How do you collect, personal or commercial?

[Macruran]

The only stuff I've sold has been rubbish I got as part of lots that included other pieces I really wanted, or parts for a special thing I wanted to do but then was done with. I mean here mainly the Rhodesian soldier I did. Once I had that pic I didn't need the green mountie or all those aquarium workers or whatever they were that Tiermann bought off me.

I have a couple MIB sets that I may sell one day when I am destitute, but for now the retentive pleasure of holding on to them is worth more than money.

[skypurr]

I have reached a point where apart from specials and old sets that I particularly want to collect, most of the Playmobil I buy is for Kirkbean Exhibition. 
To create the large dioramas I often need to get multiples of certain items, and because of lack of space and the need to fund the next exhibition I do sell on certain pieces.  Obviously it makes sense to choose a time when I think I will get a good price such as Christmas although some items sell well all year round. 
I also have customised figures by changing parts and sold those to good effect. 
At the exhibition itself I have a sales table which I usually stock with either items I have sourced for a reasonable price on eBay or with extras from previous years.
If I had the space and never-ending pot of money then I would keep it all but putting on the exhibition is very expensive so selling things on is the only way I can keep it going.
Having said that, my collection does continue to grow and grow each year!

[Erik]

I've only given stuff away or traded. Only things like doubles, accessories or giveaways that I don't use myself.

But I might one day. It's sometimes tempting to buy bargain deals which you know will catch better prices on EBay. But then the hassle of selling scares me off.

As for my own collection, so far, most of it is indispensible 

Exactly the same here!   

[tahra]

I voted for the last option. Ages ago I did get plenty of stuff for mount 3.. Some of those, I have NO IDEA why   Including LARGE stuff, that will be a pain to ship. What was I thinking? Of course, back then, ebay worked a LOT better. Maybe that's why.

These days, it's rare.. Of course, since I'm not rich, if I cross any interesting valuable item.. duh. Anyways, most (all?) of the stuff I have for trade/sale is repeatead, so...

I suppose when I eventually (if ever) get to really organize the stuff we have, there will be non-repeats on mount 3, and I'll do my best to try and sell it. (rescue, pirates/soldiers and recent at least need a good trim - unless the euromillion balls start cooperating!  )

I need also to follow skypurr's example, and try to sell some customs... since I get a LOT of klickys for this or that part, sometimes we do have plenty of non-interesting klicky parts... that are probably great to someone else..

[DrDalek6]

I wasn't sure which box to tick but, basically I buy figures and sets which I need and if I get parts or figures which are of no use to me I'll sell them to bring a bit of money back in but, it's certainly not why I buy figures.

[Raven]

I've never sold. If times were desperate, I might sell, but until those bad times happen, I won't sell.  I do hoard, 'just in case' I might want to use an item (or 'just in case' the missing parts of an item might somehow find their way to me), but if I know someone else would appreciate something more than myself, I'm happy to give it to them. 

I wish I knew whether anyone might like this, because it is so cute, and yet I'll never ever use it for any scene....

[Giorginetto]

I have never sold any of my playmobil and as i plan to live for ever they all stick with me

 

[tigana123]

Never sell. I need more space urgently 

[MalteseKnight]

I use to sell individual clickies found at yard sales to allow me to buy items for my pirate collection. That was 10 years ago. When I got kids, all got packed and put away. When they turned 4-5, some stuff was donated to my kids 'for the good cause', and now they are turning 10 & 8, and it seems it's reaching the end of another cycle. Now I'm selling the excess stuff to buy other 'necessities' such as a laptop for school work.

Still not sure if I'm ready to sell off my actual Pirate collection (almost complete from 1978 till 2001), or if I should put in that extra bit of effort to replace certain set with MI(S)B versions..

Anyways, first selling the content of two very big 'played with' boxes, and then the big decision. We'll see.

[GrahamB]

We mainly buy things we want to keep and inevitably, as others have said, when buying mixed secondhand lots this means we acquire a lot of things we don't want or need. Some things are not very popular with anyone in our family (for example Special Agents, Construction, Airports), so these are easy to part with.

My wife and I became more 'commercial' in the last couple of years, actively buying secondhand PM for resale. This meant targeted buying of certain themes (zoo, hospital, school, castles, fantasy, fire, police, etc.) which seem to sell well on ebay. We have now come to the conclusion that in order to do this well, it takes a lot of time and effort and the return on outlay may not be all that great, especially as I always buy loads of missing parts from DS to make what we sell as complete as possible. If I could just bung the stuff out on ebay without worrying too much about the quality, condition or completeness, it would take far less time and make more money, but I won't work like that, so my bad! There are plenty of people selling Playmobil online and no doubt it is possible to make a living at it, but we have decided to restrict ourselves to collecting for the love of it from now on!