I chanced upon this website and found my dream car on big sale there.  Alas I’m currently not the right person at the right place and the right time.  This used car is selling at a heavy discount but there is no way this car can be mine in the near future. 

Maybe I can be closer to owning my dream car by the next economic boom . . . or perhaps I should move to the US to own a brand new one at cheaper price, and with longer roads for me to exercise my future supercar!

By the way, does anyone know if we to buy a used car in Singapore, can we replace the previous license plate number with a newly bidded or allocated one, or must we take over the previous license plate number?  I’d prefer to bid for my own new license plate number if the previous one is not satisfactory to me. 

Paypal Singapore has now come up with a more convenient way for local online shoppers to pay for goods and services bought on the internet.

If you have been using Paypal all this while, you know that in order to use your Paypal account to pay for items that you purchased, either

1) you have to have enough funds in your Paypal account, or

2) you pay through your credit card that is linked to your Paypal account.

The first method is much preferred because you pay with whatever Paypal funds you already have in your Paypal account.  Hence you buy when you can afford it.  You tend to have Paypal funds in your account when other Paypal account holders make payment to your Paypal account, usually because you sold them something.  

The other method is buying on credit, which also chalks up a credit card service charge per transaction.  Paypal account holders use this method when they have insufficient funds in their Paypal accounts.

Now Paypal Singapore allows its account holders to transfer funds from their local bank accounts to their Paypal accounts, so as to pay for their online purchases.  It works a bit like NETS and it’s not on credit, so it’s kinda in-between. 

From now on when you log into your Paypal account, you will see a “top-up” link in the top navigation bar and you just proceed from there.  In a way, this makes it more convenient for online shoppers to make payment. 

Although I welcome this new convenient payment method, I still caution online shoppers to buy things prudently and not be swayed too easily by the easy payment mode.  We are still in an economic recession afterall.  Bascially, you can continue to shop but buy only the things on your designated purchase list.

Popular Bookstore is a local household name for selling school assessment books and stationery.  They also sell a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction adult and children’s books, magazines, music CDs plus CD-Rom games and PC pheripherals.

Some of the larger outlets like the one at Northpoint, Yishun now has a huge toy section that takes up about a quarter of its shop space.  I was there yesterday evening and was quite impressed with its overall selection of in-trend mass market toys for sale, like Ben-10, Bakugan, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Barbie dolls, Littlest Pet Shop, and even Playmobil.

However I was sorely disappointed by its pathetic My Little Pony section that had only remnants of very just 6-7 old stock ponies that nobody wants.  Fortunately, the saving grace for me was its well-stocked up model cars section for Maisto and Bburago brands.  There were 4x more 1:24 scale model cars than the 1:18 scale ones.  I even found the latest 1:24 scale Bburago Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera (both the yellow and bronze version) there.  If you have the Popular Member’s card, you can get a discount off the toys.

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I returned home today to find another SGD 10.00 shopping voucher from Toys ‘R Us in my mail, from accumulating at least 250 points from my previous combined purchases there.  This voucher comes in handy and I will get to enjoy SGD 10.00 off my next toy purchase at Toys ‘R Us! 

If only this voucher had arrived earlier as I just did my toy shopping at Toys ‘R Us over the weekend.  Nevertheless, I’ve got up to 31 Dec 2008 to use this voucher.  I hope to be able get something I really want by then. 

Previously, I had forgotten to keep track of a similar Toys ‘R Us voucher and allowed it to expire because I couldn’t find anything to buy then, and I also kept delaying my visit to the store.  Even till today, I’m still brooding a bit over that loss.  It was such a waste and I won’t let that happen again! 

This Ponyville Postal Service 2-pack had been on my want list for ages, and I finally secured it today at a discounted price of SGD 14.90 from Toy ‘R Us!

I keep seeing this latest Ponyville Postal Service 2-pack in almost every Toy ‘R Us outlet I’ve been to this month.  Its usual price is SGD 19.90 but recently, Toys ‘R Us is having a special offer of SGD 14.90 for each of such Ponyville 2-packs.  I also saw the same offer at Takashimaya recently but they only had very old stocks there.  Hmmm, maybe this could be a Hasbro promotion instead.

Just last month, I blogged about finding this 2-pack at at Takashimaya but I let a mother and her young daughter take the only piece there.  There was also no discount on that piece anyway.  Incidentally, one of my regular readers Little Plastic Man commented that I’ll find this piece again at a good discount.  How right he was!

I spotted this Marvel X-Men set at Toys ‘R Us (Vivo City outlet) containing Ka-zar, Shanna and Zabu, over the weekend.  It’s selling for a hefty SGD 79.90 there and I also noticed a San Diego Comic Convention sticker on it.  I like the box art, especially that of Zabu the Sabre-Tooth Tiger.  Anyway I still find this box set very expensive.

If you observe the way they packaged Shanna holding her dagger towards Zabu’s face, it looks like she’s fending off a potential attack from Zabu.   I get this impression that Shanna’s afraid of Zabu and that Zabu doesn’t like her much either.  Luckily Ka-zar’s there, though he looks oblivious to Zabu’s hostile behaviour towards Shanna!

The box is supposed to have a flap that opens up to reveal the action figures packaged inside but I noticed that most of the boxes there had their flaps ripped off, hence many of the boxes are now ‘flapless’.  That makes it a “rip off” to pay so much for a comic con exclusive action figures set with damaged box. 

This is my so called vintage set containing the same 3 characters and these figures are based on the 90’s X-Men Animated series.  I much prefer this animated version for all my X-Men action figures collection, to the manga-styled X-Men & Marvel-styled action figures on the shelves these days.

I’ve confirmed that there is currently a Christmas toy sale (from now till Christmas) at the atrium of Ngee Ann City (Orchard Road, Singapore) till sometime next month.  However it is mainly selling mass market in-trend toys for kids, such as those of Madagascar, Ben-10, Bakugan etc,.  Hence I don’t think these will interest most toy collectors. 

Toys ‘R Us is also having a toy sale  (from now till Christmas) for many selected items.  I couldn’t resist and picked up 2 of the 1:24 scale model super cars (at SGD 15.95 each) as Christmas presents for myself.  I even had them gift wrapped since the service is free!

Some of the assorted G3 My Little Pony Ponyville sets are now selling at Toys ‘R Us for only SGD 14.90 each.  They include all the Ponyville 2-packs (usual price: SGD 19.90) and the Starsong Stage Show Bus set (usual price: SGD 29.90).  What a great deal, especially for the Show Bus set! 

If you buy above SGD 40.00 of selected Ponyville items during this sale period, you get SGD 5.00 deducted from the total price.  My pony collector friend just helped herself to this great deal today and she got herself 4 packs (photos shown here) of the latest Ponyville stuff at fantastic discounts. 

Have you been checking your various monthly bills for points earned by your credit cards usage, mobile phone subscription, cable TV and internet subscription etc., lately?

These services tend to have points accumulation programs and they also tie up with many merchants where the points accumulators get to redeem vouchers, products and services from.

Some of the merchants are departmental stores.  Hence if you have accumulated enough points to redeem for these shopping vouchers (which are usually at least SGD 20.00 in value), you can do your coming Christmas shopping at better discounts than offered at the Christmas toy fairs!  Of course most vouchers are applicable for nett priced items but there’s no harm getting them to further stretch your year-end shopping budgets!

Happy Christmas Shopping!

As a toy collector, what other related activities do you do besides the actual action of buying new toys?  Most of us tend to do the following: 

1) Search online for info of the latest toys to add to your collections.

2) Frequent toy forums to find out the latest buzz about your hobby.

3) Read other toy blogs to admire their toy photos, for toy updates etc.

4) Visit flea markets, toys stores, departmental stores at least weekly.

5) Take photos of your toys for your album, blog, website etc.

6) Organise your toys at home for better presentation or storage.

7) Clean up toys that got dirty or covered in dust.

I used to do this but not anymore:

8 ) Customise your toys into characters that were not made or based on your imaginations.

What about you?  Feel free to add your comments! 

Ebay

The overall toy auction prices on ebay look a little depressed compared to previous months, but the items I want have not been appearing there so frequently.  I also rarely bid on ebay these past years in case I get drawn into an impulsive bidding frenzy with other bidders. 

On the other hand if you are lucky, you might just chance upon a mis-titled or mis-labelled auction that was undiscovered by your ‘bidding competitors’ and you get to win it for really ‘cheap’.  Good luck to you on that!

Toy forums

I’ve began searching the toy forums for toys on my Christmas “want list”.  I’m also open to trading for them if I can work out a fair trade with other collectors.  Anyway this method is optional for me.

Departmental stores   

Basically I just hope that the other toy lines that I collect (e.g. 1:24 scale Bburago Lamborghini model cars) don’t start appearing at the retail and departmental stores together with my main collectible toy lines.  That would spread out my “Play” funds very thinly.  Nooooo!!!!

Christmas toy fairs

If I’m not mistaken, I thought a saw a newspaper advertisement that a major departmental store (Takashimiya) in Orchard Road has already started its annual Christmas toy fair at its atrium.  The fair doesn’t usually have the toys I collect but it’s still worth checking out cos they might have something new this year. 

I heard that they usually sell old stocks of Spawn and other McFarlane toys on consignment basis, at rock bottom prices.  If you collect these, they might have them again for this Christmas toy sale.  And since they have free gift wrapping services for any purchase, you can get your toys wrapped up and stored away at  home to open on Christmas day, just for the fun of the festive season!

Happy toy shopping!