126 replies to this topic

[ComradeCuttlefish]

Do you regret any collecting decisions you've made?

[jkaris]

Maybe some stuff I wish I would have gotten, but nothing really that I picked up that I wish I hadn't.

My one collecting gripe? I wish I would have bought a house with a bigger garage, .

[OmegaTraf]

I wish I had sold my Gi Joe instead of my Battle Beasts back when the wife pushed for more cash less toys.

[Jeremy0477]

Not LRG, but I sold thousand+ Magic cards in college for beer $ (25 bucks). A nice comic book store owner here made me feel better by saying the prices have somehat tanked on most. But they were the 1st cards out and prices online look like I was a fool for letting them go!

As far as LRG - an older lady had a booth full of action figures and some BB at a flea market/swap meet back home about 6 months ago. I walked around all day contemplating what to get. Returned at 3PM and she had shut down an hour early. A month later, her booth was not there. Who knows what deals I may have found or if she'll ever be back.

[Ericnilla]

Like Jon, just a few things I wish i picked up but didnt. I dont regret anything i've bought or sold.

[imperfecz]

Just a couple times of going against my better judgement, and trying to deal with people here that I knew better than to deal with.

[SaltLakeToyJunkee]

My biggest collecting regret was trading my LB Yellow Drill to Roland13 for High End Laser Beasts. Needless to say I will never own another one

Also relying/trusting a member to pay me for the items we had agreed upon from the Roland13 collection sale. While he promised he was going to pay me for what we agreed upon he was secretly saving money to buy the collection himself. Next thing I know I get a message stating the collection was sold to the very person I was waiting on to close the deal. This pissed off a lot of members because I had already collected money from several members that were splitting the collection. Needless to say the douchebag never explained why he did it other than the obvious fact he wanted it all for himself. Maybe after he sees this he will explain why he did it as I and several other members have wondered for years. I regret not getting a $2000 loan and trusting a fellow member to reach the $10K needed for the purchase. As this would have been my last chance to get my yellow drill back.


Learning the hard way that purchases over $250 require signature. Sold a Shield Battler Set for $900 and since there was no signature lost the ebay claim and the toys. Tracking/investigation said it was delivered.

[NeoGeoMage]

No.
I'm still trying to convince my wife that $60 for a Satan Cross is a financially sound purchase, even though she's OK with buying $70 My Little Ponies.

[Ericnilla]

My biggest collecting regret was trading my LB Yellow Drill to Roland13 for High End Laser Beasts. Needless to say I will never own another one

Also relying/trusting a member to pay me for the items we had agreed upon from the Roland13 collection sale. While he promised he was going to pay me for what we agreed upon he was secretly saving money to buy the collection himself. Next thing I know I get a message stating the collection was sold to the very person I was waiting on to close the deal. This pissed off a lot of members because I had already collected money from several members that were splitting the collection. Needless to say the douchebag never explained why he did it other than the obvious fact he wanted it all for himself. Maybe after he sees this he will explain why he did it as I and several other members have wondered for years. I regret not getting a $2000 loan and trusting a fellow member to reach the $10K needed for the purchase. As this would have been my last chance to get my yellow drill back.


Learning the hard way that purchases over $250 require signature. Sold a Shield Battler Set for $900 and since there was no signature lost the ebay claim and the toys. Tracking/investigation said it was delivered.

that's straight up shitty, who was it?

[dwitefry]

I regret the 10 years i spent as a hardcore comic collector when i was a kid/teen, I wasted a lot of time and a lot of my life and it caused and helped along some problems that I'm still dealing with (not financial, just emotional/mental) so that I do regret

I don't think I've ever regretted buying a toy though, except maybe some Collectors' Figures maybe during the 'dark decade' mentioned above, and only because I wasn't that much of a fan of them (Little Nicky for instance) but I've sold them and bought Best of the West figures with the money so i guess it worked out well in the end .

[TheWatcher]

Hmmm...this is a hard one as I have actually struggled with this issue for awhile. I regret ever starting collecting. I started collecting comics around 1993/94. At the time I was still in High School and was pretty much a social outcast. Collecting was a way of coping with my shatty situation by escaping mentally. Eventually collecting comics veered into collecting toys. Around 1995 the collecting world was far different then it is now. Sure there were expensive toys but nothing like it is now. Not so competitive. No world wide web, no ebay, no forums, etc... It's very hard to get anything cheap anymore now especially when you live on a Substitute teacher's salary, haha. There will be things I will NEVER own cause I just can't afford it. I love what I have but it has cost me some major cash and my family has had to sacrifice for my collecting. If I knew then what I know now, I wish I had never even begun collecting.

[ComradeCuttlefish]

Hmmm...this is a hard one as I have actually struggled with this issue for awhile. I regret ever starting collecting. I started collecting comics around 1993/94. At the time I was still in High School and was pretty much a social outcast. Collecting was a way of coping with my shatty situation by escaping mentally. Eventually collecting comics veered into collecting toys. Around 1995 the collecting world was far different then it is now. Sure there were expensive toys but nothing like it is now. Not so competitive. No world wide web, no ebay, no forums, etc... It's very hard to get anything cheap anymore now especially when you live on a Substitute teacher's salary, haha. There will be things I will NEVER own cause I just can't afford it. I love what I have but it has cost me some major cash and my family has had to sacrifice for my collecting. If I knew then what I know now, I wish I had never even begun collecting.

If you really feel that way you should just give it up. At least give up almost all of it, except for a core collection or two.

People do it all the time, whether it's because they'd rather have extra cash toward a house down payment, rather pay off certain loans faster, rather get a new car, they're getting married, etc. If collecting presents any sort of burden to you, or if you're just bored with it, then give it up.

I made that decision almost 5 years ago. But the funny thing is that 5 years later I still haven't sold it all. The community is fun. The toy shows are fun. The spreadsheets keeping track of your buy price, sell price, and profit are fun. But know that 90+% of it is all gone at this, and knowing what a large profit it all was and what I could use the cash for, it made it even more fun.

But make the choice that you want, not what anyone else wants you to do. Just know you can and should do whatever will make you the happiest. That's all that really matters.

[Biffard]

If I knew then what I know now, I wish I had never even begun collecting.

I debated typing a longer post but the Watcher summed it up nicely. It's a fun hobby but I wish I never started.

Collecting is a fun hobby but it is anticlimactic. After a figure arrived to my collection, I would look at it and put it on a shelf or in a box. It's sole purpose was to remind me of the time and money I unwisely spent on obtaining something so unnecessary that it would make me sick.

Just to clarify, I separate collecting from spending time on LRG. It's fun to see what's new and the things that people find or create.

Edited by Biffard, 29 April 2013 - 04:27 AM.

[bigburty]

As of this moment in time, I feel I can say that I don't regret anything I've collected thus far. Ontop of the toys, I also collect antiques/collectables. If anything I regret a couple of purchases from that area rather than toys. I always go out of my way to get the best possible deal on anything I buy, especially LRGs, and get a lot of enjoyment hunting around for the figures I want at a price I'm happy to pay. I think that if I'd wildly spent money then maybe I would have regrets, but that's just not my way.

What I also think removes the feeling of regret is the fact that my wife supports my collecting habits. Again, maybe not quite so much my antiques/collectables, but certainly the toy side. She even has her favourite figures and advises me on how to display certain LRGs

[TheWatcher]

If you really feel that way you should just give it up. At least give up almost all of it, except for a core collection or two.

People do it all the time, whether it's because they'd rather have extra cash toward a house down payment, rather pay off certain loans faster, rather get a new car, they're getting married, etc. If collecting presents any sort of burden to you, or if you're just bored with it, then give it up.

I made that decision almost 5 years ago. But the funny thing is that 5 years later I still haven't sold it all. The community is fun. The toy shows are fun. The spreadsheets keeping track of your buy price, sell price, and profit are fun. But know that 90+% of it is all gone at this, and knowing what a large profit it all was and what I could use the cash for, it made it even more fun.

But make the choice that you want, not what anyone else wants you to do. Just know you can and should do whatever will make you the happiest. That's all that really matters.

First of all I agree with you completely Biffard. I have found myself doing the same thing. Glad to know I'm not alone.

On to Comradecuttlefish, I know you catch a lot of slack but I want to thank you. Your post seemed well thought out and sincere. I have thought about selling it all but I'm still in love with collecting; the fond memories it evokes, sweet ass displays and the friends I have made along the way. What really turns me off is the business aspect of it, the heartbreak of sacrifice and some of the douches you have to deal with along the way to get said toys. I have sold some stuff off that I didn't like anymore and that felt great. I still struggle with collecting as I just get tired of the competitive nature as I'm not a competitive person. But I really love what I have and only collect things I like. Unfortunately I like some rare stuff and it would be neat to own it. It's a tug of war between reality and my own desires. It's never really been about the money per se. I just love collecting for it's own sake but as time marches on it seems the money aspect is forced upon collectors like myself even though we don't want it to be. Anyways Thanks for reading my psychobabble and actually giving me sincere feedback. You guys may not know this but it really means a lot to me. Makes me feel like a real part of the LRG community! Long Live LRG!!

[Behemoth]

My regrets are usually about not getting enough pictures. I am very picky about the quality of figures I buy and it seems that when I forget to ask for pictures, I often find myself disappointed with the quality of figures I receive (especially on Ebay).

Also got hosed in a trade a long time ago because I sent at the same time as a new user on an old geocities MIMP page and he never sent my half (claimed he was moving, never heard back from him). I hope he chokes on the ones I sent

Collecting MIMP has been both a passion and a distraction during the harder parts of my life. I have a hard time seeing myself not collecting anything, even though I only collect MIMP now (though I buy other toys for fun). The only thing left is to get my own place and display the little guys.

[fkro6784]

One specific thing comes to mind. Back before there was a lot of info about MIMP on the internet (late '90s/ early'00s), I won a couple sealed series 3 Big Boy packs off eBay for pretty cheap (I think like under $20--again, this was before MIMP collector madness really began). One of them included a hard plastic purple Centaur, and I shortly after traded it away for something much more common because I didn't know any better. I'm not enough of a MIMP completist to spend the money/time trying to get another, but that's something I wish I'd hung onto.

More generally, I also wish I'd been more selective about collecting over the years. There were a lot of times I bought stuff just because I wanted to buy something. I don't do that anymore, but that old bad habit left me with way too much stuff (and the money could have gone elsewhere).

Edited by fkro6784, 29 April 2013 - 09:19 AM.

[walker13.1]

Nope

[SmokinGun]

The biggest regret I have made is when I mixed my 100+ childhood MUSCLE figures with another large lot of figures I bought off ebay. When I first started collecting. I was being too damn cheap. I was trying to piece together a full flesh set without spending to much money. Haha! Man its a big mistake I made. Big effing mistake. Those figures meant more than anything I own to this day. I still have my flesh set with half of them that started it all.

[TMAN]

Not buying more custom figures.....many are now they are long gone

[krazedmadman]

I don't regret anything I've bought but I do regret being too lazy to sell the stuff I no longer have room for.

[ComradeCuttlefish]

The biggest regret I have made is when I mixed my 100+ childhood MUSCLE figures with another large lot of figures I bought off ebay. When I first started collecting. I was being too damn cheap. I was trying to piece together a full flesh set without spending to much money. Haha! Man its a big mistake I made. Big effing mistake. Those figures meant more than anything I own to this day. I still have my flesh set with half of them that started it all.

Unfortunately I did the same thing with my MUSCLEs, and subsequently sold them all, including my childhood figures.

Fortunately I didn't make that same mistake with my childhood GI Joes or Battle Beasts. I still have a separate baggie with all my Battle Beasts (rubsign-less, missing arms here and there, random arms stuck on random figures, etc.). I still have a huge box of most of my 100 or so childhood GI Joes. Fortunately I have probably 60 of them left, some spray painted, lots of broken crotches, many missing weapons, etc. I did sell some of childhood GI Joes at some point, a figure here, a figure there. But for the most part, I still have most of them.

I guess MUSCLEs were different for me. I didn't care for them as much growing up. They were boring. They weren't painted. They didn't have weapons. They didn't do anything. GI Joes had major articulation, lots of cool weapons, and great paint. And at least Battle Beasts had a single weapon each and some minor articulation--and a hologram, never forget the heat activated rubsign.

At some point, though, it would be pretty difficult to be that weirdo collector who still has all his/her childhood toys. What are you going to do, play with them? I think saving a little bit of what was important to you back then should be sufficient enough. It was for me, anyway.

Edited by ComradeCuttlefish, 02 May 2013 - 09:50 AM.

[bigburty]

The biggest regret I have made is when I mixed my 100+ childhood MUSCLE figures with another large lot of figures I bought off ebay. When I first started collecting. I was being too damn cheap. I was trying to piece together a full flesh set without spending to much money. Haha! Man its a big mistake I made. Big effing mistake. Those figures meant more than anything I own to this day. I still have my flesh set with half of them that started it all.

I've done something similar to this with my MIMP collection. However, the first picture I ever added to my collection thread suggests which figures my 're-collecting' began with, so I've got a pretty good idea which of the current S1 & S2 figures I have are my original childhood ones

[Dabeavis]

I sorta did, I was collecting vintage GI Joe figures for a bit but later realized that I'm better off getting the 25th anniversary ones, since I hardly had much reason to collect the vintage figures anyway (I'm not an 80's kid, and I'm not really into the series aside from the fenslerfilm PSA parodies and the retro aesthetic that the modern films ignored).

Edited by Dabeavis, 02 May 2013 - 04:27 PM.

[SmokinGun]

I've done something similar to this with my MIMP collection. However, the first picture I ever added to my collection thread suggests which figures my 're-collecting' began with, so I've got a pretty good idea which of the current S1 & S2 figures I have are my original childhood ones

That's cool. I know roughly 40 original childhood figures from my set. The rest, well I have no clue but at least I know there in there. I could say there is a bit of relief that I finish off my set that I started looooong time ago.