Collection Intervention

[PrimeCron]

I'm not sure if anyone enjoy the new TV show last night called "Intervention Collection". While watching the show I notice some behavior patterns, hidding collection from the wife, debts, just plain hoarding and arguments. I've been collecting for about 2 years now and at one point my wife explained that she will support me collecting Transformers in the exception/rule that if I want something new, something old got to go by either selling or trading. I've been doing for quite sometimes. It sucks and oh man it sucks that I can't keep everything as I'm very limited in space and funds. At the end of the show, I looked over my small Tfs collection and realized that I may be on the right path as a collector.

So my question to you all, is how would you deal if your better half tells you that your collection needs intervention?

[Autobot_Lancer]

Best part is my girl is a collector as well. She likes transformers but she's a star wars collector. Which is fine by me as those are my two favorite things. She's already informed me that I'm not allowed to sell off any of my collection so I'm pretty sure I hit the jack pot !!!

[Nguyennh]

i was actually not so long ago in your position. Well...almost. Its gotten to a point where i just didn't want to do anything but collect figures and everything i did revolved around whether or not i was able to buy the next set of waves and new releases. My ex-gf(now that is lol) actually was soooooooooo pissed off at the fact that i did not want to pitch in to buy friends/her friends birthday day gifts because i had spent my disposable income on toys and video games. Basically what i'm trying to tell everyone is that if you're not living in debt or putting yourself in debt because of this then power to you. Enjoy collecting don't let someone else tell you how to collect. Obviously set yourself limitations(ie for myself i do not buy doubles)

[wervenom]

I'm somewhat lucky I guess. As Autobot Lancer indicated earlier, my wife is also a collector of Coke products & Mickey Mouse items (has to be Mickey, she hates Minnie I just think she's jelous lol) so for me she is just overwhelmed by my collection but never complains just looks in awe which works for me

[juxtapose519]

My wife doesn't collect, but she understands my obsession. That's half the battle.

Fortunately, I'm pretty reasonable about what I collect. I stick to a budget of $10 per week plus whatever I sell or make on the side fixing computers, and that has worked out pretty well. I'm also pretty good about waiting for deals and only buying what I really want, so it hasn't ever been a problem.

If it does though, I'm sure she'll have the good sense to talk to me about it in a calm and rational manner rather than biting my head off.

[joshimus]

I may be single but I have a nagging brother.
That said I made a deal with myself to sell off all toys I no longer really look at, mostly a sacrifice to myself to get the Metal Gear Rex by 3A. Since it will probably be the most expensive toy I may ever buy, I figured that I should balance it out by cleaning house a bit. I already sold a bunch of stuff, not tfs just yet, and I am slowly working on it. I'll probably post a "for sale/trade" thread within the next few weeks. Have both MIB and loose stuff to get rid of.
I'm being a bit more hardcore about cutting down what I have. Kind of my own intervention really.
thanks 3A for making my "white whale" so I can clean up my toy room!!

[Autobot_Lancer]

I'm just glad that when it comes to collecting that I only collect certain lines CHUG, Animated(need thundercracker and blackout) Alternators(need 10 more) and Hasbro masterpiece (takara is to pricey for me) and I've got a pretty substantial collection, my gf talks about how she wants her collection to be as big as mine and when we have our own place next summer both will be on display in the living room.

[Mega-Prime 316]

My wife is pretty understanding and never questions me on my purchases. She says since I don't have any other bad habits it is OK. I don't smoke, gamble, drink (might have a casual drink if the occasion is right), or do drugs, so if I spend a bit on toys she thinks thats great! LOL However I am limited to 1 room in the basement that is my room, and everything must stay contained within those 4 walls.

[Scrapper6]

I chose not to watch the show as I did not feel like listening to their interpretation of what it means to be a collector or how a collector should act.

I agree that burrying yourself in debt and merchandise is not the ideal solution to your hobby or your interests. I had massive debt due to my completist mentality and my insatiable need to buy, buy, buy.

I feel that I have managed to tone this down quite a bit in recent years as I am now looking mostly to get stuff on sale, and only paying full price when the item is a rare find.

My collecting consists of Transformers, G.I.Joe, Star Wars, My Little Pony & Lego toys. Video Games for the systems I own, as it stands I'd like to get more, but games are much more expensive and so I tend to limit when and which ones I buy. Books from series that I enjoy. (I don't buy books as often as I used to because I've gotten behind in reading them all, hell I still haven't read The Unifying Force yet and that book came out, what, in 2003?) And last, I collect Movies, mostly Disney, but I do have a short list of other films I'm interested in getting. Again, I don't buy as often as I do the toys because DVDs typically don't go on sale, so you wait and hunt the bargain bins. (Or you go to Amazon and score a major find for cheap. :lol)

Some would say my collecting is a bit out of hand, if they saw how much stuff I have. I would argue the fact that, well for the most part, in the past few months I've been slowly selling off stuff that take up a considerable space and buying only what I really, really want to keep.

Haven't purged my entire G1 collection yet, but I may wind up selling most of it off and just keept the Classicsverse stuff. (Which will include 3rd party products.)

I've been axing off a lot of my UT figures, mostly in favor of keeping the collection smaller and more manageable.

If I could bring myself to part with my Beast Era and RID stuff I might eventually let go of it too. I'll keep my Movieverse stuff, the Animated, the Classicsverse and Prime figures, plus maybe a select few other items to represent those eras of the Transformers history. But in the end run, I think once I finally hit 1000 TFs I'm going to have to either re-think my counting, or re-evaluate how the future is going to work.

Toys are meant to be enjoyed, and at the moment I have so many of them that rotational displays are my only option. I do like bringing out something new I haven't seen in a while to fiddle with and display and stuff. Hopefully once IKEA opens I'll have a permanent display case for whichever line stays out and the rest will still be rotational.

I just don't see the point in involving others in helping you make decisions? I mean, why let them tell you how you should behave? Unless you're being totally destructive in your life you should be allowed to enjoy your hobby as you see fit. It's all about perception, if some girl I hardly knew that I was involved with felt I was too obsessed with my collecting and that I needed some kind of help, I certainly would hope she'd opt for a more private style intervention than shoving me on national television for all the world to see. I don't need that kind of stress, and I certainly would not appreciate it.

I'm just stubborn like that.

[Prowl_2009]

Missed the episode last night, but my wife and I had a good laugh while watching the trailer for the episode.

Fortunetly, my wife feels my collecting is something that makes me who I am and she supports it 100%, mostly because I don`t go into debt doing it.