Completism and Consumerism
Last night I talked to Jay Tan, mostly to ask how he was doing. At some point we talked about collections (I think we were referring to comic books) and I mentioned how I tend to buy things out of a completist urge.
My toy car collection experienced its first purge several weeks ago as I sold off a number of my 1:64 Mustangs. I had not started out a Mustang collector and that particular make of car had lost its appeal to me as a 'line.' I marvelled at how bloated my collection had become in so short a time.
My collection may have gotten lean, but since then I think I've replaced the cars that were sold, albeit with other, less pricey models of other cars.
TC, through whose parents I was able to have some toy cars shipped from the U.S. at a dramatically reduced price, asked me why I bought two color schemes of the same car, and essentially it's because I'm a completist. It's not enough that I have one black 2005 Ford GT; I have to have all six: the black, red, white, yellow, gray and orange ones. I'm kind of a freak this way, but I take consolation knowing I'm not alone. There are at least two thousand of us out there (the approximate member count of Diecast Collectors of the Philippines) with varying levels of addict--I mean devotion to this hobby.
Brrr.....toy and collectible companies know we're out there, so there's no way they'll sell just one color of Ferrari 599 GTB. For the comic book events, there's no way they'll just print one cover or one edition. I know that completism can be as much a collector's worst enemy as the merchant's best friend, and yet, in some instances I can't help myself. Of course, I'm limited by what's available readily on the market, but when I go to events like last weekend's toycon, where quite a lot of different cars were available, some real discipline should come into play, which it...well, didn't.
Consumerism really is the bane of this society (well, one of them, anyway) and while I take genuine pleasure in my car collection (which I'd like to learn to post pictures of on this or my own blog, seeing as how I can't paste anything from photobucket, my own host site) I have made efforts to temper my urge to buy things by limiting myself to very specific criteria, whether in terms of budget, make of car or other things that prevent me from spiraling too much out of control.
Completism is okay (I think), for so long as once I've completed a line, I don't think too much about starting up whole new ones.
Still, what I really long for were the days when my principal hobby was writing, whether it was short stories loosely based on my laughable love life or far-out fantasy tales (some of which I've even been able to show to freinds over the years). I don't feel I'm doing anything particularly wrong by keeping this car-collecting hobby, the same way I don't feel any guilt over amassing my comic book collection, but I think that, for my own personal growth, I'd be a lot better off if I really started putting energy into a hobby that involves creating, rather than simply acquiring.
My toy car collection experienced its first purge several weeks ago as I sold off a number of my 1:64 Mustangs. I had not started out a Mustang collector and that particular make of car had lost its appeal to me as a 'line.' I marvelled at how bloated my collection had become in so short a time.
My collection may have gotten lean, but since then I think I've replaced the cars that were sold, albeit with other, less pricey models of other cars.
TC, through whose parents I was able to have some toy cars shipped from the U.S. at a dramatically reduced price, asked me why I bought two color schemes of the same car, and essentially it's because I'm a completist. It's not enough that I have one black 2005 Ford GT; I have to have all six: the black, red, white, yellow, gray and orange ones. I'm kind of a freak this way, but I take consolation knowing I'm not alone. There are at least two thousand of us out there (the approximate member count of Diecast Collectors of the Philippines) with varying levels of addict--I mean devotion to this hobby.
Brrr.....toy and collectible companies know we're out there, so there's no way they'll sell just one color of Ferrari 599 GTB. For the comic book events, there's no way they'll just print one cover or one edition. I know that completism can be as much a collector's worst enemy as the merchant's best friend, and yet, in some instances I can't help myself. Of course, I'm limited by what's available readily on the market, but when I go to events like last weekend's toycon, where quite a lot of different cars were available, some real discipline should come into play, which it...well, didn't.
Consumerism really is the bane of this society (well, one of them, anyway) and while I take genuine pleasure in my car collection (which I'd like to learn to post pictures of on this or my own blog, seeing as how I can't paste anything from photobucket, my own host site) I have made efforts to temper my urge to buy things by limiting myself to very specific criteria, whether in terms of budget, make of car or other things that prevent me from spiraling too much out of control.
Completism is okay (I think), for so long as once I've completed a line, I don't think too much about starting up whole new ones.
Still, what I really long for were the days when my principal hobby was writing, whether it was short stories loosely based on my laughable love life or far-out fantasy tales (some of which I've even been able to show to freinds over the years). I don't feel I'm doing anything particularly wrong by keeping this car-collecting hobby, the same way I don't feel any guilt over amassing my comic book collection, but I think that, for my own personal growth, I'd be a lot better off if I really started putting energy into a hobby that involves creating, rather than simply acquiring.
posted by Jim Arroyo at 2:55 PM
5 Comments:
I've always found it funny that now we're all working and have the money, a lot of us seem to have splurged on kids' stuff, whether comics, toys or books. (Or guns or what not...)
Personally, I'm not that much of a completist though I do admit my bibliophilia does get carried away at times.
Yeah, I got the funniest text, from Ching of all people, describing in great detail a gun that was for sale. Nothing much to say about that except, well, wow.
From my perspective, maybe it's that the toys when we were kids just weren't as cool as the ones they have out now...
That's true though I still love the old-style GI Joe action figure from before. And what about Mask or Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors or... hell, I can remember a lot of really cools during our time.
P.S. Btw, blogger has a picture function that's really easy to use. Why not use that instead of photobucket?
Okay, I will sit down here one of these days and learn how ;)
...and for the girls it's like buying one kind of blouse in every color imaginable...
hehehe
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