What's your biggest prop regret or guilt?

[chrisguyver]

This said it was cast from movie board

 

[Mechamaniac]

Ogling the John Long Communicator kit for years and never buying one. Now they're apparently not being sold any more.

 

[davidnagel]

I rarely buy anything nowadays but I did pick up, what looked like a decent, dalek eye for a dalek build I was doing at the time.
When the piece arrived, it was all hollow and wood and a little on the pathetic side. I ended up making something far more sturdier and robust that wouldn't break when you dropped it...

FORTUNATELY I feel alot better about not even remembering what I paid for it...

 

[Andymac84]

Oh my.. probably my worst experiences with props are those bad Bad BAD resin casts. Paid a lot for a resin proton gun before building one myself out of metal parts. This resin one was so ugly I couldn't believe it or trust my eyes!
The other things that bugs me are many movie posters I've picked up and no single one is hanging on my wall
I also picked up a huge I Am Legend standee from a cinema. No space, no one wanted it.. I think my Dad was making a fire out of it.
And I have all Indiana Jones comics and have no need for them..unfortunately.

 

[Gioaks]

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

So what are your stories??

For the eFx props I can totally relate. I own one of the Luke's ROTJ stunt hilts. I bought it for 150 euros and I was very excited about it. Then I noticed that the prop was slightly bent, probably due to the cast being warped after heavy use in the factory (I'm assuming this). It sits in a drawer now, even if I'm attached to it because it's the first legit prop that I owned.
Recently I won an auction on eBay and I got a semi-vintage graflex (the bottom part is not original) without busting the bank: I managed to perform a sniper bid, even if I had never participated in an auction before. I'm so happy, not only because I have a graflex, but because it would have been a major disappointment letting it go.

 

[Plokman]

I'm still relatively a "Newbie" here on the forums, that said I do have one major regret here which I'll make note of (Not naming names it was my fault and the dude was at least kind enough not to try and get me banned, I was close to breaking a rule) but first I'd like to post my thoughts on some of your posts, also please tell me I used the right word there I hate making grammar and spelling errors as a writer as well as a spriter and prop maker. English has way too many rules that have sub rules and exceptions to rules I don't know how the editors do it.

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.

Great googa mooga, Three C-notes out the window and twelve years waiting that just plain sucks my friend. I don't know if it ever was resolved but I sympathize big time, not prop related but about twelve years ago my dad he found a Ebay auction for some Railway Documentaries from the UK, dude had excellent feedback and was if I recall doing everything in their power to get the DVDs to me. But my dad bought them in November that year as a Christmas present for me, come the 25th and they had yet to get here my pop was mad because he wanted them to be there on time and all because we both have a love of Railways from the Steam Era on to today we love Trains.

We even plan to build a Garden Railway British inspired once renovations on the house we're moving into are done and I can get my workshop set up properly, but I digress we did finally get the DVDs just before my birthday which was the 3rd of February so we gave good feedback to the guy we bought them from. We ran into another hurtle on our ends though, Region Lock no player we owned at the time accepted British discs but again we figured it out, sadly I no longer have those discs due to a house fire but the thought was there.

I imagine you at first were giving the dude you asked to repair the prop some understanding for a while, but after all that time I could understand you not trusting any prop repair to anyone. Once bit twice shy as they say, biggest reason my father keeps in contact and shows his work in photos as he repairs older electronics. My dad he is a person of impeccable character, he may get payed for the work done but he makes it a mission to never cheat anyone ever when it involves working on any repairs it's just not in his or my nature to be malicious without warrant.

Oh yes we are vindictive of those who screw us over, but we will never give a bum steer (Wow even for me that phrase sounds ancient, where did Wreck-it Ralph get that phrase from 82 or not that is a hokey expression) if they are square with us. After all you want business you don't make sloppy repairs, never give a item back, or treat people with disrespect it is simply not done.

Ugh.

I regret being generous, or gullible- whichever fits. Seventeen years ago I found out through the old SciFi magazine about lightsabers and graflexes, kobolds and MPPs and King Sols. I went on a whirlwind tour of every camera shop in Riverside and San Bernardino county and snapped up a dozen different flash guns. I said something on a board about it, and someone asked politely if he could buy one. Feeling sympathetic, I sold him a King Sol for $15, I think. I even cracked a joke about Vader polishing the Smiley sun face on the butt of the handle.
The guy received it and immediately came on the board and bragged about how he 'swindled some idiot ' out of the handle, then STOLE my Vader joke like he wrote it himself!

Man that still gets me.

Holy dooley that is some major ungratefulness right there, you never brag about "swindling" anyone let alone on a public forum that they themselves are a active member on and you don't steal a joke ever. If a friend of mine makes a joke and I want to use it I always ask if they mind, most of the time they don't mind as I said above my most common medium of writing is sprite comic work and the friend in question is most likely to be in a collaboration I'm in with them. But oh boy does this guy have some major issues on respect.

I am plainly speechless on how to discribe that (Without breaking forum rules on language and antibullying stuff I'm sure, plus my personal vow of noncursing in my speech and writing) that is troll levels of being a bad person period.


Anyway those two caught my eye and a lot of empathy connected to the subject I just had to say my piece about them, do forgive me if I've opened any old wounds or made much ado about something that changed later on. Anyway now on to my biggest prop related regret, I unintentionally made a fellow forum member and all around nice guy who was going to help me feel uncomfortable. I meant no harm at the time, I was only concerned when I didn't hear back from them for a week.

I make no excuses on the fact I made them uncomfortable, I just by nature tend to worry about someone especially if I consider them a friend a lot to a excessive amount. I at the time was in my head only thinking "I do hope they'er alright, I was enjoying talking with them. They had some great advice and helping me out of the kindness in their heart, very cool I'd hate for anything to happen to them just think of their family's feelings if it was bad." but I made to much ado over them and well I will not bother them ever again unless they contact me first.

Empathy can ruin a lot when not controlled, I just hope it didn't make me sound like a weirdo to everyone. I may have screwed up a lot about my reputation here I really hope not but it feels like I have.

Yeah biggest regret right there.