7 ways on how to buy more toys with lesser money

With rising inflation and a softening economy, we tend to be more prudent in our purchases now, unless of course you are ultra cash rich and the current credit crunch means nothing much to you.  As most of us belong to the prudent category, here are 7 tips on how to buy more toys (and other things) out of lesser money:

1) The most obvious way is stretch your dollar is to buy your toys during sales.  You’ve got to keep track of when are the sales and how long they last.  We just had our annual Great Singapore Sale during the last 2 months and I bought some of my latest toys during that period. 

The main drawback is that most collectible toys usually get bought off the shelves at retail prices, hence you seldom have a chance to find any of the most highly sought after toys left behind for the sale.  However you can sometimes get lucky, hence no harm giving sales a shot.  If you happen to collect certain obscure toylines that have few competitors, then your chances of finding them during sales are greater.

The main competiors at the departmental stores and during sales are mainly other collectors, specu-vestors (yes we have them in the toy market as well, not just in the property market), and of course the kids.  The greatest ‘tragedy’ for a toy collector is to see a ‘hard-to-find’ collectible toy that you have been eyeing for a long while at a sale, in the hands of a kid or a parent who is buying it for his or her kid.  Your heart just sinks because while logically the toy should go to the kid, on the other hand you know you will surely provide a ‘better and safer’ home for that ‘hapless’ toy.  Anyway, next…

2) Many departmental stores tie up with certain banks to issue credit cards that also double up as a kind of membership card for the store.  Hence you can either get discounts or rebates with your purchases.  A mere 10% discount here and there can add up to quite a sum of money in a year, hence every bit of discount counts.  Therefore consider signing up for those ‘discount’ cards if you qualify for them.

3) When shopping online from overseas sellers, you can team up with other like-minded collectors to buy in bulk.  You all can then combine the resulting shipping costs to save quite a lot, rather than importing the items individually.  Of course to do this, you need to know your ‘teammates’ very well, not just to trust the assigned buyer the task of consolidating and paying for the purchase, but also trusting that the other buyers will honour their agreement when the payment’s due.

4) For Singaporeans, we can use vPost  to ship in items from overseas sellers who would not ship out of their countries.  This special postal service is provided by SingPost.  I have not used this service personally because I always make it a point to buy from sellers who would ship overseas.  Using vPost may take a while longer to reach Singapore because they tend to gather all their Singapore-bound packages before shipping them here.  If you are not in a hurry to receive your toys, then you might as well wait since it cost you less.

5) You can join forums that specialise in the toys or items that you collect and buy directly from the members there.  Normally buying directly from the sellers who did not incur listing fees for listing their items on online auctions, will be a little cheaper.  There is also room for price negotiation too, though not always.  However, joining a forum can also give you an idea of the market price of the toy or item you intend to buy, hence you can buy at a fair price.

6) Buying your toy or items from online auction websites like eBay and Yahoo! can have its pros and cons.  Although the auction sellers may charge a bit more to cover their auction fees, there are times when you can get a good bargain.  eBay shopping has its ’seasons’ too and it is different for the various products.  Prices normally start to go north nearer to Christmas. Hence you can opt to shop at other times of the year.  Although some sellers hold back their auctions till nearer the end of the year, there will be other sellers who will auction their products outside that period so you’ve got to monitor.  It’s good if you have like-minded friends surfing eBay and helping you to keep a lookout for the things you want.

7) A tip about buying from online auctions is to take note of the frequent mis-spellings of the toyline or items that you collect. Some sellers who are not familiar with the product will tend to mis-spell the item name as well.  Hence do a search for the mis-spelled names and you may be surprised by the ‘treasure trove’ of relatively ‘undiscovered’ toys and items that ‘escaped’ the watchlist of your competitors.  The chances of you winning those ‘cloaked’ auctions at lower than usual market prices are greater.

There you have it, the 7 tips on how to buy more toys (and other things) out of lesser money.  There are definitely more suggestions and ways out there, and you’re welcomed to share yours.  However the best tip is still to spend within your means and not overstretch your budget.  Do not buy your collectibles on hefty credit if you can help it, unless of course you are sure you can rake in very promising returns in less than 3 years.  Any toy that takes more than 3 years to appreciate is taking too long…