Well, the first casualty of collecting for me was my carded collection. I still think that in many (a majority?) of cases, carded figures look better than loose figures (Unleashed being a strong exception). But storage wise/display wise it simply became impractical for me to do so. So I started opening a bunch of stuff. My cinema scenes remain closed and probably will. Basically if I can stack it, it stays in. If it has to be hung, forget it. There are exceptions to that, numerous htf Freeze Frames, late Ep I stuff, TFV, Sacul, Theater Luke and possibly some early orange carded figs for nostaligia.
Rotation? No, not really, too much like work. I am at capacity in my room right now, with 11-12 large tubs full of toys. But I refuse to put up more shelves, simply because we may be moving soon and essentially that stuff is already packed from my point of view. It's going to be a major pain to pack up everything that is already out.
Downsizing is underway. As mentioned elsewhere I'm selling off my goalies in a rather substantial fashion. A guy I've traded with over at spawn.com (meatgoat) makes a lot of sense. He opens everything, even his third jersey Roy
. We talked a fair bit by email about collections and he decided, mostly because of space issues, that if he wanted something, he would open it, end of story. I'm not quite there, but getting closer.
Selectivity. During my tenure at this board my selectivity went broad scale, and now is rapidly going the other way. Like Brian, first and foremost is star wars. Everything else is secondary. One of the few lines I did "right" was the Simpsons WOS stuff. Only Homers, with a few exceptions, mostly due to Scott forcing some stuff on me
. But it remains a compact collection and easy to manage. Plus the focus makes it look really cool. McFarlane stuff outside of sportspicks have been selective too. Only predator figures for the most part. LOTR is staying relatively in focus, though that is one area that could easily spiral out of control. Fortunately I delayed long enough that loose stuff is already relatively cheap to obtain, so I am ahead in that way.
Quality. I love the 3 3/4 line, it really is the focus of my collection and my favorite stuff. Opening it allows for displaying more stuff. But aside from the figures, I'm trying to be more selective and have less of some things (says mr. 5 tie fighters
) Towards that end, I'm trying to obtain more quality stuff and stay away from lower end stuff. Stay away from smaller cheaper stuff and get busts or MR stuff. BTW, I am failing at this aspect miserably.
The ultimate solution: Buy a house with an unfinished basement and finish the basement. My room will be down there, no doubt about it. The trick is to take it from it's current dimensions to something large. 9ft x 10 ft up to say about 15 x20
Collection too big? Buy a house. Perfectly reasonable solution.
