This is a bad spot I just got myself into and it made me curious as to how other people handle it. Let me set up the scenario. One website I have seven figures picked out. Included is a japanese figure I've wanted for a long time and a set that would complete a series of mine. Another offers an imported leader figure, along with another japanese figure I've always wanted and a few foreign toys featured on their series at nice prices. At the last site only two are picked, but one is very large and desireable and the other fills a big gap in my collection. He's also on sale, meaning there's a deadline to how long I can afford him. I'm not saying who the figures are or where I found them because that's not what I'm interested in. I'm wondering what takes priority for you when faced with options? Personal desire, missing from your collection, time limit, size, value, quanitity, how long you've been after it... that kind of thing.
I'd say go for the last site with the 2. One of them is on sale, so you'll get it cheaper than normal, and the other places will still have the figures (I'm guessing) when you can afford to pick them up. I usually just buy what I want when I have the fund for them, and depending on how busy my visa card is will dictate what I can get and when.
I usually prioritize cheapest stuff first. You know, more bang for my buck. I'd rather get a lot of small things than one big thing. But, if I have the money, and I want the big thing reeeeeeeeeally freaking bad, I'll get that. Once I have about 70 bucks, I'll buy a set of Rambles (CHRIST, these things got expensive) and then maybe a Megalo Convoy, if I have more money after that. Then I'll be holding off on tfs for a while and get Star GGG and Goldy and Genesic GGG. After that...who knows. Maybe more imported robot goodness, maybe more tfs. .....sorry, rambling >_> lol
I'd go with the stuff on sale first. Sales may be common enough but if you wait for the next one the bot may be sold out or something. Or it may not be as good of a sale. Anything with a time-sensitive nature takes priority for me. After that it's anything that's a really good deal, and after that it shakes down to what I can afford and what I'm in the mood for getting at the time.
I'm split between rarity and value. Generally I'll go for value, unless it's something VERY rare. Like Elvin level rare.
I prioritize by stuff i really want, followed by stuff that's been out for a while (dont want to miss it on the shelf), followed by cheapest. I've been putting off Alt Prowl however. I'm still debating whether a police car fits with the rest of the cars on my shelf despite me initially wanting it first and it being on sale numerous times and on the shelf for months now (no longer however).
I go through three steps: 1) I try to prioritize whatever will be hardest to get later. If I want two products, A and B, buying product A because it is on sale for $10 off does not benefit me if product B sells out and ends up costing me $100 more later on the secondary market. I might have saved $10 initially, but it ended up costing me a net of $90, which makes it not so much a good deal. This is rather difficult, because it's sometimes hard to tell what will become impossible to find later, but I can usually make a pretty good educated guess. Right now I'm grateful that I went ahead and ordered the Beast Wars Reborn set, because it's only been out for a couple of weeks and is already getting harder to find. 2) If everything I want seems readily available, I'll go for whatever is on sale or at an attractive price. 3) If nothing's on sale, I just get whichever looks the coolest.
Actually the whole reason I'm in this mess is because I was after Beast Wars Reborn and as soon as I had the cash most places sold out of them... except for the places where I still couldn't afford them, naturally.
Already did I've got Star Convoy ordered and on the way now. I finally decided that after seeing a few sites with worse prices on him selling out and eBay filled with them at well over $100, he's going to be the hardest to get later on.
