過去からの学習: Learning from the past.

I buy things over and over. I don't buy these items, and accumulate them, I buy them to replace the ones I no longer have. It's an evil circle of actions that's plagued me for 20-25 years. Many times I am stuck for cash, and as a collector I have several options, the least problematic to everybody around me is to just sell a piece from my collection. It does kill me to do it, each time, that selling off a piece of your history kinda stings and it's not something you get used to. In time I start to regret the sale (no matter what I needed the cash for at the time), and then the hunger for a replacement builds.

Earlier this year I grabbed a lot of junker Beastformers from Japan. And boy, where they junkers. Most had no rub signs, none had their weapons, and only 2 Laser Beasts among the pile of regular Beasts. The gem of the lot was the clear Crystal Killer Fish, the one toy in the lot I wanted. I went ahead and bid, won and paid for the lot. My hope was to sell off the extras and try and recoup the costs, I nearly didn't. The 2 Laser Beasts while at onetime may have sold high and paid the costs on their own sold far lower than normal. It was only with blowing out the remainder of the Beastformers guys at $2-3 each that I made it close to the cost of the lot. In the end the 4 Beasts above cost me about $25. So a really good deal.

This is the 8th time I've owned the Crystal Killer Fish. The 7 times prior I've sold him off to pay rent, a gas bill, fund a tip to Japan or BotCon, or just to get another toy. I hope, I really do, that he stays put this time.

Of all the collections I've built up and sold off, Diaclone, Microman, Transformers, Takara G.I.Joe, Transformers decoys, I feel most ill about the loss of my Machine Robo and Gobots collection. The funny thing is, it's the one collection I kept more of too, but that only eases things so much. I've slowly continued on picking up various versions of my favorite characters from Gobots & Machine Robo since I blew out my collection in 2007, but things changed this year. A few months back I started picking up random other figures from the lines, all items I've owned before. In all cases I've paid less than originally. I guess that helps.

What I take away form this is the fact that I'm spending time and money on things I've wasted time and money on before. While others are building their collections up or dismantling them in lieu of different directions, I'm treading water with my collection. Not swimming on, not drowning either, just kinda floating about.

1984 robot Bandai Diaclone Gobots Machine Robo マシンロボ バンダイ, Japanese Robots