Going Cold Turkey
Now the following isn’t a cry for sympathy or anything like that, so please keep that in mind. What I’m about to go into is an issue that other collectors may face or may be facing in the near future due to the economy and that is the loss of a job. Recently I was given a 30 day notice at my place of employment. After processing the information and trying to plan for the future, I made a list of cut backs and things I can do in case I don’t find another job within that time frame. The first thing to go was collecting. I came up with two phases to my plan in regards to toys:
Phase 1: Immediately stop all non-necessary purchases, especially toys. (The exception is two gift cards that I have left over from Christmas. After those are gone though, that’s it.)
Phase 2: If no job prospects appear, begin selling off toys.
I’m really hoping that Phase 2 does not come to pass, but it may. There’s a number of items that I could easily let go, yet there’s many more that it would kill me to have to sell. Still, if it comes down to eating or holding onto my vintage G.I. Joe Skyhawk, the Skyhawk is going away.
What’s interesting in my case is that I run the world’s best toy blog. It would have been easier to step away from all things tempting by not walking down the local store’s toy aisle, going to toy store websites, read toy news, or come up with articles to write about toys. I still must surround myself with all things toy related. It’s like a junkie working in a pharmacy.
Another aspect to this whole thing is that I feel guilty about not buying toys. The economy is suffering because people aren’t spending as much, therefore if I don’t spend then I’m making the economy suffer. I realize that it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I do realize that online retailers like Brian’s Toys and Big Bad Toy Store rely on our dollars to keep afloat. I don’t want to be a part of the problem.
I know that I’m not the only one out here. Have you had to go through a collecting stoppage or are you going through one right now? I know we went over something like this in my post “How Has the Economy Affected You?” so I’d like to hear if your toy purchasing has lessened or grown or what since that last post.
January 17th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’m poor too. But I’ll do anything I can to keep you bending toys. I don’t like the state of the economy or the position you’re in, but I enjoy the hell out of your blog, and I’ll support it in any way I can. Cause if it goes away, well, then, I’ll be bummed.
January 17th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Toys are an extra cost right now, but that hasn’t taken my enjoyment of them away. If I’ve got to sell my toys to eat, I will. But I don’t expect it to come to that. I know these tough times won’t last and I’ll be back buying toys and games sometime soon in the future. Just gotta plan and persevere.
When you’re married and your wife is cool with your toy buying during normal economic times, there’s no need to press your luck when times are tough.
Hang in the Paul.
January 17th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
That sucks. My boss keeps threatening “furloughs.”
Make paper toys instead of buying toys. There’s some really great ones out there, and they’re pretty good for satisfying the itch to acquire.
January 17th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Good luck with everything!!
It really sucks when you have to cut back on toys and even worse when you have to stop. Of course when you do get something, it is all the more special.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:38 am
Sorry to hear about the notice. One thing you might try to do is leverage the blog’s traffic for toys; send out links to toy sites and stores and try to collect “review copies” of toys (or trade toys for ad space).
Good luck with the job hunt!
January 18th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I may have to be going for 14 weeks without money depending on how the job hunting goes and living off mysavings. So many great Transformers, MOTUC, G.I. Joe and Japanese robots out….guess they will have to wait.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I feel your pain dude. I lost my job this summer, and (not to get you depressed) have not been able to find a new one. I have had to cut my purchases back bigtime. I have budgeted my money making sure I have enough for bills and such, but I still indulge myself once in a while with a new purchase.
January 18th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
“Another aspect to this whole thing is that I feel guilty about not buying toys. The economy is suffering because people aren’t spending as much, therefore if I don’t spend then I’m making the economy suffer.”
I’ll take your guilt away… NO JOB = NO MONEY TO PUMP INTO THE ECONOMY
Two Words: Government Job… all you need is 3 years of solid work experience P-dog and a more or less crime free background to be checked and you’re in like flint making 30+k a year with benefits and holidays off.
January 18th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
opm.gov
January 18th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Wow it’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one who is going to be jobless, I guess. At least it doesn’t seem like the end of the world.
It’s also nice to know that you guys are actually on the internet on a weekend.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
It’s been a really tough year making cut backs. Although we (collectors) would love to keep the mojo alive, we have to hear that dreaded word…”Budget”. We can all continue collecting, but we might want to be more selective about it. Instead of scooping up the next entire Wave of figures, I’d purchase the one figure…or two that I’d really been waiting for (Now there’s an extra $50 in my pocket for gas or groceries). Bills have taken the forefront of priorities righ now…..but, Let’s all hang in there….keep our passion of collecting! Cheers!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I was terminated from my job and did exactly what you are planning on doing. I quit buying toys (I had to avoid the places like the plague, temptation was too strong) and then actually had to go through toys that I could part with and sell them off. I was only out for about a month but you never know how long its going to be. Good luck!
January 19th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I went through a similar situation, twice actually. The first was the scariest, my contract ran out for the job I was at and it didn’t renew, so I was unemplyed for a while (about 5-6 months). Collecting pretty much stopped during that time. There may have been an occasional impulse buy but I tried really hard to hold back, as the bills were more important. Second time came after I found a new job, we had a layoff due to a drop in work, so I was unemplyed for a month and a half. This time I still bought a few things here and there since I knew I’d be going back to work soon. I’ve since been hired on as a full time employee there so I’m fairly protected from layoffs now.
Good luck with your job hunting, I hope it doesn’t come down to the selling of your collection :-/
January 20th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Thanks again for the comments, it really helps!
January 20th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
My wife lost her job, which forced us to move and thus I lost my job as well. I haven’t really been buying toys lately though anyway, mostly because they just got too dang expensive. Nevertheless, I’m in much the same boat as you guys, though I have some prospects out there. It just amazes me that places say they’re hiring, you apply, and it takes them forever to get back to you. Of course what also amazes me are the complete morons who have jobs at a place that won’t hire me, even though I have great references. Go figure.
Good luck on finding a job guys!
Sam
January 20th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Sorry about the news. Hope you pull through. Be sure to keep networking. It helps in the job search. I live in NJ/NY if you are in the area.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Paul, hope something better comes along soon.
As for everyone who is talking about how they could barely control themselves from buying toys when they became unemployed, um…wow.
Let’s see…paying bills, eating, putting gas in my car…or little pieces of plastic to put on my shelf.
If you’re actually in that position, you need to realize that it’s an obsession disorder and not a hobby any longer, when you’re still spending money on toys with zero income coming in.
I myself quit cold turkey last year and have been selling all my stuff on Ebay, and let me tell you, hopefully you guys aren’t counting on your toy collections to bail you out because people are bottom-runging auctions left and right. I put a few auctions up for some rare older Transformers a couple weeks ago, and got back less than half of what they’d have pulled a year ago.
Of course, on the other hand, for those of you who don’t have employment issues, this is a hell of a time to be scooping up stuff on Ebay.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
After rereading what I wrote above, I felt it necessary to add that I’m not trying to offend anyone with what I said about your toy hobby being a disorder. The hobby in general is just as valid as any other, but when you have a hard time holding back when you know your money is limited…well, yeah.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:27 pm
This is a buyers market. If I knew I’d have a stable job then I’d be buying stuff left and right. There’s no time to buy like when everyone else is desperate for cash.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Job-wise, I’m doing alright. I just had a recent eval, and I’m in a position where I can collect more toys than I ever have before.
But I’m quitting anyway. I’ll still customize and mess with what I got, but that’s all.
There’s nothing left to really get interested in. Even those with jobs are starting to lose interest. So don’t feel like you’re going to miss much. I know I won’t.
February 6th, 2009 at 1:41 am
I’ve actually been “employment challenged” for… much longer than anyone would expect. I owe everything to my wife’s amazing patience and understanding (which mainly comes by the fact that she’s a big geek like me, too - if we had differing hobbies, I’d be boned beyond belief). If not for her, OAFE probably would have dried up and blown away. So chin up, Paul, things will get better, and you’ve got a woman by your side to help you through…