LEGO, FOMO, and the evils of compulsion

FireFox31

Hello, my name is FireFox31 and I'm addicted to buying Lego sets.  Since I came out of my extensive dark ages 4.5 years ago, I have bought over 100 current production sets.  Due to limited space and free time, I have assembled only four of them.  As the unopened boxes pile up, I continue to maintain a list of wanted sets and buy them when their price gets marked down.

I finally and regretfully assigned a dreaded name to this problem.  My Lego set purchases are driven by compulsion.  This compulsion is not from completionism, but from the natural retail availability cycle of sets.  It's "price FOMO", the "fear of missing out" on getting sets at a good price.  I detest and avoid blatant compulsion in video games like Animal Crossing and Farmville, yet I didn't realize I was being sucked in by the slow 18 month pull of set retirement.

Quickly after emerging from my dark ages, I learned the stages of the retail life cycle and the corresponding prices at each stage:  Sets are released at full price, eventually go on 5%-20% discount, then get retired and slowly increase in price on the aftermarket.  Thankfully, retired sets are cheaper when purchased used, but even then it galls me slightly to pay, for example, 10% more than list price when I could have bought it at 20% under list price a few years earlier.  Thus, I carefully select sets which I will likely want and buy them at their cheapest possible price, though I won't open them for years.

How does set retirement and price FOMO affect your purchasing?  What other factors are more important in your purchasing decisions than the threat of future scarcity and price increase?  What alternatives do you have to stockpiling current sets at 20% off?  How do you justify paying more than list price for sets which retired in the past few years?  I'm interested to know your thoughts.

Shib

This might sound patronising but learn your limits and stick to them.

I think most AFOLs go through a stage of hoarding, buying anything and everything because it’s cheap and ending up with a pile of unbuilt sets. At first it generally seems ok to you as long as you aren’t buying more than you can afford, and aftermarket prices make it easier to justify the hoarding. Chances are there’ll come a breaking point, normally tied to finances or physical space - you’ll suddenly need more of one of the other and you’ll realise that what you have isn’t a collection, it’s a stock room.

Personally I saw my overbuying coming before I hit a rock bottom and started curbing the habit, my problem was that I got into the hobby primarily as a minifigure collector, so I’d frequently buy sets just for the figures, pull them out of the set and never get round to building the set. I started doing a bit of MOC building so my unbuilt stash became a somewhat useful parts pool but it meant a lot of time sorting parts etc.

In the last 4 years I really focused my buying- I generally go for one main theme a year now and only occasionally deviate from that. I’ve also worked my display spaces into rotating displays so that 2-4 times a year what’s there gets changed. That helps a lot - I get to enjoy my collection and it makes it easier to curate the collection rather than trying to ram as much stuff as possible into a small space.

I know the “one day I’ll have time/space to enjoy all this stuff” mentality is hard to shake but once you come to terms with what you have I think you’ll generally find more enjoyment in collecting than in the hoarding.

CCC

FireFox31 said:

How does set retirement and price FOMO affect your purchasing?  

It doesn't.  I have never missed out on purchasing a standard retail set that I wanted and I have never purchased on day 1.

daewoo

I buy sets based on a simple criteria - I want them.  What they may or may not be worth at some point in the nebulous future isn't relevant to me.

teal93mr2

I went through this stage 8-9 years ago and started majorly offloading the plethora of extras I simply didn't have space/time to build about 3 years ago when my friend's storage unit was no longer available for me to use.  I STILL have way too much, and still sell to create additional space.  

It has helped that Lego hasn't really been producing as many must-have sets the last couple of years!

MrJackson

As @Shib said it's all about knowing your limits and sticking to them. I worked at a Lego store for 4 years and accrued plenty of sets. These days I stick to the Creator Expert vehicles and modulars, and since there's only one of each of those per year that makes it easy. I'll get the occasional set that speaks to me, and got the ISS for my son for down the road once he's old enough. Eventually space became an issue more than anything else, so whatever isn't on display or in my city is bagged and stored. I don't need every single set I own on exhibit collecting dust, and I've never bought sets just for the sake of buying them or hoping to sell at a profit. I also don't succumb to the whole FOMO thing - it's just a black hole.  Like everything else in life, it comes down to choices and weighing the consequences of such. 

Yellowcastle

Agree with almost everything said above except that there are less “Must Have” sets these days.  I think we are in an unprecedented Age of Excellence with regards to LEGO offerings.  As such, many of us probably are struggling with appetites greater than our situations.

With regards to hoarding/compulsion, I think it depends on the individual collector.  I have probably more NIB sets than made and/or displayed sets because having my own little Toy Store of awesomeness makes me happy and is always fun to explore with the kids. That being said, should a set skyrocket in value, I may pause before building but it’s usually just a pause. :o)

Marshallmario

    “My own little Toy Store of Awesomeness “ is perfect ! I have read all the discussions on 
lego is a toy, Lego is for building and I have no argument, they are correct. But my own little Toy Store of Awesomeness also makes me very happy. 

Spidrax

My solution is to sell sets after I've built them. I drop them on eBay for a great price and they always disappear quickly. This way I get to buy cool sets, build them once, enjoy displaying them for a while, then out the door they go.

Of course, this doesn't always work - sometimes after building a set I don't want to let it go! But that's OK. It means the absolute best of the best get to stay in my collection, while 80% of what I buy is gone again within a month and another collector gets a great deal. 

drdavewatford

Yellowcastle said:

I think we are in an unprecedented Age of Excellence with regards to LEGO offerings.

This, 100%. Every time I resolve to cut down on purchases LEGO raises the bar again....

Yellowcastle said:

.......having my own little Toy Store of awesomeness makes me happy....

Yep, me too!

KungFuKenny

Spidrax said:

My solution is to sell sets after I've built them. I drop them on eBay for a great price and they always disappear quickly...

Is it counter to the title of this thread to ask what you eBay seller name is? I might need to browse your offerings...🙂

FireFox31

Shib said:

This might sound patronising but learn your limits and stick to them.
I know the “one day I’ll have time/space to enjoy all this stuff” mentality is hard to shake but once you come to terms with what you have I think you’ll generally find more enjoyment in collecting than in the hoarding.

This is great advice.  Since I came back to Lego, I've been working toward that "one day I'll have time/space."  I'm finally close to buying a house which will give me those limits, allowing me to learn them.

I don't yet know how I will interact with Lego but I have plans and look forward to trying them.  If those plans don't work out, I can sell.

I'm comforted that every set I've bought has increased in value at least nominally, meaning I haven't lost money (but will pay time and selling fees to sell).

Spidrax said:

My solution is to sell sets after I've built them. I drop them on eBay for a great price and they always disappear quickly. This way I get to buy cool sets, build them once, enjoy displaying them for a while, then out the door they go.

This is a great idea.  Perhaps you recover 70-80% of what you paid, meaning the cost of your enjoyment is significantly less than if you kept the set.  I do this with board games - always buy used, enjoy, then sell.  It's like I don't own them, I simply rent them.

Steve_J_OM

I've said in other threads that are sort of about 'LEGO existentialism' (see here and here): TLG has rid me of FOMO by their relentlessness in releasing incredible large sets. There was a time when I could sort of convince myself that I could have everything - but not anymore. There's just no way that I'll ever have the space or money to get all of the sets that I have an interest in, and I've found that quite liberating.

SumoLego

Get them all and sort it out later.

FireFox31

Thanks @Steve_J_OM , those are great threads.  It's nice to know how other people handle this.

For the record, I'm not really addicted to buying, but the pull of compulsion is real.  I trim my want list rather aggressively before buying.  My Brickset count of "100 sets" includes 20 CMFs, so really more like 80 sets in 4.5 years.  Most are inexpensive.  So it's only kind of a problem.

bpk2300

I have my FOMO in check and I don't act on my compulsions. I buy ~3-4 sets a year and I have yet to let it get out of hand.

The hard part is my FOMO is always present. And it seems to get worse with time. Maybe I should let loose one day to find out what rock bottom is like 😯

ReesesPieces

I have to admit I suffer from FOMO but this has also led to me have a Ninjago City, Brick Bank, and Fishing Store all sealed so it's definitely not all bad!  Sorry...somebody had to be the devil on the other shoulder....

Lyichir

I don't really feel like I compulsively get sets, but I do rarely bother waiting for discounts on the sets I really want. I do know the feeling of missing out on sets, so I don't like to wait around too long on my favorite themes on the chance that it might get discounted later on, especially since sometimes the window between getting deeply discounted and becoming quite hard to find can be vanishingly small, and I don't really go out enough to stay on top of all that at all times.

But then, "missing out" on a set also isn't usually the end of the world. Except for sets that are exceptionally high demand, often that'll just mean that if I want to get them after the fact I might have to pay a little extra than I otherwise would have. And since I try to get the sets I want from my favorite themes the first time around in most cases, a lot of the time those sets that I did end up missing out on feel a little less essential by that point, when newer sets have already got more of my interest.

FireFox31

bpk2300 said:

I have my FOMO in check and I don't act on my compulsions. I buy ~3-4 sets a year and I have yet to let it get out of hand.

The hard part is my FOMO is always present. And it seems to get worse with time. Maybe I should let loose one day to find out what rock bottom is like 😯

This is interesting.  It's present and even gets worse, yet you keep it in check.  You're doing something right.  For the benefit of others whom it may help, would you (or anyone with good methods) like to share how you overcome?

I read something about identifying unhealthy behaviors and conditioning ourselves to react in more healthy ways.  Exposure Response Prevention.  Expose yourself to a problematic situation, respond in the healthy way instead of the instinctive unhealthy way, repeat this a bunch of times, prevent yourself from having the unhealthy response.  Double check me on the methodology but that's my interpretation.  I really want to try this.

MCNwakeboard

For me it helps to focus on sets and themes that I really like. Try adding sets to a wanted list and waiting 1-3 months to see if you still feel inclined to buy after some time has past. Be careful buying a set just because it is discounted especially if it isn’t on your wanted list. Consider bricks and pieces or other alternative methods to get new parts or figures rather than buying the whole set. Think about what brings you joy; completing a theme, having a mini Lego vault of MISB sets, MOCing, army building, reselling, rescuing long lost sets from bulk, etc. and then focus on that particular aspect. 

Chris87

I tend to add sets to the wanted list and then set some task to justify buying it when it gets to a certain discounted level on the likes of Amazon etc. Missed out on some in that way but looking back there are not many that are classed as sore regrets as usually something newer has taken my fancy by then. Not interested yet in buying to sell and the majority of the sets I have are built and on display, with all packaging in the bin! :o

MrJackson

FireFox31 said:

This is interesting.  It's present and even gets worse, yet you keep it in check.  You're doing something right.  For the benefit of others whom it may help, would you (or anyone with good methods) like to share how you overcome?

I read something about identifying unhealthy behaviors and conditioning ourselves to react in more healthy ways.  Exposure Response Prevention.  Expose yourself to a problematic situation, respond in the healthy way instead of the instinctive unhealthy way, repeat this a bunch of times, prevent yourself from having the unhealthy response.  Double check me on the methodology but that's my interpretation.  I really want to try this.

I think it just comes back down to willpower. And also priorities: I have two young kids, finite space, and most importantly, other than mortgage/bills/car (which, for all intents and purposes, you'll always have), no debt. My student loans are long paid off (and I have 30 credits on top of my Masters) and my credit card gets paid off every paycheck but I'm only able to do that because I consciously limit my spending. I bought a couple sets earlier this month (Police Station modular, Creator Porsche, and the ISS for my son eventually), but I was only comfortable doing that because I had a little bit of extra cash - which I only had because I'm thrifty elsewhere.  

I would love to get a pair of battery powered nailguns, but at $300 and $400 apiece, I'm not comfortable springing for them. Because I want them, but don't need them. And I won't hesitate to buy tools or anything else I need, but I also define what need is: my basement walls are concrete, so I needed a hammer drill to be able to do anything with them, for example. And that allows me to keep that credit card balance close to zero, so that when I bought my father-in-law's Accord yesterday, I had no second thoughts because I have the budget for the tags transfer and to put new tires on it. 

I guess I just don't get the FOMO phenomenon. There's always going to be something else coming down the pipeline, so unless something really speaks to me (not just Lego), I don't need it. And there's a big difference between want and need. 

Yellowcastle

I would supposition that none of us believes we “need” LEGO but that any “collector”, to one degree or another, goes through FOMO.

CCC

MrJackson said:

I would love to get a pair of battery powered nailguns, but at $300 and $400 apiece, I'm not comfortable springing for them. 

Won't that crack your lego bricks? :-)

MrJackson

CCC said:

MrJackson said:

I would love to get a pair of battery powered nailguns, but at $300 and $400 apiece, I'm not comfortable springing for them. 

Won't that crack your lego bricks? :-)

Nah, I've got the 12" double bevel miter saw for that. 

KungFuKenny

MrJackson said:

I guess I just don't get the FOMO phenomenon. There's always going to be something else coming down the pipeline, so unless something really speaks to me (not just Lego), I don't need it. 

My problem is that most Lego sets are speaking to me, which is a sign that I need to go back on my medication... Although it helps that I don't understand Danish unless it's for breakfast...

MrJackson

@KungFuKenny believe me, there are several phenomenal sets right now that I'd love to have: The Blacksmith Shop, Pirates of Barracuda Bay, the Sian, and several others. All my Lego is down in the basement with the sole exceptions of #21301 Birds and my #4002014 HUB Birds since they're small but lovely display pieces. The Bonsai and Bouquet sets would certainly fit in that role, but I'm not going to push the envelope. And tho I have unfortunately just a few sets queued to be built, that won't happen till after the home addition is built and I have a bead on how everything will be rearranged downstairs. So, I can be patient, mostly cause I don't really have a choice. I will, however, undoubtedly get the Space Shuttle Discovery, and did order the needed pieces to make the Stonewars version of the Ulysses probe. 

Furthermore, Lego is expensive, but divorce papers are expensiver.