Every time we start a new collection there is an excitement to this new world we are entering where we find ourselves wanting to grow it & explore as quickly as possible. Where we find new items consistently with no thought to rarity, type, etc…we just want to watch it grow. So we do what I refer to as “Shot Gunning”. But this feeling can’t last forever & you will have to start moving into the later stage of collecting which would be “Curating”. Let’s take a look at these, talk about why we do them, & discuss the times you should move to this later stage in your collections lifespan.
Shot-Gunning
So let’s start with “Shot Gunning” & dig a bit more into this. What does it mean, how do we end up doing this, & what are it’s benefits & drawbacks? First off “Shot Gunning” is how I refer to the wide-spread grabbing of items for a collection for just the sake of expanding said collection. For many this is their favorite reason for starting collections as it ties directly into the excitement of learning & exploring this new activity. Your early excitement pushes towards diving directly into the collection so you tend to not be picky about what you get & grab what is available in whatever way comes up. This leads to things like “bulk” purchases where you are buying up variable sizes of lots that are for sale online or entire boxes of items if you are exploring garage sales or flea markets. Where you can make purchases more concerned with quantity over quality as you try to check off as much of the collection as you can. This is the nature of shot gunning where you shoot to find things with as wide a view as you can as quickly & easily as possible.
One example for me with videogame collecting was where I would buy up entire boxes of old games at garage sales, digging through bargain bins to pick up cheaper titles, buying lots online, etc just to grow my number of games. This is a fast means of growing but you tend to end up with many duplicates of common titles, lower quality (damaged cases, no boxes, tears on decals, missing accessories, etc), & titles you may not even really want to play. Your collection will grow but there will come a time where these large purchases bare itself of less & less fruit which can lead to a drop in interest in the collection if you’re not careful. When this starts to happen you’re generally ready for the next stage of life for your collection & need to start looking at the act of collecting in a more refined manner. This is called “curating”.
Curating
“Curating” is the part of a collection where the rubber truly meets the road. This is where your interest into a collection topic grows to become an active process of learning, study, & thought put into it to decide what you truly want from this time, effort, & what you are getting from it. This is where you have to decide when the number or volume of a collection is no longer what you are wanting to grow but to truly learn about a subject & refine your connection to it. It’s the stage where you figure out if you want to continue a collection as the excitement of continuous growth you faced during the shot gunning phase is not going to be sustainable anymore. But the gratification of completing set goals inside of this as you decide what is important to you can be an even greater feeling if the collection is one you wish to stick with. This more focused ideal can take many forms for many collections & truly is up to you for the guidelines you set. These can still be very large collection depending on how wide you make your boundaries or can consist of many smaller ones that change as time moves on.
For myself with videogame collecting it was when I decided instead of just grabbing whatever games I could, I started looking for smaller “sub-sets” of goals inside of the whole world of gaming. As I learned more & more about parts of the gaming landscape I found subjects & ideas that drew me in. Instead of grabbing whatever popped up I started looking at the quality of titles where I would look for ones in better shape for titles that held my interest more. I looked for all of the Kirby titles, or every version of Street Fighter II, etc. The goals could be set to whatever challenge I wanted but helped to bring back the excitement of finding these games & gave more chances for that rush of excitement when I would complete a new sub-set. And some are made to never end like my current one to find Pinball games on every system. It’s a goal I don’t actively search for but get excited when I find a new title to add to the collection & to try out. My most recent addition being a boxed copy of “Video Pinball” for the Atari VCS I found in a little shop called “Killer Finds” in Atlanta Ga while I was visiting the area this weekend.
The hardest part is knowing when to change your collecting habit but you need to be asking yourself each time you find an addition if you still enjoy finding things in this way & if you need to rethink your means to continue keeping the hobby fun & more importantly…healthy. And another thing to keep in mind is that whatever extras you end up getting while you’re in the shot gunning stage, or whatever parts of the collection you decide not to keep, you can freely use those as items to either sell or trade to help you along with the parts you do decide to work on.
Happy hunting!
Jeremy Powers
Bonus - I wanted to just have a list of a few of my “Sub-Sets” below from a variety of my collections (ongoing or older). Maybe these will point you in some directions with a little inspirations!
Variations of Super Mario Bros cartridges (I’m up to 7 so far)
All Kirby games (I do this one with my daughter as she loves the games so much)
Batmobiles but (generally) only ones from comics, movies, or games.
Any pinball games on consoles (this is always ongoing, with both good AND bad games…but I love seeing the creativity & growth of video pinball over the decades)
Dinobots & Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime from Transformers. I still collect many but these are the ones I always try to get from every series.
Complete North American Wii U boxed set. I finished this one in 2021 & is the only system I have ever wanted to go for a “complete” set. I did this because of our family history with the system & what it did for getting my daughter into gaming along with us.
Star Wars Droids (Funko Pop, etc). I generally try to stick to the droids as they have more unique designs.
Star Wars / Star Trek Micromachines. Who doesn’t love small detailed & displayable starships?
All North American amiibo figures. This one is ongoing but still is fun with new figures coming out sporadically. I am also still missing one of the Skylander Dark Edition figures.
These are just a few of the ones I work towards, but let me know below, over on Twitter or Hive (@Zenspath for both), or Instagram where I post photos from my collection!