Knowing the 5 stages of toy collecting.  This helps you to understand the range of emotions you feel when you collect your toys.  Every toy collector goes through all or some of the 5 stages of toy collecting - the Newbie, Rapid Growth, Nirvana, Guru & Casual stages.  Which stage are you at now? 

For some collectors, they find themselves in the Rapid Growth stage for a very long time.  It varies from person to person, and from toyline to toyline.  For other collectors who ‘jump’ from toyline to toyline, they go through most or all the 5 stages several times a year each time they start collecting a new toyline on hype. 

Sometimes it feels like you’re being possessed.  Others call this an “obsession”.  The kinder people will refer to this as a “passion” or a “hobby”.  So which is it?  You decide!

I call this stage ‘Casual’ because by now, the toy collector would have acquired all the common and even rare, exclusive, limited editions and variant pieces of the toylines.  They have gone past the Nirvana and Guru stages.  There are hardly any new toys to chase after so frequently. 

It does not mean that their interest in toy collecting has waned.  It just means that the pace of collecting has slowed down and their focus has shifted more to certain specific aspects of the toy hobby such as customizing, organizing online events like toy photos competitions for the online toy community; or physical events for toy collectors who live nearby to gather, trade toys and have fun discussing their toy hobbies etc.

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This is not necessarily a self-proclaimed stage.  It will come naturally because by now, the toy collector would surely have gathered quite a substantial amount of experience from the toy collecting hobby to qualify as an expert.  At this stage, the toy collector is usually recognised and looked upon by Newbies as a Guru because he or she has been there and done that, and is like a senior and consultant to those in his or her toy collecting community. 

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In the My Little Pony collecting community which I am a part of, we call the ultra rare and extremely hard to find/get ponies ‘Nirvanas’, simply because they are so ‘up there’, like almost ‘out of reach’.  This is the highest and the most ultimate level of your toy collection. 

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This is usually the stage the toy collector’s logic thinking fly out the window and ‘uncontrolled’ emotions take over the head.  Nothing can stop the Rapid Growth collector from getting the toys on his or her want list.  This is when the learning curve is the steepest, and yet it is no sweat for the Rapid Growth collector because the more information there is, the merrier.  The ’sponge’ in their ‘highly obsessed mind’ is all ready to soak up every related information that is available. 

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Every collector goes through the Newbie stage, much like a freshman.  The Newbie is most curious about his or her new hobby and this is also the time of the most confusion.  Without proper ‘guidance’ from the more experienced Guru collectors, the Newbie can also end up being overcharged or going through ’extra’ steps just to get something simple done, like buying toys from overseas. 

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Upon reviewing my toy collecting experience, I identified 5 stages of collecting toys and they are:

Newbie, Rapid Growth, Nirvana, Guru and Casual. 

These 5 stages can also apply to other collecting hobbies and many other things we do.

To be continued……