"Inside the psychology of collecting"

[Sonneveld]

Thought I would piggyback this thread to wee67's "Thinking about selling" one. Some interesting stuff.

https://wgntv.com/backstory/inside-the-psychology-of-collecting/

[basilfan]

Interesting, though he never really came to any conclusion, it seems to me. So why do you collect what you collect?

[Sonneveld]

Interesting, though he never really came to any conclusion, it seems to me. So why do you collect what you collect?

I think it's the warmth of nostalgia, the feeling of childhood, and also, especially in the case of my McDonaldland fascination, the people I was with when there. My friend treasures his Star Wars because his late mother would go figure hunting with him.

There is also the endorphin rush of finding something, so I guess a bit of shopper's addiction, as well. I got better at curbing that impulse, in recent years, though.

I'm a "basilfan," as well. What a great film. Why do you collect?

[basilfan]

Although I do love to look at toys from my childhood, I don't collect them; I'm content to look, smile, and pass them by.

I collect characters I love: super-heroes, Disney, TV shows, Star Wars, because I long to extend them beyond the film or the page. Before the invention of DVDs, the only way to actually look at movie characters, unless you happened to find a rerun, was to collect something with their image. One of the reasons I grabbed a lot of items I'm now ready to sell off, like trading card sets, is 'cause now I can pop in the disc any time.

And action figures were always one of the top choices of collectible because you could pose them to create new stories. Absolute perfection would be to have an action figure of every Disney character, super-hero, and TV/movie character I like, all in the same scale, preferably 8" with real hair and clothes.

As for Basil, he's my obsession. But even then I've grown selective enough to pass on things with the same image repeated, or off-model items. Maybe that's a touch of maturity. Or maybe that psychologist would have something different to say about it all.

[Sonneveld]

here is something much more enjoyable, more tactile, about the real hair and clothes in the 8" lines, like Mego.

Enjoying a DVD, versus owning a plastic totem of a character is a good way to look at things!

[Wee67]

Thought I would piggyback this thread to wee67's "Thinking about selling" one. Some interesting stuff.

https://wgntv.com/backstory/inside-the-psychology-of-collecting/

Thanks for this. I don’t think there’s enough research on nostalgia. Its causes, it benefits, it ill effects, etc.

[Sonneveld]

Thanks for this. I don’t think there’s enough research on nostalgia. Its causes, it benefits, it ill effects, etc.

You're welcome! Why do you collect?

[Wee67]

You're welcome! Why do you collect?

I don't like to overthink it too much, but... I didn't collect anything until '99. That's when I won a Mego Superman on eBay. When I held that figure it took me right back to to a wonderful time and place. I blame you all for going nuts. When I found this place with so many like-minded folks, I allowed myself to re-geek. I started reading comic books again, went to a convention and started tracking down 70s made-for-TV movies.

So why do I collect? Because of you, Dad!