Wins & Losses

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Sunrunner
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Wins & Losses

Post by Sunrunner »

Hi, just wondering what your most memorable wins and losses have been collecting wise?

I've been collecting Transformers pretty much none stop from when I was 5 years old (Bloody heck that's over a quarter of a century!) and over the years I've had some good & not so good experiences as a collector.

To be honest I owe many of the best finds to my Dad, who would (and still does) go to car boot sales at the crack of dawn most sundays with instuctions to find TFs/Action Force/Star Wars etc. Of course I would tag along too back in the day, if I could get out of bed! But my dad seems to be like a lucky rabbits foot for my collection - he has unearthed, among many other things a MIB G1 Megatron, and a MIB Overlord (which I very nearly got rid of as at the time I was unfamiliar with the Japanese lines - thank God I hung on to it!)

My biggest loss financially was when I was new to ebay and naive. I bought a boxed Laster from an American seller without checking his feedback - suffice to say I never got the toy or my money back. (I have since picked up another Laster along with his other Brainmaster buddies)

The loss that still haunts me though was an error in judgement; I was 14 and going through that brief time of life when you think that just maybe you are too old to be buying toys. My friend's parents told him he had to get rid of his toys and he sold the lot to a dealer for £40, after I had turned him down. He had a ton of stuff including G1 bots I'm still missing now, and others that I could sell on today for a small fortune. Gutted. Still get emotional thinking about it now. If only I knew... ARGHHHH!!!
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windsweeper
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Post by windsweeper »

My ex bought me a set of 33 G2 Transformers for my birthday a few years back. Guy threw in Pyro.

I won Countdown in issue 250 of the UK comic.
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Notabot
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Post by Notabot »

I remember seeing the Wooly Mammoth Universe Prime on clearance at Target for about $7, and at the time I thought beasties were pretty stupid, so I didn't bother. I wound up getting him later for about $25, which was significantly under the average going price at the time, but still kicked myself for passing on the clearance price.

Similar deal with Classics Ultra Magnus and Skywarp. My Target had a whole shelf of them on clearance for $7, and I only picked up one for myself and one for a couple friends. I could have scalped them for loads if I had been thinking ahead. Same Target also accidentally had Animated Sunstorm and Purple Shockwave marked at $4.98. I did get a handful of those, but it's never enough!

In the win column, though, my Walmart had Masterpiece Starscream for full price one day, and $10 the next. I was lucky enough to be there when they had just gone down to $10 and scored several to support the Transformer fund. :)
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Gouki
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Post by Gouki »

Got the Leader (Ultra? Supreme?) Ultra Magnus from RiD at Target for 36c in 2007. And then a month or so later 10th Anniversary Optimus Primal for $13 odd from the same place.

Classic Megatron for $25 and Energon Unicron for $70 at two different toy shops were pretty good as well.
"Give into the Demon inside... Shun Goku Sattsu!"
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

My biggest win has been TFC Prowl for £2.99 from Forbidden Planet. I was yacking to the cashier and she mis-keyed the price. I left very quickly after paying. No, I don't feel bad.

I don't know that I've significantly lost out on selling anything on or regretted it overmuch, but I was disappointed I couldn't shift Cybertron Megatron for more than 99p on ebay a few years back.

Other things that have been cheering : getting Poundstretcher to dismantle their window display so I could get a bunch of Transmetal 2 BW figures from them they didn't have instore, getting a good deal on a whole heap of Euro G1.5 Transformers from a very nice lady in Greece (all since sold on).

I think that's about it. Other peaks for me have just been getting hold of long-desired figures without paying silly money (the original Constructicons spring to mind).
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