JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: Brian on September 14, 2005, 12:03 PM
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I posted this in the "Collector's Challenge" thread as well, but thought maybe it should have its own thread for those who don't participate in the challenge. Anyways, do any of you have a general "collecting budget" in mind from month to month. Obviously, it averages out, but is there a target amount you attempt to stick to on a monthly basis? It always depends on what is available, sometimes a lot of stuff hits at once...and sometimes its a dry spell like you've never seen...and then there are years like this where there is all kinds of stuff hitting in a 2-3 month span. Anyways, when I first started collecting Star Wars, I pretty much kept to a $30ish/month budget or so, and that worked pretty well. Then more and more Star Wars stuff came out, and my interests also branched off into other lines (Marvel, LOTR, DC), so I unfortunately waved bye-bye to that budget awhile ago. This year has been especially bad (basically 3 to 4 times that), and I'm hoping to return to a more $30-$50 range from here on out. My wife would rather me go to $10-$15/month, but I told her I thought that was too low . Anyways, does anyone else here set a rough budget for themselves...or thinking about it?
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Anyways, do any of you have a general "collecting budget" in mind from month to month.
Yeah... $0 - but I never make it. I pretty much just go with the flow, so to speak. When I have some money I go out shopping. When I have no money, I don't. When I find people selling stuff on the forums that I need/want, I usually buy it regardless and then try to figure out how I'm gonna pay for it :P
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I generally try to keep SW purchases around $100-$150 per month - but I don't really stick to it. There are lots of months were a bunch of stuff comes out, or I find a bunch of army builders I want, or a clearance Mini Bust etc... it's not uncommon for me to spend $200 or $300
I don't set a firm amount.
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I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, jokabofe, in that I fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to collecting. Sticking to one of each item kind of helps me know approximately how much I'm going to be spending, but given the hit-or-miss situation at retail these days, I never know when I'm going to actually be spending it.
In the months leading up to all three of the prequel merchandise launches, I began putting aside money (often times up to six months in advance) so the onslaught of new stuff wouldn't be as big a financial hit for me. I think it's all about knowing what is coming in advance and planning for that as far as I go, instead of setting a concrete amount from one month to the next.
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Yeah. I had a budget. Had being a past tense sort of thing.
I set it for myself in the "Collectors Challenge" thread, and I figured that this year (I'm saving for a wedding) it would be important that I spend under 300 a month. I did fine for the first month or two and then April hit.
I'm WAY over my budget for the year already and it's not even October. I'm so lame. :-)
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I was spending about $25-30 a week. I sadly will have to drop to like $25-30 a month and be more selective. Just single carded figs and exclusive figs from here on out. A ship here and there. No more pack-ins, dlx, beast or multi-packs.
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I guess a lot of us might not have an exact "set" budget, or if we do it is probably tough to stick to it. If you don't have a budget...and don't mind sharing...what is your average spending/month on collecting stuff? Like I mentioned earlier, this has been by far my most expensive year, and I think I'm averaging around $100-$120 a month for the year. When I started, it was closer to $30 (wasn't nearly as much then, and no "other" stuff). I'm hoping to cut back to more of a $30 to $50 range (per month). It makes more sense, I need to streamline things anyways, and I know it would make my wife happy :).
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I have an exact budget. $100 a month for personal spending (wife gets the same). When the $100 is out, I'm done. This has worked extremely well, forcing me to decide what I really want, and what I don't want. So it made the transition from carded and opener, to opener and non-completist several months ago. Works well with the wife and no more arguments etc. I usually end up with abou $50-$75 on heavy collecting months on the collection, and about $40 on non heavy months being spent on me; rest goes to either my kids or I spend on the wife.
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I have a budget now which means spending just about nothing on Star Wars items right now. It sucks but that is the way it's going right now. Basically if there is some clonetrooper I do not have and see it I will most likely buy it.
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Budget? What's that?! :P
As a completist who never passes up something he needs, I buy stuff when I see it, no hesitation and no questions asked. I never want to risk missing out on something, even if money's running a little tight. Better to pay retail now, than twice retail later for something I passed up on (provided I can still pay the credit card off in full at month's end obviously, since I ain't about to start paying any finance charges). So I'll buy now, and deal with the finances later. If we're gonna come up short, I'll just tell the wife to go put in some extra hours at her consulting job! :-X
But yeah, there are months where I start to delve deeply into some of the "Other Collectibles" type of stuff, so occasionally I need to monitor myself in that respect to make sure I'm spacing that out evenly, and can still get the credit card paid off in full at month's end. Easier said than done, as far as trying to lay off of stuff though. Especially when there's some good deals flowing through eBay, or elsewhere.
Damned hobby is like a drug, I tells ya'!
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It's times like these that I'm glad I don't stick to a budget...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/nextseason/SW%20Collection/Evolutions_001.jpg)
:-X
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Hmmmm.. Depends on how much stuff I find that I want and whether or not my husband is with me at the time. <G>
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Just bumping this up after discussing spending in the "Collector's Challenge" threads. With more and more stuff out there all the time (licenses, lines, individual items, etc.), and with fairly large releases even in non-movie years now (like last year and this year), have any of you started thinking about a loose budget or a limit for the year? Like I've mentioned before, I think at one time I pretty easily stuck to a $30/month or less budget (back in the POTJ days and earlier), but that has gone out the window the past few years. I think that with Star Wars collecting, if you do use a budget, it has to be an "average per month" type of budget. At least that's what I tell my wife :). Because with Star Wars, you never know when things are coming out (or many times, what is coming out) for the majority of the year. There could be months where you find a good amount of stuff, and some where you don't find anything.
Anyways, its hard to keep the budget in that $20-$30/month range anymore just with Star Wars - let alone if you collect anything else. I'd like to get back in that range, but would be happy with $40-$50/month. Just curious if anyone has a budget, or has thought about it?
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No.
;D
Well, not really that is. But the rationale is I don't always know what's coming from a particular line and when it will show. I also don't know relatively speaking how much something will cost. A figure in Canada will run just under $12 after taxes, but if I manage to work a deal with a US friend I can often drive that cost down (taxes, shipping, customs fees) to under $8 CAD per figure if not less, so it's difficult to calculate.
I do think this year will be better than many for me. There's little from Master Replicas I really want (though a few of those helmets are tempting :P) so that drives the budget down, particularly now that I have all the FX sabers I want. My interest in Hasbro (Star Wars, Marvel Legends) is waning as time goes on, either due to quality, rehashes or sheer overload, so that should save some money.
The real fly in the ointment is Gentle Giant. I dig their busts and animated maquettes, so it depends what gets announced in a year. I'm also a fan of the bustups, so it depends on the chase figures available and what comes out in particular waves.
I'm really just trying to spend less and obviously the diversity and pricey-ness of some of what I collect means my budget is higher than most. But it's just a see-what-comes-out attitude for me. Had ML 1 from Hasbro been interesting, that would have been $60 out the door. As it is, I'm spending nothing. Never know, just never know.
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The word "budget" is not in my vocabulary. ;D
I just buy as I go. More and more I find myself cutting back a limiting it all but there are those times where I just HAVE to have it...
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I see myself spending a similar amount each month compared to last year, but I want to knock down the "actual" amount spent by selling off some stuff I don't want anymore. I've got a couple boxes full of stuff that I'm going to try my luck with on eBay (non-SW that I'll never have room to display). I've never sold anything on eBay before, so we'll see how well it helps me "save" some money.
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Kind of an older thread - and maybe it isn't as relevant with the "collector's challenge" thread now - but I was wondering if anyone tries to stick to a monthly "budget" these days with their collecting. When I first started collecting, in the POTF2/Episode I days, I did pretty much stick to a budget of about $30 a month. The first line I really collected the majority of was the POTJ line, and it seemed easy enough to keep up with things this way (aside from a single Spidey figure, I had stayed away from any "other" lines at that point). I was just getting out of college around that time, and my wife was still going, so there wasn't a lot of collecting money there really.
As the years went out, I got to more of a loose budget (not monthly) and it seemed to really balloon with the release of ROTS in 2005 (and the pattern of having 60-70 figures a year, plus all the other stuff - and other lines). Anyways, with recent employment changes and a drastically reduced "miscellaneous" budget, I'm starting to try to go back to a monthly budget again. With the prices of vehicles and some other things these days, it sometimes has to be "floating" because one ship could eat up one month's budget pretty quickly. I'm not sure where it will land yet, but I'm hoping to stick to $100 a month or less (if possible). It makes it a little more difficult when Hasbro releases 3/4 of their product in the last four months, but hopefully I can keep up. Anyways, does anyone out there stick to a collecting budget these days?
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Anyways, does anyone out there stick to a collecting budget these days?
I've never had one, but it would be nice to sort of have a financial plan I suppose when it comes to buying this junk. As long as the bills are paid and there's a savings plan then it's all just fair game in my book. Would be nice if I only collected Star Wars stuff I suppose. Had no clue that I'd be this "hardcore" into toys when I first got back into collecting back in 01. :-\
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I've never had one, but it would be nice to sort of have a financial plan I suppose when it comes to buying this junk. As long as the bills are paid and there's a savings plan then it's all just fair game in my book. Would be nice if I only collected Star Wars stuff I suppose. Had no clue that I'd be this "hardcore" into toys when I first got back into collecting back in 01. :-\
Same here. I think it would be much easier (and cheaper) to just stick to Star Wars, but that is easier said than done (at least for me). I keep telling myself that I'm almost done with these other lines, as many I've been interested in have either wrapped up (Lord of the Rings, Indy), are winding down (Marvel Legends, possibly 25th Joes), or are pretty slow with the releases (MOTU Classics). The main "big" one to me now is DCU Classics, where I originally planned to stick to Gotham characters and the "big guns", but that seems to have gone out the window. When I first started collecting again, I never dreamed I would have this much Star Wars stuff, let alone things from at least half a dozen other lines. I know my wife would be much happier if I just stuck to Star Wars. I agree with you, I never thought I'd be this hardcore into it at this point either, and there are times where I question some of it now as well.
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Since loosing my star wars room to my daughter's bedroom, my collecting habbits have changed. Now there is no where to display anything new. It just doesn't make alot of sense to buy something to instantly stuff in a box in garage.
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Still no firm budget. But I do spend less on Star Wars compared to a few years ago. Very little army building, no carded collecting, fewer vehicles... no 12", unleashed, or lego...
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My budget has been modest in recent years since I've cut back, at max $200 a month. However, my wife and I hit the big 40 soon. We've been in formed from our health insurance carrier to look for a huge premium increase in addition to this years. The writing is on the wall.
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I gotta say I have no collecting budget. But then again, I haven't bought anything SW related in a year and half. I just haven't had any interest in collecting. Plus, I've been doing work on the house and playing lots of softball, so that, and my daughter, is where any extra cash has been going. I'm not really missing collecting either.
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Till now my collecting budget has been if I could afford the item when I found it. I will let some pre-orders ride on a CC and then just save up the cash till the item arrives so I can pay it off. Otherwise, I usually have the extra cash for when I come across the latest wave of figures or a new comic pack or vehicle and I just pick it up.
Hasbro doesn't make that easy by cramming 8 month's worth of stuff into the last 3 months of the year...again and again and again...
It's now to the point that I'm going to start budgeting for certain items, however. The huge bumps in prices that some things have taken (mostly on Hasbro items) in the last year make it harder to impulse buy things. In the last week I've found myself passing on a couple things because I had to make a choice to buy the stuff I've found now or hold onto my cash because there's a bigger item coming that I'm more interested in. Like, I just passed on the Tank Droid because I'm waiting on the new TRU Republic Gunship which has a steep price increase over all previous releases.
E...
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I've never had a budget before. I've had different levels of what I allowed myself to buy at different times. But with so many things coming out at a time lately I really start to wonder if I shouldn't come up with a budget soon.
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That is a lot of the reason I'm looking more at a budget again as well. Like many of you, I haven't really had a strict one over the past few years either. I started out with one when I first started collecting, but in the years since I pretty much bought things when I saw them for the most part - as long as we had the money. After getting laid off at the beginning of this year, and having the budget cut considerably, I've had to really think over each purchase again. Plus, like it has been mentioned, with so much stuff coming out at the end of the year like this, it makes pacing yourself and budgeting things more of a priority. I mean, I've always had to "save up" and budget for any larger items (big ships or higher end stuff), but with all the figure releases and exclusives that are released between September and December anymore, it becomes a lot to keep up with as well (not to mention the price increases).
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I've been very good about my budget. I came up with a plan in 2007 that I'd add up how much I spent that year, then in 2008 cut that number in half to make my budget, then cut the 2008 number in half again. Once 2010 rols aorund I'll make my budget only 10% of what my 2007 budget was.
For the record I spent right around $6K for SW alone in 2007.
So 2008's budget was $3K. I ended up spending about $2700, so I actually came under budget. However I started collecting Halo action figures, so I did go over my total toy budget, just not the SW specific budget.
The SW budget for 2009 is a paltry $1,500. So far I'm doing very well in that area with about $600 spent so far. I do expect a large rush towards the end of the year, so that number will definitely climb. Other than SW I primarily only collect Halo toys and Transformer Movie toys (with some scant exceptions). All told I've spent about $1200 between SW, Halo and TF. Not too bad for me.
In 2010, I'm hoping to spend no more than $600 on SW. That may be tough depending on the big vehicle of the year. Thankfully I'm all but cured of large army building, only building squads of 4-6 figures. One exception I'll make this year is the Gungan warrior of which I want 40 of them. So that will be a significant chunk of my budget for this year (2009).
Halo is fairly cheap, but for the exclusives and even then not all that bad. There is a wave of figures every 3 months or so. I preorder the mass retail ones and "hunt" for the exclusives.
TF is insanely easy to collect and I can see myself dropping this collection soon. I'll keep what I have, but when the 3rd movie comes out, I'll be much more discerning about what I collect from it, rather than getting all of the Hasbro figures.
I have a huge storage unit, that while filling up, still affords me to buy the big items knowing I have the space for them.
The eventual plan is to build dioramas for my SW stuff. Large ones. I've discussed this before, so I won't bore with the details yet again. Not sure how I'll eventually display the Halo stuff, though I have a couple of ideas floating around. TF stuff will likely just be in bookshelves displayed in a vague movie scene sequence.
I've enjoyed collecting most of the time over the last 15+ years of modern collecting. Having just turned 40 this past Friday though has me thinking yet again that it's edging ever so closer to the day I'll just stop collecting altogether. That thought has been in my mind for the past few years, now I see it as more and more a reality. The time for the torch to be passed is near at hand, so to speak, with regards to me anyway.
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Budget? Budget? HahahahHAHAHhahaha!. :-\
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Budget? Budget? HahahahHAHAHhahaha!. :-\
What he said!!!
Although i am very selective with what i buy now
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I don't think I ever really had a dollar amount budget. It started as every ship, figure and playset. Then it became, collect each figure loose and maybe an occasional ship. Now I've set it to just certain unique or first creation legacy/EU figures in hopes to create grand displays again someday.
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I just started a doctoral program some my budget (never had one) has changed. I am still not on a $ budget. just not buying everything i want.