I broke my own toy collecting rule

James Kenobi 1138

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I've had a long-standing rule when it comes to collecting toys: "If you see a toy in the store that you want especially a rare one and you've got it in your hands, you'd better buy it now because if you don't, you'll never see it again".

I don't collect as much as I used to. I re-started like so many of us in 1995 and after gaining a huge collection only to sell it off I now only buy things that I really want. I still pick up 3.75 Star Wars figures but I do have a few of the Black Series 6 inch ones. I do really like the Black Series 6 inch figures they are just so stupid expensive I'm really selective and I'm absolutely not trying to collect them all or collect a full set.

I picked up the first release 6 inch Darth Vader and it's an okay figure but not really that great, especially compared with the Asian import Vader figures. I was really excited that Hasbro made a brand new ANH Darth Vader using an all new sculpt for the 40th anniversary release on the vintage cardbacks and it looks amazing.

I really wanted the new 6 inch Vader and my local Walmart had several for $39.00, the big one with the figure on the vintage cardback and the 'Early Bird' display. The 6 inch BS are usually $19.99 and I just couldn't bring myself to spend $40 on 1 action figure. I would always go over to the SW stuff when I'd go to Walmart and pick up the box, hold it, look at it, put it back, do my shopping, go back over and think about buying it again, but ultimately leave without buying it.

I open my figures up and I wasn't planning on displaying it in the package anyway, so I figured I'd go to my local specialty toy shop that sells new and used/opened figures including the 6 inch BS and pick up the figure second-hand cheap.

Then Hasbro released the new sculpt Vader as a regular BS figure and I bought one for $19.99.

Now, about 2 weeks later, I'm at my local Walmart on Friday night at 11:30pm looking for a birthday present for a 5 year old girls bday party that my daughter is going to the next day on Saturday. I'm over on the toy clearance isle and I see not one, but two of the 40th anniversary Darth Vader figures on the vintage cardback including the 'Early Bird' display stand for $15 each.

Yes. $15. Yes, they had 2 of them.

Since I had already bought the figure 2 weeks earlier, and I wasn't going to keep it in the package, I hemmed and hawed for a few minuted and decided I didn't need to spend the money, even only $15.

All day Saturday I kept thinking about it, and I remembered I had some extra money in my last paycheck for working on a holiday and I decided for $15 I could buy it and display it on the vintage cardback and still open the regular version I had already bought.

So I went back today on Sunday and to my shock and surprise both of them were gone. I looked everywhere hoping maybe an employee had moved them back over with the regular SW stuff or maybe someone had 'hid' them to come back later but no dice- they were gone.

It's funny that i didn't need it, but once I decided I wanted it I couldn't have it, and now I'm bummed when I've preached about it for years and I broke my own rule.

I've decided it's a sign that I didn't really need it.

What toy slipped through your fingers that you regret not buying when you had the chance ?
 
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I'm kinda kicking myself for not buying the NECA ALIEN Lambert figure...but like you I assume that deep down I didn't really want it and I'll probably forget about it entirely in a few weeks.
 
You, sir, are far more disciplined than I am lol. I have six of the Black Series Vader figures because I'm a fool, a Vader nut, and I also collect MIMP. Paid full price for three of them and the others I managed to get in the $15-$19 range. The problem I have is that we rarely seem to get these sorts of toys locally and if we do I'm never around so, like you, I tend to knab them when I see them.

I haven't had many regrets missing toys I wanted, maybe a few when I was a kid, though I have missed out on some prop part runs that I regret, lol. If there is anything I have a similar "Buy It Now Or Else" rule about it's records. The secondary market for limited edition CDs is stupidly expensive and once it becomes known that a pressing is sold out the sharks take over. I don't do it very often but I have been known to plunk down collector's pricing for something I really want but it has to be something really special.
 
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I always buy when I see it because I have been bitten too many times and never seen it again at a decent price. It's something I've tried to drill into my wife for years after she will put it off and then never be able to get it again. Luckily, she's starting to listen.
 
Mine was actually a few vintage weapons for the 12 inch 70s star wars figures. I knew the seller and all his stuff was legit, non repro. He had a few weapons that I bought and I decided not to buy the yellow obiwan saber, but bought a few extra stormtrooper blasters instead. A few weeks later, I had a 12 inch obiwan fall in my lap without his saber. My buddy had sold it about 2 days before I called him back. Oh well. It took a few months , but I found a beater obiwan with a great saber.

He also had a ton of coins from potf original releases that I ignored. Silly me.
 
I was on the other side of town at the dentist and decided to stop in at the other Walmart.

They had 12 of the Vader kits, on 'clearance' at $30 each.

I passed, again.

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I always hem and haw over Hot Toys that I really want, but can't always justify to purchase. So I have missed out on Agent Coulson, and Civil War Captain America (though I already have Rescue Cap). It's just...CW Cap has my favorite modern costume scheme.
 
Two weeks ago we went to a local electronics store and they had the Infinity 2.0 figs on clearance. A Boba Fett for 3 Euros?! Heck yeah! Hah. I left it at the store because I do not want to spoil the kids and be a good example of self discipline. Yeah well, now he´s of course gone.

But really, that is all junk compared to really rare stuff. And it will be available for a loooong time. Not at that price, but still for just a few bucks. So no need to chastise yourselves over a good deal you passed on. I guess...
 
I noticed too late that NECA had retooled the head of their T-800 endoskeleton Terminator figures and made it perfect. When the first issue was released, I thought, I already had enough Terminators because I grabbed all previous releases from them and the McFarlane Movie Maniacs figure. I was misguided by the pictures the German web shops put up at that time: They did not show the revised version but the previously released one with the hinged jaw. That convinced me NOT to buy it. Big mistake. A few months later I saw a video review on Youtube on the new sculpt - and I was kicking myself that I did not get this one on arrival. When I was looking for it at the shops it was almost completely gone, the few still remaining were between 40 and 90 $! Ah well... I was so lucky because NECA would re-use the fantastic sculpt on future releases which allowed me get several of them a few years later. Happy End! :)

However, I missed out the open jaw Predalien from NECA! GRR!!! Nobody told me that such a variant was available at that time (my shop only had the closed mouth version)!!! ;)
 
I paid full price for that stupid Vader...Paced around that Toys R Us shelf for at least 20 minutes debating on whether I should buy it or not.
 
It's always tough when you realize you want something more than you originally thought.

It's like if you bid your max bid on ebay as lets say $50 and you say thats the highest I wanna pay. And then it sells for $57 and you're like, man I wish I would have paid the extra 7 dollars.

It's even worse when you check for something on ebay and look at the sold listings and see something you wanted now just sold for a great price a few weeks ago, but you weren't looking then.
 
That's why I don't really collect new stuff. You can usually find them cheaper later on than what you actually paid. Not to mention, it never stops. They just keep coming and coming. Atleast with my vintage, I know there is an end, no matter what I do. Meaning if I only want part or the entire collection. At one point, I got into the black series 6 inch, had the first 4 or 5th series untouched and in cases, but decided to sell them off. Glad I did because they are still pumping them out. I would need a huge house to display my stuff.
 
You people talk about toys and figures (and you all have my respect, colleting is collecting no matter what :)) and I see some heartbreaking stories. It's fun to read and know you are not alone to walk away from something good.

Now for my story... I've been wanting a divers helmet (those big, old, brass ones) since I first saw one at a museeum with my father when I was 5 or 6 years old. Early on I understood this wasn't something cheat (even though my father made me a "helmet" by cutting holes in a cardboard box and I loved it!). In my early teens, pre internet, I looked for helmets and never found any aside for really crappy made spanish tourist miniatures. Fast forward to about 10 years ago. A guy walk into my shop and look around for a bit. We start talking and he spots a navy salvage diver insignia. He points at it as says, "I got one of those". I'm thinking he mean the insignia when he says, "I mean a real one. A helmet". Now my ears are perked and I'm all interested. Carefully I ask what it is, how it looks, what kind of condition, all those questions. He then show me a crappy photo on his phone. It's an old, beat up, helmet missing it's breatplate. He tells me he had turned in into a desklamp a few years ago and that he want 2000 (some $200) for it. The "desklamp" statment made me think it was a miniature or small version of the helmet and after a few minutes I turned down the offer and the guy walked away. Fast forward a year or two and I'm browsing an Ebay-like site when I spot a helmet being sold in my hometown. It's the same one! Only, now it's not a lamp anymore, it's been cleaned up a bit and look nice... And it's starting bid is $1800!!... I closed up for the day and went home, and I still kick myself for missing that oppertunity every time I come to think of it.
 
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