Would like some personal thoughts on collecting

[Superior Grilled Cheese]

had a thought today about this paper, and came up with a new question to ask:

 

What makes one actually collect something he or she is passionate about, as apposed to just enjoying it like everyone else? What is the determining factor that will push someone over the edge and cause that person to invest, potentially, thousands of dollars and years of his or her life?

[Lord_Onslaught]

had a thought today about this paper, and came up with a new question to ask:

 

What makes one actually collect something he or she is passionate about, as apposed to just enjoying it like everyone else? What is the determining factor that will push someone over the edge and cause that person to invest, potentially, thousands of dollars and years of his or her life?

 

Something to do? LOL

 

For me it started with wanting to get all the toys I never got. I had my first job when I was 12, so I decided to spend it on Transformers. For my second collection it has been all Nostalgia for me and wanting to have something that made me happy. Now I have a different view as my children have shown an interest in Transformers. Why make them start a collection from the bottom up? When they can have an already built collection that when I'm done. All they will have to do is add new pieces to it as I plan on having all the past Transformers in it already.

 

I've collected Gundam, Witchblade, Anime figures before and sold those off, as they didn't give me the joy that collecting Transformers has given me.

 

So I would have to say, it is a bit of Nostalgia, getting now what you couldn't before, and joy. That sends some of us over the edge.

[Wonkimus Major]

I'm taking a composition class in college right now and have been assigned a comparative research paper. I've settled for drawing similarities between collecting, mental disorders, such as OCD and kleptomania, and addicitions.

 

With this topic in mind, I figured it would be obvious to ask for some opinions on the subject from other collectors that I might be able to use for my paper. Feel free to post anything you would like, and it would be very helpful if you include the size of your collection and how long you've been in the hobby.

 

Thanks for any help before hand

 

Interesting question. TF's were my favorite toys as a kid. I stopped buying them around age 13 or so because I felt I was "too old" for them, and went on to other interests. At that point all my toys went up into the attic. I never really lost interest in them, though...when I was in college, G2 was introduced and I ended up buying a few that I saw on clearance that I'd never owned as a kid. I guess it was just a nostalgia thing from when I was a kid. A couple of years later, around the tail end of G2 was when I really re-started collecting. It's still really mostly a nostalgia thing for me...the figures I am most drawn to are the homages of the original G1 characters. I think is is sorta like OCD or an addiction...sometimes I do go through my collection and if I have to many repaints of a certain figure, or too many versions of a particular character, I put sell them on ebay (and reinvest the cash into new figures!)

 

had a thought today about this paper, and came up with a new question to ask:

 

What makes one actually collect something he or she is passionate about, as apposed to just enjoying it like everyone else? What is the determining factor that will push someone over the edge and cause that person to invest, potentially, thousands of dollars and years of his or her life?

 

I suppose this is the OCD/addictive part. I've bought Transformers that I didn't even really want just because I saw them in the store and they didn't have any that I really wanted.

[dcj91x]

Collecting is a relationship. Just like you would have a relationship with a significant other people often create relationships with items, animals, and so forth. It is an emotional and mental bond with something to gain enjoyment and a sense of self worth. For me (i will use Animated Arcee as an example) when I went to my local TRU and they had just stocked the only 3 TA Arcees they were getting, it made me feel good that I was able to get her. I felt that just by getting her where others didn't I was accomplishing something that others hadn't. It's like that with my fiance' as well. By us getting together and her saying yes when I asked her to marry me, I felt like I really accomplished something. Something no one else could or will.

 

Now granted, any relationship can be negative or possitive depending on how the individual person deals with it. Lets say for example someone starts putting their TF relationship before their significant others, families or friends. At that point the relationship (their collecting) becomes negative and could lead into the relm of addiction.

 

An easy and somewhat simplified way of summing up an addiction is refering to it as an "unhealthy relationship that leads to an emotional or physical need for something."

 

Ok, think I said enough.... Sorry...

[Astronopolis]

had a thought today about this paper, and came up with a new question to ask:

 

What makes one actually collect something he or she is passionate about, as apposed to just enjoying it like everyone else? What is the determining factor that will push someone over the edge and cause that person to invest, potentially, thousands of dollars and years of his or her life?

 

i feel like, as was said before, that collecting is a relationship, but not with the toys,(you cant conceivably have a relationship with an inanimate object unless youre a little bit kookoo but thats another paper entirely!) its a relationship with your inner child.

when i say that i dont mean an aspect of your personality, i mean quite literally yourself as a child. when i get a toy, the kid in me goes "awesome!", and i like to relive that joy i felt as a kid whenever i got a TF. keep in mind that i didnt get that many, my parents didnt have alot of money, so i think im treating myself for missing out when i was a kid.

[Superior Grilled Cheese]

bump

[galaxystar]

Well, for me collecting is something I can enjoy doing. With prices going higher and higher on traveling and theme parks, collecting is something inexpensive for the most part that you can do from your neighborhood or from your home computer. While I collect a lot of Transformers, I don't collect everything. For some super collectors, they abolutely have to have everything that is Transformers. For me I don't have to have all the ones made for little kids such as the fast action battlers. Now that I can finally get a job and work, I don't have to wait for someone to give me the money as gift or part of an allowence, I can buy it and no one can argue against it.

[TheTfboy]

I do like to collect transformers because of one main reason; Transformers (or anything that transforms) is the only good 'mass produced toy' Anything else is a waste of plastic or other raw materials used.

 

But it is imporant for most collectors to know anything and everything about what you are collecting (In this case, it is Transformers).

 

I started collecting in 2005. Not that long ago, is it? And yet here I am; I have seen all of the US Transformers episodes (Trying to watch the Japanese episodes now, with subtitles.) I have the main Transformers toys from 'Cybertron' to ROTF. Nothing fanproject or Frenzyrumble, just from Hasbro (Not my choice, they're just too much) and a few other things.

 

My point is that collecting is mainly about knowing anything and everything about what you are collecting and why you are collecting this.

 

Now then, if you don't mind, let me continue with the Japanese episodes.

[Superior Grilled Cheese]

Finished up my article a couple of weeks ago, but still awaiting a grade on it. Anyone here still interested in reading it?

[Liege Evilmus]

sure, I'd be intrested to see how you used us for your own personal gain :P