When hobby turns into obsession

A hobby should be something enjoyable and makes me happy. I no longer derive such pleasure from my figure collection. Space (or the lack of it) is the number 1 enemy as it forces me to judiciously decide what to buy or risk myself becoming a hoarder instead of a collector. Imperfection (paint defects, broken pieces, etc) is enemy number 2.

So where is money? Honestly, I do not really 'bother' about money when it comes to buying something I really want. After all, I am buying happiness. Having said that, all humans are created with greed. And ironically, the reason for my current bout of emo-ness is money-related. I am so far very pleased with Toy Coin (www.toycoin.com.sg) since it helps me to avoid pre-order war in Japanese online shops when it comes to super popular figures like Kuroko no Basuke line from Megahouse.

If not because of Toy Coin, I will not be able to secure Kuroko and Kagami. That is why I was very excited for Kise. Sadly, the price is $115! That is shocking as Kagami is only $99 and both figures have the same Japanese retail price of 8600 yen :( A Singaporean user in myfigurecollection.net recommended me ToysNToys (www.toysntoys.com) which is selling Kise for only $93!!

I realised that the pre-order prices from here can be 20-25% cheaper than prices from other local shops (Toy Coin, Simply Toys, Figmation, etc). For example, Gray Fullbuster by GSC is about $120 at Toy Coin and Figmation but it is only $99 at Toys N Toys. Static Arts Squall is selling for $28 at Toys N Toys as opposed to $42 at Toy Coin (sadly I pre-ordered from them) and $34.40 at Simply Toys (even after the member + pre-order discount). Immediately I counted on how much money I have "lost" with my outstanding POs with these other shops T_T I wish I knew this shop before. Haiz...

Next headache is for figures from Free! Japanese retail price is 7800 yen and Toy Coin is selling them for $130 each, even more than Kise which cost 8600 yen. I really have no idea how their supplier gives prices sia.. Anyway since Free! is so popular, none of the online shops is giving any discount. I am still waiting for Hobby Stock (the distributor) to announce what the exclusive gift that they offer if I buy directly from them. No idea when they are going to announce it.

Please make the other 3 boys to make a complete set

My Final Fantasy Chrome collection is still about halfway to complete so I still have to check Yahoo! Auction Japan frequently. I am emo to find Rinoa and Boko which were not sold even at 6000 yen. Jeez.. I bought them for 8000+ yen each! Damn it! And today I missed Tifa and Sephiroth when the auction ended at about 830pm and I thought that the auction would end somewhere near 11pm instead. Damnit damnit!

Now Rinoa and Boko are relisted at 5000 yen. I am really tempted to get but I guess I have to restrain myself. I should only buy 2 of the same figures only if the duplicate has small number. I managed to get this Locke No 0001 after it exchanged hands so many times in Yahoo! Auction Japan. I got him for 24010 yen which I thought was not bad as compared to 50300 yen when it was first sold and 37833 yen when it was sold for the second time. Looks like the buyer failed to make a profit from re-selling eh? Haha..

Anyway I just got Butz No 0004 for 4700 yen only!! Haha.. FF V is never famous and it sort of helped that this piece has its metal plate detached. Well, I can easily solve it with a super glue and tadaa...

Currently Garnet and Sephiroth are being auctioned and I am still thinking on whether to get them or not T_T God help me.. This has really turned into a massive obsession for me!

As the lift upgrading work no longer involves drilling which causes vibration to my room, I decided to slowly display my resin statues again. I began with Chun Li and it made me very emo to notice a chipping on her shoes!! Haiz.. My first thought was that it was damaged when I moved house. But when I checked the pictures taken previously, the chipping was there right from the start T_T If I knew about it earlier, I could have asked for larger partial refund... I was too engrossed with the paint that got stuck to the styrofoam.. Emo emo emo.. Huhuhu...