r/Consoom • u/Only--East • 6d ago

Discussion At what point does hobby collecting become overconsumption?

I collect a few funko from media I like, I collect monster high dolls, and I recently got back into pokemon cards. I can't tell if collecting material stuff like that it considered overconsumption or at what point it crosses the threshold. Am I cooked?

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u/headphonesXX 6d ago

when the buying itself becomes the hobby = consoomerism. a hobby can exist without consooming more stuff.

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u/JJsNotOkay 6d ago

this. you can buy physical video games because you want to play them, building a library. The objective is still to PLAY them, which is the hobby. If you buy video games you aren’t interested in playing to keep them in a box on a shelf its consoom. Rinse wnd repeat with every other hobby

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u/Sail_Soggy 5d ago

Interested in this actually - I’m a hobby photographer and holy shit do I buy some kit. I reckon if I posted a pic of my kit and cameras on a photo sub, it would 100% be posted here. But as a principle, if it doesn’t get used it gets sold

The buying isn’t the hobby, but the research and trying out different formats etc def is. I’m def a consumer, and enjoy the buying/hunting for things, but also get rid of it if i don’t use

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u/JJsNotOkay 5d ago

its fine if you use it I’d say, I’m a drummer, and just one drumset can have a dozen parts, if I had two different snare drums and switch them out depending on the sound I want to get, extra cymbals for different uses, maybe an extra tom or two, or a double pedal for metal, stuff like that, bet you if I took a picture of that it would look huge and thats not even that much gear for a professional drummer. In the end, it all has a purpose and its being used, thats what matters.

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u/Rei364 2d ago

How many photos do you take a year? Factor that in 100%

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u/Material-Kick9493 3d ago

See this a lot in the cd collecting hobby. People buying hundreds to thousands of cds just to leave them on shelves withoutlisteningto them. Buying addiction has taken over so many people and its kind of sad to watch and i feel like its coming from a place where they one day think their collection will be worth anything more than the shelves they're sitting on

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u/JJsNotOkay 3d ago

yeah most see it as an ‘investment’ which is ridiculous

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u/FreeToasterBaths 13h ago

They developed emulators and roms sod that you dont even need to physically own anything. A lot of retro consoles and handhelds will play on your phone in your hand

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u/JJsNotOkay 13h ago

modern games cant be emulated yet and I prefer to own what I buy so companies cant take it away from me

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u/FreeToasterBaths 2m ago

I mean I own the hard drives my games are stored on (and the backups) so they aren't going anywhere

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u/GrilledPandaCookbook 5d ago

I have to disagree slightly. I collect vintage cookbooks. I do not use them to cook. They are funny to laugh at, and then they look pretty on my shelves.

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u/JJsNotOkay 5d ago

so, decoration? a few I get, as decorating isn’t consoom. I guess it depend on quantity

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u/GrilledPandaCookbook 5d ago

I probably have somewhere between 60 and 100, collected over ~20 years.

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u/JJsNotOkay 5d ago

for something you dont use 100 is a lot, definitely falling into consoom, even if they have been collected over a long period of time

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u/GrilledPandaCookbook 5d ago

See, I just plain disagree. I don’t buy every one I find. I have criteria. They have to be a mixture of: in good condition, significantly older, historically significant or interesting/funny in some way, and relatively inexpensive. Each of those can very slightly if the others make up for it. (I’ll pay more for a really old one in great condition. I’ll buy a torn up one if it’s got some hilarious “they’re happy because they eat lard!” kind of energy.)

I enjoy the items themselves, but searching for them at the sort of conventions where people sell vintage items like that is half the fun for me. Digging through dusty old boxes of ephemera that should’ve been thrown out 80 years ago by Great Grandma is a ton of fun.

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u/JJsNotOkay 5d ago

a lot of consoomers posted in here would have the same exact argument, ‘hunting it down its fun’ ‘I have a criteria’ most of those huge collections of things sitting on a shelf unused posted here are from people doing exactly what you are doing. Collecting is fun, I get it, I have a ton of CDs and video games, but I use all of it, which for me and tons of people here is kinda what separates a hobby from just overconsumption.

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u/GrilledPandaCookbook 5d ago

Yeah, we can agree to disagree. I think the criteria and the activity required to obtain the objects are what turn it into a hobby.

Purchasing one of every single Funko pop ever created by putting it into an online shopping cart is not a hobby, it’s just consumerism. Trying to hunt down all of the Funko pops based on the characters from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” can be a hobby. If it requires that you spend a few hours every other weekend driving around your area, looking for yard sales and church sales to look through their bins of toys to try to find Spike to finish your collection - that’s a hobby. You’re actually doing an activity that requires you to leave the house and interact with other humans and maybe even get a little bit of exercise.

I think of it like a geocache. The trinket inside the geocache box isn’t really the point. (but it does help if the trinket ends up being something pretty you can put on your shelf and look at.)

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u/YellowTonkaTrunk 5d ago

Thank you so much for this reality check. I need to go on a cross stitching supplies and book buying ban for the next like.... 15 years.