How do you guys balance multiple collections?

[Pachyallosaurus]

Hey everyone, I have a question. How do you guys balance your collections? You see, apart from my prehistoric collection, I also collect a little bit of wildlife, as well as kaiju and some farm animals from my childhood. I also want to get into sea life, too. I've been giving away Chinasaurs and other toys I don't care about any more, but I don't want to have to spend a ton of money to expand all of my collections. So yeah, let me know what you guys think.

[sauroid]

i collect Dinosaurs/prehistoric animals, extant animals (both wild and domesticated), Kaijus/other monster figures/dragons. i must admit that i have so many that i have to put all my storage boxes in both my own bedroom and an extra room adjacent to my bedroom. (almost all my figures are in storage boxes thats why i dont even remember having certain ones)

[PumperKrickel]

deleted

[suspsy]

I collect Lego and Transformers in addition to dinosaurs, and I basically rotate assortments, putting away old ones as new ones arrive. And yes, I realize that's not an ideal method, but since I don't own a huge mansion with entire spare rooms available, that's how it is. Most of these toys will eventually be passed down anyway.

[Jose S.M.]

I'm collecting just dinosaurs right now, but I'm thinking in expanding. My plan is to keep dinosaurs as focus, and limit the number of other animals to something like a relatively big haul per year, and maybe one in some of the dinosaur hauls. But I will start with that when I get another appropriate display, probably later this year or next.

[Ravonium]

In addition to dinosaurs, I am also a regular collector of extant animals, mainly wild. One of the things I generally do to save space is to make sure I don't get more than one representative of the same species. As for display, I would depend the amount of figures you put on display on the space you have. My only display space is a few shelves in my bedroom. Hence, I only really put my best and/or biggest figures on display. If you have enough space though, then feel free to put all of them on display.


I would also advise to try to get rid of any figures in your collection you really dislike in any way possible, especially if there is a version you find better.


Another thing you could do is only focus on certain groups or types of figures. I almost never get anything that isn't in the style of the major companies (although I am trying to get into Kaiyodo and similar brands). I have also started excluding certain groups of animals from my collection.

[Reptilia]

After my initial enthusiasm for different brands I decided to collect only Papo, mostly prehistorics but some extants too, because space and money are big issues for me, and I must pick up only what I really like. I can't rule out the occasional exception, there's plenty of temptations, but frankly I don't see myself filling an entire room with figures so I have to keep things under strict control.

[gnetum2015]

I collect dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, greek mythology and monsters (orcs, werewolves ....from Papo, Collecta, Mc Farlane and so on...).
My problem is, I haven't much place and I hate full shelves. So I buy all time new figures or bid on them on Ebay and sell other Figures therefore. If I would have kept all the figures I bought in the last 4 years, I think I would have two rooms full with figures ....12 big Safari Brachios, 4 Papo Brachios, 6 Schleich Brachios, 7 Kleinwelka Brachios, 4 British Invicta Brachios, 4 Bullyland Brachios and so on...(the Brachios as example, cause I started with Brachios - today I only have 4 of them )
So my collections are always in motion. Only a few figures are in my property since I started in 2014 to collect them.
With this system I always have new figures and the sold figures are the financial cadre of the new figures.

[postsaurischian]

I'm collecting all kinds of animals that I find beautiful (focusing on the prehistoric ones of course), all kinds of music that I think sounds beautiful, comic books (mainly silver & bronze age), Ghibli related movies and some other stuff (like prints, books or figures), I'd like to collect guitars but I think I have to stick with the three I have because this is really expensive.

Yes, space issues are slowly becoming kind of a problem, but I do not care about it too much. At one point in my life I decided to do whatever I want to as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. None of my hobbies does .

[Shonisaurus]

I mainly collect figures of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. 

Apart from that I have a multitude of books of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals (including Burgess Shale animals) except books on the evolution of the human being (I am interested in prehistoric animals that have nothing to do with primates and their descendants humans).

I also collect new dinosaur stamps (some are historical and quite valuable) and I have a multitude of bookmarks with used stamps of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals.

I have a small collection of Favorite resin dinosaurs and I also have a very small collection of prehistoric animal fossils, I keep them in glass cases, I have tylosaurus teeth, nothosaurus, indeterminate prehistoric cocodrid, trilobites, anmonites but my jewel inside the fossils are a set of bones of hadrosaur that I got thanks to the Store of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid that got me in this fair such a jewel. I bought it ten years ago and it cost me a whopping four hundred and fifty euros.

I also collect resin eggs among them I have the famous Triceratops by Rebor (limited edition of a thousand pieces) and eggs of other dinosaurs in resin. Apart from this I have in resin a claw of the hand of allosaurus (life size) that I also keep in my shelves.

Apart from that I have books of art, literature, history, music, general paleontology, biographies, animal nature I have a pretty good collection of classical music, among other things I have Verdi's famous opera (la traviata) (Nabucco) and I have the complete opera of the Ring of the Nibelungs of Wagner. But all these items I have long before my collection of dinosaurs began seriously.

Some books and discs when I have already enjoyed selling them in second-hand stores and with that money I also take money for my savings and to buy dinosaurs and things related to them that is my great passion.

My secret of so much saving? I do not have my own family (children, wife), my relatives are dying by law of life or by illness (as I think we are a family in the process of disappearing like dinosaurs) as they are born less and less in my family (descendants are reduced of my relatives by leaps and bounds), and unfortunately my dearest friends died tragically years ago (I will not give details because it is very painful), and that is one of the reasons why I left social life, which It supposes zero expenses and that is why I decided to collect dinosaur figures apart that passion came to me from my earliest childhood.

[postsaurischian]

....... I also collect new dinosaur stamps .......

Please show them in the stamps thread! http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3505.0

[amargasaurus cazaui]

How do I balance multiple collecting .....simple answer...poorly. They eat up money, space time and energy but....
For me perhaps my main collection is much like Helge, with silver age comic books, and related...Funko pops and legends figures as well. I also enjoy collecting cosplay work from various artists, as prints , etc
  The dinosaurs pretty much own every open space in the house not taken otherwise...models, toys, books, and actual dinosaur bone fossils of many types. I have a mounted psittacosaurus, four different type specimens of egg , a little over 2000 pounds of bones , claws,  teeth, eggshells, coprolites, etc
  Side collections...Marilyn Monroe, coins, Dallas cowboys cards, autographs (published on the topic) Autographed dinosaur figures, and I dabble in making gemstone lapidary spheres as it was something I learned from my grandfather.
    Always thought about dabbling in stamps as well. but opening yet another hobby frightens me

[Roselaar]

I collect dinosaur/prehistory toys, comics books, movies/series and Lego and can manage financially and even spatially, but it has taken a toll on my private life in relation to others, mostly the opposite sex, as it stereotypically tends to do to geeky characters in pop-culture, if you know what I mean... :-/

[terrorchicken]

i collect Dinosaurs/prehistoric animals, extant animals (both wild and domesticated), Kaijus/other monster figures/dragons. i must admit that i have so many that i have to put all my storage boxes in both my own bedroom and an extra room adjacent to my bedroom. (almost all my figures are in storage boxes thats why i dont even remember having certain ones)

I have to do the same thing. I have a lot of storage boxes with figures in my bedroom and a small storage room. Doesn't help that I also collect dolls and Disney figures too. I do try to sell older stuff that I get bored with on Ebay.

[PhilSauria]

My main focus is prehistoric animals, not just Dinosaurs; there are marine reptiles, Pterosaurs amd mammals in there as well. Extant animals also feature, especially the Safari Wildlife Wonder figures, which are a decent size and very life accurate, looking quite impressive on display. A handfull of movie and TV aliens / monsters and robots, plus one slim shelf unit full of Doctor Who figures (classic era) - lotsa Daleks! A couple of the Daleks I have I've seen listed for high prices on eBay but I wouldn't sell; I'm a collector not a dealer. Just like owning and looking at these things. I do have most of what I own on display but a small percentage is in storage, mainly the Dinos I had at the start of collecting (Marx and Lontic or similar) that have been suplanted by more naturalistic looking figures (Papo, Safari, EoFauna etc). I already had a lot of shelves in the room prior to seriously collecting Paleo plastic so some books and DVDs are in storage in labelled boxes in the spare room to make way for the animals. Helps to have an understanding wife who's only provisos are that it all stays in the study and she doesn't have to dust it all! I have been selective in what I bought, trying for what I consider good interpretations of the particular animals and I like 'herds' of various species to compare the interpretations of various companys. Helpsalso having one large bookcase atop which sits about 50 or so Sauropods (the ones I'd keep if I ever had to downsize) and a cabinet and shelf unit across one end of the room for whatever is not up there or in the front of books and DVD shelves. This lot has taken about six or seven years to acumulate and I'd say that I have most of what I wanted, new releases aside. Most of it is on display, thinking of Simon's comments the other day about a collector who kept a lot in boxes - I agree that it's pointless if you can't see them there in front of you. My philosophy is that you're only here once so enjoy it all while you can.

[PhilSauria]

Oh, and a brief PS to the above; Comic themed action figures, mostly Marvel have just lately begun to battle the Dinosaurs for space! And as there are close to 20 Hulks that can be quite a battle! Some of those green guys are a bit on the large size.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I guess my way about it is to put the most focus/money/effort on what I like the most. For example, I have lots of extant and extinct animal toys however, except for just a few, my extant animals are tucked away while a lot of the extinct ones are out on display.

The only other thing I collect as much as dinosaur toys is fossils and more recently I've gotten to the point where it's become my primary collecting hobby, but both collections will continue alongside each other. In addition, I also have collections of rocks and minerals, hometown memorabilia, drive-in theatre items, and Doctor Who merch. All of them are relatively small since I'm not as interested in them as I am my main collections but they're still things I have a casual interest in.

[Faelrin]

The bulk of my collection is either Jurassic World toys, or Safari Ltd (mostly prehistoric, a few extant, and some fantasy) figures. I have a few other figures, such as Skyrim Funko Pops, amiibos, and the rest are action figures (a few Star Wars Black Series, a few video game related, and a figure of Toothless from HTTYD, for examples). Once I have the Beast of the Mesozoic figures, those will form a good third of my collection alongside the JW and Safari Ltd stuff. Space is precious and I'm honestly not sure how much I can cramp in the area next to my bed, or on the container shelf thing I have, especially after I receive my BotM figures. I already have most of my JW figures inside a box in the corner of my room just to preserve space. The only other thing I can do is just rotate figures out based on what I'm in the mood for. Spending money is also a bit short compared to what it was last year for me, which means I need to plan out getting figures very carefully from here on out.

[Halichoeres]

I collect books (several hundred), a few Lego themes (I have maybe 90 sets altogether), and very occasionally I buy modern fish figures (a few dozen). For most of my collections I give myself pretty strict rules to keep it under control. If I bought every nice-looking prehistoric animal figure, I'd be flat broke and I'd be completely out of space. So my approach is pretty similar to that of Ravonium in that the vast majority of taxa only have one exemplar in my collection. It also means I can display a significant fraction of my collection at once, without consigning too much to storage boxes.

This was discussed in another thread, but there definitely is a sense in which a collector's collections can own them. It's an uncomfortable realization; nevertheless I really do get a lot of joy out of these things as works of art (I mean that for all my collections, not just dinosaurs). If I didn't I would liquidate them, as I've been meaning to do with my decades-old action figure collection.

[Lambeoraptor]

Well besides dinosaurs, I collect animals: such as models, statues, and realistic toys, Horses: such as glass/ ceramic figures, Breyers, Grand Champions, etc, Wolf statues, Fantasy: such as statues, toys, and figures. I'm also a nerd so I have things from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Jurassic Park/ World (Obviously), My Little Pony....So, I'm mainly a mass collector. How I manage them by storing them in storage tubs and/ or book bags. If its delicate its stored nice and neatly (wrapped, very well) in a storage tub. However, if I can help it I prefer to keep things in there original packaging so it makes displaying much easier, as I hang them up on the wall with push pins.  Or in cases with Breyer Horses,  in which the Limited Edition/ Older/ Rare ones I keep them in their boxes, as for the common ones I take them out and place them on the bookcases, with the boxed horses in the back to fill it out as the loose horses fill in the front, so it makes great display. It also goes for my other collections; everything is displayed nice and neatly pretty much like a puzzle so everything can be seen, but with a clean display.