In addition to cards, I also collect comics, toys and video games. While video games are an easier purchase due to the volume of entertainment value they offer me, toys can get expensive. Take for instance this Marvel Legends figure I found yesterday at Walmart. Granted I've been looking for this character for some time and granted it's the last in this wave I needed to build the Build-A-Figure character, the Lizard, the figure costs $20 bucks...the same amount a blaster, like this 2017 Topps Series 2 blaster I happened to have laying around.
On one hand this figure falls into my Spider-Man collection and I'll be able to take pictures and blog about him on my toy blog, Random Toy Reviews. One the other hand I could spend a Jefferson on a blaster of cards hoping that I'll get cards I need for that respective set and/or perhaps get lucky and land a hit. Sometimes I look at buying a blaster like buying a lottery ticket as I never know what I'll get and it may be a bust. At least with the figure, I know what I'm getting.
In this particular case I chose Mysterio over the latest blaster of cards. Part of my rationalizing was that the cards often hang around at retail longer than figures do...especially when the figure is of a sought after character like this one. In fact, I bought two other Marvel Legends at $20 a piece and already flipped them both for close to $100. I can't do that with cards...unless I'm lucky and land one of those elusive hits.
In the end I have fun with all of my hobbies, but I usually end up "rotating" my focus through them all. I kind of have to in order to keep my sanity! Sometimes people tell me just to choose to collect one or two things and not so many, but for me it's just not that easy. I've essentially grown up with all of these hobbies in way shape or form and I'll continue to have fun with these hobbies for as long as I'm able to do so.
Great find on the figure. He is really hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Deciding what to spend, and when to spend it on various collections, is a dilemma that I know about all too well. I do like being someone who collects lots of different things... but sometimes the balancing act can get a little old.
ReplyDeleteYou flipped two Marvel Legends figures for more than 5x what you paid? I'm in the wrong hobby. ;)
ReplyDeleteWow, nice return on the two Marvel Legends! I'm in the same boat...in the good old days it was cards and toys and video games. Then those darn kids got in the way...
ReplyDeleteI definitely have that trouble of rotating hobbies. If there was a store that sold cards and retro games, I would be in trouble.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird that I have a really hard time spending more than $5 for a game that I could play for hours and weeks, but it's really easy to buy a $10 card here and there that I need and will put in a box.
I'm with you - collecting toys, comics, cards, and too many other things. The only advice I have is "don't be too much of a completist." I've saved my sanity and a great deal of money by realizing that there is no prize whatsoever for a full set. (That being said, you absolutely HAVE to complete a Build-a-figure!) Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI’ve never really been a completionist, heck I still have tons of card sets I haven’t finished, but I have become a little more selective on what I spend my Hobby money on. Oh, and don’t worry about me completing Build-A-Figures...those won’t go unfinished!
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