How Much is Too Much?

[Chuck06]

Hello All,

I was wondering what all of you thought about collection sizes: What, if any, should be the reasonable or ideal limit to how large a collection should grow? Essentially, how much is too much?

My opinion/situation:
I have a fairly large collection ( I'd guess between 75,000-100,000 pieces, but still a modest sum compared to many). Probably 2/3 of this amount has been added to my collection in an orgy of buying over the last five years. I build mostly in castle, but also occasionally in space, pirate, and town. The proportion of the types of pieces I own mostly correlates directly to their usefullness in the themes in which I usually build (for example, large amounts of grey/bley for castle walls, etc.).

I like to keep my collection highly organized (a mixture of tackle boxes and plastic storage drawer systems), both to facilitate ease of building and to minimize the space it takes up (unfortunately I don't have my own "lego room").

I enthusiastically support the set designs of the past several years, but I find it hard to justify taking up my already cramped drawer space with common parts that I already have plenty of, or specialized parts that I will never use. Thus, I tend to pass over even pretty cool looking sets in favor of purchasing specific parts (and occasionally paying a little bit more for them just for the convenience of not having to sort and store pieces I don't want). Of course, there are occasional exceptions (market village will be one of them).

In summation, I'm pretty happy with the size of my collection, if perhaps desirous that it were a little bit smaller, but I can't bring myself to sell or give away unused lego yet. Heck, I have a hard time throwing out pathetically broken pieces. My plan going forward is to severely reduce my purchases, with the exception of the occasional needed piece or new "binge set".

So how does everyone else feel about this issue? What are your plans (if any) for growing your collection to its ideal size? What factors are important for you to consider? Should there be an absolute cap?

[Remyth]

My plan is fairly basic. I want to expand my collection to a size where I can build almost anything I want to (in the castle theme) and not have to purchase any parts off of BrickLink to do so, with the exception of specialty parts, such as figs or other such things.

I have, right now, quite a lot of money set aside for LEGO. With this money, I plan to expand my creation by around 5k pieces, mostly light gray 1x2 bricks. I recently bought some figs parts. and I will be making one more 'fig purchase,' but I have set aside a large chunk of money for basic Castle bricks.

Wow, that took soo long to type. My hand/eye coordination is off in La-la Land today...

In Christ,

[Foxglove]

Compared to a lot of you here, my collection is minuscule.

I don't have any old bricks lying around. What I've bought this year is what I've got. This means my army of figs far outweighs anything creative I could do with my current amount of bricks.

I've only bought up the Viking, Fantasy Era, and Batman sets. True I've bought doubles of all the Fantasy Era sets I could, but that still leaves me with figs outweighing bricks in terms of usefullness.

I'm planning to buy the new Pirates line when it comes out, to see how many figs / parts I can include in my Castle world.

This probably won't increase my piece count a whole lot, but I expect to be into Lego again for the long haul.

[Count Blacktron]

This concept... "Too much", what is it? I'm at a loss. My goal is to amass all I can fit into the bursting seams of my home until I die. At that point all who have known me will construct a sarcophagus and chambered tomb of my collection, place me inside and in 10,000 years archeologists will unearth me and wonder in awe what sort of culture produced a lord such as myself.



You collection might start with a few choice pieces and then hit a bang like a stock market penny-stock binge until you realize that only some fraction of what you have can be used for your purposes and then you'll become more choosy what goes into your coffers as I have. I have roughly 500K pieces, but there are many pieces that I might have a hard time using. I acquired a lot of them from retail blow-out sales in shops where it was going out of business. So much of that product is set-parts and not entirely useful. However, when you walk into an 80% off sale on things such as the first year Potter sets, well let's just see you try to say "no" when the cash is in your hand. I should probably open a Bricklink shop. Whenever I get organized and have some time perhaps...

[castlebuilder100]

My plan is fairly basic. I want to expand my collection to a size where I can build almost anything I want to (in the castle theme) and not have to purchase any parts off of BrickLink to do so, with the exception of specialty parts, such as figs or other such things.

Funny, that's my plan too .

I don't think it's possible to have to many LEGOs though .

[raidersofdays]

My plan is fairly basic. I want to expand my collection to a size where I can build almost anything I want to (in the castle theme) and not have to purchase any parts off of BrickLink to do so, with the exception of specialty parts, such as figs or other such things.

Funny, that's my plan too .

I don't think it's possible to have to many LEGOs though .

Correct. I will just get an idea for a moc every few months, buy the parts and build it.

[Blueandwhite]

Honestly, too much is very subjective.

My collection is huge. Heck, it's probably too big for any healthy human being. That being said, I always find myself short on the bricks I need for a particular project (having thousands of grey 1x2s doesn't necessarily help when you need that extra dark red jumper plate). Simply put, when you need that missing brick it doesn't matter how big your collection is. This is even more noticeable when building larger projects. Budget constraints and parts shortages have created huge delays for me. Still, I've come to a place in my life where I don't feel like compromising on a MOC. I'll wait until I have the money (and bricks) I need to do it right.

[wunztwice]

Too much is where it eats into things that REALLLLLLY matter. Read: if it's not a compulsion and greed-driven, but kept in its place. I have a large collection, and it eats up space in our apartment, but it becomes too much when my wife needs space in the living room, for things like living...

[Peppermint Pig]

Honestly, too much is very subjective.

...Heck, it's probably too big for any healthy human being. That being said, I always find myself short on the bricks I need for a particular project (having thousands of grey 1x2s doesn't necessarily help when you need that extra dark red jumper plate)....

So true. Tell me about it.

If you ever want to work in large scale (and that's most AFOLs over time), that tends to mean you'll be needing large quantities of the same piece.

Too much is not having enough storage to hold your collection, or having to live like a pack rat. If you are a pack rat, I do not advise lego as a hobby.

The eternal process of sorting can eat up space.

[Brickzone]

My collection has mostly been from buying sets, Castle (80s-00s), City, Space (90s-00s), Harry Potter, Vikings, Wild West, Adventurers, Agents, Modular buildings, Town Plan, even some exo-force. Personally I intend to make use of even the more specialised parts in my collection at some stage - I think it's perfectly acheivable, especially with Space models (indeed to incorporate some exoforce parts and such into them).

If I could cheaply do it, I would get hold of more grey and black for castle building. And indeed some more dark red, dark blue and dark green bricks and plates as they are lovely colours to work with for all kinds of building (City, space, Agents, etc.). I'm currently using every scrap of dark blue I have free to build an Agents base (using the 3D police station baseplate and parts from the Agents mobile command centre - the tractor of which I intend to keep intact, and amend the trailer to be a flatbed for the speedboat from that other set).

I do have more technic than I am likely to use at once, but already I have found that I don't have too many extras of particular parts when I go looking for just a few select parts for bits of models than do need technic bricks/joints/etc. Admittedly I've used almost no technic in building a quite large Castle MoC (still not quite finished).

My ambition is to just minimise the buying of new sets from now on. I think it's unrealistic to cease. I would like a number of sets I have money for, but will not buy because there are other higher priority ones and I can't spend all my disposable money on Lego. Peril in Peru and Agents Mission 7 (underwater one) are sets I would like, but not as much as I want next years Pirates, Castle, etc.

[leetspeaker]

This concept... "Too much", what is it? I'm at a loss. My goal is to amass all I can fit into the bursting seams of my home until I die. At that point all who have known me will construct a sarcophagus and chambered tomb of my collection, place me inside and in 10,000 years archeologists will unearth me and wonder in awe what sort of culture produced a lord such as myself.



You collection might start with a few choice pieces and then hit a bang like a stock market penny-stock binge until you realize that only some fraction of what you have can be used for your purposes and then you'll become more choosy what goes into your coffers as I have. I have roughly 500K pieces, but there are many pieces that I might have a hard time using. I acquired a lot of them from retail blow-out sales in shops where it was going out of business. So much of that product is set-parts and not entirely useful. However, when you walk into an 80% off sale on things such as the first year Potter sets, well let's just see you try to say "no" when the cash is in your hand. I should probably open a Bricklink shop. Whenever I get organized and have some time perhaps...

Well, i could not have put it better myself.

[Munchy]

See signature...nuff said.

[Ye Olde Republic]

Nothing in our hobby can beat the feeling of instant gratification you get from buying a set. Nothing. Sometimes, though, it's hard to justify buying sets because of all the stuff you get that you don't or hardly ever will use. Then it just becomes an expensive dust collector. Going to the store and looking usually can be pretty harmless unless you've got the itch. Most of us here know better. With resources like ebay and bricklink around, buying sets to amass brick and plate is (IMHO) just silly. Think about this the next time you bring home a $50ish set:

Dwarf's Mine-575 pcs. $60
6(?) figs and a giant troll.
For the same money*, you can get 600** grey 1x2's or 460 1x4's from S@H and those are grossly overpriced for what you can get on bricklink. Yes it's a nice parts set buy it's not 600 of the same item, which again in my opinion, isn't as great as getting a bulk amount of the same type of brick.

On the flip side of that is the minifig situation. If someone were to want those figs, buying the set is probably the way to go as the giant troll will likely run you $8-$10 and each of the figs will be $3-$4. Then it's like getting 500+ building elements for free!

It's never a bad idea to weigh the pros and cons of buying sets vs. bricklink. The best LEGO collection is a well thought out LEGO collection. You can have massive amounts of parts that you use, or maybe have enough to build a small MOC the way you want and have to sort through items you didn't even know you had to get to the ones you're looking for.

Trevor
*not taking into account shipping and handling.
**Never mind that a frugal, intelligent bricklink buyer can get 2x this amount, or more.

[Brickzone]

Well, while I would like more plain brick*, I do usually want most of the parts in the sets that I buy. I don't want just 1x2s. I want large structural elements, ordinary brick, plates, slopes, minifigs, accessories, modified bricks, vehicle hull, etc. etc.

*yes I find bricklink prices too much for this, especially as the shipping is often high enough for bricks

[Ye Olde Republic]

Yes, of course. My theory doesn't appy to everyone and the secondary market is strictly supplemental. If someone wants to a varied parts collection, sets are the way to go as you'll get parts that you probably wouldn't know existed.

Trevor