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Collectors' Corner: Creating Beautiful Displays for your Collectibles without Having to Break the Bank

For a while now, I have wanted to do a write-up like this where I explore and share some affordable means to go about starting a display for your collections - without breaking the bank.

Collectors of all income levels/limits to their spending budgets/throwaway income can take notes from this piece, so don't ignore this information if you are not a budget spender. Who knows, you might learn something that you would like to apply to your own collection(s).

If you're one of those collectors who can afford to setup your display like this (the image hosted above), then I'm obviously NOT talking to you for the most part. That being said, feel free to stick around and read what I have to say as I'm speaking to collectors who don't drop the price of a car payment (or more) on every other purchase in their collection(s). That type of setup featured above is ideal and well worth aspiring for someday.

The Display

Whether you have just one shelf hanging on the wall or a full bookcase and/or multiple cabinets, you can have an unique display for your collection. It always comes down to optimizing the space you have, no matter its big nor small.

If you just want a simple wall shelf, Dollar Tree sells the singular shelves with easy to assemble/setup guides for $5. I appreciate the "U" shape to these shelves as you don't have to worry about shelf divers falling off and they are an easy means to distinguish how much space you have on these, but the drawback is they fill up pretty fast. That being said, you might want to opt for the set of multiple wall shelves from Amazon. They are currently running a sale as of this posting that marks them down to a little less than $20 for five shelves. You don't have to opt for the "U" shape either as you can always work with whatever shelves matches the interior design(s) of your home.

If you would like to opt for a simple bookcase, I personally use two of the pictured 5-tier bookcases from Wal-Mart that runs about $30-40. Cost-efficient and they don't take up much room after the straight forward assembly. As long as you don't top load them with heavy weight, they are extremely well balanced and include wall anchors for any fears of them toppling over.

Alternatively, I have seen people modify those plastic/metal garage shelves with wooden planks to display collectibles on those too, so that's an option as well. Keep in mind that this portion of this hobby rewards creativity, so always keep an open mind. No one's collection/display are the same, so feel free to explore your options.

If you have some money to burn or want to really make your display pop for that professional look, you can opt for the Ikea glass cabinets (an endgame goal for me personally down the road) and pretty much make dusting a non-issue for the most part.

Just keep in mind that the Ikea cabinets can range from reasonable to extremely expensive depending on what size and style you are looking to purchase, so keep that in mind too. If you have a lot of children and/or potential visitors that pose a risk to knocking down your display(s), then this is easily a viable option for your sanity and safety of your collection.

Figure Stands

Easily available on eBay, Amazon, and even Temu for affordable prices for as many as you may need. Fits most 6" figures securely with the only issues that I have ran into were older DC Universe and early Marvel Legends figures' foot pegs being too big/wide to fit tightly. Some Archive Collection Star Wars Black Series and high heeled Marvel Legends figures may need to be drilled deeper into the foot to fit properly.

Whether these come in clear (my personal preference), black, or the typical beige color(s), these are well worth the investment for preventing and eliminating any and all fears of most 6" figures falling randomly off your displays. People can say it's boring to have your figures displayed just standing in their "A" poses but do what you want with them. I'm just happy that they are standing upright and not falling over or having to lean against each other to remain upright. Now I will admit these aren't foolproof as there's some top-heavy figures that will still find the means to topple over but that's more of a faulty balance issue by the manufacturer than with these stands. The circle stands are best used for posing and/or female figures with smaller feet.

Flight Stands

These are in the same conversation as display stands. I dare say that they are a necessity if you have model kits (Gundam specifically if you're not getting the official Gunpla flight stands) or merely want to display your flying characters hovering or positioned above your standing figures. They are useful for figure photography if you are keen about positioning your figures in specific/unique poses without fear of them falling/tumbling over. Figure photography isn't my cup of tea, but to each his/her own as there's a huge market and interest for it across social media. A lot of toy hunters/collecting influencers are renown for their expertise in that aspect of this hobby.

One bit of advice as a precaution with flight stands. Don't open the teeth/grips too wide as I have personally lost track of how many that I have broken in that manner. You can go with the cheaper ones off of eBay, Amazon, or even Temu but those are even more brittle and support even less weight. So keep that in mind before you decide to skimp on the cost in regard of these. The best quality ones that I have encountered are the ones that require you to screw them securely to the base as the ones with the mere pegs have a tendency of breaking over time.

Lighting

LED strips can be found in Wal-Mart, Five Below, Target, Ross, Burlington, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ollie's, and even CitiTrends at an affordable price. Just keep in mind that depending on the brand they can also be VERY expensive, going as high as $99 or more.

LED puck lights and light bars are affordable alternatives too if you just want to have any sort of lighting on your display, especially for those darkened shelves and corners of your home. A lot of those come with remotes to adjust and change the lighting to your desired brightness and color while providing some timed strobe and fade effects. My only knock on these LED lights that tend to be battery powered is the constant need to replace the batteries if you don't wire them to an USB outlet or AC plug.

For those collectors opting for the Ikea glass cabinets, there's options to have lighting already installed in them that can be added to the cost. If you're going to spend that much, I feel that you might as well go the extra mile without having to worry about that later down the road. For me working with a simple Wal-Mart bookshelf, I superglued (because I was tired of the included adhesive coming loose everyday) the LED lighting strips along the interior of my shelves since I know that I'm going to either trash or donate the shelf to my youngest nephew when I upgrade to something else down the road. Then I used the LED lightbars and spotlights for my various other shelves. It's not the best but at least I'm able to see what is on my shelf when illuminated.

Two packs of 8 ft LED light strip(s) covered the entire inside perimeter and some of the shelves of my 5-tier bookshelf and that still required me to trim it down to fit. So keep that in mind before you buy a 100 ft LED strip thinking you need that much ground to cover when you don't. It's easier to just start small and add to it instead of over-estimating your needs and having to cut it down.

One thing that most people aren't aware of that a lot of the remotes that are included with these LED lights are universal remotes across all LED lights of that type, so you wouldn't have to stress yourselves out trying to keep track of multiple remotes for a single setup. I personally juggle with 3 different remotes: one for the overhead light bar(s), one for the puck lights as needed on a separate bookshelf, and finally one for the light strip that provides majority of the lighting on my main display bookshelf.

I'm sure most other collectors would want to narrow that down to just ONE remote to control their lighting. Once again, your experience/mileage will vary.

Risers

I personally use kitchen spice racks as impromptu risers from Ross, Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, Goodwill, etc. for $1-10. I don't take credit for that idea as it was something I saw some YouTubers doing and emulated it for my own setup. If you want something more fancy, Amazon has clear risers that serve a similar purpose but they tend to cost a little more.

Storage

Art and craft boxes can be found in Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart (as pictured to the right), and Hobby Lobby with the latter being obviously more expensive. Alternatively, you can store accessories and extra loose figures in plastic bags, but make sure that they are non-acidic to prevent any long term damage. Acid-free bags tend to be a bit more expensive, but that's a wise long term investment if you have a large amount of loose figures (especially for vintage figures) that you want to keep together with all of their accessories and small pieces.

The containers that I use for storing figure accessories from Dollar Tree. I think I'm up to at least a dozen of these total across multiple toy lines.

Open vs. Mint-in-Box (MIB)

That's a personal call that all collectors have to decide on his/her own. I can't make that choice for anyone. I used to be mostly a mint-in-box collector for a long time until I got to the point where both space became a major issue and I got to the point where I knew what I was hanging onto and didn't have any plans of reselling in any capacity. Perfect example, DC Multiverse takes up FAR too much room in those huge boxes, so I unbox all of those upon purchasing save for the Megafigs/Deluxe and the other McFarlane Toys statues that I have in box in storage. Besides, there's some figures that have gorgeous boxes that make for beautiful display pieces on their own, such as the uniform photos from the side boxart on the Star Wars Black Series packaging or the elaborate packaging for the various Super7 and NECA toylines.

When I started displaying my figures, I was mostly an mint-in-box collector...

... Then I gradually started unboxing my figures over time as I got more space and more ambitious with my display setup.

Plus if you're worrying about the resale value of your collectibles, I wouldn't fret about open vs. mint-in-box prices unless you have an assortment of Funko Pops or trying to sell vintage comic books. With the latter, getting your vintage comics graded are the way to go, despite some of the issues with counterfeits and forgeries going around, if you want to get the accurate market value for them. I personally don't own nor plan to get any of my comic books graded as whatever I own is for sentimental value and if I do sell some of them down the road, I'm fine with whatever I get for them. With Funko Pops, those boxes better be in pristine condition without any damages whatsoever, so I highly suggest investing in protectors for those to prevent any light damage, wear, tear, and dust. FYI GameStop tends to regularly clearance out those for less than $3-5 around the holidays. As for everything else, most resellers will tell you that they get roughly same amount for most figures whether they are mint-in-box or loose (with all of the accessories and intact) unless it's one of those rare, exclusive, limited run items.

Optional: Backdrops and Dioramas

Your favorite comic books, magazines, novels, manga, fold out posters/spreads from hardback books can all be used as creative backdrops for your display. You could also build your own setting/environment from scratch.

Big Bad Toy Store sells corner diorama scenes for $29.99, which is a tad expensive for my taste, but it's something if you just want to go that extra mile. I miss the days where Target and Wal-Mart had those WWE wrestling rings for $9.99 a pop and would clearance them out often to house and display my wrestling figures within when I had my full collection of them at the time after college in my apartment. (Laughs) Good luck finding wrestling rings for that cheap anymore. Playsets and bigger diorama pieces can be expensive, but you can pick up Funko Pop "Bitty Pops" (these can be found in Target too) and housing accessories in Five Below and Dollar Tree to give your figures beverages to drink or food to consume if you have like a lounging/relaxed setup for your display.

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