Small Scale Military Headquarters

do anyone store there 1:18 stuff at u-hall or places like it

i was thinking of getting a 10X10 place of storage for 80 month in califorina. but at that price in two month i could get another avenger

what your impute on this..

You want my personal opinion? If you have to use a storage facility to store your XD, then I think you went too far. I hope you don't take that the wrong way, but I feel that there is a limit to what you need and what you want. If the want requires storage, then you might want to adjust the need. I hope that makes sense.....

-Ski

In the darkest recesses of our being, that is an eventuality we will all have to face; like a prostate or colonoscopy exam... better you than I at this point (just kidding). The length of time between new releases may lead one to believe that time will never come, but unless 21st and BBI go out of business by the end of the year we will all face the issue of xd space verses family space. Don't worry about it, one can walk away from the crack pipe as well as xd, right?

Just rotate your displays. Sometimes even really cool pieces have to back into the box and on to the garage shelves since there is limited room in the house.
Aaron

I think it is wrong to automatically assume that everyone collecting XD lives in a house with a garage and so that there should be plenty of space or else the person has a "want" problem. Some members of the board live in apartments with very little space but this shouldnt stop them from enjoying their hobby (IMOH). If they can afford to store them and rotate the displays in their apartments, then more power to them! Now if you have a 5 bedroom house and three car garage with a workshop in the back and still run out of room, then maybe their is a problem

Guys, maybe our member lookiong for opinions is in the habit of buying large multiples of releases in order to resell them in the future.

Who of us doesn't buy multiples, or at least want to?

I happen to agree with Ski, if you need extra space and your collection is "one of" then you have let our hobby get away from you.

As for living space, we all do with what space we have. I have visited one of our members and he is a single guy with a small apartment and the apartment was packed with toys, floor to cieling. What he didn't have displayed, he had piled up for resell. When he sees a close-out or clearance, he takes advantage. I think his car has an auto pilot feature that stops at every Wally and TRU on the East coast. I could see me living like that if my familly didn't want THINGS and constantly buying THINGS and they keep bothering me with stupid questions like...."When are you gonna get your toys off the table??"..."Why is your new John Wayne standing guard on my china closet??"...."Why arn't these trucks and 1/6 tanks, WSC's, Jeeps and that dumb Opel Blitz truck thing down in the bunker?". Gotta love 'em. I just change the subject....."Did you hear what NASCAR wants to do now?" or "Did you see this big sale at Target??" Works every time, well almost every time.

Me, I have plenty of space in my home, garage, basement and bunker but I share that space with a wife, son, his girlfriend, two dogs and a cat. The garage has two motorcycles, three big quads, two trikes, some kind of off road rail machine. My son does sandblasting and powder coating in the garage, so keeping toys there is out. You squeese in our toys where you can.

Pay for space for toys? Unless it is a temporary solution, for like a divorce, changing house (or apartments), I say don't do it. Space is not cheap.

TTT

I say NO to storage.

I live in an apartment and when space begins to get the best of me, I either re-organize (usually means buying more shelves) or I sell some stuff. Think about the stuff you would not miss if it were stored away, and likely it is perfect for sale. If you ever want it again you will be able to buy it with the multiples of $80 you have saved. There are very few pieces of XD I would say don't sell because you will never see it again....

Good luck.

Good decision. If you have to pay for storage it defeats the purpose of buying multiple items for resale since the storage costs now become part of the items cost basis and your profits will shrink dramatically unless of course you are trading on an equal basis or don't care whether the item makes a profit. Just my 2 cents.

Sell don't store.....Once you let one of your items go....it gets a lot easier. Ebay will be your friendon those days

I'm probably beating a dead horse now - but sell sell - if that is your intention - Don't hold on to what is considered hard to find now -

Plus it will be much harder to sell items in bulk in the future -

Man, you guys read alot into his initial request. He just wanted to know if
anybody used storage or not. Didnt say anything about buying and storing multiples and selling on ebay, sheesh! Blackdragon, according to my friends here, you obviously have a problem and need to learn to live with a small collection (which is easy for us to say in our comfortable houses)
I feel for you,because there are so many great aircraft out there. Do what makes you comfortable and doesnt break the bank. There is no rule book for this hobby

Regards,

Andy

We're trying to sell our house right now, so a large portion of my collection is in a storage unit right now. Drives me nuts. One, I hate dishing out the money for something silly as extra storage (I could go on a rant on how home builders forget storage when they build houses, but I won't pain you all). Also, I like my stuff where I can see it. But, I figured that people coming to see our house aren't going to want to see my crap, so I'll deal with the storage issue for a few months.

But, I hope we find a new home/sell this one soon. We've already started reaching the 90's here, and the unit isn't climate controlled. Add to that the dust that gets into those units, and I know that's not good for my stuff. Keep that in mind - if you store your stuff in those, you'd better pack it in other containers in order to protect it.

Store if you have no other option, but you may want to think about how to more efficiently display your stuff. I have encountered this same problem, having only a very limited area of display & storage space at the moment. The large part of my aircraft and vehicle collection is in my room, either displayed or stored in my closet or cupboards. Still, I have been forced to store about six of my 1:18 planes in the attic, and rotate them through periodically. Some of the stored planes are partially disassembled to take up less space. I would love to display everything, but until I get my own apartment, that isn't an option.

Ultimately, most of us will reach a maximum capacity for storage (mine is fast approaching) and that is when the decision comes as whether to stop collecting or to collect only those pieces that we truly want. Its a very hard thing to do, especially since 21c always seems to be turning out cooler products with each new release. Then there is the repaint/model improvement issue...

tmanthegreat wrote:Ultimately, most of us will reach a maximum capacity for storage (mine is fast approaching) and that is when the decision comes as whether to stop collecting or to collect only those pieces that we truly want. Its a very hard thing to do, especially since 21c always seems to be turning out cooler products with each new release. Then there is the repaint/model improvement issue...

I have a great answer for that... SCALE DOWN!!!!!!! 1/32 planes only take up a fraction of space that 1/18 does, and eventually 21st will make everything in 1/32 that they make in 1/18 scale..

Seriously, I have done the storage route and it wasn't pretty.. You have to deal with outside critters (spiders/mice) and also have a high risk of theft..

When space becomes an issue, you really have only several choices. You either, get rid of some of the stuff you have to make room for the newer items or you stop collecting, or you find extra storage space. What ultimately is done will depend on the individual's needs, wants, desires, finances, etc. As was said, there is no right or wrong answer here. You do what is best for you.

We live like Kings!

hworth18 wrote:

tmanthegreat wrote:Ultimately, most of us will reach a maximum capacity for storage (mine is fast approaching) and that is when the decision comes as whether to stop collecting or to collect only those pieces that we truly want. Its a very hard thing to do, especially since 21c always seems to be turning out cooler products with each new release. Then there is the repaint/model improvement issue...

I have a great answer for that... SCALE DOWN!!!!!!! 1/32 planes only take up a fraction of space that 1/18 does, and eventually 21st will make everything in 1/32 that they make in 1/18 scale..

Seriously, I have done the storage route and it wasn't pretty.. You have to deal with outside critters (spiders/mice) and also have a high risk of theft..

Bite your tongue sir!! 1:32 will never challenge 1:18 for supremacy!!

-Ski

Black Dragon One, I too ended up renting a 10x10 unit, did this for about one year. At the time we rented a small trailer size home with absolutely no storage space of any type. I displayed a few of my toys in this house and stored the rest in my mothers basement for several years. Well, the day came that she wanted back the corner that I had been using for storage and had to go the storage unit way. I was worried what the temperature (90+ to below 32 degrees) would do to my ever growing collection plus what any moisture would do to the boxes. I was lucky with no problems at all. We ended up buying a home and now I have my own computer/toy room for storage and a family room for display. In short if it is going to be a long term storage issue your looking at $1000 a year I say skip it, and slow down your collecting until you have more room. If it's short term go for it. But if you end up selling your collection or parts of it I'm sure you will regret it down the road.

hworth18 wrote:I have a great answer for that... SCALE DOWN!!!!!!! 1/32 planes only take up a fraction of space that 1/18 does, and eventually 21st will make everything in 1/32 that they make in 1/18 scale..

Thats part of my problem - I have wound up collecting both 1:18, 1:32, and a little 1:72. The smaller stuff does store better, however, there is just too much cool stuff all around in all scales.

Besides, 1:32 has a far greater diversity of armor than 1:18, and although it may not yet have the diversity of aircraft, has some very unique pieces. For example, where's the 1:18 Macchi 202, DH Mosquito, or ME-262

Like digger, I sell off pieces from time to time to make room for new ones.
There are some I'm sure I'll never sell, such as my S1 Stuka, Tiger I, M48, UH-1C, and F-16. My overall obective is to "taste" a lot of aircraft and armor, enjoy them for a while, and then keep only those that pass the test of time.

Tinman you are a better man than I am. That is a great philosophy to
"taste the airplanes". I have not had much luck parting with many planes. I don't feel ready to part with most of them. I do however, wish to get rid of other things but finding the time to go through bins in the garage has been difficult. Ideally keeping a flow in and out of the hobby would work best. I must admit currently my intake exceeds my output and storage space is dwindling. This is a pretty pertinent topic as many of us will be, or already are faced with what to do when our space runs out.
Todd

you guy are the best

to clear things up.

i felt guilty about using my parent 10X10 extra room to store my stuff. last time i went into the room the boxes was two foot over my head. my parent got the house and the room just for my stuff:) mom and dad keeper .

i was planing to move out again in the near future and was hopeing to give them back there space, but at the cost 1000 a year and all the trouble of the storage space i have to let it stay were it is.

i only collect but never sale. i have to rethink about saleing.

it funny i wanted to show off all my collection at one time but never have the guts to pull it all out which would take about four hours and then put it all back. one of these days..

any way. thank you for all your kind words. if i do sale i might get rid of the stuff the i bought twise. which is almost everthing.

if i do that were is my army to take over the 1:18 world...

i confess i am a junky an xd junky.........need to go to another aa meeting...sorry i meant ta meeting..

I agree that it does not make sense, financially, to store items in relatively expensive storage. Certainly if the idea is to keep them to sell in future for profit, any realized profits will long have been consumed by the storage fees. If your plan is to regularily rotate your collection between stored items and display items, then it makes more sense to pay for the storage, if you can afford to, as it is cheaper and easier than constantly selling and re-buying the items you want to display, which would be the alternative.

Space, or more specifically the lack thereof, is something we 1/18 afficianados are constantly battling. It can lead to some resourcefulness and pretty creative ideas, though. I've learned to sleep standing up, for example.

As things get more and more cramped in my home (i've already noticed i'm starting to do a bit of 'bobbing and weaving' to avoid parts of my collection as i move about my place) i will probably move to a larger home one day. At first i thought it was daft to get a bigger place just so i could display more toys but i love this hobby and real estate in Toronto is a good investment so....feh....why not?

hay aferguson

if the real estate is cheap i move down there just to have some more space....

I had a storage space for awhile for my stuff. It was a 5 x 10 in a climate control and cost $75 a month. I kept some clothes, about 500 1/18 Diecast cars and unbuilt plastic models there. I had a pretty small apartment at the time. If you decide to store your stuff be sure and use a climate control facility. Many years ago I didn't and suffered some warped parts and some problems with mold.