Tales of Buyers Remorse...

[Idiot Savant]

Hi everybody!

Just thought it'd be fun (and maybe therapeutic for some) to start a thread on something I'm sure has happened at least once ("once") for all of us: buyers remorse.

Now this can be for toys, comics, movies, furniture, animals, kids, spouses, NASA or anything else you'd like to share.

I'll go first:

My name is Brian and I have a toy and comic book problem.

Last year I had probably the biggest feeling of buyers remorse that I actually felt my stomach go queasy...I was in the Minneapolis area for a comic-con and while we were trying to avoid some of the more "evil" looking cosplayers (I had my daughter Emma with me and didn't expect these particular freaky looking people at a small time con), I found the Golden comic/record reprint set of Spider-Man issue 1 for $110. I inspected it for a while then put it back on the rack thinking it was too much and I just haven't seen everything else.

As we kept walking around, I found less and less to spend my money on and hurriedly went back (even though Emma at this point was full-on tears at being terrified at some of the costumes), I went back to the dealer with the Spidey reprint and, though I bargained it down to $90, I still felt sick to my stomach as soon as the greenbacks left my hand.

As soon as we left the con, I immediately started to find Half Price Books to try and quickly resell the thing and get some kind of money back...my collector self and my reasonable self battled it out on the way there, to the point where I never knew I had any reason; and ultimately I still own this book.

The way my other self told it to me was: I'll never be able to own the actual book so this will have to do. I'm fairly happy with it now, but it took a while to come to terms with that.

Anyone else care to share their remorse?

PS-I'm not a certified psychologist or therapist so don't go getting all P'Od at me if your significant other reads this and catches you retroactively red-handed!

[beastovjudgement]

I will recount my one foray into third-party Transformers. This experience soured me -justifiably or not; I don't even care - on all non-licensed TF stuff, no matter how awesome it looks in pictures online. A few years ago, well before the Masterpiece Soundwave was announced, some no-name company released a figure called "Sonicron", which was an updated tribute to G1 Soundwave. I had been wanting a modern sculpt Soundwave for a long time, and after a bit if debating, shelled out the $65.00 for Sonicron. The thing was straight up garbage. It is incredibly cheap plastic which had stress marks everywhere from the first transformation. All the articulation was looser than that of a thirty-year-old, beat up G1 Transformer, right out of the box. Sonicron's paint applications were sloppy, with some of the small lettering smeared or outright rubbed off. To make things even better, the price dropped to $30.00 within less than a year. I put the thing in storage and forgot about it. Earlier this year, while looking up the awesome Masterpiece Soundwave, I saw Sonicron had somehow become a sought-after collectible some time after being discontinued. I put it on eBay starting at $.99, with a bunch of photos and full disclosure of its many flaws. The auction ended at $47.00, and the buyer was very happy with his purchase. I am told all the time third-party Transformers have gotten much better in quality. For the very high prices these things command, I am absolutely unwilling to give any of them another chance, regardless of which of the many companies popping up makes them. I am very cheap when it comes to collectibles. On the rare occasions I shell out a lot of money (and for a six-inch figure, $65.00 is a lot of money) for something, I am entirely unforgiving if burned. The $120.00 spent on Hasbro's Masterpiece Soundwave, conversely, is not regretted in the least.

[Idiot Savant]

Nor should it be! Nice story and I've seen a knockoff (I think) of Slag the Dinobot on BBTS that stands 11" tall and looks sweet in the 3-D modeling stage; robot mode only pictured so far...but he's extremely pricey!

But that TrU Soundwave is phoenomenal...wish I could get that one

[beastovjudgement]

Slag was my favorite Dinobot, and in fact my favorite non-Decepticon of all Transformers. I would buy an official Masterpiece version in a second, but have zero interest in an expensive, likely poor quality, unauthorized version. That Masterpiece Soundwave really is awesome. This os absolutely my pick for best toy of this year, or of the last few for that matter. It is showing up more frequently at TRU stores these days. Secondary prices have also cooled down, so it is more likely a toy this expensive will remain on shelves longer now, with a smaller profit margin for resellers. I may even buy a second some day.

Okay, another story: When the first Marvel Legends BAF series (Galactus) was released, I quickly bought every figure in the series - ML were still around $10.00 maximum at the time- except Bullseye, who I could not find in stores for weeks. I broke down and bought one from a specialty shop for $22.00. Everyone knows exactly where this is going, of course. Within days, Bullseyes were everywhere, at normal retail. Then, just over a month after the series was released to stores, Target had all ML figures on sale for $6.99 each, including every figure in the Galactus series. This lesson is how I learned patience, and is why I always caution others not to get frustrated and pay over retail for any current figures. Every time I have ever been tempted since, I decided to wait, and it nearly always paid off. The few times it did not, I simply went without. Especially in newer figures, with much higher retail prices, the secondary markup can be brutal.

[AcidDragon]

Buyer’s remorse, yep. Pretty much everytime I shell out for a rare figure of some sort that suddenly becomes more readily available. Somehow the fear of having to pay even more for it later convinces me that I ought to get it now for the ridiculous price offered. One of the greatest feelings of buyer’s remorse though was when I bought those crappy Sparkplug and Spike miniature knockoffs made by Impossible Toys. They were so cheap and flimsy and expensive as hell and came with tiny useless accessories.

[Idiot Savant]

I remember Spike and Sparkplug figs! I always thought they looked pretty cool for being "in-scale" figs right?

I had a thought that when I would complete the Young Justice HoJ, I had to resort to eBay....(after I bought the last 2 pieces for $40 and $52 respectively), that came with the Aqualad and Kid Flash variants (that I never saw in the state of Wisconsin), I figured they would then miraculously appear at Target...thankfully that didn't happen; but I was worried it would for quite a while!

[Tango X]

Kotobukiya Megaman/Rockman Model Kits... For what they cost, they’re literally hollow snap together plastic models. I definitely like them but I feel like I paid too much for them...

[AcidDragon]

I remember Spike and Sparkplug figs! I always thought they looked pretty cool for being "in-scale" figs right?

Yeah, I think they should've just made the helmets and bodies one piece. They were OK, but for the price, they definitely weren't worth it. Same goes for the light up energon cubes I bought and the worst, the Quintessons whose head spikes snapped off if you so much as looked at them funny.

[Idiot Savant]

Damn, that's sad to hear about the quintessons; those guys were sweet looking!

[Avalon]

Yikes. Almost bought those myself.