5 Mistakes I Made As A New Collector

hey everyone Jeff here from films at

home in today's video I'm going to talk

about the five major mistakes that I

made when I started collecting

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hey everyone thanks for coming back to

this video today as I said I'm going to

talk about the five major major mistakes

that I made when I first started

collecting movies now I will be using

movies as my example for this video

because that is what I collect but even

if you don't collect movies this video

is very informative and it should help

you whether you're collecting movies

comic books sports cards rocks pencils

whatever you want to collect these tips

and these mistakes and things to avoid

are definitely going to be applicable to

literally any collector out there so

don't turn this off if you're not a

movie collector I think you can get

something out of this as well and if you

are a movie collector you'll definitely

get something out of this so the first

mistake I made as a collector was buying

everything when I started collecting

movies I was just literally looking to

buy movies I didn't care if it was a

movie I wanted to watch I didn't care if

it was a movie I'd ever seen I didn't

even care what the movie was who

released it it didn't matter if I went

to a store and they had cheap movies I

was buying those movies and what

happened very quickly because I was

buying everything is that I started to

get overwhelmed it started to affect my

budget which we'll talk about in a later

part of this video but it also made it

feel like it wasn't really my own

personal collection and I've talked a

lot about this on the channel but

curating your collection and really

choosing what you want to buy is super

important to maintaining a healthy

collector mentality and a healthy

relationship with your collection so

that you don't get frustrated and throw

it all away if you ever get to that

point you've gone too far and you've

probably been buying too much stuff that

you don't care about so in my case I

love horror movies and I realized I was

buying a ton of stuff that I was never

going to watch and I wasn't spending

money on you know limited edition

special edition horror movies stuff that

I really cared about that I should have

been spending my money on so you'll

notice my collection has shifted in that

way and definitely don't worry about the

fomo the fear of missing out don't worry

about what your neighbor's buying don't

worry about what people online are

buying you sort of have to put those

blinders on when it comes to that stuff

and buy what you really love and don't

just buy everything because when you buy

everything it just becomes hoarding and

not collecting now the second mistake I

made when I started collecting movies

was not understanding the community not

understanding the technology not

understanding the formats and not

understanding the market which I was

entering into I'll give you an example

here a little anecdote from way way back

when we're talking like 2012. I bought a

Blu-ray player and a little surround

sound system I went out and I was like

okay I finally have this great system

now I want some movies I went out and

bought DVDs I came home I put them in

and and I was literally trying to figure

out what was wrong with my TV and almost

returned my TV because I thought there

was an issue because the DVDs didn't

look good they should look HD I bought a

Blu-ray player I bought surround sound

why is this not all coming together and

it really was just like my lack of

understanding I jumped into something

before I fully understood what I was

getting into I should have done my

research I should have understood that

there were different formats between DVD

and Blu-ray and what each of those gave

you so that I could make a more informed

decision when I started my collection

and I also should have understood the

market like where are the best places to

buy these things what's actually

available is this something that is

feasible right now should I get into

this like these are the types of things

you should be asking yourself before you

collect anything and definitely if it's

technology related you know you're going

to want to do your research and

understand what you're getting into if

you don't you're going to make many more

mistakes along the way and that's okay I

I've learned a lot from my failures as a

collector and many of you may have as

well you're going to make mistakes

anyway you're gonna have failures you're

going to realize you you know you spent

five times too much or you bought the

wrong version of something because you

didn't fully understand it and this is

even more important when it comes to

like Coins Stamps sports cards comic

books like you need to understand the

difference between sports card variants

and you know what's a rookie card and

what's a short print card you need to

understand like what's the first

appearance of somebody in a comic book

what's their first usage which comic

books you know the color of the pages

matters like you have to understand all

that stuff before you really want to

jump into something or you're more

likely to get burnt and then that's

going to obviously turn you off to the

collecting which it almost did to me it

almost stopped me from ever getting to

the point I'm at now with my movies

because I was so burnt by what I did and

so disappointed that I almost said

forget it so you don't want that to

happen so just do a little bit of

research go online jump into different

communities you know under understand

what you're getting into now the third

major mistake I had as a collector was

not buying used and not shopping around

when I first started buying movies I was

just like at Walmart at Best Buy at

Target okay you know that's on the Shelf

it's 25 like I guess that's what it is

it's 25 I didn't do any research I

didn't shop around and I wanted

everything to be new part of that came

from the fact that I knew old DVDs could

get scratched and they'd be you know

broken down and you didn't really you

had to be careful buying those used that

wasn't the case with the new formats

which I didn't understand again goes

back to learning your technology and

what you're going to be collecting but

once I understood that I started buying

way more used stuff than I did new stuff

you go to Salvation Army Goodwill you go

on Facebook Marketplace apps like

mercari or offer up I mean even just ask

your friends and family people are

always getting rid of stuff library

sales or another great place and even

your local video store they often use

stuff as well that people have traded in

and again this goes for anything like

you don't need to always be buying

absolutely brand new top of the line

stuff to enjoy your collection I think

about sports cards like obviously most

sports cards are used unless you buy

them out of the pack they're going to be

new but there's different conditions

there's different grades to them same

with comic books now if you can only

afford a lower grade version of

something

but you really want it you know be happy

with that you can buy that used lower

grade version and you get to own that in

your collection and yeah it may not be

the the highest grade it may not be

pristine it may not be the limited

edition you know movie set that you

wanted but you do still own that piece

of media or that card or that book or

that coin and that is a really cool

thing as a collector so don't let that

distract you like there's value in

Collectibles but there's also just the

value of ownership and the sentimental

value of just being able to say you know

hey I have a 1952 tops Mickey Mantle

card you guys have no idea what I would

give to have one of those in my

collection and I'm never probably going

to be able to afford it but even if it

was ripped in half I would probably take

it because it's just the sentimental

value of having that same with movies

same with Blu-ray like if you just want

to own something you don't need the 60

80 100 limited edition Dawn of the Dead

you know 4K box that I think a lot of

people just want to own the thing and

that's where you can do really well on

the used market and really just shopping

around a little bit at different places

to find good deals now the fourth big

mistake I made when starting a

collection was not budgeting and not

prioritizing what I wanted to buy with

my budget so you know when I started I

was just like I said buying everything

just trying to buy stuff up I just

wanted to grow a collection and that

quickly gets expensive even five ten

fifteen dollars a movie that adds up

very quickly and when I started I was in

college I did not have nearly the budget

that I have today not to say I'm rich

today I drive a 2007 Toyota truck like

I'm not loaded

I drive a Dodge Stratus but I've done

much better with my budgeting and I've

been much smarter with my money which

has made me much happier with my

collection and I've maintained again

that healthy relationship with the

collection that keeps me happy so I

would 100 recommend setting a budget

whether it's 50 or 500 a month and stick

to it really stick to it by prioritizing

what you want if your budget is only

fifty dollars a month and there's a

release out there that you want that

costs a hundred dollars well maybe you

don't buy anything the month before and

you use two months worth of budget to go

get that thing that you really want now

of course you could go buy ten five

dollar things and have ten things but

you won't have the one thing you really

want so that's where I'd say you know

budget and then prioritize some things

you don't need to buy right away some

things you can wait for you know to get

on sale some stuff you do want to have

right away that's probably going to cost

you more stuff always costs more when

it's new so you just have to sort of set

that amount what is your hobby

collecting budget it and stick to it

don't go over it if you're gonna go over

it then you have to cut back the next

month and really stick to a strict

number and you'll be much happier by

doing that and now the fifth mistake

that I made and the last one for this

video is not getting involved in the

community when I started collecting

movies I was on my own little island I

was just like I'm buying stuff up you

know this is cool I'm watching movies I

have a little collection growing some

friends and family knew about it but I

didn't have the the sense of community

that I think a collection should really

bring like a collection is an extension

of you and with the internet these days

and you know everybody on YouTube the

amount of Reddit communities Instagram

communities Facebook communities and

Facebook groups even just being on

Twitter and being in that space Tick

Tock I mean everywhere you go not

including you know forums and blogs as

well there's communities for this stuff

and the more I started to get involved I

joined a Reddit group DVD The Collection

that kind of kick-started my interest

started talking to some people over

there started writing some reviews

getting more involved that turned into

social media that turned into YouTube

now we've got this huge community of

over a hundred thousand people here on

YouTube that I built which I'm so proud

of and all you guys are a community

together that can talk to each other

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if I hadn't gotten involved at the

beginning I would have missed out on so

much because you can't track everything

so by being in a community you start to

see you know people post deals people

give you alerts hey this thing's back in

stock over here you know hey this rare

sports car just dropped on eBay I know

you collect that player you should go

look at that hey this Rare Coin I just

heard they announced that they found 10

of them in a warehouse you should go

look at that like all this stuff in

movies you know hey there's a new

limited edition there's a sale in this

movie there's a sale on that hey Target

just got a new stock of Funko Pops hey

Walgreens has a new exclusive funko pop

that you're not going to want to miss

like all of these things can be

exhausting if you try to track it

yourself which I really was doing once

you become part of a community and you

can sort of just scroll through posts

and interact with different people all

that starts to become easier plus that

sense of community really makes you feel

good you know a lot of us have these

collections in our house uh you know

whatever it may be and the people around

you your neighbors your friends your

family may not be excited or as excited

as you are about this stuff you know

maybe oh hey that's really cool but

they're not going to get in depth and

talk to you about it so by having that

online community uh for anything really

but especially for collecting you can

really connect with those like-minded

people which is going to make you

happier with what you have it's going to

make you a little more uh knowledgeable

and disciplined with your budget it goes

back to all the things I talked about

being knowledgeable about the market and

your Collectibles having a budget

setting priorities knowing where to look

for deals buying used stuff and you know

just figuring out what you want to buy

and not buying everything all of this

can be done by joining a community and

that really was a huge mistake that I

made by not getting involved for a

couple of years I really did feel like I

was on an island and now when I talk

about this stuff even you know I'm

sitting here in my basement with my

collection literally talking to you know

a hundred thousand plus people and

you're not here in front of me but like

there is this community in the comment

section will start and you guys will

talk to each other and that's so cool to

see because we can connect even though

we aren't there in person uh which is

such a cool part of collecting

especially in the internet age so that's

it those are the five major mistakes

that I made now I'm not saying that I'm

perfect at this point I've talked a lot

about how I've had to continue to sort

of drill these things into my head and

you will too you know but this is a

really good place to start if you're

starting to think about starting a

collection of any kind you know I talked

movies specifically that's what my

channel is about but this applies to any

collection these are things you'd

probably want to do beforehand and I

think you'll be much happier having done

them than by making the same mistakes

that that I had to make in order to then

make this video and give this advice so

hopefully this is helpful for everybody

out there regardless of what you collect

and if you do want more information you

want to ask me questions where should I

look for this where's a good place to

start looking for communities like you

know where should I buy movies if it's

movie related let me know let's use the

comments section I'm always there I'm

always checking it out as rough as it

can be sometimes I like to look at it

and engage the community so you know

let's talk there and build this

community even larger speaking of

community if you liked this video and

you're interested at all in movie

collecting physical media home

entertainment you're going to want to

subscribe to my channel because I have

tons of content over 500 videos I think

now on the channel going back years that

you will really enjoy plus I have a

podcast which has been going for about a

year now with tons of content there so

subscribe here on YouTube make sure you

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the community there at the same time we

build the community on this platform so

thank you for watching hope you have a

great rest of your day stay safe stay

healthy out there and I will talk to you

all soon