How do you keep your collection in control?

mooseantler · **Joined:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:54 pm **Posts:** 31

After recently getting back into the hobby I've gone on a splurge buying this that and everything SBG related.

Having purchased a couple of large lots I'm left with many models which I'm not sure that I will ever need.

What measures do you take to keep your collection in line?

I keep saying to myself "Oh you don't really need 30 Uruk-Hai pikemen" but I always end up convincing myself that I may need them in the future.

Also do you have a strict list on what you want to buy? I normally just see something shiny and go buy it without thinking how it will fit into my armies.

Hope this makes sense :roll:

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:18 pm

I keep my collection in control by buying it all. Now that i have it all I don't need to buy anything. job done lol

mooseantler · **Joined:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:54 pm **Posts:** 31

lol I like this tactic, my wallet does not :-D

Is there any model type that you have a ridiculous quantity of?

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:26 pm

mooseantler wrote:

lol I like this tactic, my wallet does not :-D

Is there any model type that you have a ridiculous quantity of?

Too many to list. Metal mordor orcs i must have 200 of.

Gondorian Captain · **Joined:** Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:13 pm **Posts:** 267

There's meant to be control!!!!
Oh God what do I do!!!!
Knocks into a bookcase and is buried under an avalanche of grey plastic and metal.

In all seriousness trying to resist that temptation to buy things for the sake of not owning them helps ie going for your true hearts desires rather than the 'that looks cool today' thing.
Where I can I also try and keep armies together, collections are much more manageable if you've got the room to keep things in a place you know you can find it.
Mine is not like this at the moment thanks to buying too much and having had to move most of it twice in the last few years Lol

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

I am only buying things if I like the miniature, the rules AND the price. It takes a lot of self discipline, but it works. I also only buy something new after I painted the old miniatures. I think that it helped alot that when I started playing, my friend and I decided to not allow to play with unpainted miniatures. I also don't buy things which I couldn't include in a already existing thematic army.

mooseantler · **Joined:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:54 pm **Posts:** 31

@Dead Marsh Spectre Not too shabby

@Gondorian Captain haha control not even once :no:

I suppose I better impose some self discipline and maybe write out what I need for specific armies and try stick closely to that. I'm with you on the storage, I'm inundated with different boxes of this that and everything. I better get to doing some spring cleaning!

@Badner That's a good system to have, don't know what that would do for my painting quality though, I'd be rushing to get them finished to purchase new pretties :-D

I must implement the army rule.

jdizzy001 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:36 pm

I remind myself that the main reason i buy minis is for rpg. I dont need more than a handful of anything because i have never needed more than 12 of any single mini during an rpg session.

The exception is gondor and harad. These two are the cultures i use in the sbg. I have full armies of these two cultures.

John · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:56 pm

I'm a bit of hoarder. I one-day want to display large armies of war of the ring formations in my large glass display case but it means I need large quantities which gets very expensive. The largest metal formation I have so far is 6 trays of citadel guard which is 48 models....

I have no moria goblin prowlers but I'd like to field a large company of them too.... but most other metal 'formations' I can field in at least 1 or 2 trays. Most sit around 4 trays worth.

Thousands and thousands of $ worth. I'm just worried they are going to go oop before I can get them. The 2nd hand market is expensive for the oop ones.

I started out with I'm not collecting the likes of Khand or stuff that GW have introduced but as my collection grew so did the need for everything. I couldn't control it lol.

Resistance is futile. Must buy it all!

Coenus Scaldingus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:14 am **Posts:** 1121

How do I keep my collection in control? Not. I do fear that one day, they may rise up, revolt, try to take over. So I hire new troops, more loyal ones. But can I trust them? To defend against those, I hire newer troops, even more loyal ones... (See where this is going?)

More seriously, well, there is no full control. I did, some two years ago, make a spreadsheet to simply keep track of the models I bought, and those I sold or got painted. It can be easy to forget about all the models locked away in drawers and cupboards, all those unassembled figures on the sprues - this simply states the number of additions and reductions to the backlog. Certainly has helped me slow down some purchases, and sell a few groups of miniatures that wouldn't get painted in the next decade anyway.

Biggest issue is that I used to paint much (and fast), so many new purchases didn't really matter - not so these days. Equal buying rate and vastly decreased speed of painting quickly racked up quite a collection. Bit healthier now, although I've sold most of what I could see myself selling - so much painting to do!

Won't stop buying though, especially now that many figures are getting out of production, or may once every so often turn up on ebay. Besides, the odd extra model doesn't matter too much: the problem are those great Historical figures, sold in boxes of 40+. A single small order of some Vikings and Sarecens, and *hurrah* your backlog has immediately increased by nearly a hundred figures...

Sillyrunner · **Joined:** Wed Dec 24, 2014 9:05 pm **Posts:** 11

I only buy a model once I've completely painted my previous one(s). It's hard to do, but it's helps with motivation for painting.

Paradigm · **Joined:** Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:56 am **Posts:** 264

Lack of money to spare! That, and the fact that through the BGiME magazine I got basically a bit of everything, so my collection is pretty much as complete as I'd want it/need it barring a few kits that were released later (I want a proper Elf army, either Lorien or Galadrhim converted to Mirkwood) and some metals I'm waiting to catch cheap (some of the ebay prices I just won't pay, never more than £10 for a single infantry mini no matter the rarirty).

I certainly don't obsess over having OOP/rare/every model, so long as I have enough to build a decent army or look good on the shelf then the job's a good'un. The new Hobbit stuff I have largely stayed away from thanks to the obscene prices or poor sculpts, my only purchases there being EFGT and a couple of Grimhammer boxes (on discount) for Iron Hills stuff. I'd not touch any of the post-AUJ stuff at retail price, though, the same cash could get more more or better minis from dozens of other rangers.

My biggest problem with my collection is that I'm always after something new. In the last year I started Deadzone, Malifaux, Infinity, repainting Star Wars toys and accidentally started my 6th Space Marine army after one random test mini inspired me to do more with the scheme.

There's always something else out there!

Siegrend · **Posted:** Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:41 am

I am so glad I read this string. It makes me feel much better about my hoard of plastic, metal and now Finecast. All standing lifeless/paintless. I couldn't finish it all in what remains of my lifetime. Guess I better get started.

Just....can't....stop....collecting!

Xintao · **Posted:** Sun Mar 01, 2015 1:10 am

What is the word control? I don't think I've ever heard it.

I started collecting from when FoTR came out, but didn't play SBG. So by the time the first hobbit movie came out, I had 100-150 figures. So I decided to dive full into the hobby and paint and play. Since doing that 3 years ago, I've easily bought 2 times that on ebay and local stores. There is no control.

Seren Nishiyama · **Posted:** Sun Mar 01, 2015 1:11 am

My 10-year old son already knows that I will never completely paint my collection of thousands of miniatures before I die one day (hopefully in the distant future), so it will be bequeathed to him. >.<

Blue Dragon · **Posted:** Sun Mar 01, 2015 3:58 am

I just set goals, and collect towards them. At the moment I'm trying to get each pose of hero that appeared in the films, so I'm not off getting hundreds of orcs and spending time making full armies despite the fact I'd like to.

Hirumith, the Grey Knight · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:41 pm

I fund most of my gaming hobby on a net-zero cost. To buy something, I have to find money for it outside my normal income, so usually with gift money, an odd job, or by selling other stuff. Or, rarely, I'll allow myself to buy it first, and make the money back later.

This keeps my collection from getting out of hand, sort of. I still have too much lead and plastic!

Lord Hurin · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:03 pm

Some I don't - my planned Gondor display force will have some 250 Warriors of Minas Tirith in it because they are cheap and available. Other stuff, the price controls what I buy - I'll only have 12 Guards of the Fountain Court and 32 Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth.

Honestly, I have gone way overboard some times and on the flip side passed on other stuff that in the end would have been a steal of a deal. These days, I buy little direct from GW and try and snap up anything that might be a good bargain. Good bargains come few and far between, so that's keeping me in check somewhat.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:19 pm

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

I keep my collection in control by buying it all. Now that i have it all I don't need to buy anything. job done lol

LOL Kev, snap, sometimes i get paranoid and to find a particular figure, takes ages sometimes. I printed off Minimans brilliant guide and checked off everything just to make sure.

Ok where did i put that Rohan Captian agian........

Grungehog · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:33 pm

I just end up keeping any shoe boxes that way I can store my models freely and I label the boxes, if there is too much for the shoe box method it ends up in a small set of draws, the MO is if doesn't fit due to quantity then something has gone wrong, I keep over sized models such as my Smaug, balrogs and mumakil on display with the dragons and dwellers. I will need more shoe boxes soon.
Scenery is kept away in several large boxes in the corridor.
the chaos has forced me out of my own room, my collection has my room, I sleep in a different room as a result

How do you keep your collection in control?

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