Collector Mistakes (1 Viewer)

[DMNamiot]

Hi Louis,

Two questions? How many Aircraft did they produce? When you say you need about 20 figures what do you mean, do you mean you only need 20 to make up the entire set of WWII produced or do you maen for all the figures they have produced? I only need two sets to complete the Britains Durbar series, but I keep getting distracted by other bright shinny things.

Dave

 

[Louis Badolato]

Hi Louis,

Two questions? How many Aircraft did they produce? When you say you need about 20 figures what do you mean, do you mean you only need 20 to make up the entire set of WWII produced or do you maen for all the figures they have produced? I only need two sets to complete the Britains Durbar series, but I keep getting distracted by other bright shinny things.

Dave

As of right now, my list of Warbirds stands at around 126, but I keep discovering more planes K&C made, and Andy didn't keep a master list or even sales records, so it could be more. In addition, a popular plane, like a Corsair or ME109, might have been produced in 8-10 different markings. If you want one of each plane produced in each different marking, you could be talking about literally thousands of variations.

As far as figures, in the ranges I collect (all Glossy except LAH, plus matt WWII, Rough Riders, Vietnam, modern Special Forces and Romans, I need slightly less than 20 figures (18 or 19) to have 'em all. Upon receipt of the 1993 issue glossy Free French and marching glossy US figures I just bought, I will have every WWII figure K&C has produced & released to date.

I also have every K&C vehicle ever sold, and, in fact, every vehicle in every paint scheme except two (the tan desert version of the 1995-1996 wood RAF Ambulance and the U.S. version of the 1996 wood Sherman [the one with hinged hatches that open]).

 

[OzDigger]

........As far as collections being completed, good luck. I still need around 20 figures and at least 80 aircraft to finish mine, and I have a pretty good head start on most of the new guys.

Surely there comes a time for even the most dedicated completist to realise the futility of buying a figure, plane or set merely to satisfy their feeling of emptyness or whatever drives such ambitions (I'm speaking as a reformed completist )

Clearly a K & C collection will never be complete as the company makes new pieces and reissues improved versions of earlier issues, including those better tank tracks. When this fact finally sinks in I feel there will be less interest in the early K & C pieces, or at least result in a narrowing to the more desirable pieces.

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Louis,

Wow wouldnt even sum it up! I would love to see the whole collection displayed I bet its unbelieveable. I hope you are putting some photos in the book of these sets.

Dave

 

[jazzeum]

Surely there comes a time for even the most dedicated completist to realise the futility of buying a figure, plane or set merely to satisfy their feeling of emptyness or whatever drives such ambitions (I'm speaking as a reformed completist )

Clearly a K & C collection will never be complete as the company makes new pieces and reissues improved versions of earlier issues, including those better tank tracks. When this fact finally sinks in I feel there will be less interest in the early K & C pieces, or at least result in a narrowing to the more desirable pieces.

Oz,

I don't think I'd want to hazard a guess or the intentions as to why a person collects what he does and in the manner he does. We're not psychoanalysts. Speaking for myself, I try to collect as much K & C as I can in the areas I collect (WW 2, Early glossy, Nelson's Navy and Roughriders) so that I can complete those lines. I know I may never do it but part of being a dedicated collector is collecting what you're missing.

I think there will always be a coterie of collectors who want to collect the early stuff and it has nothing to do with the fact that the newer issues are artistically better. The early issues have their own charm and are not all that necessarily easy to find. On the other hand the newer issues will be around a long time and there will be time enough to acquire those when the time comes.

I also get a thrill in helping a collector find a very hard to find piece. Sometimes it's not just the acquiring of a piece but finding a collector and seeing what he has.

I just don't see the lessening of the interest in the early items. As a matter of fact, I see collectors who started collecting World War II now delving into the earlier glossy traditional King and Country toy soldiers.

 

[jrsteel]

There is no market for old Britains anymore. People who spent thousands for the 100 year old sets can't find anyone to buy them at a fraction of the price. It is pretty sad at the Chicago Show the last few years, room after room of elderly gentleman with set after set of old Britains neatly laid out on their beds, and no interest from any buyers. The collectors for these figures, the folks that played with them as kids and find them nostalgic, are passing away, and there is no interest from younger generations.

I think that retired K&C will hold its value as long as the new sets remain popular, and newer collectors want to fill out their collections with older pieces. So if you are a big investor in K&C, you should take a life insurance policy on Andy, and make sure he gets regular check ups!

"There's no market for old Britains today"? Based on what? What you saw at Chicago? I saw many old sets being sold at the Valley Forge show. The toy soldier shop in the town where I work sells a lot of old Britains sets. Most of the people I see buying them are in the 30-mid 50's age bracket. Whenever an old boxed Britains or Mignot set is posted on Ebay, they always sell. Someone is buying them.

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Jrsteel,

I agree that there is a market for them but I think a lot of the ebay ones end up overseas, of course I dont have a lot of emperical data to measure this by but I dont see them going as fast as they used too. They will sell if priced right but some of the guys out there are pricing them too high. I know you have some nice sets from our past chats and I have a few nice old ones but they are a little pricey and the kids now a days dont go for the older styles or things that arent WWII or ACW.

Dave

 

[Louis Badolato]

"There's no market for old Britains today"? Based on what? What you saw at Chicago? I saw many old sets being sold at the Valley Forge show. The toy soldier shop in the town where I work sells a lot of old Britains sets. Most of the people I see buying them are in the 30-mid 50's age bracket. Whenever an old boxed Britains or Mignot set is posted on Ebay, they always sell. Someone is buying them.

You obviously see some sets selling, so there still must be some market, but when as enormous a figure in the Toy Soldier industry as Bob Fisher, the founder of the West Coaster (2nd Biggest Show in America) and the former (long time) owner of the Old Toy Soldier Home tells me that in his experience the market for old Britains is dead, well, I believe him. There are a bunch of dealers and manufacturers on this forum. I would be interested in hearing their take on this subject.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Hi Louis,

Wow wouldnt even sum it up! I would love to see the whole collection displayed I bet its unbelieveable. I hope you are putting some photos in the book of these sets.

Dave

Dave,

There will be photos in the book from my collection, Hans' collection and Larry's collection. Where we don't have a figure or aircraft, but can locate someone who does, we will be asking permission to include photos from other collectors. We intend to have photos of virtually all K&C products in the book. As far as seeing my collection, anytime you can make it to New York, just drop me a PM or an E-mail and I will be happy to give you a tour. However, your best bet is to hit the Symposium the second weekend in March, because then you can see not only my collection, but those of Larry, our friend Mark Hoffman (who has the largest collection of artillery related toy soldiers I've ever heard of, something like 6,000 to 7,000 figures and probably 1,000+ guns) and meet some of the biggest collectors, dealers and manufacturers from around the world.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Surely there comes a time for even the most dedicated completist to realise the futility of buying a figure, plane or set merely to satisfy their feeling of emptyness or whatever drives such ambitions (I'm speaking as a reformed completist )

Sorry Oz, for some of us there is no feeling of futility, only the thrill of the hunt when trying to locate these missing wonders, and the deep satisfaction of finally holding one of the missing items in your hand. Ahhhhh . . . the anticipation of the arrival of a package of Free French I have been after for oh, about 10 years.

 

[jazzeum]

Dave,

There will be photos in the book from my collection, Hans' collection and Larry's collection. Where we don't have a figure or aircraft, but can locate someone who does, we will be asking permission to include photos from other collectors. We intend to have photos of virtually all K&C products in the book. As far as seeing my collection, anytime you can make it to New York, just drop me a PM or an E-mail and I will be happy to give you a tour. However, your best bet is to hit the Symposium the second weekend in March, because then you can see not only my collection, but those of Larry, our friend Mark Hoffman (who has the largest collection of artillery related toy soldiers I've ever heard of, something like 6,000 to 7,000 figures and probably 1,000+ guns) and meet some of the biggest collectors, dealers and manufacturers from around the world.

During the first Symposium, when I had been a collector for less than a year, Louis arranged for Doug Luna and me to see Mark's collection which is eclectic and fantastic. He's got in offices he and his brother share and Dave, you've got to see this. You would love it. He's got everything. It's just unbelievable. It was a real treat to see it and to have dinner with Mark this year at Louis' club during the Symposium. The funny thing was that we were talking about Jim Hillestadt's collection and Mark said "I'm an amateur compared to him." I've never been to Jim's but you know it has to be special.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Jim Hillestad has two houses, one his wife lives in and one his toys live in. The only collector I know of who has as big a collection as Jim's as Jack Matthews. The rest of us are not even close.

 

[nicolas]

I find the worst mistakes i could make is when i look at price. Obviously i have a budget for figures but sometimes i'm so impatient and want figures NOW! that i purchase something cheaper (in price) just to satisfy my need of collecting. But on the other hand, my local shop was discounting all their WBritans at 50% I purchased everything in the shop (was mostly the Civil war). That was a great buy! But mostly buying on impulse is a bad thing for me...

 

[Rob]

I recently got in the loft and rediscovered my 1/6 scale Dragon models collection.On an impulse i bought two more totalling about £70.A few days later the fad had totally worn off and i could have kept that 70 quid to spend at the London show next week.Reaaaaallllllly annoyed with myself.

Rob

 

[kilted vampire]

You can spray your gloss painted figures with clear matte and fix that problem pretty easy.
My mistakes have been buying figures that I already had and didn,t rember buying!!! Thats when you know you have to many, When you can,t rember what you have already!!!

You are right of course about the matte finish. I will be doing that and then sell them. I just bought about 200 figures from a diorama that i had done at Sierra Toy Soldiers. They are toy types so I will be getting rid of some figures.
I do the buying thing more with my toy trains. Repeat buying shows consistency in choice and style.

 

[Fubar]

My only real mistake was trusting someone I should not have trusted on ebay and getting burned fairly bad.
I regret selling off maybe 500 pcs of Atlantic 1/32 Ancients I scored at a toy store that closed and I bought out their entire stock of Greeks, Trojans, Egyptians and Romans for a song.When my kids were little they would line them up all over the family room floor and we would bomb them with little plastic catapults firing peanut MnM's!
I was still building my 25mm metal armies and never figured on painting the 1/32 Atlantics. Sold off to fund 25mm . Wish I hadnt done that!!!!!!!!!!
fUbARrr