Maintaining a collecting hobby

Context before this post for anyone who hasn't seen it yet

I love action figure collecting, but I fear about falling into shopping addiction or stressing out members of my family as mentioned in my previous post from a while back. So far I have done the following to hopefully reduce that risk and maintain a happy and healthy hobby.

1) One online purchase every two weeks. Every two weeks I allow myself to make one online order

2) Keep it limited to specific genres and franchises. Don't buy ones that are cheap just cause you can, I'm sticking with my favourite franchises like Halloween, Return of the Living Dead, Alien, Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw. I used to get Star Wars, but there's to much of it.

3) Keep the figures small in size to allow easier storage. I love 1/6 scale but they take up a lot of space, so I buy smaller scale

Is there any other suggestions? or are these a good start?

You seem to have defined the potential problems, and that's half the battle. You can't solve (or avoid) a problem unless you define it correctly in the first place. And your proposed solutions are good ones - you are targeting overspending and space.

Other things that might help:

Set a specific budget, and put that budget somewhere special. Some bank accounts allow you to create special "pots" for saving. You could create one for collecting, and put X amount of money in it per week/month. And when the money is gone, it's gone.

Have a special display case, a really nice one if you can (this is a good Christmas/birthday present!). But that is the only place you can put the figurines. When you run out of space in the display case, you have to sell some figurines before you can buy more.

Other potential problems you might run into:

Time. If you are spending too much time on your hobby (browsing for new stuff, rearranging figurines, whatever), then assign yourself a specific time per week for browsing/arranging.

Alternatively, use your hobby as a reward for doing tasks you don't want to do. Don't assign yourself more space or money, but you can assign yourself time to do hobby-related things (probably a healthier reward than cookies).

You can also maintain a wish-list in case anyone wants to buy you a present, or make it known that a good present is money to buy figurines. (But you still have to keep to your space limits.)

Ask family members to help you keep to your self-imposed limits (self-imposed limits are better than ones other people impose on you, because then they're yours and you are in control). If your family are worried about your collecting spiralling out of control, it will probably reassure them to know how you are managing it.

I did not know there were return of the living dead figures! That’s cool. I used to collect figures in my early teens but kind of gave up in high school. Do you have any photos to share of your collections?

My collection (1:6) ran into a natural limitation.

1. I look for inexpensive bodies with a set minimum for articulation. (They are not made anymore.)
2. They stopped making clothes that will fit them.
3. They no longer make heads that will fit them.

(I primarily collected to maintain a variety of heads.)

Rocco said:

I did not know there were return of the living dead figures! That’s cool. I used to collect figures in my early teens but kind of gave up in high school. Do you have any photos to share of your collections?

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This one small part of it, I have more around

I need to cut back on my movie buying, actually. That’s what I collect.

What works for me is that whatever I buy, goes in my cabinet. If there is no more room in the cabinet, I sell something inside to make room for something new.

Rocco said:

I did not know there were return of the living dead figures! That’s cool. I used to collect figures in my early teens but kind of gave up in high school. Do you have any photos to share of your collections?

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Found another photo of bits of my collection if you're interested

Lot of slasher icons and movie monsters, I love that stuff. I was hyped as when my older brother expressed interest in watching the Halloween film series

The Toxie figure is another cool one! Toxic avenger was a fun B movie. Very interesting and eclectic collection.

Rocco said:

Toxic avenger was a fun B movie

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It sounds like they will finally be releasing the remake this year. I'm excited.

To keep on topic, I have a very large collection of cameras, but I have stopped adding to it. I realized that it is a bit out of control and I am thinning it some.

With your second point, I would clearly define what amount of money is "too cheap" or "too expensive"

I am a collector, mostly these days vintage photos for many years, I sometimes buy vintage diecast toy cars too

My approach is to always set a price limit, when I go to an antique show I only take as much money as I can afford and won't spend above that, and that world is still mostly cash based

I also don't buy items that are physically large because I don't have the room to either display or store for that matter

Sherlock77 said:

With your second point, I would clearly define what amount of money is "too cheap" or "too expensive"

I am a collector, mostly these days vintage photos for many years, I sometimes buy vintage diecast toy cars too

My approach is to always set a price limit, when I go to an antique show I only take as much money as I can afford and won't spend above that, and that world is still mostly cash based

I also don't buy items that are physically large because I don't have the room to either display or store for that matter

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It's mixed and varied, I typically go for brand new stuff that's around $20 to $40

More expensive stuff I like to take time to save up for and put some extra cash aside before I do so