Hobby Management part 1- killing your darlings

So, a tough article to write, the subject this time, the natural hoarding tendencies of the collector and ways to manage it. I think it’s fair to say that most of us are “collectors”, it’s called plastic crack for a reason and we’ve all bought a model that’s never been assembled/painted/seen again.

How much is too much?

A few years ago when I moved in with my now fiancée, I was forced to rationalise my collection, it felt tough at the time, but a watershed moment like this is useful in the long term. We just didn’t have the space and it made me realise how much of my stuff was just boxed and sitting on shelves. There were “dead games” that weren’t in production anymore, unassmbled figures, old armies in severe need of repair, paints that had turned, you name it and I have at least one of it. 

I turned to eBay, a few of my friends had some success and I was a decent enough painter, so after a few difficult sales I got better at it and it’s rare that I don’t make some form of profit, so I came up with my golden rules for managing my collection through sales, without further ado:

1. Paint all your stuff if you can, painted models sell better if you have some talent.

2. Store your figures well, there’s nothing more frustrating that having to repair or repaint figures just to sell them.

3. Take good pics, I’ll do an article on the little I’ve learnt on this at some point.

4. Sell the right stuff at the right time. GW price rises help, sell stuff when an army is re-released.

5. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. Selling or getting rid of armies is sometimes necessary. Realising the signs is important, if you’re not using them, feel you could’ve done a better job or are just keeping them for nostalgia purposes, then maybe it’s time...

But how can you make it feel better? You put a lot of effort into that army, in a perfect world you’d keep them all right?

But should you catch ‘em all? 

Well my rules are that I photograph everything I sell and keep images for prosperity. I have pics of all my old armies, even though some are now in the Philippines, Germany, Australia, USA, Yemen and more. I’m pretty proud of that, my figures are more travelled than I am! The other thing I do if I can is sell to a friend, that way I can actually see someone enjoying the army, it doesn’t happen often though as most of my friend are holistic hobbyists and Base and paint their own stuff.

My recently sold Kaptain Flashgit Badruk, a nice figure to paint

So, don’t be afraid to slay your darlings. After all, plastic crack isn’t free and I know where my proceeds go! Next time I’ll talk about storing it all.

Last but not least if you want to expand your collection and really like my stuff, check out my auctions:

https://ebay.co.uk/usr/stoned_rose