Buying, Selling, and the Philosophy of Collecting

Well hello, that's a big topic.

Some people are what they call "Black Hole Collectors" - they are the ones who buy a model and keep it forever. They call it the black hole because once a model goes in, it's not coming back out. Their collections grow indefinitely over time. As you can probably tell from the content of this blog, I am on the other end of the spectrum with what you might call a Revolving Door Collection. I enjoy actively participating in the buying and selling aspect of the hobby and I love following the secondary market and price trends. My collection ebbs and flows as I go through buying phases and sell off phases.

I don't have the space nor the desire to continuously grow my collection forever, so I need to sell things to keep it manageable. Years ago, during my formative collecting years, there was a show on TV with Ralph and Terry Kovel, renowned antiques and collecting experts. They talked about all kinds of collectibles and the philosophy of collecting and I can remember one show in particular where they recommended that you sell the bottom 20% of your collection every year. This saves space, keeps the general value and quality of your collection up, and raises money that you can put towards your new acquisitions. This advice really stuck with me and I have tried to live by this.

I think they meant literally the 20% least valuable items but I've interpreted the bottom of my collection in more of a Marie Kondo sort of way - I go through my collection each year and see which models no longer "spark joy." Preferences can change over time and things I was really interested in collecting may phase out, so it's time to move those on. I also find it often takes me about a year of having a model to decide if it's something I really want long term or if it was a FOMO or Shiny New Object purchase. You'll often see last year's SRs in my room sales because it turns out they didn't really do it for me in the end.

Breyerfest is a really great opportunity for me to do this - it's a scheduled reminder every year to make the time to pull out those sales models. Since I've had a CHIN room I can also do most of the actual selling there too. That is so much easier than photographing, listing, and shipping each model. I used to love doing that and I really enjoyed buying and selling on eBay for many years - but these days that feels like much more of a chore than a hobby and I don't do much selling online anymore. This also has that added benefit of making room for my new BF purchases and raising funds for them as well! It's a fun cycle for me.

Another topic that comes up often and can generate a lot of dialogue in the hobby is flipping, or the act of buying a model and immediately turning around and selling it for a higher price. This is a sometimes unpopular opinion, but I am glad there is flipping in this hobby. Collectibles pricing is driven by supply and demand and an active secondary market is great for all of us, whether buyers or sellers or companies who make and sell new models.

If you take it to the extreme, there are not many of us who would walk past a $20 decorator at a flea market to "leave it for someone who really wants it" or buy it but then sell it for $20 because that was your cost. Similarly imagine someone who put in $20 to the Breyerfest raffle for fun and to support the cause but maybe doesn't love the model... you wouldn't expect them to turn around and say "you know what, draw another ticket, someone else wants it more than me" or again to turn around and sell it for $20 because that was their cost. If you want to take it even further what about prize models? Should winners only give them away because they were "free"? Web special lottery models fundamentally are no different, they are just a less extreme price difference.

Not every model goes up in value and similarly we don't go around expecting buyers to pay cost when a model's value drops below it. The biggest example that always comes to my mind is the medalist ponies - the gold, silver, and bronze Newsworthy models. They were $300 new which turned out to be way too ambitious a price in 2008 and they took many years to sell out, despite only 350 being made of each color. To this day they only sell for $150-$200 tops. But you don't see anyone running around demanding they be purchased at $300 because that's what they cost. In this case it is the buyers who waited who won out and they get a bargain instead of a markup.

Many (most?) of us take any profits we make on selling models and put it straight back in to the hobby. It's actually a great way for people just starting out to be able to slowly build their collection. I often think of it as trading, but the cash in between facilitates it since two people are unlikely to have exactly what the other person wants in trade. I might flip one web special so that I can buy another one that I didn't get drawn for. The woman who found my blue elephant at a sale, but had no interest in blue elephants, used the money she got by selling it to buy a Hagen Renaker she wanted - everybody wins!

But at the end of the day, for me I most enjoy the act of collecting. It's a verb rather than a noun. I love the community, I love showing, I love buying and selling, and I love being able to share this passion with so many others - no matter your particular style or focus of collecting!