Whenever Takara produces a Transformer, wait for the eventual (cheaper) store exclusive repaint.

Eventhough I love my MP1. I would have been happy with 20th Anniversary Prime.

I learned this lesson with Walmart MP Starscream and TRU MP Grimlock!

Same for Hot Rod. But I never bought his whiney ass...

 

On the flipside, though. Sidearm Sideswipe, United G2 Prime and United Cybertron (War for Cybertron) Megatron were the exact opposite. I lost that battle...

 

I watch and listen to our fellow board members and fans.

I learn about upcoming figures. More and more third party, too.

I read reviews and watch the vids.

Then I find the cheapest price online and buy it...


BBTS is the best service but by far the most expensive. Why they feel the need to charge us more for certain figures is terrible. United Jazz and Megs were more than thier fellow casemates. Thats just wrong. But good business for them...

Find the best price. There are plenty of vendors out there.

Just be aware of shipping in regaurds to your home location.

Robot Kingdom was a cheap price but the shipping was LONG and tracking was difficult.

 

^this! I've passed up on stuff in store that I was sorta interested in and said eh.... next time. And the next time comes with a hefty mark up!

As well, when buying stuff.... buy complete. Save you alot of time IMO.

 

Don't worry about scale, unless you're a fish.

 

I think the OP stated the biggest lesson I learned. If you see it buy it. For some reason it is always the figures I pass on that become a challenge to find ever again. So now when I see it I buy it.

 

Self-Control.

 

Here's a few points that come to mind...

1. Don't be a completist.

2. If you are a completist, set achievable goals, e.g. all the '84 and '85 Autobots and Decepticons, but pick and choose after that, or something to that effect. Not ALL Transformers. You'll burn yourself out and your place will end up a mess.

3. Take pride in how you display your collection, i.e. don't end up looking like someone from Hoarders. Get nice shelves.

 

This seems to be true for the MP TFs (unless you really like trailers), but not for everything. This brings up another point...

4. Quality before quantity. To each his own, of course, but I think it's better to have a few really nice pieces than a mess of mediocre ones. In the case of CHUGS, the Henkei 'bots, in my opinion anyway, almost always looked better than the Generations/Universe versions - better plastic, paint jobs, nice chrome weapons, etc. Not always, but in a lot of cases, worth the extra money.

 

i also passed on cheetor and hot shot as i hated those molds (still do)

 

my rule get everything classics because you never know when a 3rd party will come out with something you just "gotta have" 

 

Do not use e-bay when drinking.

 

A lesson I've learned while collecting is to buy the toy you really really want at first sight. Don't wait or hide it behind other toys and hope other people won't find it and buy it. That happened to me with HA Jazz, what a great figure...  

I'm glad I bought DOTM Voyager Shockwave immediately after I saw it at Walmart, because I haven't seen a single Shockwave toy in any store.

 

dont sleep on any bot u really want....u will only kick ur self in the ass in the future when its 5x more expensive...S.G rodi/W.R

 

Dont Expect to get everything! Besides Theirs no fun in collecting if you got it all!

 

Budget, budget, budget. If you do not budget, you will be broke.

 

- Know what figures you want.
- Know why you want a figure and know whether that reason is enough justification to actually spend the money on a figure.
- Keep other short- and long-term spending goals in mind and, if uncertain about whether to buy a figure, ask "do I really want this TF more than [x]?"
- Don't buy figures you aren't really interested in solely because they're "rare", "hard to find" or "might be worth something someday".
- Always keep receipts until you've opened a figure, manipulated it a few times and made sure nothing is broken or missing.
- If there's anything you really want in the last two waves of a line, preorder it online, because it isn't likely to see a retail release and/or will be difficult to find. Even if you have to order it as part of a set with some things you already have, the price will probably be worth avoiding the aggravation of hunting for it and/or inflated secondary market prices. And you can always re-sell the other items you already have or, even better, donate them to a charity like Toys for Tots.
- Unless something is known to be incredibly high-demand and/or severely short-packed, don't use online preorders for anything in the first 1 - 2 waves of a new line. They will be over-ordered by brick-and-mortar retailers and be easy to find.
- Don't waste money on new molds/redecos of a character trying to chase "the best" version of a character, particularly in the Movie lines. Either be happy with the version you already have or wait for a version in which you'd be more interested.
- I'd imagine a lot of people won't agree with this, but don't waste money on Japanese releases of US mass-retail figures. With very few exceptions (eg - Henkei Megatron), they're essentially the same and any minor improvements aren't worth the huge difference in cost. Only pursue Japanese releases of items where the US mass-retail release status is uncertain (eg - Animated Blackout, Classics Rumble/Frenzy).
- If you're going through your collection, pick up a figure, ask yourself "why the hell did I buy this in the first place?" and can't come up with an answer, sell it. And "because it was rare/hard-to-find/might be worth something someday" is not an acceptable answer.

 

Its taken me a while, but I've finally been able to distinguish between an impulse buy and a figure I genuinely want. Some very expensive, lacklustre DotM figures have really helped me learn this distinction, and I'm already noticing how much money I've got left over at the end of the month.

Also, when buying multiple TF's at once, don't open them within 10 minutes of each other! Save them for times when you can invest a good while messing with each individually. That way, you appreciate them a bit more!

 

Never pay full price for a movie toy because you'll be able to get it much cheaper down the road.

 

The best time to buy is after after demand goes down, but before supply goes down. This applies to IRL stores and online shops.