Collectors are an odd lot, and I enthusiastically call myself a member of this group. We buy things we love, but at times, we also buy things we don’t really like. Go on, admit it. You have bought things for your collection even though you didn’t really want it — it’s okay, I won’t hold it against you. It’s a just part of collecting, especially if you’re a completist. You can’t really call yourself a Marvel comic book collector if you don’t have Billy Ray Cyrus Volume 1 in one of your long boxes, right?
Not too long ago, I brought this pretty lady home with me. Why? No seriously, why would a 40+ year old guy intentionally pay money for a child’s Wonder Woman squeak toy? I don’t have a good answer, other than I felt I needed it to complete the set. (FYI – these Super Junior squeak toys were released in 1978.)
Honestly, I like having these toys in my collection because they bring some lighthearted fun to the shelf, but if I didn’t already have the the other three, I probably would not have bought the Wonder Woman. Probably.
Okay, time to fess up — what have you bought for your collection that you didn’t really want?
When I found 1:6 scale figures were getting too pricey, I drifted in to the statue and busts arena. Took me a while to get out of that rut. Still trying to sell off what i bought.
Yikes, that could be an expensive mistake!
Funny, I started with the busts and statues because my cousin gave a couple as a gift. From there I made my way to 1:6 figures. I do regret getting into Hot Wheels and a couple of other things that took me away from my main focus, comic books and Star Wars.
These are seriously fun and cute.
We all had our moments of insanity where we simply grabbed stuff we THOUGHT would look cool on our shelves.
I think for me it was the 4-inch PVC statues I had in my collection some years ago. I had no recurring theme (one day I’d be buying characters from the Corpse Bride, some days I’d be buying some random characters off some cartoon series etc.). My better half gleefully helped me to dispose all through eBay. Ironically there were people who were willing to pay heaps of cash for them!
Personally, I think these are the ONLY DCU superhero figurines anyone needs. But that’s just me.
That’s a really neat collection! I dig it!
I too have been guilty on several occasions of buying an item just to complete a set. For example characters like Cyclotron from Super Powers…. He’s a must have….right?
suuure. 😉
Heh, I know that feeling well. I’m not a huge fan of mini block-figures, and yet I’ve somehow built a sizeable collection of MiniMates. It’s as if I see something from a property that I collect and feel compelled to pick it up, even if I have no idea what I’m actually going to do with it.
That said, I think those squeak toys are brilliant, so I can totally understand why you’d want to buy all of those!
Hi Brian, I’m just curious, how much did you pay for it? I have one that’s in very similar condition to yours, and I’m having a hard time determining what it might be worth. I put it on eBay a long time ago to no avail, so I’ve held onto it. I know value is really hard to say, since anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it! But just curious what price you found it for, and since it means you were looking for one, did you have a hard time finding it? Did you see people generally asking around the same amount, etc?
Appreciate it!
I paid $30 with free shipping. There were a few others on eBay around 35-40 but they would have added more than $10 to ship, making this little gal a bit too steep for me. The Batman has always been the priciest one from what I’ve seen, and he can go for over $60.
Not bad at all! Thanks for the info! 🙂
I acquired two of these guys when I moved into a new place. The previous owner had left a bunch of stuff behind, and I thought they were just too cute to throw out. I picked up the third at a comic con several years later. I had been looking for the last one (Wonder Woman) for a while. I found it online recently, and my husband ordered it for me. It just arrived today…I’m so excited my collection is finally complete!