Culling Your Pop! Collection?

[Warren8525]

It's definitely a challenge with space. I haven't reached the point of having to sell yet but there are some pops stored in my dad's garage.

[ruxy_100]

I have so many pops that I have impulse-bought.

Funko is something that is so difficult NOT to impulse buy. The pop craze is so strong at the moment that they seem to sell out so quickly. Or at the very least, the ones with the best paints apps sell out.

Most of the big ranges get restocked. But every now and then my local store only gets one or two of a certain pop - and then I never see them again.

I have no idea which pops are going to be like that, so whenever I see one that I think I want, I grab it.

With other collectable, I tend to wait two weeks between seeing something and buying it. That's generally enough time for my "I'm suddenly really passionate about this new TV show and want to buy all the things" mentality to die down. If my interest in the item hasn't wained after those two weeks, it probably means that it isn't an impulse or personal fad and I do genuinely want the thing.

That's harder to do with Pops.

[POPNOOB24]

Given I just started collecting POPS! I haven't had to cull any yet, but over the years I've done spring cleaning for pretty much everything else I've ever collected. It is kind of a pain to get rid of things either for extra $$$ or extra space but it does kind of help you realize what you really like as opposed things you just got into because you were swayed by hype/nostalgia/etc!

[Force951]

We started out buying everything that we even had a small feeling towards. Which quickly led to a large collection with no real direction. So recently i have been selling a few and trading others to better organize everything.

[Libertyroxx]

I have so many pops that I have impulse-bought.

Funko is something that is so difficult NOT to impulse buy. The pop craze is so strong at the moment that they seem to sell out so quickly. Or at the very least, the ones with the best paints apps sell out.

Most of the big ranges get restocked. But every now and then my local store only gets one or two of a certain pop - and then I never see them again.

I have no idea which pops are going to be like that, so whenever I see one that I think I want, I grab it.

With other collectable, I tend to wait two weeks between seeing something and buying it. That's generally enough time for my "I'm suddenly really passionate about this new TV show and want to buy all the things" mentality to die down. If my interest in the item hasn't wained after those two weeks, it probably means that it isn't an impulse or personal fad and I do genuinely want the thing.

That's harder to do with Pops.

The impulse buys are the hard ones. I've definitely bought some also that I wasn't specifically a fan of in the hopes of trading for something I couldn't find.

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I have a few Funko products that I'm considering selling to make room. Most are reg, run of the mill ones that aren't in high demand. Soon, my collection will consist mostly of exclusives.

[michael]

Man, I am with all of you.

My mind is hardwired weird (for whatever reason) and I'm compelled to "complete" things -- and that's gotten damn near impossible, even when I invent the sum.

For example, I love Star Wars but know it's impossible to collect them all -- but I thought, hey, I'll just collect the Force Awakens releases. As of this post I'm proud to say I did that (sans forthcoming Rey/Ride release), but 6 Reys, 4 Poes, 4 Kylos, and 4 Finns later (if you count FN-2187), and those 50+ SW:TFA Pops cost me near $600, hours and hours of travel and many negative retail encounters. It's an amazing set I have no room to display, but I have no regrets.

Nevertheless, I promised myself I "wouldn't do THAT again" when Rogue One waves hit. (Alright, I got all the Rogue One exclusives... and now I wish I had the commons to)... see? It's like a drug to me! I also have SW bounty hunters, odd assortments of SW exclusives as well Walking Dead, Batman, Marvel, DC TV, horror favorites, Masters of the Universe and a bunch of one-offs. My kids even have (impressive) collections of Disney and Sesame Street characters.

All of that's my personal problem, but the exclusives that never show (costing me waaay more time, frustration and money than I can justify) + the overhead cost in general -- it became too much. I began selling once I was OK to let go of last summer to balance the cost of my favorites. Times got tight, and collectibles are always the first cut. It's tough to pass on items, and sad when I actually do go look for 1 item at retail and come up completely dry.

I'm down to random 1-off selections from time-to-time and my Smuggler's Bounty sub, and I'm generally OK with that. I do feel like I peaked and had a great time w/Funko products, but there is too much of a good thing sometimes.

Photo evidence. Where there is enough shelf, they're often split up or 2-3 rows deep. Not pictured: my kids' respective shelves, the storage cabinets and my office at work -- so many cool pieces I don't have enough showroom to appreciate and share.

[kiptrip]

It just gets kind of crazy and it's satisfying to keep your selection to what you really love. I've been thinking about consolidating to just disney pops - which are how I got into Pops in the first place, but then I take another look at my Game of Thrones and DC collection and just can't bear to part with them!

[mohawkjones]

I'm a 'recycling collector' for the most part huge waves come in, then I get bored move those out and use that money to bring in new stuff. I like it, keeps it fresh and fun and I'm just using recycled toy money to fund the bulk of the new collection. Now I have mainstays that will never leave but I'm a big marvel fan and that line is insane!! So I'm constantly moving in and moving out Marvel pops as my display has or needs room. At the end of the day, if Funko goes the way of the beanie baby (don't jump on me, just using it as an example not making a comparison) and one day every single piece of Funko I own becomes completely worthless, I know I'll still love going in my toy room just as much as the day before.

This! I run a similar cycle. We can only collect and display so much. Things in bins in a closet or stacked 3 deep on a shelf are of no fun to me. I am an opener, I like to see things on display. If I can not see it when I walk into my toy room than I do not need it. I've jumped in and out of various lines over the years, Marvel Legends, Superhero Squad, Minimates, Hot Toys, Muppets, Simpsons, Mighty Muggs, comic books, books, graphic novels... as I lose interest or find a new shiny object to pursue I unload the old to make room for and finance the new. I love your term of "recycling collector", never thought of it that way but it's the perfect description.

I did a HUGE pop purge almost 2 years ago to make room for Hikaris, went from about 250 down to now about 50 (not including my son's Batman pop collection). Seemed daunting at first, same as when I purged Minimates for Pops, but once I got started I realized how many I had bought just because of loose connection and no real emotional tie. I was being a completist for no reason other than a compulsion to do so. Felt great to let a lot of that go.

I know most of my Hikari will not get me a return on my investment but I love seeing them all on display together. I collect what I love now and enjoy it so much more. Sometimes I make a game of it, like my Star Wars pop collection. For the most part I only collect the original Kenner 12 with Yoda, Maul & Boba Fett snuck in. Keeps it simple and not feeling the need to "catch them all".

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

So, it happened. I culled my Pop collection by giving away some Pops I've grown distant from. Sure, I could had sold them. But I'd rather make the day of my loved ones by surprising them with a Pop I know they'll love. From now on, I'm only collecting exclusive Pops and ones I like. On the other hand, if there's a clearance sale...

[allcutethings2]

So, it happened. I culled my Pop collection by giving away some Pops I've grown distant from. Sure, I could had sold them. But I'd rather make the day of my loved ones by surprising them with a Pop I know they'll love. From now on, I'm only collecting exclusive Pops and ones I like. On the other hand, if there's a clearance sale...

I had to restrain myself from the $4.99 Target sale. There were several I thought about picking up because of the price, but I had passed on them previously because they weren't my favorites. Had to remind myself space is extremely limited right now!

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I had to restrain myself from the $4.99 Target sale. There were several I thought about picking up because of the price, but I had passed on them previously because they weren't my favorites. Had to remind myself space is extremely limited right now!

Whew, I'm glad I'm not alone with the space issues! Toys R Us has several Pop lines on unofficial clearance for under $5.

[allcutethings2]

I had to restrain myself from the $4.99 Target sale. There were several I thought about picking up because of the price, but I had passed on them previously because they weren't my favorites. Had to remind myself space is extremely limited right now!

Whew, I'm glad I'm not alone with the space issues! Toys R Us has several Pop lines on unofficial clearance for under $5.

Lol, even with the space issues, if they have a sale, I need to check it out!

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

Lol, even with the space issues, if they have a sale, I need to check it out!

Indeed! I can't resist a good sale. Space issues don't matter!

[hailmary25]

I went through the tough part of picking all the Pops to remove from my collection and selling is even tougher especially with commons nothing new. I even tried 2nd and Charles and they offered me $23 for 12 pops which i think is crazy when they turn around and charge $10 plus for them.

[gotchaz]

I've been watching a show called Pop Hoarders..... =P

[leosalion]

I went through the tough part of picking all the Pops to remove from my collection and selling is even tougher especially with commons nothing new. I even tried 2nd and Charles and they offered me $23 for 12 pops which i think is crazy when they turn around and charge $10 plus for them.

I've been through the same. A good portion of my collection that I wanted to move were commons, and trying to trade them away or sell for at least a decent price was a lot of work.

[lcarus83]

Ive got about 650 pops and im gonna get rid of most of them. Im keepin my MoTU, cereal mascots, universal horror, tmnt, and only a few favs from Marvel and DC.

[gxwhyelle]

I've had a pile of around 100 pops sit on my "can trade/sell" shelf for about two years...I never find time to sit down, take pics and price them just because of who I am as a person...i need help

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I've had a pile of around 100 pops sit on my "can trade/sell" shelf for about two years...I never find time to sit down, take pics and price them just because of who I am as a person...i need help

I wonder what Pops are on your trade/sell list.

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I've been watching a show called Pop Hoarders..... =P

I'm trying to get featured on that show.

[felixfelicis]

I had to restrain myself from the $4.99 Target sale. There were several I thought about picking up because of the price, but I had passed on them previously because they weren't my favorites. Had to remind myself space is extremely limited right now!

After collecting something for almost 20 years now, I have a motto: if I won't buy it at full price, then I should not buy it on sale. Has kept a lot of impulse purchases from happening.

[gxwhyelle]

I've had a pile of around 100 pops sit on my "can trade/sell" shelf for about two years...I never find time to sit down, take pics and price them just because of who I am as a person...i need help

I wonder what Pops are on your trade/sell list.

I wish I knew too. I look at them once or twice a year and forget almost at once They're nothing too exciting, just spares or randoms. I keep all the exciting stuff hahaha

[chandarrama]

I would never want to make fun of alcoholism or any other addiction but there is a an abbreviation for addiction that is used that everyone on the board should be asking themselves:

The CAGE questions (adapted to Funko collecting)

If 2 or more of the answers are yes → high index of suspicion for FUNKO addiction:
C - Cut back, have you ever tried
A - Angry about someone questioning your FUNKO buying
G - Guilty about buying FUNKO
E -Eye opener – need to see or buy a FUNKO in the morning to steady yourself (otherwise experience tremors)

Another thing. Seeing this thread made me remember thinking back to Economics class in high school as well. Something's worth is always defined by need or want and the circumstance. Again, modified for POPs.

If you have the choice between a Funko collectible POP or water, which will you choose?

If you are in the desert with no food and no water, and you have the same choices, which would you choose?

If you are at a Funko booth at a convention with exclusives, which would you choose?

And of course, if you are at a Funko convention booth with exclusives IN THE DESERT with no food and no water, which would you choose?

Hope everyone has some fun answering these for themselves.

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I wish I knew too. I look at them once or twice a year and forget almost at once They're nothing too exciting, just spares or randoms. I keep all the exciting stuff hahaha

Still cool!

[big_matt]

I've had a pile of around 100 pops sit on my "can trade/sell" shelf for about two years...I never find time to sit down, take pics and price them just because of who I am as a person...i need help

I'm in the same boat (probably more than 150 Pops, though), but I got past part of that and took pictures, then took the easy route and put them up for trade. But there wasn't much interest, so I now need to price them, and don't have the time for that!

[Mister Piggy Wiggy]

I'm in the same boat (probably more than 150 Pops, though), but I got past part of that and took pictures, then took the easy route and put them up for trade. But there wasn't much interest, so I now need to price them, and don't have the time for that!

What Pops do you have for sale?

[chaostryder]

Getting close to 600, most of my collection is currently sitting in cardboard boxes waiting to be displayed in my future home, it feels ridiculous buying pops and not displaying them right now but I really don't have the space for that many at the moment and I'm also not taking then chance of missing out on ones I want right now

[Battastic]

Actually having to do this now. Something came up and I'm working out a chunk of my collection to help with it

[hikanteki]

I will probably have to cull Pops soon due to display space, especially since they introduced Dorbz. We haven't gotten too many Pops recently -- only the ones that we really, really, really like. (It has to be at least 3x 'really's...not just 2. )

Not sure what the best method would be, though. Many of them aren't worth that much and won't even sell for retail + shipping, not even considering the time it takes to pack them up. They're kind of difficult to package up (especially when taking care that they won't be damaged in transit.)

[popmad2016]

Update!

Well I've culled a pretty decent amount of Pop!s (estimate over 50). No other Pop! collectors in my family, so I just sold what I could. Unfortunately most Pop!s sold for way below their retail prices, which was somewhat discouraging...

I'd strongly urge that people collect Pop! because they love the line or franchises adapted in Pop! form rather than for profit / financial return...I mean there is "some" decent money to be made on the odd rare Pop! but you'd need to be able to look into a crystal ball in order to know which ones are going to hike up in price...

I partially collected for passion and partly for financial gain and for me, the financial wasn't worth it.

Still have quite a few Pop!s I would've liked to move on, but with constantly no interest I just opened them up, glad bagged the Pop!s and ditched the boxes. Figure I'll just display them in future, as most were purchased because I at least had some emotionally / past attachment to the said character / franchise. At least I have a lot more room with the boxes for these particular Pop!s in the bin.

I'm very happy that I decided to take a step back and re:evaluate this hobby. I know think that it was indeed getting a bit out of hand and I'm definitely more selective now about future purchases.

[joecolt]

I really need to do this. However I have most of them in my storage unit (yeah that bad ) so I'm going to need to dedicate a day to pull and sort the ones I can let go

[Kwiksilverpop]

I ended up picking a handful of lines rather than chase every new release, but sticking with Marvel and Star Wars didn't help much LOL. I'm thinking of only keeping my favorite variant of a character and letting go of the rest, to free up space.

[HaloHawk87]

Space issues have become a real problem lately, so I have begun to think about selling some of the Pops in my collection. At the rate I'm going, I will completely run out of room in my display space by the end of the year. I still enjoy having the majority of the Pops in my collection, but there are some I wonder why I bought in the first place. Last year there were too many times when I bought something on an impulse, because I liked how it looked at the time, but I had no connection to it. I love my Star Wars and Marvel Pops for the most part, but I don't know why I plopped down $12.50 + tax for a Deadpool mystery box (Stingray), when I don't like Deadpool. I might go as far as saying that I have a strong dislike for him. When SDCC hunting I picked up a Pop of Selina Kyle, even though I've never watched a single episode of Gotham and don't plan to. Those are two that I can immediately think of that I would like to get rid of, but I know I'll be lucking to get more than a couple dollars back on them. I imagine shipping would take most of the money. I've never shipped a Pop before, but I imagine it's not cheap. I'm just used to selling trading cards on my eBay account. So much easier to mail those. I saved a bunch of boxes I got from buying Pops online, just in case I wanted to sell any to make space. Saves me some money on shipping supplies.

Moving forward I'm trying to be a lot more selective with what I buy. Space and money have both become issues for me. I keep a list of all future announced Pops I want, and I look through it on a daily bases and think to myself, "is this one I will still love to have years down the road?". If the answer is no, then I remove it. For example, for the last few weeks I had Reptar on my list. I enjoyed watching Rugrats as a kid, but I haven't watched a single episode for several years. I have nostalgia for it, but it's not something I think much about nowadays. I wouldn't buy another Reptar or Rugrats item, so why a Pop? When I think where the Pop would rank if I ranked my Pops from favorite to least favorite, it would be near the bottom of the list. If a Pop I'm thinking about buying will immediately go near the bottom of my list of favorite Pops, then that's something I probably shouldn't get. It would likely go to my sell list eventually, and moving forward I don't want to buy another single Pop that I would consider selling. I need to cut the fat and only buy what I love, like my favorite characters from my favorite franchises like SW, Marvel, and GoT, and not random character from random show I've never seen. It gets extra hard when I'm at the mall hunting for con exclusives, or if there's a deal where I have to buy an extra one to get a sale price. A con sticker always increases the appeal of a Pop to me, even if it just says "summer convention exclusive".

I was this guy last year and earlier this year. I don't want to be him anymore.

[Rickakatuna]

I haven't done it much. Basically only get rid of stuff I can live without

[hailmary25]

Been a hastle trying to sell these commons . Even at discount rates.

[randig]

I did the same, used to buy everything then realized I couldnt afford the amount of pops being pushed out so I stuck to my favorites and what I like.

[repair-manmanmanman]

I think you should never feel bad about culling your collection, especially if it's due to financial hardship. Yes, there can be a lot of sentimentality in our collections, but these are material objects. Usually when I am deciding which pops to sell I kind of figure out which ones I know I won't be able to complete the set on, or if they just flat out don't match the direction my collection is going. Once I do this, I immediately set those aside so that I can get used to looking at my shelves without them. After a few days the feeling passes and I'm fine with it.

[HaloHawk87]

Usually when I am deciding which pops to sell I kind of figure out which ones I know I won't be able to complete the set on, or if they just flat out don't match the direction my collection is going. Once I do this, I immediately set those aside so that I can get used to looking at my shelves without them. After a few days the feeling passes and I'm fine with it.

I was thinking about doing this same thing. I figured it would be a good idea to remove the ones I am fairly certain I will sell, and put them in a pile somewhere else. It's a very short list atm, but may grow slightly when I look through everything I have. I wouldn't part with most of what I have, but I scratch my head why I bought some of the ones I did.

[Moepops]

Man impulse buying can get out of hand. I know from experience. I'll buy one of one line get caught up with a new line and totally forget about the line I've already started. Right now I'm doing some spring cleaning.