help needed

[easyenders]

I've just recently bought some nice quality(?) pieces and decided to take the pace down a little, and avoid looking on here and NS4, and just generally try to appreciate what I've already got and try to get any random urges for posters out of my system and just generally just try to enjoy life a little, and what happens? Just one little random search on ebay today and I've now got in place multiple bids all over the place, and I usually snipe, on posters which at the moment I can't even remember what they are. What do the rest of you guys do to dull the urge to buy/bid on more posters? Count to 10? Administer hard drugs? Any advice would be much appreciated. 

[oldposterho]

I recommend being unemployed for 3 years, that'll slow you down!

If that's not so helpful, I've also found the only way to stop when employed is not to look.  You just have to accept that, yes, there will be great deals that you'll miss out on, you won't be able to track the market, and some other bastid collector will steal posters that rightfully belong in your collection.  But it's the only way.

--Peter
(Ob/Com Collector  #1138)

[easyenders]

Thanks Peter, don't readily want to accept unemployment at the moment, and if I did, I'll also have to sell what I have already managed to collect, which would probably only stretch to a bargain bucket at the local Poundland store. 

[paul waines]

What I do to cut down on poster buying is.........Buy stills, lobbys, and autographs. It helps to get you by.

[kauaitx]

For the the sake of your sanity, Will, don't look. 
For the sake of having funds for food, don't look.
For the sake of having shelter during this cold winter, don't look.
For Pete's (above) sakes, just don't look.

I write this with frantic anxiety as I am looking.

OK, that wasn't helpful. How about doing something else that feeds your soul?  I suggest that aside from avoidance, you try diversion.  Although, you do run the risk of wanting to collect if you divert towards something that has the potential of becoming collectible.   (For instance, I got diverted towards Battlestar Galactica specifically and now I have been spending way more money on a limited number of Battlestar Galactica stuff than I have ever spent on hundreds of posters.)   

Here are some suggestions at diversion:

Painful:
1.  Flogging.
2.  Self-mental abuse.
3.  Sleep deprivation.

Pleasurable:
1.  Spend more one-on-one time with your wife.  The benefits are many-fold with this one, my friend.
2.  Spread out all your posters and invite friends, colleagues, acquaintances and people off the street over to your house where you explain why each poster is important.
3.  Engage in heated online debates about anything but posters.  (This works great for many of us.)

If these fail, I can prescribe an intravenous sedative for you.  Propofol works great.


Jeannie

[easyenders]

just tried the flogging......I'll get back tomorrow to see whether it as worked

[CSM]

Here's a suggestion: send any disposable income you might have to me thereby making it impossible to buy anything further?


It was worth a shot...

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

Two words: "spendthrift trust"

[Harry Caul]

You could always force yourself to sell off a few pieces before buying more?  It would probably help you reassess your priorities.  I know many here have gone through that process... myself included.  I will be posting a "for sale" list soon!

[eatbrie]

Great topic, as I'd love to find an answer too.  What I really want to do, what I've been trying to do for a while now, is stop getting modern pieces and concentrate on older stuff.  But I can't, I can't, I can't...  I've tried all kind of reasoning and nothing works.  I won't even let go of anything.  I admire Holiday for downsizing and concentrating on what really makes him happy.  I just don't know how to do it myself.

T

[scartacus]

Three step Movie Poster Addiction Plan

1/ We're all agreed on this one -- quit looking. Easier said than done. You are not even permitted to "window shop". The very purpose of shop windows is to tempt you in to buy.  You have a cinematic paper habit. You are not equipped to deal with temptation. You are not permitted to window shop. If you're really serious about quitting, put a IP blocker on Ebay. That'll send you cold turkey.

2/ Delete all those ebay alerts, yes, even for those unicorn posters that you might consider breaking your abstinence rule for. Ebay alerts are inherently dangerous and a major challenge to getting clean -- I get mine in the middle of the day and it takes me an hour to go through them precisely because I get sidetracked into other ebay lots and before I know it I'm laying down "bets" and money I really shouldn't be spending. In this respect, I keep on thinking of the scene in Trainspotting. Renton decides to quit heroin, boards himself up in a room with various supplies and a large stash of pornography. Only when he's finally got everything ready does he think: "I need just one more hit". I keep having this same experience every week and its the ebay unicorn alert that gets me every time. 

3/ And this is the hardest -- If you're a junkie, you can't quit the poison AND keep hanging around with your buddies who are still using. So, take a deep breath...disown your poster buddies and cancel your membership of this forum and every other one...because the one thing that will make you fall off the wagon quickest, is fraternization with other like-minded individuals who have exactly the same problem as you..and can't stop talking, thinking and even dreaming about movie poster scores. 

How bad do you really want to give up? Which one of these steps would you find the hardest to follow through on? 

[scartacus]

Step Four

Don't even look at Harry's for sale list when it comes out. Personally, I'm dreading it. 

[Harry Caul]

Step Four

Don't even look at Harry's for sale list when it comes out. Personally, I'm dreading it. 

[50s]

In addition to the above 4 great suggestions from Scartacus, I'll add:
a.) remove all posters from your house
b.) remove poster images from everywhere else including from your computer, your dinner placemats with poster prints, from the photo window in your wallet, the photo frames on your dresser, poster printed t-shirts including all those from Bruce, remove the poster stuck in the inside of your car's rear window, from the back of your work office chair, the mini one printed on your hair brush handle, the poster printed into the bottom of your cats water bowl, & remove all your poster books & cd poster image collections.
c.) poster related contacts in your address books.
d.) as above but for everything movie related.

If you feel you may then move off to uncontrollable collecting of other collectibles, maybe consider finding a non collecting interest like taking up singing or basket weaving... Or do what I might do, learn to body paint 

[Dr Hackenbush]

I feel your pain as I went through something similar, but with comics.  The advice that everyone has given is absolutely correct:  Don't look!  As such, you may need to take time away from the hobby, as I did, to center yourself again.  Maybe spend more time watching movies, your favorites or ones you've been meaning to see, rather than searching for posters.  Just a thought.

[Bruce]

You know the old saying, "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day, but TEACH him HOW to fish and he'll eat the rest of his life"?

There is a similar saying about movie posters: "Give a man a movie poster, and he'll have a great decoration for his wall, but get him started poster collecting and he'll be broke the rest of his life".

Bruce