When it comes down to collecting armies, there are a number of different collector types. There are guys that collect a bit of everything, guys that collect EVERYTHING, and the last type, who I envy, are those who are happy with a single army.
I, for one, am part of the bit of everything group. I started the hobby off with Dark Eldar, but that soon expanded to Eldar, which then became Tau. All of which I have enough to go to a tournament with. Although, only the Dark Eldar is fully painted. It’s the same with LOTR. I began with Elves, and now I pretty much say I collect “Good.” It has it’s upsides in that I have a variety of models, but it’s a pain to store and paint. Let alone keep up with releases.
Spicerack, however, is one of those annoying types of guys that are happy with one army. In his case, it is Imperial Guard and Dark Elves. Everything is mostly painted, and stored neatly. He can resist new releases quite easily, and is never swayed by the look of new armies.
Then there are some guys, primarily at our local store, who just spam everything from the new releases. They MUST spend almost 90% of their disposable income on buying new releases. What they do with it I just don’t know. Re-sell it maybe? I admire these guys simply because each of them must make up at least 0.5% of the store’s annual revenue. Perhaps even 1% for some! Huge! Keeps our gaming space open.
Of course there are a number of other smaller categories, but I would say they are the main three.
Thoughts?