My husband is a collector. He loves having full sets of things. There was a time when it was everything Star Wars. I remember about 10 years ago, before we were even dating, he had an entire room devoted to Star Wars toys. A few years ago he sold them all. We had lost touch at the time, but he tells me he got about $6k for the complete collection. I suspect this was far less than he paid for everything, but still, I’m sure it was nice to get a big payment like that. We currently have 6 boxes of comic books stored in our closet. He collected them over his childhood, and I believe some of them are worth a decent amount. I’ve looked into selling them on ebay, but to be honest, it’s kind of a daunting task.
His current collecting habit is DVD’s. He is a big movie buff, and loves to watch movies (over and over). He drinks in all the special features, and watches the movies with commentary more often than without. I have to say I like this collecting habit more than the comic books, because I am able to enjoy the movies, too. However, we currently own around 900 DVD’s. (This includes box sets of TV shows.) Last month we spent over $70 on DVD’s and this was for far fewer than he wanted. In March we spent closer to $150.
Today, we were talking, and I mentioned how proud I was that we have scaled back on the DVD purchases. His response was, “I don’t really like that” (very serious tone). I was surprised at his response. And then I felt kind of guilty. Have I become some tyrant that guards her money and doles it out for what she thinks is necessary?
Really, every month when I write the budget, he goes through the upcoming DVD releases and tells me what he wants so I can include it in the budget. Sometimes I’ll ask if he can wait to get something previously viewed from Blockbuster, but for the most part I account for all the DVD’s he wants. I think the problem is the “sale” DVD’s. The ones that have been out for a long time but now Best Buy has in their ad for $4.99. Another problem is that he feels like “I’m an adult, I work hard, if I want a DVD, I can just go buy one.”
I get that this is his hobby, his thing. I am convinced he has to collect something, it’s a part of who he is. And I know there are far more expensive hobbies he could have. At least he’s not a gambler, right? I don’t want to get so focused on getting out of debt that he is having to give up things he feels passionate about, but I do want to get out of debt as fast as possible. Do you have any collections, and how do you keep it within your budget?