Anyone ever take big breaks from collecting?

[cjefferys]

The other day I was thinking that I've been collecting Megos as an adult for nearly 20 years now. Ever since I bought a MIB Robin for $20 at a comic/toy store in Buffalo in 1989. Now,if I had been steadily collecting Megos for the past 20 years straight, I'd probably have a hell of a collection by now, but unfortunately I've had long periods of time off, due to financial reasons, lack of interest, etc. During this time, I bought and sold large amounts of stuff, the only thing that I always held on to were my boxed WGSH and my KISS dolls. For large spans of time, they were just safely packed away, but I could never bring myself to get rid of them, they are the "heart" of my overall toy collection and I'm glad I hung on to them. Everything else was fair game though. Sometimes you would never even know I collected toys, I never bought anything for the collection and all my stuff was packed away.

My collecting timeline kind of looks like this:

1989-1992 -Got into toy collecting, especially Mego, bought tons of stuff, religiously read Toy Shop magazine. I was into collecting big time.

1993-1996 -Bought virtually nothing, except a large Capt Action lot (strictly to piece out and resell), sold large parts of my collection including most of my vintage Star Wars stuff

1997-2005 -this was a large span of time where I bought a small handful of Megos, I discovered toy collecting related material on the internet which helped rekindle my interest a bit (eg. I was a casual participant on the old Levy Mego list) but was mostly focused on collecting Godzilla toys. I went to Japan a lot during this time, so it was a cheap and easy thing for me to collect (and I loved Godzilla since I was a kid). Mego was just a small, occasional dalliance for me during this time.

2006-present -got back into Megos big time, along with other vintage 70's toys. 2008 has been a bit slower than 2006 and 2007 so far, but my interest is still definitely there. I hope it lasts longer this time.


Seeing the timeline written down like this looks kind of weird. I've always had a big affection for Mego, but there is a real ebb and flow to how much time and money I wanted to devote to them (if any at all). I suppose that's normal for all hobbies. How about you other long time collectors?

[fembot]

Oh I'm sure that is the case with everybody, my husband and I come and go with our collections. Right now we have backed off of the vintage comic books and are focusing strictly on Megos. I think that everybody probably reaches a "burn out" phase with their hobbies (or obsessions). I feel it actually is healthy, in our circumstance it increases the excitement when we start collecting again, kind of like finding a long lost friend, and I don't mean that literally.

[dumbldor]

My Mego collecting timeline would look something like this:

1994-2008 Big time mentally ill Mego collector

Nah, never taken much of a break. Occasionally, I will give buying a break for financial reasons, but that never lasts long, and I am always active online with the Mego Museum, Ebay, etc.

[jimbutsu]

Probably been over three years since I've made any Mego collecting moves...

[palitoy]

I've been there, my time line is like this:

1984-1990- Mego, Big Jim and Captain Action obsessed.

1991- sell it all to pay bills

1991-1993- deal videos and collect meaningless crap trying to fill the void.

1993 (Spring)while working a toy show, I go nuts and purchase a Riddler, Lizard and Penguin. Then the interweb and a good career happened, then I met Scott Adams, oh you know the rest.

I'm actually on a break from Mego right now but still buying megolike stuff. Sometimes, the magic ain't there.

[Raydeen1]

Constantly. Not neccessarily because I want to but I have loonnnnnng stretches of non activity. I've been collecting on and off my whole life really. I never really stopped. Just slowed down for long periods.

[toys2cool]

I'm the same way,I'll get into something and then get a little bored and sell those off and start something new and eventually get some of my stuff back

[mitchedwards]

I've been in a Mego break for the last 6 months

[Collect 'em all!]

I can relate to all of your time lines big time.

Especially the part about reading Toy Shop magazine religiously from '89-94, lol. I didn't stop reading Toy Shop until I got on line in '97 and discovered Ebay.

Which brings me to a point. I think the Internet has diminished just a little bit of the excitement of finding and owning the things from our past that we are passionate about collecting. I think before the web, owning the rare item was even more cherished, and since it wasn't as easy to find a buyer back then either, you hung onto it longer.

Don't get me wrong, it's still hard to track down a lot of this stuff even with the web and ebay, but it's nowhere as tuff as it once was, and you never knew if, where or when you would locate it.

The first thing I started collecting around 1987 were the original Aurora Glow in the Dark Monster models. It was an incredible rush to find and buy one of these kits back then. Now, you can find them in better condition, and cheaper on ebay then you could 20 years ago searching them out at Toy shows.

But if I sound like I'm complaining that it's too easy now, I'm not. It's just not quite as much of a challenge, and so, I sometimes think that's the reason you can float away from your collecting once and awhile and not worry about it.

I will admit that the Internet and sites like this one help fuel the collecting obession though, lol. My current obsession was completing my set of Mego Museum trading cards--man, was that a blast!!!

[palitoy]

I still have a journal of my purchases from comic buyers guide and toyshop in the 80's, it would take forever to get the item. On average it was 4 weeks to get something.

With Ebay and Paypal, the trickle of parcels can turn into a down pour but there was something about the anticipation of those phone purchases.