Looking back at my recent pickups I definitely feel like i've been spending too much money on stuff.

I'm curious; how does anyone here regulate what they get and when?

Do you grab it all out of fear you'll never see it again? Do you limit number of pickups per week/month/whenever?

What's your experience?

 

My experience is that rules are dumb.

 

I usually try to only buy duplicates of a mold. Not for any reason other to save a little shelf space. Obviously, that goes out with Combiners.

 

Only rule is: do I really like this figure at this price right now. Thinking about how rare a figure will be or how much it will cost later or how I need to get something I don't like just because it is part of a set or a team are games I stopped playing.

 

the only real rule I have now is one in equals one out

 

No limits here. If I need to, I'll put up new shelves  

What I do do is think long and hard about whether or not I want something, precisely because if I miss it on release I probably won't be getting it at all in these days of borked distribution and scalpers (central Australia here). Shadowstrip, for example, is quite pretty, but is merely Dragstrip in G2 colours; don't need. Neither do I need the G2 recolours of existing characters coming in the Toxitron line. Origins Jazz though, oh yes, want that very much (and so I have it on order at a specialist shop for something like 20-25% more than it would be on a standard retail shelf here at, say, Target - if it turns up at Target). Prime universe Skyquake? Nice, but no, there'll be a G1 version presently, and then I'll get it.

But to re-iterate - when I do decide to get something, I'll be grabbing it the very first chance I get, for the most part, whenever that may be. The only things I won't do this for are the toys from the main retail waves, because they will show up on shelves here (at which point I do grab them immediately upon first sight). If that changes (and I haven't decided this year, yet...), then I'll simply buy them whereever they show first online.

 

Well…I got back into collecting during Earthrise. When I picked up Megatron, I told myself I would just get the Decepticons high command (Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream) and Optimus Prime. That’s it…And here I am 3 years later with 70+ figures and having preorders for guys like Toxitron…

 

I don't have any rules per-say but I have a buying hierarchy I tend stick to.

Does it speak to me -> Does it fit my budget -> How much space do I have -> Will there be a chance to buy it later at, or around MSRP, if situations change

 

I only buy CHUG G1 characters, and even then only if it's a character hasn't had a good toy already. I got rid of almost all my MP/Movie/Animated/Aligned/BW/3P toys.

 

Collect what you like and buy what you want, rules be damned, never let rules pigeon-hole you into buying any more or any less than what you actually want. It's OK to miss some, and it's OK to buy them all... just don't fuck yourself out of paying the rent...

 

I've seen several threads on this sort of thing, and it comes down to budgets that people give themselves, and how much a figures pulls at you.

A few that I found quickly:

Completing a collection and mixed feelings on moving on

When will your collection be complete?

What figures would you consider 'most needed' if you wanted to, somehow, 'finish' your collection?

Have you considered quitting collecting figures?

Do you have collecting rules?

Odd Feelings Towards Collecting

The end of my collecting journey

Being priced out of collecting

I’m not sure I want to continue collecting



The days of waiting for sales in figures that are a must-have are long gone due to distribution and ever increasing prices... So with figures that are wanted, you have to get it when you can, the "maybes" can be the ones that you wait for sales, and the impulse buys are decreasing radically.

I have no budget, I just use common sense and know what I do want and what I should skip. I know what I should spent and just don't overdo it, and also have the approach of going for value over money/price and refuse to pay crazy prices aside a rare or more expensive item that I really want but those are the exception.

I know that I have spend a small fortune in the last couple of years but I also had certain goals that have been met now so my spending has dropped a lot and with very little of interest coming up, it's all good.

But FOMO became a default thing due to distribution and I'm glad that for me, it feels like it's fairly over now.

 

I've stopped buying Titans. Flat-out stopped. I don't have the space for them.
Would I like Metroplex and Black Zarak and the Ark? Sure. But I've got nowhere to put them, so I ain't getting them. If I didn't get Unicron I might have the space, but I did get Unicron, so Metroplex has to go.

I've got enough G1 Optimuses and Rodimi. I don't need another G1 Starscream. Between PotP, Siege, and Earthrise, I was getting a new Screamer every year. I did get Armada Starscream, which I'm using as my IDW Starscream, so technically that's four G1 Starscreams in a row, but I love that bitch so I made an exception. But no more G1 after that!
But now they're doing High Moon, so all bets are off, lmao.

I also generally try to avoid repaints of figures I already own, or figures that are close enough to figures I already have. I skipped Velocitron Scourge because I have a Nemesis Prime and a G2 Laser Optimus Prime, so I didn't feel the need to get another. But I went for Toxitron because he's unique enough that I don't mind dipping back into that mold. Skipped Netflix Elita-1 and Legacy Elita-1 because I prefer my big butch PotP Elita, in spite of all three molds being extremely different.

 

Chug scale only g1 g2. I also will buy new to chug characters. I’m also done buying optimus bumblebee and starscream ironhide wheeljack and arcee. Or any other character that is not a massive improvement over other options out there.

 

Shove them in your closet or under your bed. Take them out every so often, enjoy them, put them back in storage, repeat. Not everything has to be on display.

Do 2/3rds of people here live in efficiencies or something?

 

It's not necessarily a bad thing. At least you don't hafta worry about your cold corpse being found under an avalanche of toys.  

 

I tend to stick to Generations and not care that much about the cartoon toylines, so my only hard-and-fast rule at the moment is “skip most of the G1 stuff from ROTB to save money and also because I like BW more anyway”, especially if said G1 stuff is more figures of movie (or G1) Optimus Prime or Bumblebee, which I don’t want. (I was originally planning on skipping the ROTB toyline entirely to save cash, but between the BW characters, Battle Masters, Beast Combiners, and the transforming roleplay masks, I gave in. I don’t really want that many ROTB Studio Series figures aside from maybe Battletrap and Nightbird.) Other than that, I’m very picky about what I buy and I’m happy with where my toy budget is right now.

 

Yes.

The way I self regulate is to ask a few questions:

1. "Was this character on the G1 TV show?"
If the answer is "Yes", then the follow up questions I ask is "Do I LIKE this character?" and "Do I NEED this figure?"
If the answer to the first question is "No", then the follow up questions are more like "Why do I want this? What purpose does this figure serve?"

2. "Do I already have an updated version of this figure?"
If the answer is "Yes", then the follow up question is "Is this better than the one I already have?"

3. "Do I have the space?"

4. "Can I afford it?"

I have passed on figures that have been "Yes" answers on only 3 out of the 4.

 

Historically, no. This year tho I’m trying to limit myself to 20 bots (not counting any gifts or anything like that) for myself. So far it’s going good but these exclusives man. So tempting.

 

2 words for ya

 

I really try hard to not but toys of characters I just don’t care about. Sometimes I am suckered into buying a toy just to say I have it. But if I don’t care about the character, it’s a waste of money. I have passed over Jhiaxus, Metalhawk, Pointblank, Iguanus, Wheelie, and Skullgrin recently for these reasons.