being a broke figure collectorDiaryPrevNextPrevNext

vergasama • 5 days ago • #125525515a lot of people say.. money can't buy happiness, they are wrong.

I agree that this quote is often misused and misplaced, often by people who already have means. It's hippy bullshit spewed out by middle to upper-class morons who think they're being intelligent and deep. The reality is they can say that because they have disposable income that lets them, quite literally, buy experiences. Technically, the experiences themselves don't cost anything, but gaining access to such experiences requires a monetary upfront cost. Take camping, for example. You could camp anywhere, but the gear and supplies aren't cheap. Unless they're a nomad or living off the land in the middle of nowhere, they can't claim money doesn't buy happiness without looking like a massive hypocrite.

As for the OP, I've been collecting for 15 years now, and let me tell you, it wasn't better back then, either. Some older collectors might act like there were "good old days" when prices were low. This is false. Prices were never low. With today's currency conversion, you could look back at old listings with 7,000 JPY pricetags and think it was less than $60. The fact is, the currency conversion for a lot of late 2000s and early 2010s figures was 1:80 parity, sometimes lower. The USD and other Western currencies were in the garbage bin then. The prices were always over $100, and the quality wasn't as good as now. A lot of them decompose or become yellow in less than ten years. You also used to see a bunch of people complaining about figures leaning. These figures also came from "name brands" manufacturers, like Goodsmile Company, Orchid Seed, or ALTER.
There were also fewer companies and less competition, so they could cut corners and charge stupid prices, even dumber than the ones now when you think about it. Now ALTER, once the king of high quality and praise, is hardly any different than numerous other companies, but they charge ridiculous prices. Chinese companies are kicking Japanese companies' asses regarding quality and price. I own many original Chinese figures, which are just as good, if not better, than some Japanese ones. The hilarious part is that the Japanese figures are still made in China; they surcharge their stuff because they know they can.
The only true MADE IN JAPAN figures are garage kits and stuff by INSIGHT or B'Full when they use PMMA instead of PVC. That's the sad state of figures, in general.
If you feel bad about the prices being stupid, wait for the aftermarket. A lot of them DO bin and can be found later. The only ones you can't find again for the same price are BJDs from small studios and those massive resin figures from the likes of F4F, Prime 1, or Figurama.
I've found a figure from 20 years ago for only $11, and it's a cold-cast resin figure that was a mail-order exclusive. I've also found stuff older than I am that pops up years later, usually for a reasonable price.
Don't worry if you can't get stuff now. The trends ebb and flow; if you're meant to have something, you WILL have it. It's just a matter of time and patience.

I hope that eases your worries a bit.

Hello, I finished University at 21 too, I begin to collect when I was 25 - 26. My priority was to travel to Japan and later on collect, (I mean I collected stuff since I was a kid, but nothing expensive).

So between 21 a 26 I work and work and work, I work for my university, I choose this work because the hours were very flexible, at the same time I work giving class to College students, doing design projects for clients, and in my free time plannig big projects to present to big companies. I offer my advertising project to two companies and I was rejected, but the third company took the project. Then I quit my college job and focus doing the project.

After that I travel to Japan and begin to collect. Take your time, eat well, sleep well, exercise , figures will be still in production and you will know if you still want to collect them.

Good luck and remember believe in the me that believes in you!

I haven't seen you around on this website before, but I can relate to pretty much everything that you've said. When I looked at your profile to see what you've collected, I saw that you're also 21, so we have that in common.

I have a mindset towards this hobby, and my other hobbies, that I would like to share with you: budgeting is everything. I have been unemployed for about a year now, though I am currently seeking part-time employment over this summer and the coming fall so I can save for a car and maybe a detolf. However, despite not having any guaranteed sources of income, I was able to budget $5,000 over the course of a year and buy what I needed. That $5,000 turned into a refurbished Herman Miller chair, PC parts, a couple games, groceries, food, college supplies, clothing, convention stuff, and of course, a few figures. I still have money left over from a year ago and enough for me to pay off some AmiAmi preorders and go out with my friends when we have time.

I live with my parents and I will for some time longer, so that does lower a lot of my expenses, however when I do move out, I will have to place less money into this hobby and my other hobbies, as well as time since the field that I am pursuing requires a lot of time investment after work as well. I'm sure if someone wanted to, they could probably guess what I am pursuing.

So, budgeting. Whenever I feel like treating myself with a figure, I will only buy a figure which I can reasonably buy at that moment and still have enough money left over in the case of an emergency. I won't buy a $300 figure if I can't pay for something else immediately afterwards for example, as draining my bank account for the finest piece of PVC that my eyes can look at is very dangerous. A general rule of thumb would be that you should not buy an expensive figure if it will drop you below your minimum bank account balance. If you have $700 cash in your checking account, do not buy a $350 figure. In all honesty, I wouldn't buy a $200 figure if I only had $700 in my bank account. Find some sort of minimum balance that you're comfortable with, and do not go below it. If you are a college/university student, I think $1,000 (or equivalent value in your country's currency) is a reasonable budgeting goal.

Frugality is also important in this hobby, and so is discipline. I try to avoid buying a figure unless I absolutely want the figure and I know I can get a decent deal on it. Some figures will also have horrible aftermarkets for them. I got a decent deal on ITEM #1516266 here on this website. I paid $175 for this 1/4 bunny figure of Kurisu from an MFC user while other users had her at $200 minimum here, eBay had her higher, and the Kinokuniya store in NYC had her at $500. Ridiculous that store is for non-prize figures. I was pretty happy with the deal I got though.

Then you have a figure like ITEM #24752 of one of my favorite characters of all time, Nayuki Minase. I bought this figure for $178 and it shipped from a seller based in Japan on this website. $3 more than a 1/4 without the box, but I only paid that much and was okay with paying that much because I knew that the variation of the figure which I bought was a limited edition released at some random event in 2007 and that I would have a hard time finding it again, maybe ever. More than I'd like to have paid for it, but I'm still very happy with my purchase. In retrospect, big overpay.

Basically, my point is that the hobby isn't that bad if money is tight, assuming you are willing to be patient on figures and look for deals, and only pull the trigger if you find a good deal or you know the figure will slip away into the dark recesses of history. Popular figures can always be purchased later, even expensive pre-orders. The preorder of ITEM #1226081 is not guaranteed to sell out or rise in price. Some figures drop in price after their release. Also, the website which you were looking at has their preorder deposit at $189, while Solaris Japan (solarisjapan.co...) has it $50 cheaper excluding shipping. When you include it, probably about the same, but you can get it sooner on Solaris compared to the website that you linked. Don't be discouraged even if money is tight, you'll likely be able to get her, even if you have to wait. I hope that anything that I've said is helpful in the long term; I doubt that it'll be of much help now.

There is no way I could buy a figure of around 300 EUR either.
Heck, even ~ 150 EUR is a bit too much for me, thought I admit - I did buy of that price once, and planning to buy more.
And of course, many figures that I want are pretty much of that kind of prices. =,D
I don`t work either, and probably never will - I am disabled person. This provides me some money, but of course, not enough to buy expensive figures.
Still, you can find work, you have whole future in front of you!
Personally, the one figure I wanted to own, but was never ready to spend 300 EUR - is now getting a re-release, so never loose hope!

Absolute sympathy, it was years of this for me before a lot of patience and luck and hard work led to the hobby becoming easier. Stay strong, work hard, be persistent and good things will come, and do not allow the dark thoughts(and people) to manage you. Much love.

yea im pretty broke. i cant spend more than 50usd per item so i dont believe ill get a scale anytime soon.. but im being patient

I never went to college. But guilty as charged I did fun spending during my lay offs over the past years.

Thankfully, I am now financially stable and caught up with my bank balance when I took a long break from collecting. My only preorder is 290 days old. ITEM #586507

To be transparent, though. I have been spending money on coffee drinks lol.

It's very understandable to be sad about things going up in price, I definitely relate to this. I can't relate to not collecting -yet- I'm sure sooner or later however it will become harder for me, because I like to collect multiple things.

I didn't start collecting regularly until I was in my third job. I remember being in uni and marvelling at figures that cost ¥13,000-¥20,000 and wondering about people who could afford such extravagance when I was mostly buying the odd things that were ¥5,000 or less. Most things I bought were more like ¥2-3k.

For expensive resins, the numbers are really small - the number caps are actually normally Chinese-distributed caps rather than global cap, but even then... the numbers are unlikely to be cracking 1000 globally (I expect a lot don't even go over 500 units but I don't have data to back this up). So that gives some perspective on how many people are actually buying these things and you're not in an unusual situation to not be able to afford them, especially as a new graduate. One thing I have on PO is 188 units, and there are still some PO slots floating around.

If expensive stuff is drawing out the green-eyed monster you may want to avoid seeking out stuff you can't afford and concentrate on looking at stuff that's a reasonable goal. And work on working with what you have instead of jonesing over stuff you can't afford - even as someone who has an unreasonable amount of figures, there's stuff I skip out on because I can't afford it. For a lot of people this is the reality - you will run out of money, space or both. So unless you're in the super rich, you're probably doing some picking and choosing.