Confessions of a toy addict

From ebaytoday, You're at the store and there it is! The item you've read rave reviews about and it looks even better in person than in the Cool Toy Review Photo Archive (there must have been amazing lighting in the store that day). Do you buy it? Sure you don’t have the space for it, but it’s such a great deal. How could you pass up such a great sculpt? And the accessories... oh, the accessories! But, where would you put it? Who cares about where you'd put it, you'll figure that out when you get it home. This bad-boy is coming home!

Guilty as charged? The irony is we all know where this leads - a tub-sized storage bin in the basement along with the rest of 'em. The problem is many of us don't know how to display the amazing collections we've amassed - more accurately we don’t have the space. You can obviously thin your collection down every now and then, but it's just so hard to let some of the things go and dealing with eBay can be such a pain.

Obviously, the contributing factor for this lack of space is buying things we don't need right? Nah, we'll go into denial and pretend that’s not a problem. It's the dozens of repacks the toy companies keep pushing on us. Come on already how many Famboy Luke's can you cram down our throats? And Spiderman on a motorcycle? Ha! That never happened in the movie… but that wheelie action sure is cool… I gotta have it cool... must... buy... Spiderman... toy... O.K. maybe the problem is that a lot of us don’t know when to say enough is enough, but can you blame us?So what's the solution? Like anything, toy collecting will have its ups and downs. It's all finding a happy median and making the most of the experience.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Find a space to display your collection and limit it to that space. A display cabinet is a great place to start.

Learn to say no to things no matter how cool they are... chances are they'll get released again - Farmboy Luke anyone?

Remember that collecting is your hobby and you're doing it as a form of recreation and relaxation. In other words don't get all bent out of shape and have fun!