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 Nevelon wrote:

40KNobz11 wrote:
Plastic crack! nuff said

We used to call M:tG “flat crack”

I may have had a CCG problem, but I’m over that now.

"paper crack"

If you only bought Magic, and kept the cards in good condition, you could probably sell them and get most of your money back.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

40KNobz11 wrote:
Plastic crack! nuff said

We used to call M:tG “flat crack”

I may have had a CCG problem, but I’m over that now.

"paper crack"

If you only bought Magic, and kept the cards in good condition, you could probably sell them and get most of your money back.

Step ahead of you. I sold the bulk of my MtG collection in ’99 to help with the down payment on my house. Sold the rest (a small pile of alpha/beta cards) around two years ago to fund my 40k hobby, to the tune of about $2k.

My basement is still packed with L5R, Doomtown, 7th Sea, Dune, Shadowfist, Shadowrun, Battletech, Netrunner, Jyhad/VtES, Star Wars, and god know what else. Miniatures are expensive enough and require work to get fielded that I never impulse bought them. Booster packs of cards on the other hand, I’d buy all the time.

It's not the point where you realise that things have gone too far that's the problem. It's that moment (usually seconds later) when you think 'feth it' and order another box set online.

 Nevelon wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

40KNobz11 wrote:
Plastic crack! nuff said

We used to call M:tG “flat crack”

I may have had a CCG problem, but I’m over that now.

"paper crack"

If you only bought Magic, and kept the cards in good condition, you could probably sell them and get most of your money back.

Step ahead of you. I sold the bulk of my MtG collection in ’99 to help with the down payment on my house.

Sold the rest (a small pile of alpha/beta cards) around two years ago to fund my 40k hobby, to the tune of about $2k.

My basement is still packed with L5R, Doomtown, 7th Sea, Dune, Shadowfist, Shadowrun, Battletech, Netrunner, Jyhad/VtES, Star Wars, and god know what else. Miniatures are expensive enough and require work to get fielded that I never impulse bought them. Booster packs of cards on the other hand, I’d buy all the time.

Excellent! I'm taking that as a solid 5-figure score.

Also good - $2k buys quite a fair amount of plastic.

Oops. I am so glad that I only focused on Magic, then Pirates to a much lesser degree, and even then, mostly on sale/clearance. I am also glad that I largely stopped buying things that require building.

I'm waaaay past the point of no return lol.

40k/WHFB/Deadzone/BFG/Space Hulk/Epic and KoW lol

I have really always wondered how often other people play. I never play any games. I paint, I build lists I do everything in the hobby but game. Some times when I take a step back it seems silly of me. But then I want another army. Or something els for my wolves...... I need to finish something and play with it. I have come to a realization of sorts about being realistic with what I aquire... And I hates it.

I was kind of in that place. Wolves and Blood Angels and Tyranids and Eldar getting bigger and bigger, never got any of it finished painted, never played any 40k games, then I came to a conclusion that I enjoyed playing more than painting and painting more than collecting/trading/spending money/not doing anything.

So I sold off everything 40k and fantasy. Then I got into X wing and was happy buying prepainted minis and flying different spaceships every week at the gaming club but now I've started buying into Dark Age as well and it's difficult keeping up playing and painting those models and now I'm considering buying into Infinity and Star Wars: Armada >.>

Whilst nowhere near as bad as others, I found a single grey plastic grot head when I first moved into my house five years ago.

That ignited a flame that had been smouldering for fifteen years and in true ork style it rapidly multiplied to three 90litre storage tubs stuffed full of new on sprue and removed from sprue grey plastic.

I have stopped buying though apart from the odd oop ork on ebay as I paint far to slow to ever use them all, hell I'm still working on my first 1000pts

I was messing around on the bus the other day and realised that I had enough miniatures to do a 1500 point KOW army for:
Ogres, Orcs, Goblins, Twilight Kin, Elves, Dwarves, Kingdoms of Men, Undead.
That's ignoring my Legions of Everblight force, my unassembled Gatormen and my unassembled Chaos force.

Add to that the historical forces I've been working on, and it just gets a bit ludicrous.

I had every 2nd ed 40K army, numerous Epic and WHFB armies, various Necromunda gangs and assorted other bits and pieces until an unfortunate fire left me with a gorilla box full of remnants.

These days I am more discerning in my purchases, while I still have more than I can paint at least I tend to use everythign I buy these days.

I've had to start hiding minis in places my wife doesn't look so it doesn't look like I have so much when I buy more.

I know what you mean. I got rid of my orks years ago, but I keep finding meganobs everywhere. I didn't even know I'd bought so many.

 Istvaan wrote:
I've had to start hiding minis in places my wife doesn't look so it doesn't look like I have so much when I buy more.

How smart is your wife?

And how small is your collection that you can pull this off?

 Azazelx wrote:
I moved, and have spent the last two and a quarter years trying to make my collection fit, while adding way too many new items to it.

Or to put it another way, after I moved, and started bringing things out of storage, and boxes that had been packed away for years, and boxes that had been in storage for years at my parents' place, and way too many Kickstarters and eBay purchases, this happened:

Spoiler:

Which is both great, and terrible.

MY MY GOD GOD


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I might have a problem. I'm currently building and painting 2 armies and finishing up painting my GK and DA...Once complete I will have 4 armies each capable of fielding 2k points in a mono build. Though judging from a lot of other responses - it seems I'm not nearly as far along as some of you.

I understand the need for buying model kits. Even if there is no chance in hell you ever will get around to assembling them. There is just something about having them. I no longer play, which means my 500 or so painted minis just sit in their cases never seeing the light of day and I still cant bring myself to sell them. Mostly because they are mine and I really dont need the money.

Thankfully GW pricing being what it is has made the idea of purchasing any more of their product unstomachable.

As for my anime garage kit, I have a hard rule. No more than 3 unpainted figures at a time. Yes there will always be that OMG I must have that model, but Ive realized that there are at least three of those put out every year. If I dont get this one, I'll just get the next one that comes along when I have an open slot.

Its this mentality that has allowed me not to turn into one of those people who if they never bought another kit, would still be building off their closet of collection for the next 20 years.

 Jayden63 wrote:
As for my anime garage kit, I have a hard rule. No more than 3 unpainted figures at a time.

Its this mentality that has allowed me not to turn into one of those people who if they never bought another kit, would still be building off their closet of collection for the next 20 years.

I'm not sure someone as disciplined as you belongs in this thread...

Well, good to know I'm among friends here at DakkaDakka Anonymous

I'm at a point in my life right now where I really can't buy anything new, so it'll be a good time to break the habit of buying more than I can paint. I'm looking forward to having some finished armies and, I dunno, having closure?

Its also good motivation to get back to my P and M blog. I've actually been painting, just been forgetting to update it. Now that I have no way to buy new models all I can do is paint.

I feel like this is something all hobbyists go through, we all want those awesome armies and want to see all that awesome stuff come to life, but at the end of the day we're only human

The bank took my house and now I live in an igloo made of unopened miniatures boxes.

Seriously though, I don't have an awful lot. When I started out ~2 years ago I admittedly did go on a bit of a splurge, but I sold of most of that, due to lack of space. I haven't bought anything wargaming related since October or November, so I think I can justify picking up some new lovely stuff soon #slipperyslope

This miniature hobby is not a problem, if you won't make it a problem.

Even though crack is cheaper, I find this a much better and healthier addiction.

Yeah, I'm fairly awful about hoarding at this point.

To give an idea of the scale of my problem, I had once tried to write an app for my PDA to help track things which worked...ok-ish (not a programmer by trade, but it synced into Access fairly well). Then I got an iPhone and found the app "MyStuff" which was much better. I liked using it, but data entry on a phone is a PITA. So when the iPad was announced, I pre-ordered one almost immediately...to inventory my models. Then when the app added barcode scanning for rapid entry I got a newer model with a camera on it (among other reasons that time at least). People thought I was insane to spend $1000 on electronics to inventory my toy soldiers; little did they know the insanity is the retail value of my GW collection is many, many times that...factor of multiple tens. This doesn't include my Mantic, Dreamforge, FFG, SDE and FoW nor my expected KD:M collection which, while all dramatically smaller, is still quite a bit in aggregate.

I think it's safe to say I waved towards "too far" about a decade ago and just kept right on trucking towards the horizon. We have a lot of fun toys over here though.

Back in the UK, at my mum's house (I'm sure she's dying for me to move back so I can clear everything out), I have far too many models. I've been collecting GW minis since I was a nipper.
Got complete boxed sets of Hero Quest, Warhammer Quest (plus extra warriors and expansion stuff), Gorkamorka (which I don't think I ever even played), WHFB and 40k.
I have an army of undead, from back when they were just undead (4th or 5th?). Most of that is pretty heavily modified using dragons and such from various elf armies. Then there are all the orks, which I've never really played, I just really like orks! And a bunch of 40k Chaos minis, just cos they're cool. That's just the stuff I don't use.
I have a pretty big IG force, I think it's getting up to about 7k, not counting the stuff I've not assembled, like the baneblade. I've not really played for a few years though, so to get back into it I decided to start another army, so I have a good number of boxes of Space Wolves, cos I've never actually played marines, and I love the lore on them. And I wanna get back into Fantasy too, and I finally went down the road of the dark gods. Atm it's just a bunch of chosen, warshrine for heavy conversion with bags of skulls, and some posh khorne captains.
And then there is the bitz box, which is more like a bitz chest, which is everything I've accrued over the last 20 odd years. I wouldn't say I have a problem, but maybe once I've moved back to Blighty and pack it all up...

My spread sheet currently states I have about 10k usd worth of GW retail, which might not be a whole lot compared to what y'all got. But for starting in 6th edition 40k I can say i am well on the way.

twinner wrote:
My spread sheet currently states I have about 10k usd worth of GW retail, which might not be a whole lot compared to what y'all got. But for starting in 6th edition 40k I can say i am well on the way.

I use the fact that I bought stuff when it was cheaper to help justify my collection. That and a lot of it was purchased at deep discounts. A while ago there was a thread about pricing out your 1,500 point lists, it was pretty eye-opening in terms of the cost of the hobby. You extrapolate that out to the number of points in a collection, number get big. Fast.

But if you buy 2-4 units a year, and collect for ~20+ years, you get a massive force, and it seems reasonable (and is, frankly).

Jesus wept, Azazelx that is impressive

Although some of the collections here pale in significance to some I have seen in historicals mags, where you get some guy who has been collecting for 40 years and actually needs a warehouse to hold his collection (all painted, too.. I'll see if I can find the pics)

I have a rule for myself that I won't hold more than two armies for any system, if I get a third then one of them gets sold (the one I use least). It's a little sad, especially if you put a lot of hours into completing it, but I think at least someone will get some use from them and I simply don't have the space to store everything.

I also try and limit how many 'mass battle' armies I collect at once, at the moment I'm just finishing of a FoW army and starting on a War of the Roses army, it's normally about 2 years per project. Skirmish or small scale games (just finishing off a Blood Bowl team for instance and starting a new Infinity force) means you can save on a lot of space, money, and get playing quickly too.

Finally got rid of my ex last friday and cleaned up the place over easter. I was shocked to find that I had boxes over boxes of models in all states from sprue to almost-finished, painting and modelling supplies in literally every single room, including the kitchen. Eh, guess I'll have more time to paint them now...

I had everything in Excel but that sheet went to poop the last time i spilled my container :/

I needa get bit baggies.

I currently have 12 40k Armies with 3,500 to 15,000 points each (most around the 8,000 area), and a rather large titan collection (40k scale that is). I once sat down and realized that I now have 37 Titans, Gargants, Eldar titans, and other super heavy walkers in 40k scale.

If that wasn't bad enough, I've actually made plans for a future home remodeling that includes space for a large gaming table, storage, and construction table/painting area.

Although my wife did veto the built-in spray paint booth with exhaust fan.

Check out some of the "list of shame" type threads - they REALLY put some of this in perspective (lists of unbuilt or unpainted minis).

I moved a while ago, and the amount of boxes I pulled out of my storage closet that just held stuff still in boxes was a lot - the wife was like "you had all of that in there?"
(8000 poitns of marines, about 6000 in necrons, 2000 in tau, and maybe 2000 in tyranids, plus other random star wars/battlestar galactica etc. models
I have an entire company of marines still in boxes....).

A while I ago, I tryied to not buy stuff unless I build and paint stuff -which takes a lot of discipline. I did manage to start focusing about a year or so ago, and manged to completely finish two armies (every model I would build, got built and painted).

Now, I am trying to be disciplined and not build faster than I can paint. Its not easy, but it helps a lot.

Oh, and having kids helps - or just being responsible about other financial planning - for example, who much would all those unbuilt models be in my 401k now, if I had put that money away years ago.

Then again, compared to the cost of kids - this hobby is nothing.....

I think for me it was when my house got robbed and the insurance claim for the minis alone was around $20,000. It was that combined with the knowledge that I probably had at least another $3000-4000 in deep storage at my family's farm.

-MaxGravity

 cuda1179 wrote:
I currently have 12 40k Armies with 3,500 to 15,000 points each (most around the 8,000 area), and a rather large titan collection (40k scale that is). I once sat down and realized that I now have 37 Titans, Gargants, Eldar titans, and other super heavy walkers in 40k scale.

If that wasn't bad enough, I've actually made plans for a future home remodeling that includes space for a large gaming table, storage, and construction table/painting area.

Although my wife did veto the built-in spray paint booth with exhaust fan.

Nice collection of stuff! I'm always glad to see people with vas

I just want a large, multi-purpose gaming table with inset playing level, built-in storage. The tricky part is that I want it upstairs, so that somewhat limits the dimensions of the components, as I would have to build them in the garage, but assemble them in the room. I'm also seriously thinking about display wall cabinetry for additional storage when I remodel the room.

Heh, the voice of reason asserts itself!