[Smurfysmurf]

Looking at TinTin's collection today, I got to thinking how not only his collecting has changed over time, but also that of others..and I ended up thinking about mine.

How has your collecting evolved over the years? I don't mean what got you into it or why do you collect, but how do you collect differently now than you did when you started or even a year ago.

With me, well..it's like this...
I started falling in love with the figures as toys and pretty much kept the ones I got from family or friends. I, now, know these were mostly Bully smurfs as I got most in the 70s when I was at the "right" age for them...In the 80s I still liked them but never thought of getting more..in the 90s I discovered the cartoons on German TV (reruns) and started buying some smurfs again, mostly those that were in the cartoons, as I disliked some of the "crazier" figures.

At that time it was really an on and off again collection...although I never got rid of them until I moved to the US and found out that my smurfs had been given away without my consent or even being asked about. My goal then was to get the smurfs from my childhood back and nothing else which I did...I thought smurfs are a German thing, so I never expected to find any in the US, but I actually found a bag of smurfs at a yardsale and I bought them although I did not like the figures in itself (it was the jester, clown and a few like these). Then I discovered ebay...I started on ebay to find rare out of print books..and one day I was so bored I looked for smurfs..and lo and behold I found tons...and decided to buy those that would "enhance" my smurf village. I bought smurf lots and sold those that I did not like and kept the ones I liked for my village. One of my goals was to never have more than I can display which soon proved quite difficult.

Trying to find more information about them (selling smurfs quickly teaches you that some smurfs will bring in a lot of money) I first came across Dyar's site..and then BlueCavern which I eventually joined....and my collection was never the same.
However, I was determined (and even said so on here) that I would NEVER collect fakes..and didn't really care about the boxes. After Passion 2007, and spending a weekend at Christy's house with her family and Dyar..I started to buy anything and everything that had a smurf on it. I still blame Dyar for it who told me during the trip that getting a few smurfy items would make my misc items list on the website more interesting. Christy is not quite blameless either because her collection opens your eyes to what is out there

By that time I had stopped selling on ebay and pretty much was looking for reasons to keep my doubles ..which got me into variations...then marking variations...and as I finished my basic collection and it turned out to get quite expensive to find promos, sockels and variatons..I turned to fakes...especially after I got contacted by a few sellers directly (one of who is still selling me fakes) and bought from them. It was thru Attom, Lia, Joaquin and TinTin that I got really interested in fakes as well as paint errors and looked for these as well.

Last year I took a step back and didn't buy that many smurfs (compared to the two years before) but bought rarer items which cost more..this year with the movie, I am back to buying anything and everything although I think next year will be more like last year again..Now that I know again what I got, thanks to my website, I probably will also concentrate on variations again which is not quite as expensive as rare smurfs..and an interest that got retriggered by Andre earlier this year when he posted the variation threads.

Anyway, that's my not quite so short story how my collecting has evolved..I would love to see how your collecting over the years has changed..because I know did

[Tintin]

My collection evolved ………??
Well mainly in size, today I am still collecting as my mum and I started in 1996.
We started with the black and white catalogue from DSK and tried to get all models out there.
Later i went for sokkels, promo, musters etc etc.........to.

You all know I like fakes and I already started to buy them on my first ever visit to a fair.
In 1996 there wasn’t really much choice, I remember that the postman with the Christmas letter was super rare just like the majorette or the bully moon smurf.
Now we laugh about that, but this gave me a good change to build up my collection.
If I had to start now I really wouldn’t know were to begin.
Sokkels, promo, unpainted, Herings, Polish, Minimodels…………the list is endless.

The only mistake I ever made was to look for a certain smurf.
The red candy cone smurf was the only one I missed.
So at a fair that I visit, on the first table a lot of bundesliga, but no I wanted the candy first.
Went around the fair twice but no candy, went back to the first table for the bundesliga and those were gone to……………………

From that day I just see what people offer me and not go looking for the one I really want.
And to tell you the truth, that’s the most fun, not knowing what smurf you are bringing home.

But back to topic, I really didn’t a lot myself to evolve my collection.
It just happened.

Tintin

[Gerda]

As I am running out of room I am trying really hard to be more reasonable in my smurf buying. Although not easy to do with all the goodies that are out there but I have restricted myself to buy only the things that speak to me so to say. I've also gotten away from buying alot of pvc variations and worked on getting more the large statues as I have fallen in love with them.
But I still have to kick myself when yet another smurf container ends up in the attic because there is no more room in the house to display anything.

gerda

[Tojo]

I was thinking about this the other day & one thing that I've noticed is that I'm prepared to spend more for something that I want. I have almost all of the normals except for the cones, baseball smurfette, pitcher & most of the historicals but those are a bit too expensive for me. Not because I can't afford them but because I'd have to justify spending so much for them to Mrs Tojo

At first I was only prepared to spend up to maximum €7 for a smurf but in Gent I spent much more getting the Easter smurfs I was still missing. The same goes for the carneval medals. If I can get one for a couple of euros that's great (but only happened twice) but mostly they cost over €40 which I didn't used to be prepared to pay (I even splashed out over €100 for one of them).

I still buy anything & everything & I don't think that will change much in the future. If it wasn't for the high cost of postage I think my collection would have more smurfs from other countries such as the Jakks smurfs from the US. It's a shame you can't beam things across the Atlantic like in Start Trek

[Smurfysmurf]

Tojo, I'll be back in Germany (this time Berlin) around the end of March of next year, so if there is anything you like to get in the US but won't because of postage, let me know..or have it shipped to me..I can bring with me and ship it to you when I am in Berlin

[Tojo]

Thanks Maureen, I shall bear that in mind

[bwalters]

I started collecting in the early 80's with PVC's and Supers. I also bought a couple of houses and a windmill. Then My company gave me a check for $12,550. The company had been bought out and they had to distribute a profit shareing fund that I didn't know existed. Now I didn't go out and buy that many Smurfs. But I did buy all of the ceramic Smurfs I could find. Which turned out to be all but the 1 thru 12 one's. I bought out a couple of dealers, but like a dummy gave lots of it away.
In 1998 I bought a computer and started to look into selling all my Smurfs. I sold my Baseball Smurfette for $35 but never cashed the check. Sold the praying Smurfs for $40. and 6 Rugby Smurf for $155. After I had sold them I discoverd Mushroomvillage and the people there got me back into collecting. Was hard for me to take when Pete shut MV fourm down yesterday. But I still have you guys here.
I still need about 10 Smurfs to complete my set. Some of them are fairly common, but just haven't ran accross them yet. I know that one day I will see them and buy them, but until then I just collect things that catch my eye. I am also starting to run out of places to put things. So far that has not stopped me. I don't really want to start putting thngs in boxes. I like everything displayed so they can be seen. Been looking around and might be able to put away things that I have more than 1 of. That will clear up some space. I don't want to have everything, just everything I want.

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Well, I remember talking to Tojo about that issue when we met at this year's Blue Paradise and with only 9 normals and 15 supers of the more expensive ones missing, I won't rush though to complete my basics. I have been collecting for more 28 years now (thanks to my late Granny Anny), but I never cared much boxes, mispaintings and fakes. I only learned to cheerish them through Bluecavern. Nevertheless, when I was living in the "dark ages", that means at the time when something like the DSK didn't exist, I came across variants fairly easily and it was something that keeps fascinating me these days.

And to tell you the truth, that’s the most fun, not knowing what smurf you are bringing home.

That's exactly my trigger, when I look out for smurfs at fleamarkets.

[Lia]

I have changed my ideas about collecting so often that I can`t put it simply in words here:-))

sometimes,often, I focussed on fakes, and sometimes I thought: should I buy more sockels, promo`s, raws?? but when I`m honest, I don`t really care that much about those.

Up untill now, my collection keeps on growing and at this very moment, I search / love the different markings and boxes

However, my spanish smurfs will always be my most loved smurfs!

Lia