This article has been brewing in my mind since I saw the Mac vs. PC commercials earlier this year, and I figured this would be a fun thing to visit.
Main Players:
Collector (PC) -> is the average male action figure collector you might see at the local Target/Wal-Mart/or TRU. He just wants one each of his favorite line of figures.
Speculator (MAC) -> the kind of guy that thinks he's slick who knows every delivery schedule of every store in the area that has what he wants and has the time and lifestyle that allows him to get to them.
[White background]
Collector: Hi, I'm a Collector.
Speculator: And, I'm a Speculator.
C: So, what have you been up to Speculator?
S: Well, I've been hitting every store around me to get all the "hot" action figures before anyone else can, and then putting them up on e-bay for big bucks.
C: What about the collector that wants them because they remind them of simpler times when another president was in charge and our military might have meant something?
S: Well tough toenails, you should have beaten me to it.
C: Well I have something you'll never have!
S: What's that?
C: I have a life, a wife, and a future.
S: (Buries his face in his hands.) You're right; I'm a big fat loser. What do I do now?
C: There, there, let's get you a change of clothes (sniffs), a shower and then we can start looking through Monster.com to get you a job. You can operate a fryalator?
[They walk off. A Graphic pops up.]
Collectors -- they always win in the end.
The following was just an example of what I would tell anyone that I meet that calls themselves a collector, but actually buys out every store of the GI Joe 25th Anniversary figures and sells the extras on e-bay for an obscene amount + an obscene amount for shipping. This is why I've gone back to comic books after about a fifteen year drought. Yes, action figures do look nice on a wall and you can impress friends by showing off the latest acquisition from a trip to Target, but I get much more out of comic books.
I decided to go back to comics because they give me an actual story to read, and most of the art is really good quality. I can also reserve the comics I want at the local comic store, have the comics saved for me and I pick them up at my leisure. I also get a discount (ten or fifteen percent) on the group of comics I pick up and any others I pull off the shelf or out of the back issue boxes. I'm not forced to wade through mothers fighting over the last TMX Elmo because some TV talk show host said "OMG go get one right now because they will be the hottest thing in the history of ever." I learned from my biological father's fruitless search for Cabbage Patch Kids in the 1980's and how I was happy to have my GI Joe figures, instead of having some plug ugly doll to carry around because they were "the hottest thing ever!"
By going back to comics I save myself from weeks of disappointment when none of the stores I go to have the action figures I want, the rise in blood pressure, and feel the need to use 'Fist of Death' when I go onto e-bay and look at the prices of what sets of the GI Joe action figures I want are going for.
Look for reviews of various comics I collect here in Collector Times starting next month.