ROAN
Specialist
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2007
- Messages
- 304
{eek3}
For those who are thinking about selling, donating, giving away your toy soldier collection I hope you will find some useful info below.
(This, from a longtime collector who a few years ago sold his collection and actually survived the experience!).
First, realize that you are not alone. Take comfort in the fact that others too have gone through this traumatic experience(if there are others on this forum who have also sold off, disposed of a collection-please feel free to share your stories, advice here).
Second, be prepared to deal with any or all of the following symptoms: feelings of loss, grief, guilt, disorientation, anger, listlessness, restlessness, apathy, ennui, insomnia, binge eating and/or drinking, abrupt shifts in political orientation, thoughts of joining a holy order or cult, sudden, inexplicable desires for all things French.
But be assured, these and any other unusual symptoms, strange feelings, or bizarre behaviors will, like everything in life, gradually pass.
One way to speed the healing process along is to start another collecting hobby(note: for those of you who are thinking about giving away, as opposed to selling, your collection and worry about the psychological repercussions-you’re probably not ready to do so and so should keep it for a few more years).
Therapeutically, this is known as “rebounding”-i.e. doing something new to get over the loss of the old. You’ll be pleasantly surprised of how good this will make you feel and how it helps you to forget, to really “let go” of your toy soldier collection.
If you manage to achieve this, you’ll begin see your former hobby in an entirely different light and might even find yourself asking “how did I ever get involved with that hobby??”
But if you feel like you’re not quite ready yet to enter into a serious new hobby, instead, you might want to consider just “playing the field”.
Do this, for example, by forming friendships outside the toy soldier collecting community, or become active in local politics(run for office),volunteer, become a mentor, spend money(yes, it’s okay-you needn’t feel guilty!), travel.
I have to confess, though, that I haven’t really followed my own advice to the letter. Because I’ve retained a portion of my old Britains collection-which I’m still “seeing” practically on a daily basis(sometimes three-four times a day!).
And it gets worse-I’ve relapsed: I haven’t even stopped buying old Britains- although I’ve stopped buying the military figures-now it's just civilians(okay, cowboy sets and figures, if you want to get technical about it). But I don’t buy very often-honest!
So, I’m still an occasional collector. But that’s just it!-my final bit of advice to you: don’t get rid of your entire collection. Always, at the very least(for old times sake?)keep, retain some figures or even sets around-to cherish and to hold, to dust and to polish.
Keep, for example, the ones you may have gotten from your childhood: the chipped, the bent, the mismatched, the ones with missing arms, bayonets or heads, the unboxed(i.e., the ones that aren’t so marketable).
Because if you do get rid of your total collection, what you are actually doing is getting rid of a piece of yourself-like, totally. Or something like that.
For those who are thinking about selling, donating, giving away your toy soldier collection I hope you will find some useful info below.
(This, from a longtime collector who a few years ago sold his collection and actually survived the experience!).
First, realize that you are not alone. Take comfort in the fact that others too have gone through this traumatic experience(if there are others on this forum who have also sold off, disposed of a collection-please feel free to share your stories, advice here).
Second, be prepared to deal with any or all of the following symptoms: feelings of loss, grief, guilt, disorientation, anger, listlessness, restlessness, apathy, ennui, insomnia, binge eating and/or drinking, abrupt shifts in political orientation, thoughts of joining a holy order or cult, sudden, inexplicable desires for all things French.
But be assured, these and any other unusual symptoms, strange feelings, or bizarre behaviors will, like everything in life, gradually pass.
One way to speed the healing process along is to start another collecting hobby(note: for those of you who are thinking about giving away, as opposed to selling, your collection and worry about the psychological repercussions-you’re probably not ready to do so and so should keep it for a few more years).
Therapeutically, this is known as “rebounding”-i.e. doing something new to get over the loss of the old. You’ll be pleasantly surprised of how good this will make you feel and how it helps you to forget, to really “let go” of your toy soldier collection.
If you manage to achieve this, you’ll begin see your former hobby in an entirely different light and might even find yourself asking “how did I ever get involved with that hobby??”
But if you feel like you’re not quite ready yet to enter into a serious new hobby, instead, you might want to consider just “playing the field”.
Do this, for example, by forming friendships outside the toy soldier collecting community, or become active in local politics(run for office),volunteer, become a mentor, spend money(yes, it’s okay-you needn’t feel guilty!), travel.
I have to confess, though, that I haven’t really followed my own advice to the letter. Because I’ve retained a portion of my old Britains collection-which I’m still “seeing” practically on a daily basis(sometimes three-four times a day!).
And it gets worse-I’ve relapsed: I haven’t even stopped buying old Britains- although I’ve stopped buying the military figures-now it's just civilians(okay, cowboy sets and figures, if you want to get technical about it). But I don’t buy very often-honest!
So, I’m still an occasional collector. But that’s just it!-my final bit of advice to you: don’t get rid of your entire collection. Always, at the very least(for old times sake?)keep, retain some figures or even sets around-to cherish and to hold, to dust and to polish.
Keep, for example, the ones you may have gotten from your childhood: the chipped, the bent, the mismatched, the ones with missing arms, bayonets or heads, the unboxed(i.e., the ones that aren’t so marketable).
Because if you do get rid of your total collection, what you are actually doing is getting rid of a piece of yourself-like, totally. Or something like that.
