How long have you guys been collecting vintage?

Just curious...

I started collecting in early 2013. So it has been about five and half years now. I still consider myself a new collector though. Crazy when you think how long some people have been at this hobby.

So what about you dudes?

I dug my childhood toys out of storage in 2007-08.  Then started out finishing off the loose set, trading cards, & comic books.  And got into custom figures shortly after.  That's around the time I meet James (ourchickenshack), when buying some loose figures off of Ebay, and started chatting with him about customs.

Right around three years for me.

Commander Clint wrote: That's around the time I meet James (ourchichenshack),

That must be when everything started to go downhill right????

the89thchris wrote:Right around three years for me.

Nice one. If I didn't know better, I'd swear you'd been collecting for a lot longer.

ChristianC wrote:

Commander Clint wrote: That's around the time I meet James (ourchichenshack),

That must be when everything started to go downhill right????

Funny bugger.

Some point in 2012 was when I started to collected toy related items. I was comics, books and video games from the mid 90s. Took a lot to collect 'toys' as an adult!

richard_h wrote:Some point in 2012 was when I started to collected toy related items.  I was comics, books and video games from the mid 90s.  Took a lot to collect 'toys' as an adult!

So Rich you were into SW comics before the vintage figs then? For me, it was actually reading the EU comics which got me into vintage collecting.

I started late 2011, early 2012. But, the unfortunate thing is it could have been a lot, lot sooner! When Power of the Force 2 came around, it re-newed my interest in the vintage childhood figures I had. My Star Wars figures and ships, etc. were the one franchise that were not sold or given away by my parents.

While trying to find the "rare" POTF2 figures, it led me to various toy, card and hobby shops. One sportscard shop, that also dabbled in toys, had incomplete loose vintage Kenner figures. I was interested in them, but the guy had them marked at outrageous prices for some reason. He would not budge on price, at all, and kept saying "those are the real, original Kenner deals." He did not even have any of the more desirable figures. He had a Cloud Car pilot for like $30, a Dengar for $40, and a few other others with nothing less than $30. I did not do research and thought I was priced out of the market. Not entirely, I was making decent money at the time, but could not see myself paying $40 for a loose, less-than-ideal condition figure. I did buy a "rare" POTF2 Lando MOC for $35, though!

We lived in a smaller town and Star Wars vintage was not all that common to find and being pre-internet to some degree I was not aware of the whole MOC/MISB availability until years later. If I had known what I know now (that prices were not as high then as the guy trying to sell loose), I would have gobbled everything up then.

wow jeez , i put my first "complete " loose set together in 90 . when i say complete i mean the standard kenner line , no foreign stuff (hell i didnt even know there was foreign stuff) .probably took me 3 years at the time to do ..
sold it . bought records got tattoooed

2nd complete set started 2 months later . many more variants aquired completed it in maybe 96 or so
sold it , bought records got tattoooed

3rd complete set of kenner started maybe 6 months after that . kept it ,got some rarer stuff , dabbled here and there for a while . put it away . got back into it ytou guys know the deal ...
completed it in maybe 3 or 4 years including the droids and ewoks series. decided i am never selling a complete kenner line again . aqired some rarer stuff .. glasslite luke comes to mind . then i found out about the true enormity of the vintage line .
got heavy into variants some years later and here i am .

id say i started collecting in like 88 so well shit thats about 30 years fun getting old

ChristianC wrote:

richard_h wrote:Some point in 2012 was when I started to collected toy related items.  I was comics, books and video games from the mid 90s.  Took a lot to collect 'toys' as an adult!

So Rich you were into SW comics before the vintage figs then? For me, it was actually reading the EU comics which got me into vintage collecting.

EU led me to Marvel reprints. I was completely unaware of the Marvel comics as a kid and wouldn't have been able to afford them anyway.

this year marks my 20th year of collecting as an adult. fittingly it seems a good number to bow out on ive hardly bought anything this year.

I joined my first vintage forum in March 2013 and started putting my small collection together then, in the months before that all I got was a Yak coin and loose Yak   I've always loved the vintage figures ever since a got my first Han in 1978

since 2011 (i think). A friend of mine suggested I start since I had about fifty odd figures loose from my childhood

This weekend in 2016 was when I bought my first MOC - a POTF Imperial Gunner.
Although this is my second time collecting SW.
I had started to listen to the VIntage Rebellion a few months before and thought about how much I missed the SW toys.
I first collected SW toys from 1989 to 2002 when things were very different to todays collecting world.
But unfortunately I don’t have anything left from that time!

*1994 at the ripe old age of 9.

One of my childhood friends and his older brother introduced me to Star Wars. I remember them playing NHL '95 for Sega Genesis back when you could "create a player." Their goaltender was "Luke Skywalker," and I instantly became interested in the character and the Saga. At that time, the only Star Wars toys available in stores were the Just Toys - Bend 'Ems (POTF2 rumors emerged and I believe the magazine, Star Wars Insider, helped fuel the speculation of a Kenner relaunch w/POTF2 - Information traveled pretty slow back then). Jeff's older brother, Scott, had a Darth Vader case full of his childhood Star Wars toys buried in the basement that we would pull out and look at periodically... Scott knew the toys were already collectable and not to be played with - so all we could do was look.

How does a 9/10 year old sustain, fulfill and collect? I was lucky... I had an allowance, vintage was easier to find in the wild back then, and my Dad collected sports memorabilia and trading cards. I used to attend card shows and flea markets with him on the regular. Back in those days, especially when POTF2 hit the market, toy vendors/dealers would be sprinkled throughout the card/memorabilia shows (especially around Christmas). My Dad would do his thing, and I would do mine.

*I sold just about everything back in 2001 when I was looking to fund/purchase my first vehicle. Hormones changed and so did my interests.

I picked up the hobby again in 2009 after finishing my BBA. I've been collecting "full-time" ever since.

Thanks for sharing your story, Mike. It's nice to have another collector around here who didn't grow up while these things were new and in stores.

Thanks for all of those stories fellas! Pretty broad mix of experience and interests on this forum. Love it!

BTW Andy, seems we both joined our first forum in March 2013 Mine was SWFUK, then RS. I only joined because I wanted some feedback on a fake looking MOC I bought but it snowballed from there. Ironically the MOC turned out to be a Toy Toni....

I had a childhood collection throughout the 80's, which I carried on collecting a few items here and there, at collectors fairs and stores, through the 90's. Then I stopped for about 10 yrs but kept my collection in storage. Around 2010 I started getting back into it again and by 2011/20112 I joined my first forum and started to learn about variants. I started to build up a nice Poch/ PBP collection as well as a few Ledy and Glasslite figures. But in late 2016 life gave me a bit of a knock back and so I haven't collected anything in the last couple of years. My collection is back in storage for now, but I hope to be able to start collecting again in the future.

chris.75 wrote:I had a childhood collection throughout the 80's, which I carried on collecting a few items here and there, at collectors fairs and stores, through the 90's. Then I stopped  for about 10 yrs but kept my collection in storage. Around 2010 I started getting back into it again and by 2011/20112 I joined my first forum and started to learn about variants. I started to build up a nice Poch/ PBP collection as well as a few Ledy and Glasslite figures. But in late 2016 life gave me a bit of a knock back and so I haven't collected anything in the last couple of years. My collection is back in storage for now, but I hope to be able to start collecting again in the future.

Mate hopefully you'll be inspired to pull the collection out and start adding to it soon....

I started about 10 years ago now, found ebay and bought a few figures, it was a downward spiral then , i bought vintage at first then started on modern to, now i collect both, my buying has slowed down as now i just need a lot of the last seventeen, and i find myself priced out of the market, plus with a son leaving school and entering drama college i am up to my neck in dance shoes tap etc buying,!

I started collecting in 95 with POTF2 came out. I bought all the red cards and then the green (still have them all today). I bought a few vintage MOCs back then too. Wish I'd bought more. Got Luke and Stormy 12 backs and held onto them! I wish I'd stuck with it but I burned out from partying too much and couldn't afford to do anything for a long time. In 2012 my pal at work was collecting Walking Dead figures and convinced me to go to Toys-R-Us with him during lunch one day to check them out. I bought a couple of them, but it got me started thinking about my real passion which was Star Wars. He told me he had some friends back home (he was from France) that were in this Star Wars Facebook group so I checked it out. It didn't occur to me until that point that people collected loose figures! Mine were so beat from childhood that I just figured everyone else's were too. Once I saw people posting pics and having fun with their loose figures, I had my mom dig mine out and I was off to the races. I was buying lots off of Craigslist and using Rebelscum as a reference. I mostly lurked on there because I didn't understand a lot of the terminology they were using (Lily Ledy, PBP, etc.). It was a bit intimidating getting back into it at first. I was hooked though. I assembled a full set of loose figures as quickly as I could and now I just buy whatever makes me happy at the time (variants, vehicles, mocs, doesn't matter!!).

Christian, I just wanted to say that you and your team have put together a very nice site here. I mostly lurked on Rebelscum and TIG but I'm going to try and be more active on here. I'm a bit burned out on Facebook and I just need a different experience. Thanks for having me!

Terry

dontbedoindope wrote:Christian, I just wanted to say that you and your team have put together a very nice site here. I mostly lurked on Rebelscum and TIG but I'm going to try and be more active on here. I'm a bit burned out on Facebook and I just need a different experience. Thanks for having me!

Terry

on board Terry.

You've already introduced yourself in that paragraph.

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dontbedoindope wrote:I started collecting in 95 with POTF2 came out. I bought all the red cards and then the green (still have them all today). I bought a few vintage MOCs back then too. Wish I'd bought more. Got Luke and Stormy 12 backs and held onto them! I wish I'd stuck with it but I burned out from partying too much and couldn't afford to do anything for a long time. In 2012 my pal at work was collecting Walking Dead figures and convinced me to go to Toys-R-Us with him during lunch one day to check them out. I bought a couple of them, but it got me started thinking about my real passion which was Star Wars. He told me he had some friends back home (he was from France) that were in this Star Wars Facebook group so I checked it out. It didn't occur to me until that point that people collected loose figures! Mine were so beat from childhood that I just figured everyone else's were too. Once I saw people posting pics and having fun with their loose figures, I had my mom dig mine out and I was off to the races. I was buying lots off of Craigslist and using Rebelscum as a reference. I mostly lurked on there because I didn't understand a lot of the terminology they were using (Lily Ledy, PBP, etc.). It was a bit intimidating getting back into it at first. I was hooked though. I assembled a full set of loose figures as quickly as I could and now I just buy whatever makes me happy at the time (variants, vehicles, mocs, doesn't matter!!).

Christian, I just wanted to say that you and your team have put together a very nice site here. I mostly lurked on Rebelscum and TIG but I'm going to try and be more active on here. I'm a bit burned out on Facebook and I just need a different experience. Thanks for having me!

Terry

Welcome Ter Bow!!!!!!!!!!! Great to have you aboard mate!

For those who don't know, Terry helps Jason Smith admin the biggest vintage FB group.

I'm still around on FB but I've been a little burnt out by the pace these past couple of years. Tantive is perfect for me.

You'll like Tantive too, everyone is chilled and people aren't judged by their value of their collections....

Nice stories guys !! Ah the potf2 days i remember them well