|
|
Post by admin1 aka Ed on Sept 19, 2018 10:22:47 GMT -5
www.robot-japan.com/news/item/highlander-the-one-robots-and-the-1-percent.htmlHighlander, the one, robots and the 1 percent
Akin to Highlander, there seems to only "Be One". Trends to notice in 2018-- "One" super collector per continent. "One" super sought-after toy in a collection each time I review what people have (or that they want out of my smaller collection). "One" sought after piece to put the cherry on top of a collection. "One" really amazing toy per auction for sale... One want list item. Have we reached the end of the internet? Have we reached the end of the data searching hobby? Have collections started to saturate and finalize? Has there become a ho-hum? Well.... .NEVER. It won't happen and no collection-drug ridden Gen X male that enjoys robots will finalize things. It is just too fun to swap, trade, buy, sell, and hope for that eternal "Grail". That said, I think we do have a plateau. We do have a dropping of prices of ho-hum, semi-common toys. We do have collectors moving onto greener pastures of vinyl, customs, and new forms of toy lust to saturate our brains. This, though, will likely pass as the demographic of Gen X, Male, 1970's kid, architecht/engineer/designer/business owner buyer cycles in life and prospers- empty nest. It is coming. Death and loss of other collectos is unfortunately coming too. I see the cycle with older toys. So simmer my friends. Simmer over that one extra toy, that one grail, that one toy show find. Have fun planning. Have fun plotting. Heck, have fun gifting and swapping. -Trading. -Socializing. Just note that there are some lurkers out there all over the world wating for you to sell and ready for your duplicates. -Still have fun but don't be greedy. In the mean-time, I'll look for my affordable double headed villian and you look for your one item to allow restful sleep. Keep a loaded pocket (of cash) and beware of the other collectors swinging for that cherry of a toy......... Ed CUSS>.....DISCUSS>.....
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 19, 2018 11:05:49 GMT -5
Nicely written, Herr Admin. Having been a latter participant of the initial wave dating back to the mid-90s and starting off with friendships with some of the OG at ToyboxDX and watching that slowly fade as the collectors went off to their own corners, I think I would generally agree.
I entered the hobby completely wide-eyed thanks to my GF at the time gifting me the SoC GX-03 Combattler V and then seeing to my amazement what was out there and then having my memories jogged on the Godaikin, Chogokin toys, and G1 Transformers I loved and played with as a kid but "forgotten" during my high-school and college years as video games, cars, partying, and girls took a firmer hold. I joined a group as the "kid" new to the gokin-hoarding ways and taught what was out there and the wonders of eBay and Yahoo! Japan by folks like Matt Alt, Alen Yen, Erik Andoyeap, Darren Pierce, Ed Armstrong, and etc. I guess what brought many of those crew and others was the need to find, search, and research and as we all obtained our knowledge and passed on how-tos to others, life, children, and marriage probably caught up and the peeps slowly faded away and over time, just stopped participating. I guess the one last gasp at it was when a small number of us went on to create Zinc Panic but even that is not quite the full vision Erik had saw before his unfortunate passing...
Anyways, about 1100 robots later -- mostly of the "new" variety -- with some sprinkles of vintage in there when prices are reasonable, I'm still going but are now teetering on the "retirement" as Bandai continues to churn out the gokin machine...I don't know if I can keep up nor should I with so many mecha already in my collection with a giant number still yet to be fully appreciated and played with. I wonder if I should per your comment start looking to liquidating portions of it (i.e. my EX Gokins, Yamato Valks and CM's Corp gokins?) and just keep a few select lines like SoCs, DX Chogokins, and Metal Builds? I jokingly call it first-world problems.
My grail toy is still my grail toys: I still casually seek a Godaikin Tetsujin 28 and badly want the Voltes V. But, when a C9 or near new version costs as much as a high-end timepiece or a nice chunk off of a car payment, I need to pause and ponder. Why am I considering this much for an action figure that has moveable arms and can't even bend their legs? I do still look every couple days...I think the hunt is sometimes more fun than the acquisition.
Having moved into my "final" house, the place I guess my wife and I will grow very old in, I also was able to build in the custom shelving I had long sought and used as an excuse to put off displaying my collection (i.e. opening boxes). While certainly the cabinets can never hold the total collection, it can still probably display about 300-400 figures if I plan the space right. You would think I'm ripping open boxes every waking moment? Even this is going very slow -- just 29 on display so far. Being a parent now and life seems to get in that way too. Anyways, per what I said: first-world problems.
As far as I'm concerned, this is all to my son -- if he wants it. But, so far, it's all trucks and trains for him. Does not care much for robots...we will see. But, I do wonder, if the need/time arises, how would I get rid of this collection? I guess it's good Morphy's now has a Canada wing.
Anyways, nice post Ed...food for thought and thanks for an opportunity to ramble. Or more the musings of a gokin hoarder.
|
|
|
|
Post by admin1 aka Ed on Sept 21, 2018 9:33:50 GMT -5
1100 robots Yumcha? Is that all  Sounds like you need some thinning.... |
|
|
|
Post by S_Gokin on Sept 21, 2018 14:14:16 GMT -5
what are we talking about ?
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 21, 2018 20:03:23 GMT -5
what are we talking about ? Well, I'm pretty sure I'm borderline lunatic. |
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 21, 2018 20:03:53 GMT -5
If this was Gokin Anonymous, I'd be like, "Herro...I'm Yumcha...it's been...2 hours since my last purchase."
|
|
|
|
Post by S_Gokin on Sept 22, 2018 3:30:35 GMT -5
Well, I'm pretty sure I'm borderline lunatic.
lol im serious i dont understand the topic
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 22, 2018 9:40:05 GMT -5
Well, I'm pretty sure I'm borderline lunatic. lol im serious i dont understand the topic
The way I interpret Ed's post is that he's musing if the original motivations/purposes of collecting has changed from when he first started and created a community and site like this to now. Is it different? Has the meaning changed for some? Is collecting still the way it is? I had tried to provide my take/perspective having started back right before the 2000s and I think it has. |
|
|
|
Post by supergetterv on Sept 22, 2018 20:55:43 GMT -5
One of the Biggest changes from the late 1990 early 2000 to now is how hard it is to buy some of the newer releases. When I first got into collecting Soul of Chogokins, it was at GX-27 Gaiking. There weren’t any problems ordering this gokin and all the prior one were plentiful too. So back tracking wasn’t hard. Nowadays new releases get pre order sold sometime minutes after they become available for pre order. That’s unheard of back in the days. The number of collectors just grew exponentially from them to now.
|
|
|
|
Post by S_Gokin on Sept 23, 2018 9:24:16 GMT -5
The way I interpret Ed's post is that he's musing if the original motivations/purposes of collecting has changed from when he first started and created a community and site like this to now. Is it different? Has the meaning changed for some? Is collecting still the way it is? I had tried to provide my take/perspective having started back right before the 2000s and I think it has.
ah i get you now
for me and honestly the flame of excitement faded away a little bit, its not like your very first gokin unboxing, i got most of the stuff i wanted to get and now im trying to backtrack which will take time and money i only have a very few gokins left but hopefully i will manage to get them
thing is this hobby became popular but the problem is for every 1 new collector we get at least 3 new sellers which will increase the prices of the figures insanely not to mention this hobby became really expensive lately
not to mention these is couple of weird people who will hate your guts for posting photos of something rare of expensive (im dead serious)
but im very gald im a member of RJ where true love for this hobby and respect between members (even if you disagree with each other) not to mention the advice and the feedback
at the end the flame of love for this hobby will never die unless i cant afford them no more or they dont make them as they used too lol
|
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 23, 2018 11:25:29 GMT -5
The way I interpret Ed's post is that he's musing if the original motivations/purposes of collecting has changed from when he first started and created a community and site like this to now. Is it different? Has the meaning changed for some? Is collecting still the way it is? I had tried to provide my take/perspective having started back right before the 2000s and I think it has. ah i get you now
for me and honestly the flame of excitement faded away a little bit, its not like your very first gokin unboxing, i got most of the stuff i wanted to get and now im trying to backtrack which will take time and money i only have a very few gokins left but hopefully i will manage to get them
thing is this hobby became popular but the problem is for every 1 new collector we get at least 3 new sellers which will increase the prices of the figures insanely not to mention this hobby became really expensive lately
not to mention these is couple of weird people who will hate your guts for posting photos of something rare of expensive (im dead serious) but im very gald im a member of RJ where true love for this hobby and respect between members (even if you disagree with each other) not to mention the advice and the feedback
at the end the flame of love for this hobby will never die unless i cant afford them no more or they dont make them as they used too lol
I agree with many of your points. I think nothing will be like the first time my breath was taken away when I first handled an SoC. To your other point about people who are envious, well, take that as a compliment, I think!  Conversely, I don't want the drama (and frankly, I'm too lazy, hahaha) so, I just almost never take pics of anything I pick up. |
|
|
|
Post by Yumcha on Sept 23, 2018 11:27:04 GMT -5
One of the Biggest changes from the late 1990 early 2000 to now is how hard it is to buy some of the newer releases. When I first got into collecting Soul of Chogokins, it was at GX-27 Gaiking. There weren’t any problems ordering this gokin and all the prior one were plentiful too. So back tracking wasn’t hard. Nowadays new releases get pre order sold sometime minutes after they become available for pre order. That’s unheard of back in the days. The number of collectors just grew exponentially from them to now. 10000% agree. I remember how I could miss a PO opening and still be relatively confident I can order in the item from any of the Japanese vendors. It's all these new collectors we need to weed out. Time to get grumpier and less friendly. GET OFF MY LAWN!! |
|
|
|
Post by supergetterv on Sept 26, 2018 13:07:08 GMT -5
I would like to weed out the greed. P-Bandai exclusive should either incorporate build to order rule, allowing as many order as possible with a set deadline time or a one per household rule allowing only one order per address. Set a hard deadline for a week and allow collectors a chance to log in and order.
For general releases, it’s hard in that most of the major and more famous e-tailers could only offer so many pre order. Lots of time I’ll see lots of these quick to sell out releases be available about a couple weeks after the release date here in the states. There are a lot of importer e-tailer here in the USA but they mark up the prices. Sometimes, the markups are fair, price of item is relatively the same as the Japanese site with import shipping cost tacked on.
Example, I couldn’t get a order in on the Metal Build Aile Strike Gundam at HLJ or Amiami. I got an order in with CDJapan but their shipping rate is ridiculous. On top of that, CDJapan has this practice of asking for addition shipping cost after they quote you. Anyway, I was able to buy the metal build with Eknight media for $260 with 10% and free shippin. Paid $286 which was lower than the quote I got with CDJapan. There were two more options that I could of went with too that offered free shipping here in the US. ToyArena has it, and I also saw ToyDojo Facebook page showing they just received theirs stock.
But other times the markups are a reflections of the secondary scalper price and that makes it unfair. Especially if these USA retailer are getting them though BluFin at distributors prices.
|
|
