It's Been Quiet on the Cars (and Planes) Front

[cac1959]

It's been a quiet time for Cars and Planes... the 2014 January lull is worse than I remember from most past years... I bought 2 2014 2 packs for myself in stores and I bought 2 2014 Max Schnell for myself in stores... that's it... I did buy a few Cars items for others, but very few.

I made one Cars hunting trip in January... part of that was due to the winter weather and not being able to or willing to go out of town... part of that was due to others not finding much where they live and not having local Target and Toys R US stores to check... and local stores have nothing that I want... and part of that was coming home from work exhausted and not having the energy or desire to go look.

I'm also finally starting to realize that Cars are something I want and not a need... I am a Cars-a-holic... and there have been many times over the last 7 years that I've needed to go out and find a new Car to feed my addiction... and to help out friends... many of my friends who were collecting back in 2007 when I started are no longer collecting with the same enthusiasm or at all... their children or grandchildren have gotten old and moved onto other things... my grandchildren have moved onto other things... and while I'm not willing to or going to move on from Cars, I'm definitely cutting back what I have now and what I'm going to collect in 2014.

At the end of last spring, my wife and I started looking at houses - we've been renting for the last 8 years and decided we wanted to try to own a home once again... last summer we found one we really liked but were turned down for a mortgage... 3 months later the same house was still available and we tried again but were turned down once again... that house sold right before Christmas...

3 weeks ago we applied for a mortgage once again... this time we were approved... we've been looking at houses the last 3 weeks, and I think we've found one that we really like that is in our price point... if all goes well, we could make an offer next week... and I'm going to get busy and do some things to make the dream of home ownership happen.

I have way too many extras that I need to sell... they're taking up too much space in my Cars room, and I need the money for a house... I'm also considering something that I never thought I'd do... selling my Speedway of the South set... I know that if I do I won't ever have one again... I bought it to enjoy and not as an investment... but other than taking the Cars out of the box to take pictures a couple of times, I've not been enjoying it... decisions, decisions.

I like Cars... and to a lesser extent, Planes... I've made some great friendships over the years with others that share my love of Cars and we've made trades to help out each other... I enjoy seeing photos of your Cars finds and collections and enjoy sharing my finds and collections with you... and I'm still going to do that... but for the next several weeks I'm going to devote more of my time and energy on something else.

For those of you who are still waiting on your Silver Frosty from the Christmas contest, I will be getting those ready to post... for those of you in the US who won prizes in the recent Guess the Character Contest, I've got prize packages to prepare... for those of you who have purchased PCD Custom Racers, those need to be mailed... we also have several PCD custom racers still for sale and we need to sell them.

I'm not walking away from Cars or PCD... but I wanted to let you know why I've been quiet the last several weeks and may be fairly quiet for the next several weeks.

Many thanks for supporting PCD on our website, our Facebook group (now up to 300 members), and for being part of our Cars community.

[carscrazy]

Congratulations on being approved on the mortgage.. wish you the best of luck with any house you purchase!

Like you, I have also been thinking of late about what we should be spending on cars. We have only been purchasing very few cars (the lack of anything new in the UK has helped this). This is due to our pup having a dietary requirement because of allergies. He's currently on a all natural diet which as you can guess is not cheap. Although my nephew still loves cars and i still share a huge passion for collecting with him we are having to make cut backs for 2014

[Ferris]

Good luck finding the perfect house for you! Us relatively new collectors will be looking forward to helping you get rid of some of those extras.

As for the lull, I have purchased a total of two 2014 singles (Megan & Timothy) and two deluxe (Chuck & Nelson) for myself. There are many coming out that I am excited about, but it has been a long wait. I have not seen any 2014 2-packs anywhere, although the only one I would buy is Shu. Hope to see Emmanual and Jungle Miles soon...

[cac1959]

Good luck finding the perfect house for you! Us relatively new collectors will be looking forward to helping you get rid of some of those extras.

As for the lull, I have purchased a total of two 2014 singles (Megan & Timothy) and two deluxe (Chuck & Nelson) for myself. There are many coming out that I am excited about, but it has been a long wait. I have not seen any 2014 2-packs anywhere, although the only one I would buy is Shu. Hope to see Emmanual and Jungle Miles soon...

I think you'll find Emmanuel soon - it's been found at Walmart stores in Pennsylvaniam Nevada, and Florida... however, the case assortment has changed and Jungle Miles Axelrod isn't in the case...

Emmanuel - x2
Waiter Mater - x2
Red - x1
Mack - x1

[Clearysdad19]

Good luck with the new house Chris

[GotFrank]

Slower if you only collect Cars... Again Chris glad to hear there's progress on the home front. I found Emmanuel last night in Davenport, IA.

[boogity]

bout ye chris, I dont think you should get rid of ought, perhaps when you move you could have a new room dedicated to cars, stick in new display cabinets, shelving , etc
this is an excellent opprtunity to start your collections afresh
as for speedway ot the south, keep it for goodness sake
my mum is downsizing and moving to an appartment, the amount of accumulated stuff is amazing and apart from the sentimental value cant see anyone wanting alot of it
even finding photos, cards , letters from the 19th century!

had alook round the attic and started counting things cars related.....got about half way and thought better of it, if I kick the bucket my nephews will get the lot..if they still want them of course
the same goes for the ferrari collection now thats another story

[bobbyjack]

Been really slow with Cars and Planes this month. I think all I bought in January for myself was Josh Coolant and the Jolly Wrenches 4 pack. Great news about the house. Looking forward to seeing photos of your new Cars room. Our Cars and Planes share space right now with Barbie, Disney Princesses, My Little Pony, Monster Jam, Star Wars, and Transformers.

[GotFrank]

boogity raises a good point. Don't get rid of anything you'll regret later. Just advice from a friend...

[Scavenger]

Im with Josh and Boogity...keep that SOTS and find a nice place to display it...dump off some other stuff!!

[All4Mase]

Obviously you gotta take care of number one (your family). As a family man, you'll do what you need to do to help get your new house. If I were you, I'd sell all extras first. They are "extra" after all. Hold onto the SOTS unless you absolutely NEED to move it. And if you can bring yourself to display it in the new house do it! I have some pretty cool carded cars chillin away in the garage. For what? I had an epiphany when I came home and Amber took out long Ge for Mason to play with because he liked the star on it. I was nervous at first, but came to realize that it wasn't the end of the world. At least he got to enjoy it! I bet if you tell your wife you need to spend a weekend preparing to sell your extra cars, she'd be enthused, lol. I hope everything works out with the new property. Oh, I know where to import Cars and Planes wallpaper murals to cover an entire wall of the new house if interested. ;-)

[carslover]

good luck on buying the house of your dreams
taking care of your family comes first
if you do have to sell the SOTS set maybe you could find a collector who would be willing to sell it back to you in the future if you get to where you want it back
but selling off extras first makes more sense depending on how much money you need to raise to make your new home a reality
good luck and we all hope to see you back on here everyday in the future

[Raginpage]

I think the family always comes first. I told my wife the other day I wasn't materialistic. I said if she got rid of the entire cars collection tomorrow, I'd move on pretty easily. I told her the fun and the thrill is the hunt and the process.

Having said that, make wise decisions. The SOTS set is getting rarer, they aren't going to re-release it anytime soon it's looking more and more unlikely that the apple car is ever going to come out as a single. Maybe it's NOT an investment, but it is probably the coolest item in all of cars collecting, at least in my opinion. I'd think that one over before selling it. That might be the one thing you hold on to, just my 2 cents.

[odisn]

Good luck with the new house Chris

Agreed.

[gipsy]

Wishiall the best for the new house. Try to sell your extras first, guess there are enough people here who will gladly take a lot of them cause they are still on the hunt for those. Me as well, maybe. Selling the SOTS really should be the last option. And guess your wife will be a lot happier to see thousands of extras go away taking space than the SOTS taking just a little space. :-)