Josh-A-Tron
Super Freak
I've been on the boards for a while now and taken note of certain behaviors. You've got your nostalgic collectors and your completionists, Your Genre collectors and your character collectors, but the one that still bothers me is the "value" collectors. The people who buy polystone, pvc or cold cast statues and figures because they'll one day rise in price.
Now I'm not saying you're crazy for wanting your collection to be worth more than what you originally paid, as matter of fact if you have patience it probably one day will be. However, it seems to me that certain collectors think that if item sells out and isn't immediately worth double the retail price that this is failed Statue/figure. It has not lived up to it's billing and is therefore worthless. It takes a certain mentality to feel this way and I think it's because most of them think of collectibles as an item having value above the original paid cost. That is actually misinformed concept that was fed to people in the late 80's and early to mid-90's in the comic and card collectible market.
Dozens of people from 1989 to about 1996 would buy stacks of #1 issues of comics with collectible covers and poly bags and packs upon packs of cards with special hologram-foil-gold inserts in hopes of making money by selling these cards back with in months or a year of buying them. Now mind you this idea was sold to these people because of rising prices of Golden and Silverage Comics and Highly valued rookie cards from the 60's and 70's in sports. These cards took decades to reach the value they were at and also it helped that they had specific historical significance in the genre they came out of. Amazing Spider-man #1 didn't just sell for $30,000 in the mid 90's for no reason. It was 30 years old and the first comic to feature Spider-man in his own monthly title. If the book survived the attrition of being held onto in market that was directed at kids since the 1960's in good condition it was fairly rare unto itself, not to mention being the wallcrawler's first issue. So in droves 90's hologram sporting comics and cards were sold and in droves, they were worth next to nothing after being printed in the millions of copies, having no significance and only being months to a few years old. Which brings me to my point.
When someone collects something it is for the joy, happiness and entertainment that thing brings. Ownership of that item brings you a level of enjoyment beyond what it's worth. This is why I collect, it's why many do. We don't actually plan to sell items from our collections...ever. We want these items and we want to keep them forever because we are overjoyed to have them. We want to look at them, read them, file them, whatever it is we do that brings us that happiness. It might seem a bit crazy to get happiness from an item but that's why people are called collectors, because it takes a certain kind of person to do it.
So if you're looking to buy your next Sideshow Premium Format or your next Hot Toys 1/6th figure or next whatever it is that you're looking to collect, do it because it makes you happy to own it, not because next year you need to sell it. Otherwise you're just wasting your time and your money.
Now I'm not saying you're crazy for wanting your collection to be worth more than what you originally paid, as matter of fact if you have patience it probably one day will be. However, it seems to me that certain collectors think that if item sells out and isn't immediately worth double the retail price that this is failed Statue/figure. It has not lived up to it's billing and is therefore worthless. It takes a certain mentality to feel this way and I think it's because most of them think of collectibles as an item having value above the original paid cost. That is actually misinformed concept that was fed to people in the late 80's and early to mid-90's in the comic and card collectible market.
Dozens of people from 1989 to about 1996 would buy stacks of #1 issues of comics with collectible covers and poly bags and packs upon packs of cards with special hologram-foil-gold inserts in hopes of making money by selling these cards back with in months or a year of buying them. Now mind you this idea was sold to these people because of rising prices of Golden and Silverage Comics and Highly valued rookie cards from the 60's and 70's in sports. These cards took decades to reach the value they were at and also it helped that they had specific historical significance in the genre they came out of. Amazing Spider-man #1 didn't just sell for $30,000 in the mid 90's for no reason. It was 30 years old and the first comic to feature Spider-man in his own monthly title. If the book survived the attrition of being held onto in market that was directed at kids since the 1960's in good condition it was fairly rare unto itself, not to mention being the wallcrawler's first issue. So in droves 90's hologram sporting comics and cards were sold and in droves, they were worth next to nothing after being printed in the millions of copies, having no significance and only being months to a few years old. Which brings me to my point.
When someone collects something it is for the joy, happiness and entertainment that thing brings. Ownership of that item brings you a level of enjoyment beyond what it's worth. This is why I collect, it's why many do. We don't actually plan to sell items from our collections...ever. We want these items and we want to keep them forever because we are overjoyed to have them. We want to look at them, read them, file them, whatever it is we do that brings us that happiness. It might seem a bit crazy to get happiness from an item but that's why people are called collectors, because it takes a certain kind of person to do it.
So if you're looking to buy your next Sideshow Premium Format or your next Hot Toys 1/6th figure or next whatever it is that you're looking to collect, do it because it makes you happy to own it, not because next year you need to sell it. Otherwise you're just wasting your time and your money.
