So yes, at 10 years old, I bought my first minis in the form of three Ral Partha Dragonmen. I still have them, and they have seen their fair share of wear and tear. Lead minis are certainly delicate, as I soon found out. Despite my care, I was still rather careless in my actions of owning minis that quite a few are missing small parts and weapons. The worst scare was when the horns of my Armored Dragon popped off in the school yard. Fortunately, I did eventually find them.. I think they were hooked onto my clothing somehow. The worst loss happened to my Draconian minis... now quite valueable x.o ..Two or three no longer have weapons.
Over the next two years, my collection grew as I spent every last cent on minis and paint. I bought every dragon-based mini I could, although I'm kicking myself for not dishing out the extra $10 to buy the Bridge of Sorrows. See, back then it was worth $30, where other dragons were worth $20. This extra $10 scared me off, however, to this day, a person can pay $50-$90 on Ebay to get it.
My biggest mini purchase was for the Limited Edition Takhisis, the five-headed Dragon Queen from the Dragonlance series. $75 for her, and it took me four payments, back in 94/95, to pay her off (I was a favored customer at the store ^^; ..the owner is super cool to've let me pay in chunks for her.) However, that was my last purchase for a loooong time...
There was a period of 6 years when my interest in minis died and my acquired minis were left to collect dust. Magic the Gathering came into my life, taking over my interest and extra cash, and the lack of interesting minis didn't help. The store I bought from did not receive many new minis that caught my interest. There were the Black, Blue and Undead dragons, but someone beat me to them before I could round up the cash.
Eventually, Warhammer replaced Magic and my interest in miniatures was sparked for a few months as I helped my friend paint an army of Brettonians and Lizardmen. There was the occasionally game, both Warhammer & Warhammer 4000, that was played.. well, more so watched by myself. I didn't really take a huge interest in playing the games the minis came with, dismissing the fact that I could not afford to make a good army anyways :P. Warhammer was a short lived thing, though and it wasn't until recently that I was able to own my first Warhammer minis...
Ebay. It wasn't until that came into my life that I was able to rekindle this hobby of mine. At first I started collecting old Ral Partha minis.. long out of production, thus pricey.. but I had been drooling over them since a catelogue came into my possession in 1995.
My collection is far from complete, especially when I became introduced to other makers.. Reaper, Games Workshop, Rackham, etc.. I've always been a dragon lover, and it's been a bit of a goal to have most of these minis in my possession. What can I say? I love them!
With the purchase of the Kirin and new paints, I was able to complete my first mini in years, and with new found abilities. I learned how to drybrush and blend without obscurring detail.
Anyhow, Ebay also allowed Rackham's Confrontation minis come into my life and my collection of the large Wolfmen armies is vastly growing. With the recent painting of these minis, even more skills have been discovered with the making inks and stains, as well as other techniques I plan to share, here.
I can see myself continuing this hobby, so long as the pickings are good, and there's always a cool miniature out there, just waiting to be bought ^_^

~Psy