clever, and realise that it's less that I'm 'over' TFs than that I'm just too busy with work to have the time and energy to really enjoy them - my priorities are mostly about teaching my students and daily life stuff these days. I have 3-odd boxes of TFs I've yet to open and/or mess around with (I buy most of my TFs second hand, often loose) and some of them have been sitting there for well over a year. I actually don't open them or get them out and transform them very often, but sometimes I'll just be in the mood to see how a 'new' TF works, or to fool around with an 'old' TF, and that's when it's still 'worth it' to me.

So, for me the time to move on from TFs is when I'm not getting any (or just sufficient) enjoyment out of them anymore. Like most of us here I'd sell them off without hesitation if I needed to raise funds for something more important - they're just toys after all - but that's not the case at present and they're still an enjoyable hobby for me.