The following is a post for the Raving Toy Maniac board. I thought to share it here at the last moment for advice. I love you guys so much and AM NOT QUITING my vists here. I am quiting Caption the Pic, but I'll still be here on the PV.

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Guys, I can’t do this anymore. I’m stopping all figure collecting. It’s time to let go and try living life without them. Long rant followed by short advice seeking.
I have an addiction.
I don’t like to get this close with the general population of the Buzz board. But today I’m going to open up. Caption the Pic is over. At least from me. I love doing Caption and I love all of you for your support and fun over the years. I have to quit for a bigger issue and I need advice.
I’ve been posting here for twelve years, as Access/Amazing Guy/AG/Scott and finally Caption Scott. I do love and enjoy posting here, giving you guys fun pictures to caption and just taking part in the community of others who love the things I love. Most of you are my age and even see things the way I do. I come here every day 3 to 4 times a day to see if there’s any news or posts. I may swing by around movie time to chat about the hero movies and DVDs, but I have to cut all connections with my toy hobby so no more caption pics from me and no more figure replies. I have a few unused pics if anyone wants to take over, they can email me and I’ll send them the pics.
A hobby is a small part of your life. But for me, if I miss an assortment of DCUC, I get upset. If I can’t buy them around the time they come out or at most two months after, I feel overwhelmed and frustrated because I’ll never catch up. I did this with DC Direct and Marvel Legends, but it’s been the worst with DC Universe Classics.
And yes, the price is killing me. But I’ll pay $20 a pop to make sure the JLA and JSA are complete. And the Metal Men, the Titans, the GL Corps, the Legion and while we’re at it, let’s throw in the Doom Patrol even though I never cared for them. Heck, Kamandi and Jemm look good on the shelf. Let’s keep them too. And my ML Avengers , FF, Defenders and X-Men aren’t complete. Can’t wait for the new Marvel Legends.
Except I’m a father and husband. It’s also my responsibility to put money into the bills, keep the mortgage and loans up, pay fees so my children can take part in school clubs and so on.
It isn’t a hobby for me. It’s an obsession. I realize many of you can balance this but I just can’t. I have to stop and if I keep them in this house I’ll fall back into it. I’m ready to step forward and take part in life. This is all me. I realized this myself and I know my selfish limitations.
So, I know this forum isn’t a place to sell stuff. I won’t do a list here of my entire collection. Suffice to say, I have two large four foot long totes: one full of them filled with neatly separated Marvel Legends and Marvel Select figures, representing a large chunk of the Marvel Universe. The other long tote of the same size is filled with neatly separated DCUC and DC Direct figures, representing most of the DC Universe. I have a tote half that size for DC Direct, DCUC and ML figures representing alternate universe and costumes. I have an even smaller tote featuring four large zip lock bags full of weapons, accessories and powerful artifacts (kryptonite, the Cosmic Cube, Fate’s helmet, Infinity Gauntlet, etc).
I want to just sell everything at once. I need advice. Should I try selling everything? Could a massive collection like that make enough money to warrant the heavy cost to ship it all? Or would it be better for me to sell it in smaller lots? Please help with advice.

Scott

Unfortunely I can't give advice on selling (beyond looking for dealers or perhaps looking for an auction house if you want to sell the whole lot off at once). We dealt with a couple of dealers and auctions when clearing out Mum's old house.

Getting rid of a hobby like this (particularly a long-standing one) is always a wrench, and the bigger the interest, the bigger the wrench. However, it sounds like you have made the right decision and for the right reasons.

I do suggest that you have an eye to your other interests though. When you scrap one interest (particularly one you refer to as an obsession) it will leave a hole in your life that will need to be dealt with one way or another, otherwise you will just fall back into your old interests again.

Good luck,

Chris.

I'm not sure if you could sell everything all at once but I think that if you sold your figures in series sets. From the sounds of it you have complete series of things & I think people would pay for a complete sets of something. They might also also pay for team sets: a Doom Patrol set, a Legion set, an X-Men set, etc. Just 2 ideas.

Personally I wouldn't seeing a list of what you have in the your collection. I've admired some of the figures in your collection over the years & might be up for buying a few figures to add to my small collection if the price was right. But this could be discussed via an e-mail or two.

Thanks Chris.
Yeah, that’s what happened before. I downsized comics and toys to just toys. Then doubled my toy hobby.

I’ll keep an eye on it and make sure my novel writing doesn’t become an obsession in it’s place.

You can give up collecting and still enjoy the ones you have, or just give them to your kids to play with.

Or if you really want them out of sight consider giving the lot away to a children's hospital and bask in the good karma glow.

Sounds like you are making the right decision to stop collecting though.

If you keep them around, then you are going to feel compelled to keep the collection complete. I've always said if my comic collection were to go up in smoke in a housefire I'd be done and wouldn't buy them anymore.

~Hat~

There have been a couple of times in my life where I have lost most of my worldly possessions. I can tell you that it sucks, but it's also liberating in a strange way. You don't realize quite what a burden "stuff" can be until it's gone and you don't have to worry about it any longer.

Once your figures are cleared out, you'll likely feel a pang about it now and then, but I'd wager that you'd also feel that liberation as well.