Taking Pause

About six weeks ago I wrote that my collection of diecast cars consisted only of about 35 to 36 cars. Since then it's ballooned to almost twice that, not counting the cars I bought then gave to my son, having decided I didn't want them in the collection.

I have committed a lot of the faux pas I was trying to guard against when I set out, the principal one being that I have diversified a bit too much in terms of what I have bought. For example, I have added eight Volkswagens to my collection: five Beetles, two Karmann Ghias and one VW-derived Dune Buggy. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with VWs, but when I set out on this hobby, truth be told they weren't that high on my priority list. Absolute truth be told they were nowhere on it. I got into it because they seemed to be the hottest car on the forum, and I wanted to know what the fuss was all about, easily the worst reason to pick anything up. Sure, I like having them now, but having spent nearly two thousand pesos on them in a week I wonder if I couldn't have found something else, something cheaper to like.

It hasn't been all wanton acquisition, though; thanks to the forum and some re-shipments, I was able to complete all six Ford GT paint jobs released by Jada Toys, easily one of the high points of my collection. I picked up all of their Shelby Cobras as well. I've also picked up some nice Matchboxes, including some of their new releases. The collection may have grown pretty fast, but at least I haven't bought anything I utterly regretted buying.

I also recently marked another significant milestone in my collection as well, this past week I've finally gotten hold of the car I was looking for when this entire spree began: a 2006 Matchbox Jaguar XK. It only just hit the Philippine market recently, despite being available elsewhere for some months now, which explains why I could never find it.

So now I have something like twenty times as many toy cars as I did three months ago, and there's nothing currently on the market that I'm consciously looking for. Even though there are still quite a few cars out in cyberspace that I'd love to add to my collection which aren't about to show up on shelves here anytime soon, I'm quite happy with the collection I have now. Considering my price bracket (generally speaking), I've acquired some real gems. In fact, out of almost 70 cars, I can almost count on one hand the ones I paid a heavy premium for, even online.

Inevitably, though, I have to ask myself if I've peaked a little too soon. In some ways I feel like I've acquired too many cars too fast, though I was spurred primarily by a fear of scalpers at first. Still, I'd be an utter liar if I didn't admit that in the latter stages I was practically hunting them down out of compulsion. In fact, the thrill of the hunt is slightly blunted by an easy find, even if it's a good one. My trips to Festival Mall became a little less special for their frequency (though thankfully it's been over a month since my last trip) and I find myself a little less attracted to "exotic" cars (i.e., the more expensive stuff as opposed to the garden variety Matchboxes and Hot Wheels).

I have to admit I lost perspective there, so I think it's to time to take a breath for a little bit, especially considering I now have everything I really want that I can buy off the rack, or even online at reasonable prices.

I don't quite want to go the way of eBay yet; that could open a whole new can of worms.