The collector’s Triad the dark side of collecting
Which one are you?
If we all take an honest look at ourselves as collectors one has to admit that all of us have exhibited the qualities of all three types of collector at one time or another. That being said which one of these do you lean towards the most? Find out what type of collector you are, or at least where you might be right now.
The addict
You’re constantly looking for the next model acquisition, the next ‘hit’. The excitement of getting your hands on a piece you have been hunting for a long time gives you a palpable sense of satisfaction that’s hard to put into words. It also gets harder to repeat this exact same experience as your collection grows and potentially your bank account starts taking serious damage.
You find yourself looking for excuses to scratch that new purchase ‘itch’. What models can I upgrade to better examples? How many colours can I get this car in? How complete is my collection of pre 1985 Porsche? You find yourself going onto eBay to ‘just look’ but, every day.
The hopeful antidote: Appreciating what you have or ‘smelling the roses’ of your collection as it stands for a while. Paying more attention to and enjoying the act of patiently hunting pieces down that are more worthwhile to your collection in the longer run.
The Grumpy old man
You have been collecting for years, you know the difference between old and new Kyosho. You know that old UT disappeared and turned into AUTOart way before anyone else. You know that MR, D&G and BBR are expensive acronyms. You know the rough market price for a HWE 458 and that guy selling it is asking ‘way too much’ never mind that the left side Pininfarina badge is missing! Anyway and they are all full of paint rash! Every last one of them… (Not that you’ve seen every last one of them.)
We amass so much experience in so much detail that we can forget the there may be gaps in our knowledge. A newer collector might have just learned something that you didn’t know and you find that your infinite experience isn’t so infinite. The point is that dismissive arrogance can (and does) cause a ridiculous amount of argument as to what is rare, what isn’t, what is good quality and what’s better. Accusations of ignorance or plain price disagreement spiral into personal vendettas in a hobby based on collecting… model cars.
The hopeful antidote: Realising its okay to not know everything and that a person offering potentially new information isn’t trying to insult your experience. Try to understand that your deep knowledge hasn’t been defaced by one new piece of information. It’s said that the smartest guy in the room is often the one trying to hide that very fact.
The dragon
Do you find pieces in your collection that you forgot you had? Do you amass multiple copies of the exact same car for reasons you can’t reasonably explain? Do you have cars that don’t fit in your collection? Do you never sell anything as your collection grows into a pile of detritus rather than developing into a recognisable pattern of related pieces?
Do you sit on your collection like Tolkein’s Smaug the dragon, rarely looking at the pieces under your ownership and never letting anything go? You might be behaving like the Dragon type collector… a hoarder rather than a collector.
The hopeful antidote: If you find that out of the 100 pieces you own you only really look at say, 20 most frequently; it might be time to liquidate what you can live without and put that money into nicer pieces that really accentuate the direction of your collection. You might try to come to grips with the idea that you aren’t so much missing out on the liquidated pieces, but rather increasing the quality of your collection’s intrinsic value.
Source: This was inspired by an excellent coin collector’s channel and is remarkable in how it translates directly across to collecting model cars.
Check out Classical Numismatics the dark side of coin collecting for an even deeper dive into the aspects of the collector’s triad.
