It's HERE *_*

My Materials Collection arrived today! OMG It's BEAUTIFUL! I knew it was a paperback, but for some reason I was picturing this flimsy thing, but nooooo it's big like the regular artbooks. OMG IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL! *_* I am totally in love. It's in a great condition too! Just the tiniest bend along the top of the dust jacket but inside it's PERFECT and SO AWESOME. D: I AM SO HAPPY! *joy!*

I have gotten a ton of stuff through trades in the last few days and I will be posting pictures soonish. Just waiting for a few more things to arrive before I do a SakkysMoonBag update. I won't be buying anything for a while (mainly because I have to pay back the cost of the new book >_>) but I should be back into hunting down gashapon in a few weeks.

Looking forward to hitting eBay again and making a list of all the things I don't have! :D

Naoko Dreams & New Stuff

Dude, I had the coolest dream last night! Okay so in the dream I was at a museum or something and it was like a retrospective of Naoko's work. There were these big watercolor paintings on rice paper that were beautiful. That was kind of the main gallery. Then there was clothing that she had designed and sketches for outfits, and OMG the COOLEST part was a really large book, like 24" tall, that had pages and pages of sketches and notes from the creation of Sailormoon. It had doodles and notes about ideas that Naoko had when writing Sailormoon that never got into the story, like other members of Kakyuu's court and information about the senshi and the Moon Kingdom that never made it into the story. It was like a moonie's dream! I was SO EXCITED. And they had an interview with her as a video and all kinds of cool stuff! *_*

Too bad it was just a dream! D: And in the dream I was there with my two friends and they were so bored :P

In collection news, does anyone have a PGSM Jupiter purse? Like this but, you know, with Jupiter on it? I really want one... :O

Also, I've finally managed to obtain all four Banpresto Amazoness Quartet plushies. CereCere and PallaPalla are on their way home now. I paid a little more for CereCere than I ought to have probably but as we know from past experiences, money is not generally worth much to me in face of pretties. *_* I got VesVes and JunJun at Otakon in 2007 for $25 ea. The girl in front of me bought all the Sailormoon plushies at the table but she missed these two because she didn't look through the boxes under the table. I win. :3

I have been working with people on a few trades. I finally managed to get a hold of all five Irwin plushies of the inners and Moon thanks to some help from Bunny. I had no idea that Sailor Mars was a 'rare find' but apparently she's had to come by these days. I don't even remember when I got her - I think she might have been a really old Hot Topic purchase. xD So that's exciting.

I just got Sailor V volumes 1 & 2 in a trade, so I still need Vol 3 if anyone's selling/trading. That's something I should've bought a long time ago, but I'm a slacker on comics. It's really pretty though, and it's funny to see the characters in a different way.

I'm trying to keep focused on gashapon and plushies right now. My goal was to get the four AQ (check!) and now I'd like to fill in at least two full sets of gashapon (probably 2002 Set #1 and 2004 Set #1). I'm not going to panic about filling the others, though I would eventually like to have them all. Once I'm all set on those, I will probably try to focus on saving up for some more expensive wands and such. I still want some outer senshi plushies, but I'm not sure how willing I am to track them down all at once. I will probably spread them out over a few months.

I do still really want the Lunatia L and tamborine (damn! it sold T_T), but I haven't been able to bring myself to spend that much on it.

Okay that's enough blathering for now. <3

Re-focus: This time it's serious

This fandom is havoc, I say! Havoc! D:

It's hard to focus when there are so many cool toys out there. I've only been collecting seriously for just under two years, and I'm just now starting to realize that if I don't FOCUS and make a PLAN then I am just going to end up with a ton of junk.

Actually, I have to rephrase that because nothing Sailormoon is junk to me. I will just end up with a ton of it. :D Having a lot of Sailormoon stuff is great, but having great Sailormoon stuff is better. If I spend all my time and money buying up every little shiny that catches my eye on eBay, I will never be ready when THOSE ITEMS come along.

Hey, it's already happened to be before. I had a few hundred dollars in my PayPal account last year and I went on a spending spree. I bought any little thing that ticked my fancy. What happened? The Materials Collection showed up the next week and sold for $170, well within my range a week before. Tragic, really. And that's not the only time I've seen one of THOSE ITEMS show up at the most inopportune times.

I'm getting organized. I made a list of the items I want. I am going to prioritize this list and focus on the items that I really want the most. Will there still be purchases of opportunity? Will there still be impulse buys for that "OMG too cute" plushie? Sure there will be. But at least I will FEEL like I know what I'm doing. At least maybe this time, when one of THOSE ITEMS shows up for sale I just might be ready.

Put on your game face, it's eBay time! *dance*

My extensive Wish List is here. Serenity help me :P

Confessions of a Collector

I started a mirror of this blog on LiveJournal. I've joined the serasell, sailormoonfans, and smcollector communities over there and I plan to be more active. I'm not terribly familiar with LiveJournal so it's taking some getting used to, but it's very exciting to be connecting with more people who share my (sometimes obsessive) hobbies.

Speaking of my obsessive hobbies, I wonder how many of you can relate. I recently become pretty good friends with a few other active Sailormoon merch collectors. It really feels good to know that I'm not the only one that goes through physical pain in the process of this journey. It's a real emotional roller coaster ride I've gotten on, and sometimes I wonder if it's even very healthy.

I'm very passionate about my hobby. I can understand why a person who has never had this level of devotion to something would think me mad. However, having recently discovered that so many others share the same enthusiastic vigor as I, it's become something of a badge of honor for me.

Yes, I get stomach aches during eBay auctions. Yes, I cry with tears of joy when I FINALLY get a long sought after item. I coo it and show it to everyone and give it a special place, on a special shelf in a SPECIAL room in my house. Yes, it hurts me to think of all the beautiful things I will likely never own. I dream about finding and owning these things. I watch things on eBay that I don't have the money for just to TORTURE MY SOUL. Do I sound like a materialistic psycho that is unhealthily obsessed with a cartoon show from the 90s? YES! YES I DO! ^_____^

I've considered therapy, but in the end I know I don't want it to go away. I want to feel the joys and pains of collecting Sailormoon stuff. It's a metaphor for life! I work hard to achieve those things I want. Sometimes those things are not there to have, and sometimes I don't have what it takes to get them, and sometimes SOMEONE ELSE gets them! BUT I PLOW ON! Determined to make the best of every auction, every yard sale, every dollar store. I will seek out new Sailormoon toys in new locations. I WILL BOLDLY GO WHERE MANY OF YOU HAVE GONE BEFORE.

And I will not refinance my house to buy toys.

Is there anything more you could ask of me!?

Cutie Moon Rod in Box, for sale yo!

Come and get it!