How much will collecting it all cost me?
 

I myself have been trying to solely collect Marvel figures, in Marvel Legends, Marvel Icons, and Marvel Universe. I would collect marvel showdown as well, but never had the chance/ haven't bid for anything yet on ebay. I wonder which would cost you more to collect, and by collect I mean have every figure made from start to end, *in the case of MU to this point now. I know variants, rare figures aside will cost more to the collector and to an investor, but let say you were able to get every figure at retail. Every MU, Every ML, Every MI figure, Every MLS figure .... any math junkies want to take a crack.,, would love to know, to tired to process that kinda math hahah. But I'd say to have every ML figure it'd cost you over $5,000 retail, let alone on scalper prices. Marvel Icons were the most expensive of the retail figures at $20-40 each, aside from MU's Galactus.. and the gigantic battle sets. There's not as many figures in the Icons lines,and the run was short, but it adds up fast. Even Marvel Universe, the cheapest of them all, think of how many 2packs,3packs, comic packs, sdcc, and varaints, plus it's sister waves XMO,Spiderman,Thor,Cap, it's litterally 1000's of bucks.

so I guess when you think about it we're spending $100's-1000's of dollars on toys that sit on a shelf and collect dust lol, is it worth it? and how much have you spent/ willing to spend?
Personally I'd say I've spent 2-3000 on toys or more over my lifetime.

if youd like to glance at my collection, $4500-$5000 in about 2 years time. God I hate myself.

Sick collection man, actually saw it once before on a previous post... yeh you spent a lot, but all your stuff is MOC, so the resale value is there if you ever wanted to part with it... you could easily make back your money if not more. I keep most of my stuff open, kills a bit of the resale but I can pose em and I don't have the room for all the boxes.

There is always that question of is it worth it no matter what hobby you have. Is it worth it to spend 10 gs on upgrading a car when it doesn't help the resale value? No just like it doesn't make sense for me to have spent thousands on toys when I barely touch them and have opened most of them all but it doesn't matter as long as you are able to pay your bills on time and the toys aren't a hinderance on your life style. The value of having a hobby that can distract us at times from some of the hardships of reality and at the same time be able to meet some great people is priceless.

Yeah, I've spent thousands on Marvel Universe alone. Especially if you count all the horrific shipping fees I have to pay to import these things from the US into Canada and also all the duplicates I purchase for army building. I have at least 10 of all the regular sized troops like AIM Soldiers, Skrull Soldiers, Guardsmen, SHIELD Agents, HYDRA Agents, Red Hand Ninjas and White Hand Ninjas although I only have 1 Black Hand Ninja. That might change in the future although I find it a real rip to spend close to $20 on each of these so-called rare Black Hand Ninjas. Then I have 3 Frost Giants which cost me around $40 each because they don't sell them here. Then there's the MU scaled figures like the Watcher from Marvel Select, MODOK BAF, Onslaught BAF, etc, etc. Too much money but so much fun but I feel like I lack the motivation to actually play with these things and I don't have room to pose them on shelves. LOL.

Wow. Awesome collection. I really want those thor figs. Can't find them anywhere.

I have $1700 in marvel alone. That's an estimated Canadian retail. [Legends and Universe] Estimated out of the 423 figures I have on display is $6500-$7000 Canadian.

Wife, kids, home, if your not careful.

I've dropped a few grand on needless toys over the past few years, but that's what I'm supposed to be doing. I was always told to do well in school and get a good edumacation so I could get a good job and buy myself things. So now it's pretty much my duty to spoil myself :D

There's no way I could pin a price on it. I've been getting toys since I can remember (this counts as beginning with Star Wars, that I'm still keeping up with to this day, although to a much lesser extent - I don't need fifty clone troopers).

I do know that I've spent >$300 on DCUC in the past month or two.

I collect MU and the comic packs. I've probably spent 2000-3000 on em. But, its worth every penny. I keep them MOC and in clear plastic cases that they fit into perfectly. My wife hates the big rubbermaid containers I keep em in cuz at the moment they're right beside our bed on my side. LOL she says if I could sleep with them I would. :D;)

So, as an avid video game player, I've had to accept the fact that it's not a very "constructive" use of my time, but I sure enjoy it. And isn't that really what life's about, eking out bits of enjoyment where we can? I've collected over ninety percent of the MU line, spent a lot of money and am willing to spend a lot more. I'm not worried about resale value 'cause I open them all, and I'm not worried about where the money went because I've handled my business first. I just get a big kick out of posing them, displaying them or even just dumping them all out onto my bed in a big pile and swimming in them! So, if it makes you happy, and it's not hurting anyone than fuck it. Right?

If your thinking of starting collection of marvel legends i have 22 ish figures , but i bought some from ebay i got 9 at £113.71 but i do have a sentinel , plus over figures from a different account so possibly mine are just over £200 for my 22 figures

Really after a while you REALLY don't want to think about it.

Yep.

It all adds up dont it.
Still....whenever you feel bad dropping $50-100 for that new wave of figs you want, consider other vices that are more accepted and mainstream.
Ciggerettes- $6 a pack. Average smoker- two packs a week.
Booze- most mixed drinks in a bar cost as much as a MU fig- for ONE!
Gambling- to expensive to get into.
Serial dating- also crazy expensive.
Wine collecting- insanely expensive.
Feeding puppies to anacondas- varies by availability and season.
Fishing- just the rod can be several hundred (or thousand) dollars.

I started collecting in 2003, I keep a spreadsheet of everything toy-related I buy (and sell) and so know exactly how much I've spent. Let's just say that the money I've spent would make a very nice deposit for a house.

I don't think I've been irresponsible though - I'm pretty sure if I was to ask anybody I know who doesn't collect toys whether they have that much money sitting in the bank, they'd say no. They've just spent it on other stuff.

So I'd say it has been worth it, I enjoy it and my spending's not out of control. I do think everyone should keep track of their spending though, if you'd rather not know then perhaps you're spending too much.

Yeah, I'd definitely say it's worth it. I've dropped that money on stuff that I don't like or on leisurely stuff and I'm always thinking, "Damn, I could've bought an MU figure for that." LOL. I don't know. It's just when I go to a movie and feel totally disappointed, it's like $14. Snacks are another $15 or more. I just spent $30 bucks on a single activity. The movie could suck crap. I just know I'll be sitting through the movie thinking, "Damn, that's 3 or 4 Red Hand Ninjas I could be adding to my collection..." LOL. Sad, I know. I have enough to pay all my bills, etc and all that but the money isn't endless and I've definitely cut corners to build my collection. LOL.

I think that's when hardcore collectors like myself start getting annoyed, remorseful and resentful at the reissues/minor repaints. I mean to be fair, Hasbro is releasing a ton of new figures but at the same time, they're also reissuing minor variants and selling things in a way that make it rather inconvenient for us to acquire what we want. When it costs me $50 to get 3 figures out of 5 that I want and only $65 to get all 5, I end up getting all 5. I've stopped caring about minor variants now like the Target Exclusive Iron Mans with blue eyes and arc reactors. It's like seriously, who cares... I'll buy it if it's like 2 bucks plus 2 bucks shipping but otherwise, forget it.

Like seriously, some of these two packs are really pissing me off. I'm already rolling my eyes at the number of Wolverines I'll be accumulating just because of the Sentinels alone. They couldn't include a Friends of Humanity trooper instead?

I have nearly every retail figure ever released in MU. I also have 95% of every Iron Man 3.75" figure released. Got most all of the Cap and Thor figures too, but passed on several shelf warmers. Now all this.. is probably ridiculous amounts, but I don't care! I love the entire collection.

HOWEVER.. I purchased SDCC Thor, NYCC Cap, X-Force Arch, Invaders box set, Mail-away Nick Fury, and SDCC carded Sentinel.. this is where I question my sanity.. A literal handful of figures for nearly $500 alone. I'm a completionist, but I often question if I shouldn't just sell those to keep up with being a completionist at retail releases..

I'll be honest I have spent around a few hundred on my collection since MU dominates it. These days I try to buy some sneakers & some clothes so that way I don't dress exactly the same in years to come LOL. It sucks when you drop a lot of money on one thing because then you wonder if it was worth it & the fact that u only took home one thing but at least they aren't any serious vices but I have been guilty of a bit of a degree of serial dating too but I try not to be cliche like everyone else because that doesn't totally help with getting anywhere with anyone. Most of them go off without a hitch when I take em to a few select places at first so I don't spend that much money until later on because it's ridiculous to spend that much unless you are actually with them IMO but I don't wanna get carried off here.

Heh, the amount of money I've spent on Marvel Universe and Legends is nothing to the amount I've spend on Transformers over the last 20+ years. Personally, I don't really care what others think - it's worth it to me. I enjoy my collection very much, even if I'm not fiddling with a particular toy or rearranging a display. I can just look at my collection room and admire it because it's something that I accomplished. It provides me an outlet for stress relief and also a way of connecting with my daughter (who has her own modest TF collection).

It also helps to not think about how much money you spent or how much they're worth (or will be worth). If that's the primary reason you collect, then you might want to re-think the hobby.

Less than if I would like, drastically more than my wife would like.I do like to point out to her that when I met her I had 3 overflowing bookcases and she didn't run then.