Why do people cry expensive?

[Protoplast]

I'm a long time collector and what gets me is reading so many threads of people complaining that they thing $50 or $75 is expensive.

This is an expensive hobby..

Only recently, with mass production in China and Japanese companies seeking to make more $ we have seen prices come down and made most Macross toys to under $100 but before then, Macross toys were all over $200+ in the 90s..

So when I read guys that's complaining about paying too much for a $60 macross toy..

When companies like Bandai or Yamato listens to these demands and bring out the $60 valks, the quality is worse..

Collectors like me, I don't mind paying a pretty dollar, but it had better be worth it and the quality must be.. collector grade. Not very impressed with almost all the Macross releases so far.. Nothing like the older more solid valks made by Takatoku and Bandai in the past..

Bottomline, if you think macross toys are expensive, then you're not a real collector..

[Stamen0083]

Bottomline, if you think macross toys are expensive, then you're not a real collector..

Everyone buys toys as collectors?

[Shaggydog]

People cry expensive because they're Macross or Robotech fans, and they WANT the toys, but maybe they can't AFFORD the toys. I don't know what the heck a 'real collector' is. I've got a lot of toys, I know some folks have a lot more than I do, and some folks have a lot less. Is there a minimum requirement?

[wolfx]

Heh....you made it sound like collecting Macross toys is an elitist's hobby. Well...not all of us have jobs or are working adults to come up with "pretty pennies". I guess I can't be considered a "real collector" since I only collect stuff that are VALUE FOR MONEY, considering I have limited cash and must think umpteenth times before I get a toy that people like you won't even blink to snap it up.

Why do people cry expensive? Because we're not "real collectors" and lack money to collect every single macross merchandise?

[Druna Skass]

I'm a long time collector and what gets me is reading so many threads of people complaining that they thing $50 or $75 is expensive.

This is an expensive hobby..

Only recently, with mass production in China and Japanese companies seeking to make more $ we have seen prices come down and made most Macross toys to under $100 but before then, Macross toys were all over $200+ in the 90s..

So when I read guys that's complaining about paying too much for a $60 macross toy..

When companies like Bandai or Yamato listens to these demands and bring out the $60 valks, the quality is worse..

Collectors like me, I don't mind paying a pretty dollar, but it had better be worth it and the quality must be.. collector grade. Not very impressed with almost all the Macross releases so far.. Nothing like the older more solid valks made by Takatoku and Bandai in the past..

Bottomline, if you think macross toys are expensive, then you're not a real collector..

I guess I'm just used to getting my Gundam sh!t for less than $50.

But since they're model kits and not figures I guess I'm more a hobbiest than collector.

[EXO]

I use to work for a corporation where the top guys use to have meetings on why there were so many useless meetings.

This thread is kinda like the same thing.

[Zentrandude]

Is there a minimum requirement?

i belive the minimum requirement to be a "real collector" is selling your car and 2 mortgages on your house to finish grabbing up 3 or 4 of every item. 3 for each mode in the glass box and 1 mint in box locked up in a bank deposit box (if they are that big).

[wolfx]

Is there a minimum requirement? 

i belive the minimum requirement to be a "real collector" is selling your car and 2 mortgages on your house to finish grabbing up 3 or 4 of every item. 3 for each mode in the glass box and 1 mint in box locked up in a bank deposit box (if they are that big).

While you're at it, I believe you'll have to pimp your wife and *unmentionable stuff that can get me crucified* your children as well.

[Wicked Ace]

So when I read guys that's complaining about paying too much for a $60 macross toy..

I usually like to stick to crying "tastes great!," "no diecast!," "no perfect transformation." However I still like to take jabs at the YF-21FP. . . which incidentally costs around $60.

[Pat Payne]

Less Filling! More Die Cast! Perfect Transformation! So there.

[柿崎速雄]

"Bottomline, if you think macross toys are expensive, then you're not a real collector.. "

what a strange statement ......

I say, I can afford to buy anything I want,

but I still can cry " EXPENSIVE"or "NOT WORTH it ",

I can spent $200 for a 1/48 VF-1,

but I don't want to spent $80 for a 1/60 Q-RAU

what's wrong with it?

that's just anyone own decision,

not a qualify standard for anything

question:

$10000 for a 1/72 hasagawa vf-1 fighter,

you still don't cry expensive?

or you want to become a real collector than pay for it ?

at the end,

as I know, the "real collector" always a smart man for bargain~!

Edited March 7, 2004 by 柿崎速雄

[JsARCLIGHT]

Expense is all in what your situation is... some people work at WalMart, make about $3 an hour after taxes, have to support a family, pay bills and still somehow afford to enjoy life every now and then. While in college I worked a ton of low paying, long hour jobs that usually left me with like $20 in my pocket at the end of the week after all the bills were paid. I remember having the loot to go to comic cons back then but not buy anything. I also remember wanting things that cost $30 to $40 and not being able to buy them. It sucked, It really sucked. There were tons and tons of things I wanted and could not afford. But I had to take a few steps back and think about things. I was being greedy and demanding instant gratification... I was still a kid really in those days and had no concept of money, time and most of all value. I discovered something that a lot of people never do... the best things in life come to those who wait. I was lucky enough to have come from a good family, have been born with some talents, have gone to college and got a degree or two and have somehow managed to land great job after great job and have worked my way to were I am now... a business owner. $60 is barely noticed by me lately... heck I dropped that on dinner last night for myself and my fiancee. But still the memories of barely being able to afford gas for my car (something a lot of Californians are feeling right now, I feel for you guys) are still deep in my mind.

My advice: remember your priorities first like health, food, your children and your responsabilities. Toys can come later when you have financial room to breathe... after all they are a hobby and not a requirement. If someone told me I had to give up toys tomorrow I think I could do it cold turkey just fine as they are not what really matters in the world. If someone told me I had to give up my fiancee, family or friends that would be another matter entirely... and that puts a $60 toy in perspective for me.

[VF-1Guy]

First of all, it is not fair to compare the prices in the 90s to the prices today. Most of the stuff being sold in the 90s was the vintage 80s stuff. This stuff was no longer being produced, so the prices are high. The modern Macross stuff is from current production runs. It is retail merchandise and therefore shouldn't be in the same price range as an out of production item. On the other hand, Macross is not a mass market item like Gundam, therefore we should expect to pay more to offset the small production runs. How much more is the question? 1.5x? 2x? 3?

There is nothing wrong with being a frugal buyer and questioning the value of something. I do well financially, but if I'm going drop a large chunk of change on a toy I want to feel that it was worth it. I do the same thing with everything I buy from groceries to cars. Notice all the times I used the letter 'I' above. Just becuase I feel this way doesn't mean that I expect others to feel the same way, but I am allowed to have my opinion.

Everyone has their own views and opinions. There is nothing wrong with this. What one person considers expensive another poerson may consider to be a steal.

[APU]

I think he meen real collector he meens collectors who

1. Take this as a hobby, nat as toys to play with and keep in a toy box

2.Take pride in knowing that their collection is an expensive one

3. Not really concerned with price

4. May admire the boxart as well as the toys themselvs

5. Not so bitchy about every little detail

6. Will buy items just because he wants it, needed or not

I am all of the above and think of myself as a hardcore collector. Not a casual colector. If you are not a HC collector, you will want more "perfict" toys and wont spend your money unless it is EXACTLY what you want.

[lebhead]

keep in mind that there are different levels of "collectors" out there.

[vlenhoff]

keep in mind that there are different levels of "collectors" out there.

Word...

ViC

[91WhiskeyM6]

You should only cry if it's expensive and made locally..*cough* *cough* Toynami.

No way a Veritech/Alpha worth more or equal to a HasTak MP Optimus Prime.

[Jawjaw]

Sorry, but this topic is stupid. Cost is important in all things in life. Obviously, no one would be happy paying $10 a gallon for gas but most people could afford it. They just would not be able to drive as much.

I never like flushing money down the toilet even if I can afford it. Some things are just too expensive for what they are worth. In the case of collectibles, it is all a matter of opinion. The more 'cool' a tool is to me, the more I am willing to spend. However, there is always a limit.

[captain america]

You should only cry if it's expensive and made locally..*cough* *cough* Toynami.

No way a Veritech/Alpha worth more or equal to a HasTak MP Optimus Prime.

If Valkyrie/Macross toys were made "here" ( north America), they'd most likely be double the retail price they are now. Do you have any idea what the salary gap is between north-american workers and chinese workers? Whether it's branded Yamato or Toynami, both toys are manufactured in China and exported to their desired markets.

MPC OPTIMUS Prime: part of the Transformers franchise, which, like it or not, has a much, much greater fan base than Macross, Mospeada and Robotech combined. Bigger market = more units produced = R & D costs amortized over larger production run = lower unit cost. This combined with the fact that Hasbro has key distribution in retail chains that market toys as lost leaders = even lower retail price.

[ewilen]

Capt. America: you're right, and I think 91WhiskeyM6 knows that--the point is, Toynami's stuff is expensive even though it isn't subject to the extra costs of the imported Yamato/Bandai stuff.

Exo, did you have a cubicle next to Dilbert?

Anyway, yes, this thread is stupid. It's just as pointless and inflammatory to declare that people who won't pay as much as you for toys are "not real collectors" as it is to call people stupid or dupes because they're willing to buy stuff at prices you won't pay.

Argue about the toys, evaluate their quality, discuss how the manufacturing costs break down--fine. But don't diss each other (even implicitly) just because of a difference of opinion.

[Blaine23]

People can (and will) complain about whatever they want. And they almost always do. The problem isn't money, but behavior.

There's nothing inherently wrong with complaining about price.

"That costs too much for me, I'll skip it... too bad they can't offer it for less"

Those who don't feel the same way can disagree. It only becomes a problem when both sides turn it into a fued or flame war and everyone gets pissed.

The biggest problem is those that like to argue. If folks would just respect each other's opinions and leave it at that... no locked threads, no angry board members.

[EXO]

Exo, did you have a cubicle next to Dilbert?

No, but i was inbetween Milton Waddams and Michael Bolton...

[do not disturb]

i make a more than decent living, enough to by all the macross toys that are out and the ones that are coming out but simply choose not to. not because i can't, i just won't. i don't have every single 1/48 thats out and never will. i could care less about all the VF-1's, i just bought the ones i wanted and stopped there.

thats not to say theres something wrong with the people that have to have it all. they can justify spend X amount of dollars on whatever they choose...thats their right and they don't need to be "catagorized" because they have some disposable income to spend.

me, i spend most of my money on women, beer and a...ummm...other stuff. macross is last on my list of things to buy

1) because women come first.

2) because women come second.

3) because women come third.

4) because it just a toy.

basically live within your means. complaining isn't putting any $$$ in your pockets. so instead of wasting your time posting away here, look to make some extra loot for the things you really want, by shoveling driveways, mowing lawns, selling lemonade, etc. thats one good thing about america, theres always someone thats lazier than you, so money is easy to find.

working is easy to do, its just easier not to, which you choose is up to you.

on a side note,

no one here should be childish enough to care if they're a "real collector" or not. i'm not a collector, i'm just a fan like everyone else here.

[Uxi]

You should only cry if it's expensive and made locally..*cough* *cough* Toynami.

No way a Veritech/Alpha worth more or equal to a HasTak MP Optimus Prime.

No way to say this until one has an actual MPC Alpha in hand.

I give the MPC VF-1 more credit than the chunky monkey, actually... and I don't own an MPC while I DO own a chunky monkey VF-1A...

[DrClay]

$50 or $75 for a Yamato macross toy is a great price!

personally I have only complained about the Q-Rau's high price. and it seems to me that the recent "too expensive" arguement has been over the q-rau, exclusively.

[Jawjaw]

$50 or $75 for a Yamato macross toy is a great price!

personally I have only complained about the Q-Rau's high price. and it seems to me that the recent "too expensive" arguement has been over the q-rau, exclusively.

The 1/48's have been labeled 'too expensive' and I agree. With fastpacks and shipping, they cost close to $200. There is a lot of detail but no metal and few painted on decals. However, they have a high coolness factor so price is not so much of an issue.

[pfunk]

If I had a million dollors, Id be rich

[Protoplast]

Ok guys,

I didn't post this thread to insult anyone, I hope it can inform people.

This is a democracy so everyone feels they are entitled to choose what to do with their money.

But let me say this..

You get what you pay for in life.. price is relative to what you're willing to pay for and the dealers and manufacturers are out to make money and they produce these toys so they can make a profit, if people are only willing to pay a certain price, they will have to make changes to make a profit.. it can be cost cutting measures.

I'm all for low-prices just like everyone, but there's a trickle down effect that I am worried about. When prices drop on goods, people are only willing to pay below what the item used to cost.. in order for the company to stay alive and make a profit, they will cut cost to make ends meet and that means quality degrades.

For a collectible toy such as what Yamato makes, it's excusable to have higher prices if they make a low-volume but high quality toy such as the original Macross Plus toys YF-21 + YF-19.

Now with the 1/60 + 1/48 scale toys, I've seen lesser and lesser quality materials used and lower quality in order to keep up with the demand and price.

Now if you guys who are in college or making under $10/hr, I have one suggestion..

Don't try to keep up with the Jones, ok?

I see guys go broke with credit card debts to keep up with their car tuning projects and go broke on other hobbies while they are still in school with a big debt eating out of their friend's house or girlfriend's..

Save your money and buy assets like real estates or buy some bonds..

When you see some guy with multiple glass cabinets full of Macross toys and couldn't resist the temptations.. you probably don't know what the guy does for a living.. using credit card debt is asking for trouble.

Later on when you are financially more stable and make extra income on the side, you are perfectly entitled to whatever hobby you want.

[Protoplast]

$50 or $75 for a Yamato macross toy is a great price!

personally I have only complained about the Q-Rau's high price. and it seems to me that the recent "too expensive" arguement has been over the q-rau, exclusively.

$50 or $75 for a Yamato macross toy is a great price!

personally I have only complained about the Q-Rau's high price. and it seems to me that the recent "too expensive" arguement has been over the q-rau, exclusively.

I agree, I believe Yamato is trying to charge a high price for the Q-Rau's uniqueness and keep maintain their pricing on the macross stuff when they should either lower the price on the item or make a higher quality one.

[Protoplast]

First of all, it is not fair to compare the prices in the 90s to the prices today. Most of the stuff being sold in the 90s was the vintage 80s stuff. This stuff was no longer being produced, so the prices are high. The modern Macross stuff is from current production runs. It is retail merchandise and therefore shouldn't be in the same price range as an out of production item. On the other hand, Macross is not a mass market item like Gundam, therefore we should expect to pay more to offset the small production runs. How much more is the question? 1.5x? 2x? 3?

There is nothing wrong with being a frugal buyer and questioning the value of something. I do well financially, but if I'm going drop a large chunk of change on a toy I want to feel that it was worth it. I do the same thing with everything I buy from groceries to cars. Notice all the times I used the letter 'I' above. Just becuase I feel this way doesn't mean that I expect others to feel the same way, but I am allowed to have my opinion.

Everyone has their own views and opinions. There is nothing wrong with this. What one person considers expensive another poerson may consider to be a steal.

Yes, you have a good point..

People complain about vintage stuff that is sold in the 80s being too expensive so when the producers hear about it and re-issues them.. it killed the prices of the vintage original which the collectors hate about re-issues.

That's exactly the trickle effect I dislike.

Yamato has done a lot of re-issuing of their own product line which is a bit flagrant to me as a collector which not only kills the value of the original one but they re-issue toys with improvements instead of making it different, they basically killed off the value of the 1st releases they issued.. so the question is.. why should a collector buy Yamato's 1st run products when they keep re-issuing with fixes and one might just wait until the next one with the fixes and then buy it.

Case with the 1/48 Low-Viz.. the price went up because it says "Limited Production" but Yamato may see the demand for it go up and re-issue it.. killing the value just to make a few quick bucks..

It's all part of the trickle effect as there's really no collector toys anymore larger production runs..

[ewilen]

People complain about vintage stuff that is sold in the 80s being too expensive so when the producers hear about it and re-issues them.. it killed the prices of the vintage original which the collectors hate about re-issues.

That's exactly the trickle effect I dislike.

Yamato has done a lot of re-issuing of their own product line which is a bit flagrant to me as a collector which not only kills the value of the original one but they re-issue toys with improvements instead of making it different, they basically killed off the value of the 1st releases they issued.. so the question is.. why should a collector buy Yamato's 1st run products when they keep re-issuing with fixes and one might just wait until the next one with the fixes and then buy it.

Case with the 1/48 Low-Viz.. the price went up because it says "Limited Production" but Yamato may see the demand for it go up and re-issue it.. killing the value just to make a few quick bucks..

It's all part of the trickle effect as there's really no collector toys anymore larger production runs..

I guess that's just too bad for toy investors.

I don't recall Yamato ever saying they were going to keep supplies low in order to boost secondary markets.

[NERV]

Collectors like me, I don't mind paying a pretty dollar, but it had better be worth it and the quality must be.. collector grade. Not very impressed with almost all the Macross releases so far.. Nothing like the older more solid valks made by Takatoku and Bandai in the past..

and yet there was hardly any engineering put into the 1/55, the most complex tihng on them was the landing gear, and when they first came out they were like $15-$30 current macross toys have shitloads of design and engineering invested into them so they are expensive but it's justified, on the other hand bandai's reissue 1/55 were not worth $60 there was hardly any work involved for them, take the old molds, clean them up, make a few small changes

[Mechwarrior]

That reminds me, I have to shoot off another letter to Yamato , and ask them if they will please rerelease the Low-Vis for us new to Macross.

[fifbeat]

I don't think the 1/55's (old or new Takatoku/Bandai) get enough credit. Sure, they used old molds, but those things are built like a million bucks. Bandai could have gone cheap on us -- instead they put a little more effort in them (paint, where stickers used to be). And those boxes look pretty sweet (not that they matter)...

As far as looks, they look very stiff and "toy"-like. But if you transform one of those things, even compared to the top-of-the-line 1/48, they are engineered sharp as hell. I love listening to those solid clicks!

I pray that one day Bandai will re-design them, and make them look more anime-like (like the Yamato's)... if they keep the same mechanism and upgrade the designs, I think they can dominate the Macross toy market.

Now Toynami's 1/55's.... I can build something more sturdy using chicken bones. Those things ain't worth the boxes they come in.

[Agent ONE]

There are a great deal of monitary complaints because there is a great deal of kids in the toy forum... Its just an age thing. Collectors don't care about price because they know 'you get what you pay for' but the little kids just lack the maturity to see that.

For this reason I only visit the toy forum when I want to laugh.