On exploitation of Toy collectors

One of the pitfalls for a start up musician/band is to be exploited off his talents. Picture this. A start up band who is need of gigs will agree to play in front of a paying audience with no pay or just a bottle of beer as payment. Since there is a need to be recognized, the band agrees to this set up. It's fine for a start, but as more gigs pile up with the same set up, the band also spends more time for practice and maintenance of his equipments. The promise of being discovered someday may yet remain the same, a promise. This becomes a cycle. If you don't want to play for free, the event organizer can always get another band who would be willing to play for free. Mind you, most of these bands aren't even playing for the money, but they are playing their music for the love of their craft. But they are easy prey for organizers who could exploit them by using them in their events. Money is still needed if only to sustain the band expenses. And once there is no more money to sustain the hobby, the musician/band quits from developing these talents. Making it just an afterthought of the cruel realities of a money driven world.

This is no different from a Toy Collector. A Toy Collector who owns a good number of collections wants to share his hobby for the love of the hobby and the character that he is collecting. There is also some form of bragging rights once you are able to share (or most of the time show-off) your collections to a larger audience. Such is the simple joy of a collector. TV Networks would come knocking on your door, or invite you to their studio for a feature. Or event organizers would invite you to take part of their events by displaying your collections for the public to see. While these are fine, therein lies the pitfalls of being exploited.

Example number 1, On a regular day, a TV Network invites you to take part in a feature where they want to get a scoop on the hobby of Toy Collecting. You voluntarily agree and a feature is made. This is with no pay and either they invade your home's privacy or you are asked to travel to their studio at your own expense.

Example number 2, there is an upcoming Superman Movie and TV Networks are scrambling to interview/feature Superman collectors for their segment. Again this is with no pay and either they invade your home's privacy or you are asked to travel to their studio at your own expense.

Example 1 may be some sort of exploitation but at least there was an honest effort to feature the hobby. Example 2 on the other hand reeks of commercialism and their ratings war as they know segments like this would drum up viewer interest because of the upcoming movie. This is exploitation.

Toy Collectors mind you don't need the money, because honestly they have the money to spend to amass their collections which are itself not that inexpensive.  But what I'm trying to point out in this entry is that at least TV Networks/Event Organizers should have the decency to give what is due to the volunteers.To give without being coaxed. They could have at least gave a token, an honorarium to defray possible expenses incurred in the transportation of the items or even the precious time of invading your home.

I am writing this entry because I am furious with how I was being treated in an event that I was asked to volunteer for. You see, there's this big event to launch a Superhero Movie and they have come up with an event where they would be asking volunteers to display rare memorabilia of the Superhero. I was asked to volunteer but with no pay. Mind you I don't really need the money, so I was a willing volunteer out of love for the hobby and the character. But then you are asked to do ingress at past 10pm and you reach there with no single showcase cabinet for you to display. What were the organizers thinking? That a volunteer would suppose to stay up until the wee hours of the night or early dawn just to display their collections for free? Good for those who are setting up the event area to stay up late, they are paid. But for us to be asked to stay up late? And we had to coax them just to get those freebies. This is the highest form of exploitation.

And yeah what really infuriated me? It said in their ads and posters that the highlight of the event is the "RARE MEMORABILIA" or for short the Toy Collections and other memorabilia displayed at the event. Our effort was the main attraction for the event to be seen. But that main attraction was not properly compensated. Go Figure.

The point of this entry (or should I see rant) is to educate the Toy Collectors. I don't know if the majority would agree with me but agreeing to appear on TV, display at toy events, or simply being featured for your collections, we should be entitled to have a token, an honorarium, or an appearance fee. Because whether we like it or not, all of those events that we have volunteered for is a MONEY MAKING exercise. They earn from our appearance, from our volunteerism. They earn while we justify our volunteering for the love of the hobby. In short, we are being exploited out of our love for our hobby. And we don't actually get anything from our appearance. At least musicians get a chance to be discovered. But what of us? Now if a few of us demand for just compensation, and yet a good number of toy collectors are willing to volunteer for the same reasons stated above, then there will be no education happening. Just compensation doesn't have to be money. A compensation can come as simple as free tickets, free items, or whatever freebies that the organizer can give. It will then be up to the volunteer if he would accept these freebies as enough.

I urge for those veteran toy collectors who have seen the murky realities of being exploited to impart and educate the new toy collectors or to those who have not yet seen the reality of the exploitation. We need to have a united front in educating those money making/enterprising individuals to give what is due us. Believe me, we must do this so that they would stop bastardizing our hobby. On regular days, they see us as these weird geeks, overgrown children that never outgrew their childhood. On special days, they glorify us because of the collections we have. We must put a stop to this mockery.   

It is absolutely fine for me to volunteer, as long as the event is purely for the betterment of the hobby. And we are not being used in a money making venture. But since almost all events in one form or another is a money making venture. Then, please do give what is due us. Because if there were no toy collections to display, then there would be no toy event to happen in the first place. This ends my entry, and I hope my fellow Toy Collecting brothers got my point.

Feel free to send me your thoughts about this. I would really appreciate it.Thanks!