The Little World

Greed is a deadly sin. The definition of greed is therefore a wonderful tool with which to manipulate people – like the word ‘racist ‘, the person who first wields it in modern debate has a distinct advantage – their opponent has then to expend ten times the amount of effort to disprove it that the accuser does to make the charge stick.

” You’re greedy. ” said to a modeller who has just bought a second GWR tank engine for their layout or a new engine for their R/C airplane is a good ploy if the accuser has some interest in making the other feel bad. It might be a spouse angling for a ” guilt-present ” or it might be jealousy from another modeller. Occasionally in a place like Perth it is the frustration of seeing the only example of something go to someone else and knowing that no retailer will ever stock another model like it.

Greed can lead to a modeller buying 15 of the same thing – not that they love the model, but they are worried that the first 14 examples will fall apart and they’ll need the 15th desperately. They are aided, abetted, and waylaid by the manufacturers who produce dozens of variations of the same thing with different paint schemes – they know the greedy will buy every single one. The saddest examples of this take place where the makers introduce the minutest of variations to the same model with the same paint scheme…knowing that the obsessive modeller will seek them out regardless of the fact that the basic thing is just a repeat. The model makers have seen what stamp collectors are like with misprints and they want to cash in on the moolah too…

Greed to possess is one thing – greed to succeed is another – to best and beat other people in a hobby seems odd behaviour to some, but to the keen competitive modeller, no achievement is real unless it is rewarded with a trophy. And a trophy is best wrested from someone else.

Finally, greed to collect is ever-present. It is the leitmotif for many clubs and societies – it is on every page of specialist magazines. It is taken as a given – a virtue, if you will – by tens of thousands of people in the Little World. They amass shelves full of models, and dolls, and bears, and houses, and whatever. They join clubs, read books, and generally devote their waking hours to finding and acquiring for its own sake.

Note: Please substitute ” I ” for ” they ” in the above paragraphs. I may be greedy but I’m honestly so.