So I just sold my action figure collection.
Unthinkable, I know. But you never know what you are capable of until you find yourself up against the wall. For reasons I won’t bore you with, I recently found myself up against that wall, and, let me tell ya, it wasn’t a nice feeling. With the weight of the world at my back and unexpectedly empty coffers, I found myself scrambling just to catch a breath.
Now, making a living as a novelist is difficult under the best of circumstances. That should come as no surprise to anyone. But the pop-culture idea of a struggling writer usually involves some sort of eventual breakthrough, when all of the hard work and sacrifice comes together to validate that seemingly crazy life choice. In movies it’s usually handled with a montage of the poor bastard frantically typing, working harder than ever to finally conquer self doubt and adversity in the form of a number one best seller: if you’re lucky, at some point Burgess Meridith will show up to give you a pep talk. Unfortunately I don’t live in a movie, and Burgess Meredith is long dead.
So there we were, my collection and I, alone in a room pondering our fate. And while I continued to hammer away at the keyboard, transforming all my boo-hoo and balloon juice into something resembling a chapter, hundreds of unblinking eyes stared. Eventually I had to look back. Now, my new project is still months from being finished, but it’s only once the book is written that the fun begins. That’s reading and re-reading the damn thing, scanning for mistakes until you want to claw your own eyes out. Then you try and round up a bunch of unwitting dupes to do the same thing, although they prefer to be called “beta readers” (God bless ’em). Once you’ve taken all of their criticism and notes to heart, you have to go through the book again and implement all those changes without screwing anything else up. And there’s loads more, but I’ve already lost half of you, right? The point is, I wasn’t going to be making money from my literary efforts anytime soon and the wolf was quite literally at the door. I needed some fast scratch and I knew of only one way to get it.
So I turned to them, those hundreds of tiny eyes. And while it was easy enough to look at someone like Speed Demon or Whirlwind and think “Ah, I can live without these figures for a while,” it was a good bit harder doing that with my ToyBiz Giant Man. I mean, seriously:
That stare. It’s like he knew all along or something. I know I’m crazy for allowing an action figure to get to me on an emotional level, but who ever said I wasn’t crazy? There are certain action figures that are more to me than just toys. My wife bought me that Giant-Man our first Christmas together. And while that situation may have changed (my marriage, not my relationship with Hank), it still represents a good time in my life, and one I am loathe to let go of. The same with my ToyBiz Series One Hulk. Sure, he’s got weird shoulder joints and monkey arms, but he was my first. I mean, I’d be lucky to get five bucks for him, but that’s not the point. It’s not just a collection of items, it’s a collection of memories. I may be broke, but can I truly afford to part with something irreplaceable? Do I even have a choice?
I’d seen it coming in the rear-view mirror. Though the situation wasn’t as dire at the time, I had already purged my DC Universe Classics collection for similar reasons. But I told myself that under no circumstances would I dip into my Marvel Legends. As a life-long comics fan, the joy that came from owning 3-dimensional representations of my favorite heroes and villains was considerable. No longer was I forced to get my Batroc fix off of the page; now I could enact my own battles with zee Flying Frenchman right on my own tabletop. If you think Batroc is fun in comics, you should try taking some photos. I hate to keep harping on the guy, but the camera loves him!
So how could I part with something so awesome? Well, owning only one set of sneakers that have more holes than sole can be a powerful motivator. But more than just new shoes, it’s the idea of using that potential influx of cash to get a leg-up after Fate and my own bad decisions have knocked me down. And so life and fantasy intersect. As cool as my Armin Zola figure is, he’s never offered to buy me lunch or pay my Internet bill. And while I dig my MODOK, he’s probably not the most edible thing in the world. The bottom line is, life means living, and that’s not always easy or fun. Without the means to live, the biggest action figure collection in the world is just dead weight you gotta haul.
So I did it. Without so much as a shot of Irish Courage I cleared my shelves, dusted and tidied my product and put the whole lot up on an auction site. Someone made me an offer and wham, it was over. Was it the end of the world? Nah. Like I said, I knew it was coming. In spite of the lies I told myself, I knew need would eventually outpace want. If readin’ and writin’ have taught me anything, it’s that, sooner or later, you have to kill ol’ Yeller. It hurts like a bitch and there’s some messy clean-up afterwards. But no one is gonna do it for ya.
So I did the unthinkable. I dumped just about everything in my collection to buy myself more time. Now it’s up to me to make the most of that time. I can see now that writing alone isn’t enough to pay the bills, so I’ll be pounding the pavement tomorrow looking for work. Am I giving up my dream of being a novelist? Hell, no. When all is said and done, writing is what I love to do — it’s what I live to do. It’s as much a part of me as my big bulbous German nose. I have loads of tales yet to tell and won’t let a bit of misfortune keep me from doing what I feel I’m here to do. And if I have to sacrifice some soldiers to do it? It’s for a noble cause. I tell myself that they’re in a better place now, in a new home with a new collector, who will make all-new memories with them. Its the best a bad situation can be, really.
Have I quit collecting action figures? No way. I’m as pumped as anyone for a new series of Marvel Legends — I’ve been waiting on the Enchantress for forever now. I’ll start picking them up again as I can afford it, slowly replacing my depleted ranks until they number in the hundreds once again. But lest any super villains think I’m now easy pickings … well, let’s just say I still have some back-up.
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Appreciate the vulnerability, honesty and insight. All the best man.
Been there, man. It wasn’t easy, but I unloaded my entire collection around 2012. Just about every Toy Bix ML, Hasbro, up through the Arnim Zola ROML wave. Also a ton of Spider-Man Classics (mostly villains) and a lot of X-Men classics, too. Over the course of a year and a half, I sold my figures through eBay and collector’s groups. Ultimately, I think I netted a few thousand dollars that really helped me get through that time. Among those to go: FF Classics Dragon Man, Toy Biz Giant Man, McFarlane Spidey, Face Off Cap. Man, it was tough. But ultimately worth it.
Now that I have some financial freedom back, I’ve gotten back in, but am much more selective now. Only 1 figure per character, in their most “definitive” version of their costume (where there’s a choice). The best thing is that now everything goes together a lot better with what Hasbro is putting out. As much pain as there was in unloading my collection, there’s now a big feeling of joy as I put it back together, better than ever.
sympathetic weight gain/chafed nipples
Jason,
Good luck sir. I have my collection sitting there as a backup if times get tough too. That’s the nice thing about comics and figures as a hobby. You can always sell them. If you’re a boozer or a golfer you’re just screwed. It still sucks, but a least you’re getting some bank out of it.
It’s too bad you couldn’t make a living just writing for the fwoosh. I always enjoy your stuff. I did make it through about half of your novel. I think you have the chops to write. I didn’t finish it due to lack of enjoyment FYI… I just don’t finish a lot of stuff. I’m like AADD to the max!!!!! That’s why I read comics. Pictures and only 22 pages. ? That and the book did bring back my 20’s which I certainly don’t need to go back to! ?
Sometimes what you want to do is what you get to do and sometimes it isn’t. Lord knows I’d love to get paid to talk or write about comics, toys, and games. I can’t figure out how to do that though, so I have to keep my well paying, but I hate it, big boy job.
In a perfect world things will pop and you’ll get paid to write the type of stuff you want to write, get paid handsomely to do so, and buy lots of toys!!!! Good luck again, and God bless to you and your family.
No. It’s just that faced with his stupidity, no reasonable answer will do, so you don’t have any other choice than to play along and and take it as a joke.
Just remeber he’s more a character than anyhing else. He’ll say or support anything to get a vote (and headlines), all that hate and crazyness is only the attitude he chose to play in order to exploit the anger and frustration that, rightfully, some people feel. If he happens to win he’ll dissapoint everyone, specially the people who bought, and voted, his artificial personality.
But please, I don’t think this is the right place to discuss these topics.
do you suppurt Trump crazyness, violence & ignorance?
And he would be more right than he knows.
hey if Trump read your nick he would hate you and call you bad hombre =)
after two kids? sorry I do not understand?? are you a woman?? male body does not change with pregnancy??!!
I know a few (a lot) that would do that and much more to avoid selling a single action figure.
Best things come for free.
Good stuff for a novel though: “Midnight Collector”.
Have done this myself a few times over the years. Yeah it’s tough but there is something cathartic about trimming your collection right back and not letting your possessions own you. And isn’t half the fun of collecting… Well the collecting?
As an aspiring writer who has never completed anything approaching a novel in length I envy your dedication, it will be worth it in the end. ( you may want to look up the meaning of the term literally though; unless there really really was an actual wolf at your door) and if there was then hot damn…
It sucks now, but in a couple weeks when you find a steady job and everything settles into place, you’ll find the empty shelves to be almost liberating. When you rebuild your collection, you’ll find its not about being ‘complete’ but more about what you actually care about and you’ll feel, believe it or not, like your collection is ‘stronger’ for it. Good luck, man.
I don’t have the body for it after two kids, but thanks for the suggestion.
HA! Yeah, I found that years ago in an abandoned building. its a nice piece, for sure.
Indeed. Thanks for reading, man.
Thanks for reading, Dave.
Thanks, Johnny! It was looking rough, but everything will be coming up Milhouse again before I know it.
I appreciate the kind words, and thanks for reading!
Very true. Thanks for reading.
Thanks, Forrest. I build my collection up over the years, so it was a slow and gradual spending, as opposed to one big cash-drop. That said, it will be a while before I can justify buying anything fun again. Thanks for reading.
Hang on to that dignity, man! And don’t forget to work the balls. 😉
Thanks for reading, Doctor!
Thank you for the kind words, Steve. It means a great deal to me.
Indeed. Thanks for reading.
Thanks, Craig. Selling the collection was the equivalent of Mickey cutting Rocky’s eye so he could finish the fight. Thanks for reading.
Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for reading.
if you are hansome and hot you could get money in prostittuion instead selling ML
By the way, of all the collectibles in that photo, the one I like the most is that “Battle of the Blues” poster.
I think every collector have been there sometime…. I recently had to move from my country, and let my collection in my aunt´s house… since then I had a rough time getting a job abroad and started selling things… fortunatly, right now I got a job, even If I dont know for how much, and if I would have to start selling things again.. by the end, I realized what matters is, I still have my wife by my side, and bad times goes and good times does….
One of the most entertaining, touching and personal readings I’ve come across in any medium.
I’ve been there, I mean I’m there from time to time. Eeither for financial reasons, or because of space.
If selling so many irreplaceable things has taught me something, it’s that no material thing, specially collectibles, are irreplaceable.
If you have patience and the time is right, the opportunity will come up to recover, under reasonable conditions, something you lost or sold. I’ve personally got back some extremely rare figures I sold because I needed to or just simple stupidity.
Still, most of the time I feel liberated, not sad. It’s been only a few times out of hundreds that I promised myself I would eventually get the thing back.
Brother I hope that the sacrifice pays off, and that your Burgess Meredith moment comes soon. Good luck with it all.
Yeah that’s always the hardest. I’ve sold a lot of my collection to focus on my upcoming animation. It’s good to see other hard working creators working on their own stuff and doing what it takes to keep it alive. Hang in there, the sacrifices won’t be in vain.
Man I’m sorry for you that you had to depart with your collection. Life is tough sometimes and it requires tough decisions. I hope things turn around for you. I cannot imagine, nor do I even want to try to imagine departing with my collection. Exactly as you stated, the memories attached with the figure make them oh so much more important. Well if your as good at writing Novels as you were at writing this article then I think you won’t be hurting for too long.
Good read and you can add me to the list. In my mid 20’s I did the same thing when I was in school and everything kinda collapsed. Bills, school expenses, and etc. My collection consisted of things I had from the 80’s to mid 2000’s. It was a long while before I started back. I’ve started back collecting since then and my situation is better. Of course I’m not swimming in money pools, but I’m ok. If things ever go south again I at least have something to fall back on now.
Powerful stuff. Huge respect to you for selling off the plastic manifestation of so many memories to keep pursuing your dream.
When wearing spandex and pretending to fight people sometimes (always) falls short of paying my bills, I too think of selling my toys to keep funding my dream.
But then I remember that I could never lower myself to such an act, and instead fall back on something preferable, like lurking under a bridge, sucking off middle-aged businessmen for cash…
I hate to sound like a jerk, but the fact is, perhaps instead of buying more toys, you should be considering putting any new discretionary income into a savings account for just these sorts of situations in the future. If you can’t make your bills, but have a giant toy collection…something is a little off in the decision making process.
I speak 100% from experience, by the way. However, when I sold all of my toys, I never looked back, and these days, I’m monetarily healthy. It may be worth considering. Hope everything evens out for you soon.
Tough decision, TMITAH. I’ve sold long runs of difficult-to-find comics several times for the sake of an infusion of extra cash. By and large afterwards, it felt like a great weight had lifted off my shoulders. Of the thousands I parted with, there’s been only a few hundred I’ve felt enough of a connection with that I haven chosen to buy again. When you’re in the head space and financial position to renew your figure collection, they’ll be there for you, and it’ll be about quality, not quantity. Your shelves will be the better for it. Congrats and good luck!!
You’re never going to make a living as a novelist with one self-published 400 page book. Or two. Or three. Literary fiction just does not sell well on the independent marketplace. You bought yourself some time, but next time you won’t have that safety net. You need to learn how to write commercially if this is ever going to work out for you.
Man, hope things get better soon buddy.
Good read, thanks for sharing. I can only imagine the angst departing with your “boys”. It had to hurt, just the thought of doing it personally turns my stomach in a very weird way. But fortunately we live in the time of Ebay where just about anything can be replaced. Imagine letting go of something out of necessity wondering if you would ever see something like it again?? Now THAT would be gut wrenching. I have been able to locate the most obscure crap in the world on Ebay, you will definitively be able to replenish the ranks when the time comes.