What every newbie should know about toy collecting - You can read them all in my previous blog posts in the Toy Collecting Tips Series to get an overview of this hobby that is so easy to get into, but takes up to a lifetime or more to quit!  They are now archived for easy reference and reading in my “Articles” page.

I’ve written this blog for nearly 3 years and have been collecting toys for almost 2 decades.  Everyday I tell myself that I should slow down and eventually quit this hobby, but it hasn’t been successful.  I’ve begun to explore other suitable hobbies to take the place of toy collecting, and one recent new hobby seems quite promising, but it’s ultimately not a total solution.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love my toys, but I just want to be less obsessed with this hobby than before.  Now I wish to be more of a casual collector, according to the 5 stages of toy collecting!

Don’t encourage your friends and loved ones into any sort of collecting hobby.  Haha, that is if you care for them.  If you don’t then I’ve got nothing more to say, LOL!  Collecting hobbies are easy to get into, very addictive, heavy on expenses (mostly money spending and rarely money making), very time consuming; and worst of all, they are usually lifelong for nearly all collectors!  

Most collectors can never ever get out of their hobbies voluntarily (because they have become too emotionally attached to their collections and collecting lifestyle), unless *touch wood* something drastic happens in their lives that makes them quit the hobby for good. 

While some moderate collecting is fun and enjoyable, and even serves as a bonding topic with other people, too much of anything is never good.  The trouble is that most collectors will eventually end up over collecting.  Hence, don’t ever get into collecting anything if you can help it!  For the people who are already collectors like me, we’ve got to live with the choice that we had made and the issues that come with it!

Check your exposed Mint-In-Box (MIB) and Mint-On-Card (MOC) toys regularly for possible deterioration from direct sunlight exposure, insects infestation and dust etc. I believe that most toy collectors have long ran out of decent storage space for their toys such that many boxes and packages are kept outside cupboards and carton boxes.  As a result over time, some toy packaging can possibly deteriorate in the above mentioned unfavourable conditions, especially in our tropical climate. 

I have heard of fading colors from prolonged direct sunlight exposure; ants, termites and silverfish eating away cardboard material and making nests in the boxes and packaging; and dust layers so thick that they caused health problems for the room occupants!  Toy boxes stored and stacked up on the floor also tend to impede thorough housecleaning by mothers,  wives, housekeepers; and eventually leads to nagging from them or worse.

The above are the direct and inevitable results of over collecting toys, where we want to collect too many toys but have very little proper storage space at home.  Other than having proper and dust-free storage space for your toys collection, you also need to practise the “one-in-one-out” toys culling method periodically to sustain your hobby.  If not, your toy population will spiral out of control and make you feel frustrated and overwhelmed by this originally enjoyable hobby. 

Hence do take the time to review your toy collection from time to time, instead of always going online and to toy stores to check what’s new there.  Happy toys collecting!

Know the fair market prices when buying toys at resale - There will be times when a toy collector buys certain toys from the resale market.  This is usually the case for older toys that are no longer available at the mass retail stores.  Sometimes it also happens for new toys that are sold out.  Other than the flea market where lots of old toys tend to appear every now and then, the more common toy resale market platforms are online like on Ebay and in toy forums. 

If you have to buy your toys from the resale market, do some online research (e.g. using Ebay’s completed auctions list) on past and present selling prices of your targeted toys before you purchase.  Of course the prices also vary according to the toy conditions.  This can minimize the chances of overpaying for some toy when other sellers are selling it for much lower prices.  Hence some level of patience in your toy hunts usually pays off well for you!  Happy toys shopping! 

Learn to let live if you can’t get certain toys - Yes, none of them are really worth overpaying and fighting for.  In our lifetime, we don’t actually own anything.  Physical possessions are ours for as long as we live.  We are merely temporary keepers of things until they pass from us through selling, giving or when we finally leave the mortal world.  So focus more on the enjoyment of the hobby rather than on the frustrations of not being to get hold of certain toys.  Like a wise person once said about looking at a piece of clean white paper with a tiny dot on it: Do you focus on the cleanliness and whiteness of the paper, or get distracted by that tiny irritating dot on it?  We can choose our views.  Happy toy collecting! 

Beware that over collecting toys can wreck relationships - Yes, this is true when the toy collecting hobby becomes too overwhelming for other people living with you.  Remember that one person’s treasure isn’t necessary the same for another person who doesn’t share that same passion with you.  To the non-toy collectors, these toy things are not just a waste of money but a waste of precious home space as well. 

Most of us live with somebody who are not toy collectors, hence we tend to get nagged at for bringing back more and more ‘junk’ nearly every time we come home.  It sort of spoils the good mood we have from the so-called ’successful’ toy hunting trip that day.  Then you would think that having a supportive spouse, partner or family members who share your toy hobby is a blessing.  Well it isn’t.  One person in the household being ‘poisoned’ is bad enough, not to mention more members being in the same boat as well! 

Hence overall, I still think that having non-toy collectors in the house nagging at us periodically or frequently, is a kind of check and balance method to ensure that we don’t go overboard in our toy collecting too easily or rapidly.  Hobbies are best done in moderation.  Being sensitive to the feelings of other people you share your abode with is also crucial, especially if you want your toy collecting hobby to always remind you happy things in life!

Always check your toy conditions before buying - This is especially so if you are buying action figures where you are able to view their paint jobs through the transparent plastic packaging.  It has been observed that many mass market toys like the Marvel Universe 3.75-inch action figures (such as Iron Patriot above) are being churned out in poorer and poorer qualities with each new batch.  It’s usually 1 or 2 in as many as 10 of the same figures that spot some decent level of paint job which is ‘worthy’ of a toy collector’s standards.  Hence do take note before your every purchase instead of hurriedly making your way to the cashier.  Other than the paint job, there are other criterias to take note of when buying such action figures.  Happy toys collecting! 

The above is my only display cabinet for my toys and it’s being occupied by My Little Pony collection.  All the other toys I own are stored in boxes (that are packed away in cupboards or stacked on the floor somewhere in my home). 

For toy collectors who own their homes, their options for better display and storage of their collections are more opened.  Seeing is believing.  Let the photos that you’re about to view in the following links speak the thousands of words I want to share with everyone! 

As I don’t own my very own home yet, these dreams are still quite some time away for me!  Nevertheless, enjoy viewing the photos, and I hope that you get inspired by them!

HQ of Little Plastic Man - Adrian also shared a fabulous a link on his blog to another toy collector’s Star Wars collection at home!

Alex’ Toy Haven -  For Alex, the theme of his entire home is centred on his massive toys collection!

Having read numerous articles on how to clear away clutter effectively from our homes and how to keep our homes as clutter free as possible, I decided that since I can’t stop myself from buying more new toys, the least I can do is to clear out some near equivalent volume of unwanted items each time I bring something new into my home!  In short I call it - One in one out!

My thrown out items do not have to be toys, but anything that is unwanted, unused and already broken etc.  On days that I do not buy any new toys, I take a plastic bag (the standard sized one from the supermarket) and gather a bagful of clutter items from around the house to dispose.  Sometimes I’m unsure of whether to really throw out those bags that I’ve packed.  Perhaps I was too hasty in my quick snap decision making just to fulfill my daily clutter clearing quota that I had set for myself.  And so quite a number of packed bags have been sitting on my balcony floor since the beginning of this month!

Then today when I looked at those tied up plastic bags, I could not recall what items went into them over the past week and a half.  I certainly didn’t miss the absence of those unremembered contents around the house and besides, I have new things waiting to come in soon (via the mail).  So some of the current clutter have to inevitably give way to the ‘newcomers’.  And hence I threw out all the nearly 10 bags of clutter today! 

It felt so good that they are all gone from my balcony at last!  It was certainly very unsightly to look at them there each day.  I highly recommend the above home organsing solution to anyone who is in a similar predicament like me!  Happy clutter clearing!

How to prepare your travel luggage for lugging toys home from overseas shopping - Most people use a small boxy trolley luggage to pack the things they need to wear and use when going on an overseas trip.  Many a times, we don’t really know what kind of toys we might buy during the trip, much less know the size of the toys and their packaging to cater a space for them in our luggage.

A suggestion is to pack in some foldable hand carry travel bags (those cylindrical shaped travel bags that some tour agencies tend to give out to their customers for free) in your travel trolley luggage.  If you have no problems hand carrying your toy purchases in their given shopping bags, then do it that way if you prefer. 

If not, some MOC and smaller MIB toys are better off packed in your boxy trolley luggage to protect them.  Use your clothes as padding to stop the toys from moving about in your trolley luggage.  Your excess clothes can be packed into the foldable travel bags that you brought along and then padlocked before checking them all in with the main luggage!