I dont know what it is, but toy collecting kind of sucks now. I find myself ordering stuff and then not really having time to enjoy what I buy.Imo there are a lot of factors.1. Prices are just higher, msrp wise.2. Shipping is higher3. Secondary market doubles or tripples price of anyyhing if you miss the boat.4. Toys you no longer want sell slow and ebay / sales taxes / shipping eat up a lot5. Companies double and triple dip now. Hasbro is the worst offender but Neca, super7, all do it. Like take bumblebee for example. How many variations did they release before releasing a normal yellow bumblebee? Three? Four? And even now they are about to release a 3rd or 4th seeker mold.6. Everyone is working more hours in this shit economy. Fewer hours at home to enjoy stuff. 7. All the older people in the family need constant help and attention. Every fucking weekend it would seem. 8. Too much stuff and its all expensive. There are what at least 4 companies doing offical tmnt stuff now? And Neca alone is doing cartoon, Archie comic, orginal comic and movie? And the main turtles in two scales? And its all $36 or more a pop?I don't know. It would be nice to just chill and enjoy things. The hobby doesnt feel as fun as 2015.
>>11589042Oh wow, this thread again. Quit shitting this board up.
>>11589042>too many toys>triple dipWhat's wrong with having more choice in toys?
>>11589042This sounds like an exclusively (You) problem. Figure out what you want to collect and focus on that. It just seems like you're all over the place and it's financially and mentally eating away at you. A little focus goes a long way, it'll help.And I couldn't help but notice the random, unrelated to toys, tidbit you mentioned about family needing help. Obviously something's going on there and I can relate, but you got a just stay strong and keep your head up. I know it sucks, and I know that doesn't give you any validation but I believe in you OP. You'll get through it.
>>11589042Consider collecting vintage. There's plenty of it, and if you're gonna pay higher prices you might as well do it for older shit that's worth it.
>>11589074Vintage has its own problems You still run into being beaten to death by taxes and shipping. And you dont find it in the wild like you used to because everyone has ebay in their pocket.I do buy some junk lots of forgotten lines like zbots and sky commanders but forget buying lots of something like transformers or Gi joe. People will price the whole lot out peice by peice based on last sold and then bid the total value for the lot.
Do people just collect out of FOMO? Buy something you don't really want now because the price is just gonna skyrocket.
>>11589123>Do people just collect out of FOMO? Buy something you don't really want now because the price is just gonna skyrocket.Probably more so now than before, but I couldnt tell you by how much.And it usually bite people in the ass.Like that 97 marvel legends Rogue. Walmarts were getting 1 or 2 boxes, assorted. So 1 or 2 rogues. So they were 25.00 plus tax. This didnt meet demand so prices went up on ebay. $45 shipped, plus tax. Maybe more. So you're paying almost double if you miss the boat. But then a year or so later Target purchased entire boxes of them and would put out 2 boxes at a time. 2 months later Target puts them on clearance. Similar thing happened with Cosmos and walmart. 1 per box of 6 or 8. Prices doubled and trippled on ebay. 2 or 3 years later, hasbro re-released him.Same thing was happening with scorponok and teypticon
>>11589042Dedicate ONE day (per week) to playing with your toys. Put them together, fiddle around, pose them, imagine stories and such.
>>11589042It's not about the collecting, it's about the hunt.People want to travel around from store to store, find something hidden behind a random box and then actually find that buried treasure. Going right to it on some site and clicking buy does not satisfy the same treasure hunt need.
>>11589099The continuing lack of anything new coming out, and things getting worse makes even vintage and junk lots harder and harder to come by these days. When that sweet spot everyone wants toys from consists of the period of 87-94 or so. When toy based media was in its height.
>>11589858So actually owning a thing is not enough for you? You always want more? Keep chasing that high?
>>11589858I've been collecting toys for near 30 years and I always *hated* the hunt. I just want the damn figures, I don't care about "working" to get it. I work a job to buy toys, I don't want to work to *find* toys. The best part about buying toys is opening them and playing with the actual figures, everything else is just a distraction. If you're only excited about the "hunt" then you don't really care about the toys to begin with. Also, none of these problems are new. I heard the same complaints 30 damn years ago. If anything things were worse back then.
>>11589042>5. Companies double and triple dip now.Sure is newfagThis shit has been going on since the fucking 80s and 90s.>8. Too much stuff and its all expensive.Ooof, you really are a newfag, because there was waaaaaaaaaay more shit to buy in the 00s and 10s. I literally can not track everything i wanted back then when i was a poorfag. And when i had the disposeable income to pay for for the shit i do remember and still want, the prices are OUTRAGEOUS! And those prices became outrageous over a decade ago, because of how amazing those toys are.Even your complaint about the prices shows you're a newfag. We went from GI Joes being in two packs for $5-6 to them becoming $5 for a single figure from 2004 to 2007.Revoltechs and Figmas used to go for $24 back in the 00s and then jumped in price to $40-50 in less than 5 years.Marvel Legends went from $6 to $10 in less than 3 years AND their budgets were cut in half. Articulation and paint was noticeable enshitified in less than a year AND Hasbro actually killed the ML line from everyone not buying it.Economies getting fucked are a thing since fucking forever and now you're experiencing your first fuck over as an adult, newfag!
>>11590226What kind of prize do you get for being an old fag
>>11590300living when shit was cheaper, living in the wild west of the internet, living before karens started taking over the internet, living when kids were still allowed to go outside without a mask on, not getting arrested for being unaccompanied by an adult to a mall, having a career, seniority, and experience to not get laid off when shit goes down.But mostly owning more toys and experiencing /toy/ when it had a sense of community.That's the prize for being oldfag... buti guess it depends on the generation and years you were born. if i was 5-10 years older, i'd have been stabbed for leaving my house after dark. If i was even old enough to be a boomer... well, that's the golden age.
>>11590226I mean, OP's definitely valid on the prices at least. Just because they've spiked before doesn't make the insane prices hikes we've gotten recently easier to swallow. I've been collecting sixteen years. I was getting imports for $30-40 when I started in the late 2000's/early 2010's. I was getting Berserk, Attack on Titan, and Fate Figmas, among others, for around $40 shipped from Amiami back in 2014. By the time I was picking up the Persona 5 Figmas in 2018-2020, it was more like $60-70. Now we're looking at around $100+ after shipping unless it's a rerelease or a simpler figure.Figma was one of the first to really start getting out of control, but we're seeing similar price hikes in all import lines. Worse, and something OP didn't even mention, it's now more prudent to wait for reviews because pre-ordering's become a gamble with QC or scale issues. Do newer figures look and articulate better than figures from a decade ago? On average, yeah. Are they worth 2-3x the price? Imo, not really. Just glad I have a mostly complete collection at this point and am cooling off on the hobby. I'd hate to be starting out now.
>>11590460>Figma was one of the first to really start getting out of control, but we're seeing similar price hikes in all import lines. Worse, and something OP didn't even mention, it's now more prudent to wait for reviews because pre-ordering's become a gamble with QC or scale issues. Do newer figures look and articulate better than figures from a decade ago? On average, yeah. Are they worth 2-3x the price? Imo, not really. Just glad I have a mostly complete collection at this point and am cooling off on the hobby. I'd hate to be starting out now.Dont forget that they removed duty free, so now you pay more to order stuff