What's Your Toy Budget?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by LightningBlade3, May 31, 2016.

  1. LightningBlade3

    LightningBlade3 Destined to be a Prime

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    Especially for events like BotCon, roughly how much money do you set aside for purchasing new figures for your collection? I'm looking to get back into the collecting game, so I was wondering what the average person sets aside. You don't have to put exact numbers if you don't feel comfortable sharing that, but a percentage would be nice as well.
     
  2. The13Primes

    The13Primes hot shot fanatic

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    If its over $100 (AUD so basically Leader class and imports) I consider how much i want them.
     
  3. MrAngry

    MrAngry Proud to be Geek!

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    It'll all depend on what your disposable income is. I make good money, have no debt load aside from my house, and my car for a couple more months. But I do have a family, too.

    I got out of some more expensive hobbies (cars and motorcycles), and redirected that money to collecting. So I can theoretically spend a crazy amount if I wish, but I'm still selective.

    Everyone's situation is different. Spend what you can afford without putting you in financial danger.
     
  4. Rodimus Mike

    Rodimus Mike MP & TF Collector

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    Basically without going into much detail I have a car payment worth of budget for TF's,but I don't always get TF's,since I collect a wide range of other stuff too like Coins,Marvel BAF's,DC Figures,Comics,Knives,and Lego's,oh and about a year ago I also started getting 3rd Party TF's,so those too.

    But truth be told this summer and fall are gonna be wallet draining because in less than a month I've got 2 Takara UW07 Bruticuses I have to pay for which will be close to my budget limit,except maybe for 1 or 2 single figures.

    And oh gawd that ain't nothing compared to when Titans Return hit,I will basically be in debt since 95% to 98% of the stuff coming out I want,and I almost forgot but also either CW or UW Computron when those are released.Depending on how you look at it this is an awful time to be on a budget,sure you get stuff that makes you happy but also depletes your money fast as he**. That is all.
     
  5. GiganGoji

    GiganGoji Well-Known Member

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    Looking over my budget, I set aside just over 7% of my monthly income towards "entertainment", which includes music, movies, admission, other fun stuff, and best of all: figures.
    It was a lot higher, but I found myself spending what I considered to be too much, the figures were taking up too much space, and I wanted to put more into savings, so I dropped it down more and more over the past year.
    Note, that's also supplemented by my figure sales - whatever money I get from selling figures goes right back into my entertainment funds.
     
  6. Fallout

    Fallout Banned

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    not too much, but more than enough.

    i almost never buy stuff at retail, everything's either second hand or discounted. and i have a list of specific stuff i want and all that so i almost never buy shit because it looks neat. it has to have a spot in my collection and i think that keeps me from overspending.
     
  7. motorthing

    motorthing Too old for this $hit

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    I cut the TF Budget to about £200 a month (nothing else suffers or doesn't get taken care of) which is down from the past two years - but still looks like a ridiculously self indulgent sum when written down like that.

    But break that out across an average month of preorders and releases and it doesn't even begin to keep pace. A wave of Hastak Deluxes and a couple of 3P releases (Generations/MP level) will wipe that out and not leave room for ordering a TR Max for example.

    Food for wallet thought.
     
  8. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    Roughly about $200 a month for hobbies. Which is why things like the Subscription Service is a real pain when Fun Pub comes calling.
     
  9. Bnz Toy

    Bnz Toy 3P Combiner

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    I'm done when I'm done, that's my budget.

    If something comes up that fits my collection it's going in.

    However, I have space limitations, that's where I need to be more picky, haha.
     
  10. MonaLazaBeak

    MonaLazaBeak <Witty saying goes here>

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    I don't necessarily have a set budget, just more of a gut check every time I make a purchase. It has to be something I really like and something I actually want, not need. "Needing" a figure is not a place I want to go back to since it has that tendency to take over a person's (me in this example) life and makes you do that toy hunt where you spend an hours rushing from store to store to store looking for basically a piece of plastic.

    Overall though, I'll try to nab an entire wave of voyagers or deluxes in one sitting, if it feels right or if I know it'll be hard to find them again. Leaders, it depends. More often than not though since I collect only Generations, I don't have to spend more than $100 a month, depending on the wave release frequency/availability.

    Also, it helps when you don't buy figures for more than retail. You shouldn't ever have to, that's my opinion.
     
  11. Edwardmus Prime

    Edwardmus Prime Righteous Protector of Ed-Land

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    Not very impressive compared to other collectors, it seems. I get a Deluxe here, and every now and again a Voyager there. Here's the thing though, I have never ending enthusiasm for Transformers and it still actually works. I'm always happy with my purchases because.
     
  12. tekering

    tekering The Ref

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    I've been calculating exactly how much I spend on Transformers for the last three years; last year's expenditures exceeded $8000.

    I still manage to save money every month, just not as much as I used to. :redface2: 
     
  13. supervir2

    supervir2 Feels like the kid in Big everyday.

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    Between Hot Toys, Lego, SHF, ML, DC figs, and MP/3P it can be fairly expensive. I'm FAR from a completist though, which helps. For the last 6+ months I've sold a ton of stuff that has kept my out of pocket cost amazingly low. Letting the collection fund further collecting has been quite liberating. Space is also a driving factor. I don't want to buy stuff and never have it on display, so that plays a big role in whether items make the cut or not. Lego is probably the only exception to that for me.
     
  14. Cyclonus79

    Cyclonus79 Decepticon General

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    I'm in the $200 ballpark myself. Because I only collect transformers and only because it's just the MP line , sometimes I'll roll over my 200 into the next month ( only because not all the time is a new MP released every month ) giving me more money to play around with.
     
  15. Starscream 91

    Starscream 91 Mech With A Mouth

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    I don't really have a budget, but when it comes to my Transformers I usually don't want to spend over 25 dollars for one figure so I'm usually comfortable buying a Legend, Deluxe, or Voyager but a Leader is rare for me. Add on the fact I can't help but collect Marvel Legends and I spend a lot of money just collecting in general.
     
  16. Rodimus Mike

    Rodimus Mike MP & TF Collector

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    Jeezus Freaking Christ tekering but I wish I had your budget,you must own entire collections of one line.Honestly I don't know what I'd do if I had that much to spend $8000 a year.You have my admiration tekering,I just wish I could come to your house to see what you have (and take some home after pocketing some,lol).Way to go tekering!!!
     
  17. Wolfdawg

    Wolfdawg Well-Known Member

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    I try not to go above $250 a month in hobbies. I collect a ton of different lines (TMNT, Rangers, Transformers, DBZ, Batman, Pokemon, Jurassic Park, and Lego to name a few). However, I have most of what I want, so I don't spend much money on figures these days.

    I am, however, interested in quite a few things coming out this year (SDCC 2016 NECA Turtles, Figuarts Ninja Turtles Takara Computron, TFCC Wreckage, SHF Whis, SSB Vegeta, Champa, and Vados), so I've just been saving up for the impending wallet raping times to come...
     
  18. NemiMonkey

    NemiMonkey Whippin Dem Fungals

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    I don't really have a set budget, but I also try not to exceed $60 or so a month. Things I absolutely want always get priority, and then the rest is tossed on a list. During dry spells I usually pick up some figures from the list.
     
  19. sunstreaker1980

    sunstreaker1980 Titan master!

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    25$ a month. Some times more on overtime checks
     
  20. Jacer

    Jacer Find Kill Cleanse Moderator News Staff

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    Usually what I do for each month I pay my bills put enough aside for gas and groceries, put X amount into savings and investments, and the rest is for toys. Usually it ends up being $200-$300.