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I have a whole slug of 1/35 german armor. I have no room for it.

Option 1 is selling them.

Option 2 is bagging all of them and putting them in a single small box to save space

Option 2 is kind of a serious decision because should I decide to sell, being In the original box means I will be able to sell them for more.

So I have been kicking around for about 2 days if I should keep these tanks or say goodbye to a large category of modeling. Ie german armor. Feel like I am in kind of an all or none mood.

How do you decide what stays or goes with your stash? How do you store and track it? And have you ever take a whole category of models (ships, cars, etc) and just eliminated it?

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My current plastic stash is 462 kits of all sizes and shapes. At one point in my life the stash was up over 1,700.

Culling first stared over what I'll never build in smaller scales. As I've gotten older, the desire to finish all the US BB and CV class leaders in 1/700 went the way of my eyesight. Besides, most of those were so old they sold for just about what I paid for them. Yes, in the original boxes. Then went the collections of 1/72 airplanes.

Now I'm thinking about culling the 1/48 stuff I've got multiples of. Who needs 21 Spitfires, just because the paint on that one Mk looks neat?

In the end you have to decide for yourself.

Which begs the question why do you buy and build them in the first place? :rolleyes:

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I culled my entire 1/72 WWII German aircraft and 1/200 airliner collection recently. I slowly gave up my WWII aircraft a few at a time but when it came around to the 1/200 airliners I just said to heck with it and just let it all go. My WWII interest now solely focuses on British aircraft and the airliner collection was kinda replaced with 1/400.

Some kits sell just as well without the box but depends on the subject / how many people happen to be looking for said kit.

The funds from selling my kits motivated me as it gave my modelling budget a slight boost to buy more models on subjects I'm now focusing on :woot.gif:

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How do you decide what stays or goes with your stash? How do you store and track it? And have you ever take a whole category of models (ships, cars, etc) and just eliminated it?

There are no specific rules I go by in determining what goes or what stays. It's purely done by how I feel about a kit at the moment of decision. If I can't see myself working on a particular kit within the next couple of years, it's then fair game for selling or trading. Subject matter is also somewhat important. I rarely sell/trade naval aviation or WWII axis artillery kits. The kits I get rid of the most are those that I impulse-bought or traded (which I tend to do a lot). The kits I took some time thinking about before I bough/traded for are the ones that almost never get sold/traded. Rare kits or kits I know I'd have a hard time getting back are also most often never touched.

The only thing I try to track is whether I have any aftermarket for whatever kit I have in the stash. I don't track actual kits (don't have that many so it's not an issue).

At one point, I eliminated most of my stash of WWII allied artillery. Not two months after I did this I surely regretted doing so. I had to buy back most of the kits I let go. My suggestion...Pick the kits you'd like to get rid of one by one as opposed to getting rid of the whole thing.

Rob

Edited by galileo1
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Over the last 2 years I have culled about 15 or so from the stash. Mainly stuff that I bought as part of collections and that I knew I would never get to. It was fairly easy to decide as I am a Pacific war guy and I don't have much interest in other things. I think its best to get rid of stuff now before some other company comes up with a slightly better version.

I still have a fairly large collection but I can see myself building what I have... just not sure when.

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Let 'em go, man. Unless you have something that is and will remain rare, you can always re-acquire something if you get the yen to build it. If you're a compulsive collector, however, you better just hold on to that stuff so you don't buy it all again.

Option 2 sounds terrible to me; why be in the kit-storage business and make it difficult to even peruse what you have? Yes, it might be an efficient storage system, but when storage begins to take priority (and time and resources), it's time to reassess.

Several years ago I decided to get out of 1:72 aircraft and 1:700 ships altogether, and have never regretted the decision.

I store kits on stainless steel kitchen racks, in short stacks to avoid too much box wear. I do track my stuff in Excel, but I try not to be too crazy with how much data I'm collecting about each thing. Again, when the maintenance exceeds the enjoyment time, something's gotta give.

I have a whole slug of 1/35 german armor. I have no room for it.

Option 1 is selling them.

Option 2 is bagging all of them and putting them in a single small box to save space

Option 2 is kind of a serious decision because should I decide to sell, being In the original box means I will be able to sell them for more.

So I have been kicking around for about 2 days if I should keep these tanks or say goodbye to a large category of modeling. Ie german armor. Feel like I am in kind of an all or none mood.

How do you decide what stays or goes with your stash? How do you store and track it? And have you ever take a whole category of models (ships, cars, etc) and just eliminated it?

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I have 2 factors to consider when cleaning house:

1. Did I build one already?

2. Do I have more than 1 in the stash, and if so, why? Were the extra ones just good deals I couldn't pass up (in which case I would sell) or do I have plans for them?

I also keep this in mind when browsing the hobby shops or ebay.

Ken

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I go through stash clearing a couple times a year, mainly for reasons you stated - no more room. Problem I have is usually I get into a kick for a certain subject or theme and go all out buying. Further problem is, a little later I'm not really on that kick anymore and moved on - and then they usually end up for sale down the road.

There are only a few times where I regretted selling something down the road, mainly because it's OOP or impossible to replace. So my stash clearing policy generally now is that I'm more likely to sell mainstream brand kits that are generally always going to be available to buy again if I want to re-purchase them, and instead I will hang onto the aftermarket resin or decals for it.

I have completely dumped my formerly impressive 1/48 and 1/72 WW1 kit collections once Wingnut Wings started cranking out kits. I don't regret that decision either. I also purged all 1/350 modern subs, early war Soviet armor, WW2 French stuff, and a few other categories. Again, all are replaceable if I really want to get back into them (I haven't so far).

So my recommendation would be option 2, sell the kits as-is in their boxes. If there are any hard to find ones you even think you will regret selling, then just hang onto it. All the rest, just try to get rid of. Plus, more than likely not all will be able to sell so you'll still have some leftover. German armor will always be available to get back into if you feel the need down the road.

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Some time ago I've had to reduce my stash by some 60 1/72 scale kits, since there was simply no place for all those boxes. I've decided on my main focus, did some builds planning ie. how many of, say, F-14's I want to build and in which markings. This really helped a lot.

Right now I rarely buy anything that's not a limited release kit (Oh Hasegawa :crying2: ) and pretty much stick to what I've planned back then. So basicly, no pre Vietnam era aircraft, or helos for me. And my big plan to build at least a couple of all modern jets is gone. Or that 12 Eurofighters that I wanted to build - 3 or 4 is max now. This is also related to not having enough shelf space :)

Those kits that ended up staying in my closet I did catalog in excel, along with everything I build. It's also good for planning builds and keeping track of said build progress.

So I could recommend to You to catalog all Your kits (I know, easy to say) and start the elimination process - first Your focus group - the one that stays, if You have one. If You'd have a couple of same kits, or of same subject but a different version, pick the one (or ones) You want the most and mark them for selling. After this is done You can see what's left - this very well might be the size of the stash, that is acceptable.

THT, and makes any sense :)

Good Luck TT!

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I recently moved and reduced my stash by about 70% because I was moving 1500 miles and knew I didn't have the same space for my stash that I used to. First I chose the items I knew I wanted to keep and build soon and set them aside. The next kits to keep were the ones that I already had a game plan for - I may not build them this year, but I will build them for sure. After that, I sold/traded what I could on the forums, and sold a bunch to a local hobby shop that sells used kits. And much to my own horror, I had a few kits left that went in the garbage - a couple in progress that I knew would never survive the journey, and a few that nobody wanted that had little value. It was painful, but I now have a different viewpoint when I want to buy new stuff - I am forced to be practical in terms of space and usefulness.

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