Darth Duranium

 Cool, looking forward to the pic. 

Yeah, it's definitely worth shopping around, especially if you're gonna go the distance and nab the whole T3 enchilada. 

Good (stinkin' monkey) hunting!

I'll be cherry-picking, can't really afford all of the EMs and all of the T3s. T3's a great set, though. Wish some of them weren't so itsy-bitsy.

Anyhoo, it's been one banner year for Trek starship minis, one of the best ever. I ain't complaining.

Almost every single version of Trek since TOS has gotten roundly beaten with a stick by the fans, and even Season 3 of TOS is often dumped on. Crushing criticisms of new Trek incarnations is nothing new whatsoever.

-TMP (the farthest from the original series in tone and character) did good business (due to SW) but damaged the franchise (huge dropoff for TWOK at the box office despite being a much better film than TMP)

-ST:3 was decried as "The Search For Geritol"

-ST:4 was deemed meaningless fluff

-ST:5 (very close to Roddenberry's first idea for TMP) nearly killed the franchise due to Shatner's ineptitude and ego

-TNG was reviled (and was not very good in its first season) for a long time as a pale TOS rip-off with dull cardboard characters

-DS9 was accused of being a non-Trek-like soap opera Babylon 5 copy

-Voyager had dodgy ratings (probably because male fans couldn't stomach a female cap't) and was dubbed deja vu all over again

-Enterprise was indicted for trading on earlier series' plotlines, copious retcons, and mis-cast lead actors

-the TNG films were mostly written off as dull, tired, and predictable 

Don't get me wrong, I don't share many of these criticisms and I love Trek in all its incarnations (even Galaxy Quest!) but I recognized the need to do something bold with it and reboot it. And I have enjoyed the easter eggs that have been included for the hardcore fans, too. I wish George Lucas had done the same with SW before the Prequels. TBH.

Personally, I thought JJ injected a lot of fun and energy into a franchise that had jumped the shark/nuked the fridge long ago. It was becoming a parody of itself (a la Galaxy Quest) and rarely offered anything fresh anymore. I love older Trek shows and films but I also love to see something new. The new films are not boring, no one accuses JJ of that.

Do I love Spock and Uhura making out, Nero, zombie tribbles, karaoke mike nacelles, or transwarp beaming? Erm, no. But I was hugely entertained and I thought that the nucleus of characters were very well realized and I was pleased with the humour, banter, and epic scale. i thought they'd captured the spirit of TOS very well and set their own course.

I see the films as very different beasts than the TV shows. The films rarely involve "seeking out new life and boldly going" and are usually popcorn flicks with lots of action and phasers blazing. ST and STID are no different.  

60's franchises like Bond and Doctor Who have evolved over time to survive and stay relevant and Trek is no different. Do I expect everyone to agree? Hell no! But I would encourage folks to mitigate their preconceptions and enjoy their popcorn.

Great topic. I just went through something similar myself, though I didn't sell and re-buy anything or collect more than one of each item. But I can relate, 1701.

I just collect ships but I had filled a room with all sorts of ships from many different franchises in many different scales. It just got out of hand and I just wasn't enjoying them the way I used to. It almost became embarrassing to have so much stuff and I was moving into the Hoarders/Collection Intervention realm. Like I said, out of hand! I think it'd be much worse if I collected figures because there are so many to buy! Ships, not so much... but if you work at it, it is possible to amass hundreds, as I'm sure you know.

So the first step for me was reducing the size of my displayed collection, just keeping my small scaled ships on display (which are the ones I like best - spatially and variety-wise). After a few years in storage bins, the larger ships were (emotionally) easier to let go of, so that's what I've done slowly over the past few years. I now have my displayed collection down to a few wall units (1 big, 1 small) and it suits me just fine. In the end, I don't feel I've lost anything by letting the big stuff go, and I've been able to pick up a few small ships that I've always wanted... as a reward. 

As JMW said, you can distill your love of collecting down to the things that you love the most, keep those, and let the other stuff slide. You can't have everything, and it's probably unhealthy to try. Anyway, good luck, no matter what you decide to do.