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So basically this is like a personal question to all you fellow hobbyists.....

When is enough, enough? How do you know when you have come to the end of the collecting cycle wether it's from budget limits or time spent in the game?

How many think that this will never run thin and we will always be stuck in the warp collecting??

It is never enough :0

Maybe when I have evry model in a range it will be enough.

On a more serious note, I think it's just getting minis I like and games I like.
It's probably more space concerns that realy become dificult. Not As much fun if you put them all in boxes for storage all the time. :(

I have two collections, the first is whatever games I am currently involved in and the armies associated with those games, and the second is my Battletech collection. In the first case, "enough" is when I begin to lose interest in the game, setting, and or company producing the game. When the fun level drops, or when I have my faction(s) built up enough that new purchases will not add anything of value to my collection then I stop. Stopping often includes purging the collection or at least reducing it to a more manageable level so other interests can be pursued. I hit that point with Warmachine back in 2009, and I am starting to lose interest in 40k, so the process will begin anew soon enough.

For Battletech, though, it is likely going to be a life long interest baring major life changes. I have been collecting Battletech materials for 20 years and I might take small breaks every few years, but inevitably I get pulled back in when I see a deal on eBay or Bartertown that makes me whip out the wallet and break my buying-fast.

I said enough was enough about fifteen years ago.........and here I am.

Sometimes I lie to myself and say that it's enough and a certain collection is finished.


Then I'm on eBay/*enter preferred discount e-tailer here* days later buying more than I should, eating Ramen and crying myself to sleep that night.

 Platuan4th wrote:
Sometimes I lie to myself and say that it's enough and a certain collection is finished.


Then I'm on eBay/*enter preferred discount e-tailer here* days later buying more than I should, eating Ramen and crying myself to sleep that night.

Welcome, brother.

I've said enough is enough a few times now. I just recently pulled out my huge piles of plastic stuff all NOS to remind myself. Then i dropped another grand on plastic in the last few months :(.

"Enough...is never enough."
-Ferengi Rule of Acquisition Number 97

I'm actively playing 4 different systems from 4 different companies, and will likely be starting 2 more over the next year. I also like having multiple factions to play myself/demo to others.

In short, there will always be more stuff to buy, paint and play with, so I guess 'enough' is when I have no money left or drown in plastic toy soldiers...

 Rayvon wrote:
I said enough was enough about fifteen years ago.........and here I am.

Same here. I am always saying, 'right, that's enough, get it painted' but then something else comes along or a find a long, lost bargain and then....

I guess space could be an issue; or if I were to buy something that never, ever got used; and just sat there. More an opportunity cost IE that money could have been invested instead of sitting on a shelf collecting dust. On the flip side, much of what I buy is significantly less than I could sell it for; and its plastic/metal; its not rusting like an extra car; there is no insurance, registration, etc. And a bunch of armies look really cool lined up on shelves.

 filbert wrote:

 Rayvon wrote:
I said enough was enough about fifteen years ago.........and here I am.

Same here. I am always saying, 'right, that's enough, get it painted' but then something else comes along or a find a long, lost bargain and then....

Story of my life.

I think you have enough when you can field the entirety of the Adeptus Astartes.

When i run out of space

As a new entrant I've picked up a *lot* of stuff in 3 years. Prolly $10K on importans and KS. 5 40k Armies. *lots* of Deadzone followed, as did *all* Dreadball, other KS odds and ends like Battle Systems terrain, Raging Heroes and WWX. Now expanding into other stuff like X-Wing, Dungeon Sage and Bolt Action.

- If you don't enjoy any apsect of the range enough to warrant keeping it, that's time for it to go unless you think you might change.
- If you're happy with your collection, you don't need to buy more of that range.
- Having a huge painting backlog is incentive to not buy more unless it's on big discount. (damn kickstarts and Mantic/WLG...and sadly GW bundles)
- If storage space is an issue, work on making it more efficient (magnetised trays rather than foam cases perhaps). When that's no longer enough, time to prioritise probably ; p

For me, it's enough when I have an army of a race I like. I don't that much so to me I see the units I like and say "ok, how do I make all of these into an 1850 or 2000 point list?" After I have all that I want to paint it a special scheme, base it, give it unique objectives, and a 2'x2' display board and then that's enough...for that army. Unfortunately I have probably ten different armies I want to do this with, over four or five different game systems.

So I have an end goal, a point where I can say "done!" but with the rate at which new cool models come out and the rate at which I paint, I can see this taking a long time.

I collect a bit differently.

First of all, the only thing I try to collect is valuable OOP miniatures.

For the most part I just want to own the miniature for a little time. I always end up selling it on. I have had some super rare miniatures pass through my collection

NickF509 wrote:
I've said enough is enough a few times now. I just recently pulled out my huge piles of plastic stuff all NOS to remind myself. Then i dropped another grand on plastic in the last few months :(.

Hm, so GW is right then. people's favorite part of the hobby is buying GW product.

Not just GW product...

kb305 wrote:

NickF509 wrote:
I've said enough is enough a few times now. I just recently pulled out my huge piles of plastic stuff all NOS to remind myself. Then i dropped another grand on plastic in the last few months :(.

Hm, so GW is right then. people's favorite part of the hobby is buying GW product.

People love buying stuff! The pleasure is in the purchase.

For myself, I've got it pretty much under control with 40K/WFB things, having sold 90% of what I had and not intending to add anything in the future. I do sometimes get tempted to add a model here and there, but hold off on the impulse and it normally goes away. (Even though I'm a Nagash fanboi, the twitch to purchase has passed)

WM/H - My Circle force is basically complete, with the occasional new thing added. That woman with the falcons was too nice a model to not own. No impulse to add anything more. Got around 40-50 points at a guess?

Infinity - This one is never complete! Too much stuff and always wanting more, but I'm painting what I do have first and quite disciplined

Napoleonics - no chance, its never gonna be finished. Point blank.

ECW - Pretty much bought everything I want, but can always add more.

Random other games - thats as the urge to play happens.

So, 99% of my spending goes onto other companies now. I used to always be planning, buying, painting and playing new GW armies but reigned that one right in around 4 odd years ago? Whenever 8th edition dropped and the O&G book was released and made me evaluate how much it was gonna cost just to maintain the 8 WFB armies I had at that point! (got two now, which ARE complete)

Has anyone read a book called Kill'n People, by David Brin? In that story, there is a future where people can clone various versions of themselves to carry out different tasks (actually, they are produced in a kiln!). I would need at least 3 or 4 copies of myself to be sat at home and working through my 'to paint' queue. Or, alternatively, one of those to go to work in my stead so I can sit at home painting all day

So many wonderful miniatures to paint, games to play, terrain to build and rules to read - I think we are in something of a golden age of gaming, but the biggest limitation for a lot of people is just having the time for it all..

kb305 wrote:

NickF509 wrote:
I've said enough is enough a few times now. I just recently pulled out my huge piles of plastic stuff all NOS to remind myself. Then i dropped another grand on plastic in the last few months :(.

Hm, so GW is right then. people's favorite part of the hobby is buying GW product.

Follow on from what Azazelx has said, take a look at an indepent gaming store.. you're gonna wonder, why didn't you take the blue pill.. !

I'll have collections or projects that'll be finished when I have everything I'll need (like I'm planning on doing the Persian invasion of Greece and the Japanese invasion of Korea in 15mm, will collect forces for them and be done).

But I'll always have more projects, and will likely keep up with the games I currently play, so will be buying any new EOTD, Malifaux, FoW and X-Wing stuff that is released for my factions.

Every time I think I have enough, I begin a new project; usually abandoning the one that I happened to be working on to come back to later. ( Like that's ever going to happen!)

Last week, I was building a Bolt Action force in 15mm using some leftover Flames of War Germans. I bought a Zvezda Sd Kfz 222 to accompany them.

I now have, sat on my desk next to me, another 12 Zvezda Sd Kfz 222s, because I want to build a Panzerspahkompanie.

I have no idea how that happened.

 Pacific wrote:
Has anyone read a book called Kill'n People, by David Brin? In that story, there is a future where people can clone various versions of themselves to carry out different tasks (actually, they are produced in a kiln!). I would need at least 3 or 4 copies of myself to be sat at home and working through my 'to paint' queue. Or, alternatively, one of those to go to work in my stead so I can sit at home painting all day

Doctor Manhattan tries that in Watchmen, and gets into trouble for it.
But, for every project I want to finish, another comes along.

It is never enough. Right now I have an entire 3rd company Dark Angels with All the heavy support, fast attack and elite choices. Plus sitting on my shelf is 450 points of Khador and four full fleets of Federation Commander. The collection grows each payday.

Well, up to 459 point of Khador as of 30 minutes ago.

I think these responses were to be expected. If we're honest 2 confirmed facts about us hobbyists pretty much answers my question.
1. Do we love what were collecting?
2. As long as can financially afford it would we stop buying?

I'm on like 5500+ blood angels and I don't have even half of the vehicles I want yet but every year I keep telling my wife "just this and this and this an I'm done for good". The Next year I say the sane thing but I can't help it. I just feel that this collection will never be finished because as we collect and grow with the hobby the damn attraction for additional units or new releases will always overpower reasonable thought.

I'm searching now for a cabinet but can't settle for one yet. Everyone is leaning toward ikea solutions and I'm still unsure. I guess my problem is I have most my stuff in storage and can't see physically the masses I've accumulated over the years I feel I don't have many.

I guess it an on going battle of the mind trying to justify constant buying

It varies from game to game.

For 40k, it was largely a budget thing, but that's a unique case as now I don't play many games that try to sell you the game and minis form one source.

I drop rulesets fairly often, usually because I find one that does a better job for the kind of game I like. I think I've been through a half dozen different post-apoc rulesets with the same collection of figs.

For the building of factions, it's hard to say. Generally it's when I've got enough for the kind of game I want to run. For example, I've got a reinforced platoon of Ventaurans (neat figs by Denizen) and a couple vehicles and a support platoon of Khiff. I've pretty much got enough figs to play Tomorrow's war. So I think I'm finished collecting that faction now. Another example would be my Chaos army for Kings of War. It's just about done and it will top out near 3000 points which is about as big a game as I want to play.

Of course I have multiple armies (Void Junkers, Imperial Guard, my Green and Grey 28mm Mech armies, etc) that are good sized and yet I've got boxes of stuff that still needs to be assembled and painted for them. So I'm not totally consistent.

For wargaming as a whole, I don't think I'll ever stop. There will always be a new faction to collect and paint. For a bargain hound like myself, who plays generic games it's even moreso as each game that dies or faction that gets upgraded is a new crop of minis hitting the discount or used bins.

For my primary army (Ultramarines) I’ve got a full battle company, which is more boots on the ground then I’ll ever practically field. Plus a shelf full of extras to swap in for wargear options. But there is still a lot of support units and extras I’d like to pick up. By the time I’d theoretically get all the other fringe stuff I want, a new edition of the codex would be out with new things to grab, and old stuff I passed on made better. I’m basically in maintenance mode, I grab stuff to add to my collection I think looks cool, or I want, but I don’t need anything more.

My Eldar army is still in the growing phase. Stalled out for progress, but there are still a ton of things I need to make it work the way I want to. So there is a lot of growth there and purchases to add.

I’ve got a number of armies that are “done” for a variety of reasons. All my WHFB forces (WoC, Undead mostly, with a small WE and Bret contingents) I have no plans on expanding. There is some unpainted stuff hiding in boxes, which may eventually get some paint. While I have the current rules, and the chaos army book, I never seem to get up to the FLGS to play. Although I hear it’s taking off again, so I might dust stuff off. Not sure if I’d pick more things up, depends what I’d need to be effective a/o legal in the current rule set (my armies were built under 5-6th ed rules) But considering the amount of play they get, it’s hard to justify adding to them.

I'm currently weighing up either extending the house, converting the loft or building a 20' shed in the 35' garden.

I do not understand the OP's question?

Anyway everyone knows your todger falls off if you stop collecting/buying.....that's what the game store manager says. Seems legit to me.

I do not understand the question.

What is this "finally enough"?

 kerikhaos wrote:
When is enough, enough?

When you've built standard-sized armies for all the DBM factions, can recreate most major land and naval conflicts since the Pike & Shot era and are actually begin to consider building Force On Force armies for the Mozambique Civil War?

Or prehistoric warfare.