At what point did you realize you had to get selective?

TheBrickTank

I don't know any better than to be selective. Growing up, in my area Lego sets were scarce and expensive. I moved between the mid 90's Town and Space themes but could never quite collect whole sets, until the original wave of 5 Star Wars sets came out in 1999. I got all 5 of those. And with that, I didn't buy Lego again until 2013. At this point, I decided to focus only on Star Wars at first, but about 3 or 4 sets in I noticed there wasn't much choice for me that I actually liked. 

At some point I bought a city set that included a building. By this time, I got all my old Lego sets from my parents' house including roadplates. I soon discovered Creator with all the buildings. Eversince I've been buying mostly sets that can add to a small city layout. If it's not useful, I don't buy it, unless it's such a unique or awesome model, that I know I will regret not buying it, like the Nasa Saturn V shuttle or Voltron sets. 

So I'm still selective today as I have always been!

M1J0E

Pretty much day 1 for me.  I wish I’d been a little less selective now & purchased a couple more then.  But coming out of my dark ages even a >500pc set seemed ‘large’.  Loved the architecture (& still do) of #4440, and really the whole forest police range was one of the better ones they’ve done.  Thought I could collect the whole series, and I do have most of them, but I knew I had no interest in a giant helicopter.  Which is probably about when i realized if I was to do a completionist strategy of anything, it would be a sacrifice of what I might want to purchase from other themes.  

catwrangler

klinton said:

I think I've always been rather selective about Lego? Barring very rare occasions where there's a theme I'm particularly excited about, I only buy sets one or two at a time, and only when I intend to sit down and build them that day. I have no frame of reference to comprehend the massive backlogs many collectors go on about. I've very rarely ever bought a set 'just because' (it was on sale/ the one I wanted was sold out/ ect.), and stick pretty closely to my established want list. I don't imagine I'll ever reach a point where I feel the need to change my collecting habits, as I've never acquired a set that I didn't love before making the purchase, or that didn't compliment my existing collection. 

This post made me decide to just go ahead and build the set I got today, so thanks for that. :)

klinton

catwrangler said:

This post made me decide to just go ahead and build the set I got today, so thanks for that. :)

Right? I just like to build them. I don't know that I could just buy a set to 'have' it and never experience the build. I don't actively play with toys and figurines anymore, acting out scenarios and such (I've long ago forgotten how and I've no children to remind me, hahaha), which is why I love Lego. If I feel the need to 'play' with my favorite superheroes or whatever, I just pull out sets from that theme and set to building. It's cathartic. :D

560Heliport

Oh, I never play with what I've built... I don't swoosh air/spacecraft around, launch missiles, none of that- I'm an adult. ;)

77ncaachamps

Bosstone100 said:

$17000! I just put together a basketball card set for $1500. Wife was surprisingly cool about it. Maybe because it WASN'T Lego for once. 

1986 Fleer?

awahl211

Definitely when I checked my credit card spending after the first few months of coming out of the dark ages in January 2017. (Unfortunately) I ski every weekend in the winter and fish and golf in the summer and also own a dog, so a good chunk of my spending budget goes to those activities. I still buy every set I really want, but have been getting more selective on small city sets and themes I don't really collect.

SteveG

I got selective on August 16th, 1987. Just happens to coincide with the day I got married. Then the leash was taken off in the late 90s when I had a comic book / game / toy store for a while. went back on leash when we sold that and now I am very selective simply because I have a lot of more expensive hobbies these days. My Brickheadz collection will be complete (the ones I want) next month and then I'll go back to flea marketing pieces and parts and the random set I just can't live without. 

Bosstone100

77ncaachamps said:

Bosstone100 said:

$17000! I just put together a basketball card set for $1500. Wife was surprisingly cool about it. Maybe because it WASN'T Lego for once. 

1986 Fleer?

1983-84 Star actually.  It was a fun ride but it's the last set I'll put together like that.