What's your biggest prop regret or guilt?

manooga

manooga

Well-Known Member
I have had some regrets and guilts; nothing major, but I've spent money in props to later have found I'd better had saved that money for a better prop, for example. To mention some, I bought once both Luke's ROTJ resin sabers from eFx (and I overpaid for them actually), and a few months later I realized that a metallic prop was way much better and not too much more expensive than what I had paid. So I sold them (for less than what I paid for them) and had to put more money in the metallic prop. It would have been much better to buy the good one from the start.

I have also sold things that later I regret, and struggled to get them back, paying even more than before if necessary.

Guilts are always there as well, like when you buy something you really want for a really expensive price, and you probably sacrify something else in your life for getting that prop, and you feel that guilt of spending that amount in your prop everytime you see it, but you're still happy... well, you get the idea :D

So what are your stories??
 
In 2001 I bought a SD Pulse Rifle from a member here. It was supposedly in mint condition and came with grenades and manual. He packed it terribly and it arrived broken and with no grenades and manual.

I reached out to Steve D and he said he could fix it... for $300 dollars. I paid him and 12 years later, still don't have the PR, the QMX freebies he promised me he would send for the delay, nor the grenades or manual from the initial sale.
 
I regret I didn't win the auction for the Adama farewell gift when they were being sold. I don't know why but I've loved that prop.
 
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CeSquared said:
In 2001 I bought a SD Pulse Rifle from a member here. It was supposedly in mint condition and came with grenades and manual. He packed it terribly and it arrived broken and with no grenades and manual.

I reached out to Steve D and he said he could fix it... for $300 dollars. I paid him and 12 years later, still don't have the PR, the QMX freebies he promised me he would send for the delay, nor the grenades or manual from the initial sale.
Click to expand...

Steve is a member here and posts often. Have you contacted him about this issue, it's not as if he's disappeared from the prop game and the boards?
 
It's not a very impressive story, but I spent almost £300 on my first prop, my UE CT sonic screwdriver.
For a lot of people, this would not be a big deal, but it is a huge deal to me. 2 years ago the only furniture my flat contained was a microwave that was here when I moved in, a second-hand fridge/freezer a charity helped me buy, and an inflatable camping mattress I got for £5 and slept on on the floor. All my money went on electric bills for the dreadful inefficient heating, and food that could be safely microwaved cooked (turns out you can cook a lot in a microwave). I lived this way for a year, and now I have a bed, an oven and washing machine, don't have to worry too much about keeping warm or buying groceries, and I even bought a TV with credit I make payments on.

For me, going from considering fruit a luxury item, to spending £300 in one go, on a luxury item, is a HUGE deal, and I still have a lot of guilt about it even though I'm in a much better financial position now. I think I have to get used to the idea of spending money on things that make me happy, even if others don't consider those purchases wise, or responsible.

I don't regret the purchase at all. It gives me huge happiness that I own it, but I have a lot of guilt about spending so much on something that isn't essential, and I'm still trying to convince myself it's OK to buy things I like, not just things I need!

Er thankfully this new prop replica addiction is definitely helping with that :p
 
I almost had a HUGE regret. I was after three Jurassic Park screen-used velociraptor eggs and ended up in a bidding war with one guy. We bid them into the stratosphere (it was a live auction) and I went way above my limit. Luckily, I lost them, leaving the other guy holding the bag. I later learned he told someone that he felt like the stupidest guy on Earth for getting his ego involved and paying so much for three eggs. I would have felt the same way had I prevailed. I was lucky to have dodged that bullet.
 
Pixels: Amazing story! It's not all about what you need, but also about what you want. That makes you happy.

Tom: That reminds me! One day I entered a bid for the vintage vinyl caped jawa. I didn't investigate too much about it, and bid high, I think I was offering about 500 usd for that thing, believing it was worth the price. I then found that it was a replica, and that it had no value without a kind of certificate from a valuator. I suffered as I saw I kept winning the bid, until someone made a higher bid on it. I'm really happy I didn't win it.
 
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My biggest regret at this point is not splurging on any number of things I would loved to have had...when I had disposable income. :) No guilt though. Money spent keeping one of my kids healthy is better spent than money spent on this hobby. That being said, I've become very adept at squeezing every possible cent out of the money I CAN scrounge & still manage to get stuff built/acquired...albeit very, very slowly. I've even reached the point where I'm making a 'Bane' costume for my son...& doing the sewing, design, & the rest almost entirely on my own. Gaining the new skills from all this work along the way has a much higher value than making the items themselves, in many instances... :D
 
When I was younger I made a lot of "one offs". I sold them for less than the time I put into them. Now other people are given credit or just take credit for them...until I post pics to prove otherwise.
 
I always tend to regret the ones I lose far more than the ones I buy.

Forgetting about important eBay auctions and getting sniped in the end always stings. Finding out I missed something that sold on Prop Store hurts too. I can pretty much remember every prop item I've missed.

I will also add some items I've bought with full knowledge that I would upgrade later. That just ended up costing me more when I can't sell the first item, or end up selling it for less.
 
I regret selling off most of my collection when my wife left me, but I had to..needed every cent to start over and move. Had to sell my theater seats, 1:1 Boba Fett, Han Solo, C3PO, Wicket, Yoda, Stormtrooper, Gollum, etc but the one that hurts me on a daily basis is the Han in Carbonite.

Maybe someday I'll be able to afford another casting of the body..the frame I can remake at work. :(
 
My biggest regret was my last and now EX Darth Vader costume. trying to budget the costume I purchased a rubies to modify and 1500 dollars later I still wasn't satisfied with the results... the damned thing is ugly as a baboon's ass and the plastic is the Worst material I've ever worked on... hard to reshape and NOTHING sticks to it, not epoxy, not e-6000 not superglue not hot glue... nothing.

Worst waste of money I've ever made.
 
My biggest regret is that I couldn't afford to bid at least $3,000 for the Green Lantern Movie Hero Ring Prop that was recently auctioned on eBay. My Holy Grail of movie props, and I lost the auction because someone else was able to afford to outbid me by $1,000. :(

My second biggest regret is that I was never able to buy a Larbel "O" saber before the now-defunct Master Replicas made him shut down his site and come to work for them instead. :(
 
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Trading a Graflex Luke ANH for a sub-standard replica pistol... which I never received. Probably seized in customs somewhere. Don't know what I was thinking.
 
Not prop, but film related.

I was a prolific DJ and music producer in my younger days, and Vangelis is one of my biggest influences/hero's, coupled with an awsome sci-fi film, it was win aaall over :)

It was on a record shop session I came accross the film score to Bladerunner on 12" (not the soundtrack which is only parts of the music, but everything from start to finish). I was really really torn, I was playing at a big club that night and needed some fresh tunes to play, but only had enough cash for those, or the one 12". To this day I still kick myself for not getting it as I've never been able to find it in anywhere in the 20yrs+ of searching, in any medium :cry

As a consolation, I did manage to find an original double ep of the Star Wars film score (with signed pics included) for $10, but that's another story.
 
I would have to say, finding a Ancient Communication Stone from Stargate SG-1, on ThePropStore.com and waiting to buy it. When I finaly got around to purchasing it, it was sold. It was my holy grail of props so just HAD to go find it somewhere else. I found one but I paid about double of what I could have gotten the other for.
 
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Dargas said:
My biggest regret was my last and now EX Darth Vader costume. trying to budget the costume I purchased a rubies to modify and 1500 dollars later I still wasn't satisfied with the results... the damned thing is ugly as a baboon's ass and the plastic is the Worst material I've ever worked on... hard to reshape and NOTHING sticks to it, not epoxy, not e-6000 not superglue not hot glue... nothing.

Worst waste of money I've ever made.
Click to expand...

try tigerseal. it's black and sticks anything rock hard. the body kit on my car is held on with this and it's not moved in 4 years. give it a whirl
 
I have two...
The regret- Not buying a Serenity browncoat when i had the chance.

Guilt- Not a prop but Doctor Who related. I took Matt smith and Karen Gillan's paper cups they they drank out of durring the filming of Angels in Manhatten and a stick Matt Smith was digging around with while waiting to film the next scene. They walked away and I took them. I felt like such a creeper but i'd do it again.
matt-smith-on-location-in-central-park-filming-another-episode-of_3823119
 
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