I know what your talking about Packer. Here is My 2.Cents. First of all, I was a major collector over the 2000s of just about every series like Marvel Legends, DC Classics, Star Wars (Hasbro & Sideshow), TMNT, series's from SOTA, McFarlane, NECA, Sideshow 1/6 and so much more and don't forget the mini figures and sub-items and such. Oh and of course all of those MOTUC & many others from MattyCollector.com! It can really be a huge pain for many reasons if your a collector and want the series of everything and just not 1 or 2 figures you really need/want. I do that from time to time if I really like a certain character or just wanna have something from that certain franchise. Sure, stuff in the good ole 90s was really cheap and such ideal prices but I mean back then in the 2000s figures were still kinda cheap and even something like a 12" Universal Monster from Sideshow for instance was only about $60 and even then I thought it was cheap. SW figures were only like $3.99 to $6.99, TMNT about 8 bucks and so on but as time went on things were getting more and more expensive with additional POA, sculpting and packaging. When MattyCollecter was first ongoing I understood that higher prices would accompany it as they were exclusives and I was fine with it, I thought is was reasonable even with the ridicules shipping costs for the first year or so. Then they started raising the prices and I hated when they said that they have a budget (a billion dollar + company!) and they don't have the resources and all of that bull and the way they handled the licenses was just so depressing. Then if that isn't enough then everything started getting higher and higher priced from other companies. Sideshow would raise their G.I. Joes & SW from $100 + and Hot Toys would be almost twice that if not even more. MLs & DC and WWE figures would follow suit so I just stopped altogether as I couldn't afford it anymore. Same thing happen with the MOTUC by Super7, it was great but s hight and that Super7 Andre the Giant's price I got from Sideshow that was so pathetically high. So I have retired from all of this long ago. Late in 2019, I had to go to Walgreens for some stuff and I always look at the toy isle cause you never know what you'll find. They cost slighter higher than big department stores but I could get some figures there that I couldn't elsewhere so I accept that. Anyway, I was just looking for fun. I saw MLs & WWE and SW Black figures and they were $20 a pop
I thought that was so insane when years ago they were nearly twice as less than that
With all of that being said, If I had more dough and didn't run Meself out of room, I may still be a big collector like before. As you have seen recently on the board, I have obtained some old figures that I was unable to in the past. I find it cool that these older figures are cheaper than today's current offerings. In fact, they are more important to Me to the modern stuff for many reasons. Please understand I'm not getting them because I'm getting back in the collecting game, I am getting them to make up for the past and to have a little fun. So really, no I have not been burned about it, I have just quit cause I couldn't do it anymore. If there was a couple issues I have about collecting is the variants, the chases and of course the scalpers. Oh, another issue I have is that many series's no matter what it is had the same characters over and over again and not the new characters that you do want and hope that they make them because of selling points and all that nonsense
OK, if you please bear with Me, here is a bonus complaint if you will. When I was collecting figures from over the years like say 2000 to 2009, I loved it that companies were being distinctive from one another. I loved Mcfarlane's Movie Maniacs, Sideshow's Universal Monsters & horror figures, Palisades Resident Evil & Reservoir Dogs, among other companies that made series' from properties that were never made previously and so on. It was truly an exciting time. Then the gum got stepped on
I started noticing all of these companies over the years like the very late 2000s and to this modern whatever you call this era, they started trending off each other. McFarlane starting doing sports and other stuff and Sideshow started doing Disney, Marvel & DC among other stuff that totally turned Me off because they didn't look like their-selves anymore and stopped making what made them become who they are
I mean they had original series after another, now it't all the same and I'm really tired of this trend. This is one of the reasons why I love the older stuff so much more than what is available over the last decade.