Becoming desensitised to money due to collecting?

edd_jedi

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I'm interested to find out if anybody else has found that price increases over the last few years (OK maybe a bit longer than that now) have impacted the way they value cash? I am starting to feel like it has happened to me a bit. It seems ridiculous that I feel hard done by paying a couple of hundred quid for an energy bill, or £80 for a tank of fuel in my car, yet paying hundreds of pounds for a toy is fine.

I have always justified collecting to myself by saying that it's an investment, I can get the money back if I sell so it's not like pissing all my money away on booze and clothes. But is that really a good reason to spend what is, let's face it, obscene amounts of money on collecting?

I would like to point out a couple of things - firstly, this has crept up on me. I have been collecting for over 20 years, and for many of those years I stuck to a limit of £100 per item. I only paid over £1000 for a single item for the first time a couple of years ago. But recently, spending hundreds of pounds on individual items has become more frequent, it just seems the norm now (when was the last time you saw somebody price a MOC in tens of pounds instead of hundreds?)

Secondly, I'm not rich but I can afford it. I don't get in to debt collecting, have reasonable savings, and don't feel like my family misses out on anything. But could all this money be put to better use? Holidays, the house, a nicer car etc.

So for the last few weeks, I have tried to really cut back on collecting and try to appreciate the value of money again. Today I bought something for my video game collection for £6, and it felt great. I feel like I have become too comfortable spending huge amounts of money on collecting, which to many people would seem crazy and frankly indulgent.

Obviously the huge price rises since TFA haven't helped, nor have all the celebrity collectors on Facebook who seem to buy prototypes every week. But I feel like I have to take some responsibility for it myself, so am going to try and cut down my spending for a while at least.
 

Michael Sith

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Your post in itself indicates that have noticed a change in yourself, analysed it and taken what you feel are the necessary steps for you to feel right about what you are spending.
In a nutshell you are exercising responsibility and using common sense. These are of course the factors we should all use.

I think the whole vintage collecting environment has changed, but TBF, it's the same old adage we see time and again, collect what makes you happy, that you can afford, and don't get caught up in the false market prices.

I do think though Edd that to a certain extent we all get used to prices of everything going up and up, we have no choice but to pay higher and higher prices for the necessities in life, but that in itself allows us to take stock and appreciate the things in life that truly make us happy, that maybe we can take for granted.
 

SublevelStudios

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To a degree yes. It also makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes if I'm totally honest.

I look at a piece in my collection and think 'that's £1000 worth of plastic just sitting there' - and then I think of all the toys/clothes/holidays that could buy for my kids - who I have to say never, ever go without anyway. I may not have paid £1000 for it but I know I can get that if I were to sell it.

I collect because I have a genuine love of Star Wars and collecting - it goes back right to the start for me. It's a massive influenece in my life. I can never see myself spending more than £2k for an item as there's nothing I really want that is that expensive. My main issue is having tens of thousands of pounds worth of stuff in cabinets that I could maybe spend on other things.

But I think if I didn't collect, I'd be a miserable, pissed off bastard.
 

Palifan

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My spending on Star Wars has certainly slowed down to a crawl over the last few years although it hasn't stopped me spending money on other toy lines. I have however become more aware of the amount I'm spending recently due to becoming self employed again and have been selling off a few things to fund recent purchases. This seems like a fair trade to me as I need the space and it means I'm not using my earnings to buy toys, also I know I've helped a few people out on here with their collections so that makes me happy to know a can be part of building someone else's collection and also keeping it in the family so to speak.

I've never been one to spend a large sum of money on any one thing so I feel I've always had that under control and also I'd rather have a diverse collection of vintage toys rather than just star Wars so that's helped to keep the costs down.

We all collect what we love and as long as it's not putting people into financial trouble or making the partners and family miss out in any way I think it's all good. Oh and for those who do get to purchase those big ticket items, thank you for sharing them on here, I do love seeing them all :D

Ian
 

Darth Bobby

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Prices are going up and if you want to continue collecting you have to accept that. You only live once Edd. It's an expensive hobby but if you work hard you deserve an occasional treat. Obviously we should all spend within our means but it's no different to any hobby. I feel like I never see any of my wages, work pay the money into my account then via the magic of direct debit all the money disappears. Occasionally I take some and blow a bit at Farthest From or on Ebay and it feels really good. It's nice to feel part of a community and have an interest to focus on. Could the money be put to better use? Probably. How much you spend depends on how much you earn... as long as you can afford it why not treat yourself to something really cool once in a while. Money doesn't seem to have the same value any more, compared to how much we spend on rent/ mortgage commute council Tax, the occasional splurge is okay. Providing you aren't using next months house keeping.
 

spoons

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Good question Edd and good answers all. I've said it a few times that I do find the money spent on vintage obscene. We are for the most part in jobs with regular incomes and it's too easy to spend £100s or more on toys, and I'm sure there have been a few past collectors that have got into big debt trying to collect too fast.

I'm with Edd and totally agree that the 'investment' angle is a big factor and that if times get tough the toys can be sold. That can't be said for spending the same cash on nights out or clothes.

I reckon I've averaged around £25 a week on vintage since I've collected via the internet, which seems pretty reasonable for a hobby, but if I saved it it could mean a better car or fancier holidays.

There are definitely times I've stretched money to buy what I want and I've never been one to save, but all in all there are a lot worse things to spend money on. Lucky to have an understanding other half and kids that aren't into expensive things (yet).
 

Darth Bobby

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I think we need to make a new rule and call it the 'Vintage Guilt Free Equation'. The equation states: You can spend the total of one week's salary per year on Vintage Star Wars Toys GUILT FREE... beyond that you must live with the shame and self flagellate as you see fit. :lol:

That way you can weigh up how much you are spending and whether or not what you're buying is worth it.

Ultimately we are spending crazy money on old plastic and cardboard but it makes us happy.
 
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I would have thought everyone would think about their purchases before they made them and if they thought it was a bad buy at the time they wouldn't do it to begin with ?
 

Taffius

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Good read here. I try to self fund and regulate that. When I say self fund, I have a small amount in an account that gets topped up by SO from another account that wages go in. I dont buy from that family account and then that way means what I acquire is mine to spend guilt free. Its only been 10 months of serious recollecting for me.
Now I am better at focus, the impulse and cheaper buys are being released slowly back in the market so the control element (to an extent) and cycle of fund top ups is for me, the consolidation followed by thoughtful purchases now.

I like collecting Rogue One modern because partly, the imported overstock from the last few months has allowed me to collect something quick that I can complete on the side that looks good and echoes back to a film I really enjoyed. A modern twist on nostalgia that I get from the film related figures we call vintage.
 

mr_palitoy

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I've made some big value purchases in the past when I earned more money and another more recently this year.

I don't think it has made me value money any differently. Star Wars money lives in a separate box for me and doesn't affect the relative value of my non Star Wars purchases.

Be careful of the it's and investment I can get my money back mentality. The value of this stuff can go down as well as up over time. I think the long term trend has to be down as older collectors pass away and for younger collectors vintage Star Wars isn't what they played with in childhood.

Cheers Jason
 

Robstyley

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I think I got a bit like that several years ago. I had more money then, was actively collecting and buying a lot and if I wanted something then I was getting it. No two ways about it. I think it's easy as collectors to see an item we want just as the item, not the money it costs. And easily justify to ourselves why we must get it - I might not get another one, it's a lot of money but it's a good price for that etc. I've never spent more than a couple of hundred pounds on one item, that's my rough limit. Beyond that it's not fun anymore, it's getting too serious and I can't justify it. At the moment due to personal circumstances and ill health I don't have any money to spend on collecting so it's the opposite. I value everything a lot more and I'm happy collecting on a tight budget and selling to buy other stuff. I think the danger is for guys with a lot of spare cash, if you don't need it for something else then you will be desensitised to it and it just becomes like monopoly money that you'll hand over without blinking an eye.
 

indianawars

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I sold up a while ago and luckily made some extra cash from it (profit, I guess). It started to bother me, even scared me a little, how much money I had invested in my collection. I knew my kids wouldn't want to inherit some dusty old toys. So when I sold my collection, I placed the majority of the cash into an ISA account for them, and top it up every month. I collect modern SW pieces, and I'm really enjoying it. :)
 

edd_jedi

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Thanks guys, some good answers. Don't worry I'm not buying things I can't afford. However I think what has brought this feeling on is that over the last couple of months a few pieces have popped up for sale that would really fit well in my collection, and a year ago I would have just bought them, but now I'm thinking do I really need to spend x hundreds of pounds on this one item? I want it, it seems reasonably priced compared to other stuff, but still doesn't feel like value for money.

I do also agree with Jason about the investment statement, I believe prices will go down eventually. But I am pretty confident I could recoup most of my money quite quickly if I had to, I keep my eye on prices.
 

subzero

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Iv'e also experienced this shift in mentality, I went through a skint period for a while where I had literally nothing after the last recession hit, and I actually came out of it with a saving mentality to save for the future over the past 8 years now roughly. And as a bit of perspective when I put myself inside my head even as far back as 2 years ago I didn't want to spend a single penny on anything if it didn't have some kind of actual useful purpose, toys or not, I remember randomly getting the nostalgia bug back one day and wanted to start collecting a few little bits and pieces from all different franchises, and I remember wanting to buy a cheap SW MOC to add to my little collection so I chose to find a Teebo which was a childhood favourite. Man did it take me a while to decide on buying that very first piece, remember seeing one on ebay for £60 in perfect condition and it seemed like a LOT of money to hand over for it, I put a couple of offers in being cheap about it and put some thought into it for a couple of weeks and then decided not to even go for it in the end. :lol:

But once you make that first purchase ( mine was eventually a mint boxed Speeder Bike for about £100 as a 'self-xmas gift' ) then mentally it makes it a lot easier to do it again, until eventually one day i'm barely blinking an eye at spending up to £1000 for an item, the more I spent the more it normalised it for me and then large purchases became a regular thing. I was aware of what I was doing and that I shouldn't really be doing it but was too in love with it and the nostalgia, once you get a mental vision of a collection you'd like to see yourself owning it is difficult to stop it.

The place where I was going to with this collecting was very much defeating the purpose of why I started collecting in the first place, which was purely to enjoy the nostalgia of my childhood toys. So iv'e also scaled back now this year and sold off quite a few expensive pieces that I didn't even actually have in my childhood, which were bought just for the sake of them being vintage SW, so now i'm left with only what I actually loved as a kid. I actually put about £1000 of what I got back from some of the SW toys into some MOTU but they're pieces that really were in my childhood and which are very important to me and that's where it now stops, i'm not buying anything I didn't have as a kid. So now I have this mentality back of only sticking to what's actually important, and because I made that conscious choice to let half of my collection go my 'savers mentality' is coming back again and those thoughts of not wanting to spend large money on just one toy are taking hold again.

I have nothing left of high value now to add to my collection either, it's pretty much done, so in terms of valuable pieces my collection is now finished. I bought a loose Monster In My Pocket figure the other day which was the very first one I remember buying with my pocket money, it cost me £3 delivered and iv'e stood it next to a sealed pack of other MIMP in my display and it's made me so ****ing happy and to be honest I wasn't expecting it to, but iv'e basically just purchased an important childhood memory for £3 and you can't beat that, I also bought some childhood Commodore 64 cassette games for like £2 each and i'm over the moon with them just as much as I would be buying a rare expensive game.

I think as a collector sometimes we need a bit of a reality check and real perspective lesson, for me that was selling off and letting go of everything I bought for the sake of just collecting it, and then instead buying some very cheap childhood items and realising it's just as fun and rewarding as expensive collecting, and realising I really don't need those expensive and rare pieces at all.
 

Nita Nitro

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I don't really have much in my collection that could be deemed high-end, or that I've spent hundreds on, but it seems that at all levels of collecting we make an assessment on whether to purchase something, or not, and one of the biggest factors that comes in to play is its cost relative to what we can afford to spend. Nostalgia can skew perspective on what we spend but even if I had enough money to not worry about the cost I think I'd still find it hard to part with the money that some items go for.
I remember buying a Klaatu MOC in the early 90's for £6 and that was expensive to me back then as I only earned about £30 a week from my part time job, and I probably scrimped on lunches at college that week because of it. To this day I still remember feeling that I shouldn't have spent that amount of money on it, and that feeling scales up to any level where I feel something is excessively priced. :)
 

MightyMike

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As a fairly new collector, the other half allowed me to finish off my loose collection a couple of years ago (I was 60% there with my childhood collection), I initially started by keeping to a budget but when I started to see the floating repro's starting to come out I must admit I panicked bought the last few just to try to minimise the potential risk and probably spent more. It did take the fun out of it a bit at that time

I've always had a budget for everything I do, and like most people here like to think their kids aren't missing out (my 4 yo has even has a pension scheme ffs). I generally limit myself to a monthly budget for clothes, going out and then spend the rest on Star Wars, the money would always get spent on something so I think SW is as legitimate as anything else. I've been able to self fund over the last few months by selling stuff I have bought and put in the attic for a later date.

After one Vintage Rebellion Podcast which mentioned a complete loose run would be £3000-3500 I asked the other how much she thought mine was - Her estimate was £300-400, if I die suddenly I suggest people travel to Cardiff quickly, you may just pick up a bargain!
 

TheJabbaWookie

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I feel one of the issues for me here is the ease in which I can purchase something. Money gets paid into my account and I can instantly hand over that money for something at the touch of a button, and it is likely that item can be in my collection in two days.

I wonder if it would make a difference to our collecting habits it we still had to write a cheque and send off for it, allowing us time to reflect on our proposed purchase, or further still if we had to physically withdraw money from the bank and hand it over.

I know it would make me think twice if I was actually physically handing over £1K of my hard earned cash for a VCJ :shock:
 

edd_jedi

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TheJabbaWookie said:
I feel one of the issues for me here is the ease in which I can purchase something. Money gets paid into my account and I can instantly hand over that money for something at the touch of a button, and it is likely that item can be in my collection in two days.

Yes that's a good point, it often doesn't even feel like spending 'money' because you never see the hard cash, it's just numbers in a paypal account.
 

TheJabbaWookie

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I used to be so frugal until PayPal came around. Even when eBay was first around the process of writing and sending a cheque made me think twice about spending large amounts. Now it's at a click of a button and gone before you've even had a chance to think twice.

Also you'd never hand over vast amounts of money to someone you didn't know without having the product you're paying for in hand, but nowadays we don't bat an eyelid at sending friends and family to a complete stranger with no protection if something goes south :shock:
 

edd_jedi

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TheJabbaWookie said:
Also you'd never hand over vast amounts of money to someone you didn't know without having the product you're paying for in hand, but nowadays we don't bat an eyelid at sending friends and family to a complete stranger with no protection if something goes south :shock:

A lot of people do, and sometimes it comes back to bite them. But I've always been quite wary of doing this and only send gift payments to people I know.
 
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