Originally Posted by
SpaceGhost2K
I think now is a good time for everybody to step back and take a breath.
This is a good time to evaluate what we are. TO do that, I am going to use a couple of examples.
When I collected Star Wars stuff actively, I was a manber of collectstarwars.com, and then galactichunter.com when CSW was bought and the former owners launched the new site.
People there post local finds, and they buy, sell and trade figures. They don't allow ebay links except for top of the line vintage figures and memorabilia. So people don't fight too much, because their forums are more about what's local and not what they found on the 'net.
Then on the other hand there are the Roman forums. No, not the one where they threw Christians to the lions. Roman makes figurines. I tried to complete a set of ornaments for my wife, and there was like no talk at all about people finding HTF things. If you found something cool, you kept the info to yourself.
Faceplate Addict is a weird duck. I'm trying to get people to come together as a community while at the same time knowing that they're all going to want the same stuff. It's a nightmare waiting to happen.
At SOME point, there will be a number of people here who have near-complete collections. By that, I mean they've got just about everything that will EVER be in their price range. When there are eighteen people here with the DOA Kasumi plate, and one comes up for auction, there will be a "heads up" and probably no fighting will ensue.
But as it is right now, not even Gh0st or Gameking is in that boat. While they have stellar collections, they also still have some gaping holes that need to be filled. Then we've also got those guys just starting out, with money in hand, trying to decide which plate to add to their collection.
This is my opinion, but I'd never get that riled up over a signature.
I have two plates from the Canadian charity auctions that I could have lost and not lost any sleep.
I have a plate signed by Brad Bird, but it's a plate that I made myself.
I have two plates signed by the BioWare/Mass Effect development team. Not only are they also made by me, but I went to their studios and they signed them with MY pen, right in front of me. Their autographs don't mean "I paid for a signed plate." They mean, "I was there."
If a CoD4 plate autographed by the development team means that much to you (and I'm only using this as an example, I'm not singling out parties involved), I would just buy a plate and mail it to Infinity Ward's PR department, and ask for signatures. Avril Lavigne, Joss Stone, Brad Bird... those people were in one place at one time and signed one plate. They're non-industry people. I would never, NEVER, pay crazy money for a plate signed by people who are still around and could sign a hundred more if you asked. J Allard, Peter Moore, Jeff Bell, Shane Kim, Major Nelson, Cliffy B, Peter Molyneux.... it's too easy to just hand them a plate and ask them to sign it.
Pick a company. Let's use Bungie. Pretty easy to find the addresses to their studios. Get a Halo plate. Get a box that will hold the plate and addresses it to yourself, and stick on the appropriate postage. Then put that and a Halo plate in a box. Add a note that you're a fan and would like signatures of the development staff. Include specific names if you have them.
You could do that with IW, and for fifty bucks for a plate and twenty bucks postage, you could have that plate that sold for two hundred or whatever it went for. And you'd have the pride of knowing that you got those signatures yourself.
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I've expressed interest in the IdolM@ster plate and this Massive plate. In both cases, I made an exceptional amount of noise that these plates mean a lot to me. Groovy. But if someone in here outbid me, well... the truth of the matter is, they were obviously willing to spend more money on than I was, so who can I blame? Them? Hell no.
I am hoping that we can help each other out SO MUCH that if someone DOES get their toes stepped on, a "sorry dude" will be sufficient, and we're passed it. There will be misunderstandings. There will be miscommunications. And there will most certainly be competitions.
gh0st_rider, moltenluv and kingmidas82 have gone way above and beyond in helping me with my collection. ali rock 110 and gameking28 have bought a crapload of stuff from me. So if I lost something to someone I might go, "&#(%$!" but if I lost it to one of them, I'd go "oh, well." If we're all that close from helping each other out, EVERYBODY will have some one-of-a-kind plate in their collection, and EVERYBODY will have a collection they can be proud of and NOBODY will want somebody in here dead, lol.