Saturday morning run

This morning was my most extensive Star Wars run in quite some time. Myself and most of the collectors in our area were all after the 30th anniversary collection which was supposed to go on sale today. Although I already had most of the set (thanks to the TRU run earlier this week)...there were other things I needed that were also hitting today, so I got up early to join the hunt.

First of all, I should mention that I was up until after 3:30 this morning hanging out with John, Elizabeth and Karen...so I was running on very little sleep as it is. It should also be noted that yesterday, I woke up at 4am for no reason and could not get back to sleep. That's less than 7 hours sleep in the last two days. Even though I was tired, Star Wars toys had to be purchased, so there's no way I was skipping this.

The phone rang at 7:06am, it was Chris calling to tell me he had already found some clones at Wal Mart. He picked up a few for me and verified that I'd be hitting my stores. I would be. Left the house around 7:45 and hit the Target by my house. They had nothing from the 30th anniversary collection, but they did have a Titanium Chris needed. I picked it up for him and went on to the next Target, which also had no new figures. It was now around 8:40 and I still had over an hour to kill until Toys R Us opened, so I hit two Fred Meyers, neither had figures.

Met Chris in the parking lot of Toys R Us, he gave me the clones he had, plus he had also found some stuff I didn't have yet. We went into the store and they had restocked with the entire collection. Several collectors were there, everyone got some figures....I got a couple more clones....it was a great morning.

Met up with Jim and his son after I had checked out and traded a few figures with him. We all drove to a pancake house to try and have some breakfast, but the wait was too long, so I ended up going home and having breakfast there instead. When all was said and done, I spent a little over 150 bucks today. I am completely caught up on Hasbro stuff.

Email from Heather

Sent me this after she got home:

"There were two boxes on our porch that looked suspiciously like the shape of light sabers. Did you order some or is that something else?"



Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah! :-)

Great haul this morning

Today was one of those excellent days, the kind of day you wish and hope for as a Star Wars collector.

I rolled out of bed around 8:40am this morning, had some weird oatmeal that Heather made last night and watched the news. I decided I'd be hitting Toys R Us this morning, so I took my time as I showered, shaved and hit the bank on my way over there.

Arrived at about 3 minutes until store opening, Chris was already there. We walked in (being sure to let the parent with the kid who was also there go in first). Walked to the Star Wars aisle and boom...they had almost the entire 30th anniversary wave on the pegs.

Chris and I started picking out a set, another collector came along and said "Are we sharing?". We said "Sure, you take that side, we'll take this side". Three grown men picked apart the shelves, making sure we each got a full set. Two moms walked up....and (probably assuming these were "hot toys" or something) joined in the hunt too. One said she was buying for a kid, so we pointed her towards the R2-D2 and Battle Droid figures. Kids love R2.

I managed to get one of each of the figures, except for one that was never put out there to begin with. I wanted extra clones, but the guy we didn't know got them all....so I settled for one. I'm sure I'll find more later. I also found a couple of Wave 9 clones (everyone was ignoring the wave 9 stuff until I started picking through it).

Including the Wave 9 clones I found, I spent 99 bucks in total, but I'm all caught up to current day, except for one figure. The new ones come out Saturday.

Tomorrow....Sideshow Leia goes on sale!

State of collecting address

Today, I didn't set up any figures, but I did do something that's much more painstaking. I caught up my excel spreadsheets that I use to track all the money I spend on these things.

I've figured out a few things in the last 24 hours:

1. I spend way too much money on Toys.
2. I don't neccessarily LIKE tracking the amounts that I spend, because when I see it all tallied up, it's always more than I imagine and it makes me think about quitting.
3. When I'm not actively tracking, I will spend a lot more than when I'm not. Now that I'm all caught up and actively tracking again, I'll probably slow down a bit. For awhile.
4. I buy so much stuff that I had a hard time remembering what some purchases were. For example, I had a few purchases (under 50 bucks) in January from Sideshow that I could not figure out today. I finally narrowed it down using my order sheet there and my credit card statements and it was some accessories for the Darth Maul and Jabba figures I ordered. Still, it's scary that I couldn't figure it out for awhile.

I needed my paypal, bank and store receipts, along with order pages from Starwarsshop and Sideshow to sort out all the amounts. It took about an hour or two to catch up the records of everything I bought there. After that, I used Rebelscum's PM system (I save my transaction history there) plus my checkbook register to figure out all the purchases that weren't made with credit cards or paypal. I'm sure I still missed some (because once in a blue moon I actually pay cash for something).

I'm now caught up to current day, and one positive thing is my spending history has stayed pretty steady since 2004. Last year I spent the most of any year I've been collecting, but that's only because I also counted the costs of building the Star Wars room last year. Those shelves weren't cheap. When I factor those out, it was actually less than the year before, which is good.

So what's next?

I'm not sure. Maybe I'll slow down a bit. Maybe I'll change the focus a little (I've already stopped buying Unleashed and Vehicles from Hasbro, but maybe I can cut down further). I'm also going to try and set the rest of the stuff up, which is my constant goal. My biggest gripe about my collection is it's not currently all on display. I've got plenty of great stuff that just needs to be opened and put on shelves.

I am also a little upset that I don't have good pictures yet, so yesterday I bought something to help me remedy that:



All the pictures I take of my shelves turn out a little dark....so when I take photos of the whole room very soon, I'm doing it with some good lighting.

Star Wars weekend

Went to TRU yesterday. I didn't find anything, but Chris was there and had a few figures in his trunk for me.

First, a couple of Commander Appos. I'm going to take the Pauldrons off these and turn them into Super Articulated 501st troopers. I want dozens and dozens of them, to try and recreate that scene from Episode 3. So far, I have around 7. :-)

Chris was returning this Tantive 4 pack, so I bought it off him. 2 troopers, 2 Rebels and 1 Vader = 21.75. That's cheaper than buying them separately (even though I don't want the Vader).



The one thing I did find at TRU was this little 2 pack of Galactic Heroes that I didn't see earlier this week. I left it in the back seat of my car and Heather saw it today as we were driving to lunch and to do our taxes. I said "Aren't these cool?". She said "Yes", but then pointed out to me that they are for ages 3-8.



Sad, but true.

Busy week in the Star Wars world

Started the week off with a trip to Vic and Lisa's for the Collector's meeting. It's the mecca of Star Wars collections and every time I go there, I get a bug to start working on my collection room once again. This week was no exception. The first thing I did was go downstairs and unpack the new General Grievous bust I just got. I won him on Ebay earlier in the week (Thanks to Jim for the link to the auction) and he was here by Friday.

Set him up on the shelf with AOTC clones, but I'm not sure if that's where he should stay:



Next, I took a bunch of figures I've been accumulating for the last week or two out of the garage and put them on the table for photographing. Not the greatest picture, but here we have the Death Star Briefing set I got from Jim and some 2 packs I bought from Target. Also, the Felucia battlepack, which I was hesitant to buy, but finally did because I do love the clones. Good thing I did too...I don't think these will ever hit clearance.




Last but not least, on Thursday...I got almost all the Galactic Heroes figures that I didn't have yet at Toys R Us. Chris was also there, we were hoping to find some 30th Anniversary Collection figures...but struck out once again. They did have the Vader coin albums, which means sooner or later those 30th anniversary figures should start showing up. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep buying Heroes, but when I saw them all in one place, I felt compelled and made an impulse buy.

Gas: 2.85 a gallon to get there.

Total cost: 76.04

Having this many little toys on the table? Priceless.