Shopping for toys at the flea market

It is flea marketing day today!  China Square Central is still ‘flooded’ with Transformers movie toys.  I do not collect these but I do own 7 of the Transformers Legends mini ‘transformable’ action figures.  I bought them 2 months ago from Toys ‘R Us, partly out of impulse and partly because I like their small sizes and ‘cuteness’.  Now they have made their ‘command base’ on my PC shelf.  Toyfics are played out in mind whenever I look at them. 

I also previously picked up a MOC deluxe Barricade figure from a departmental store in July last year but later sold it at China Square Central when I changed my mind about collecting deluxe Transformers movie figures.  The key characters had all been ’swiped’ from the retail stores and were all found at China Square Central selling at exorbitant prices.  It was too expensive to start collecting them.

Most toy collectors visit the flea market with targeted toys to buy.  When the trip ends up ‘fruitless’, there is a tendency for some collectors to end up making impulse purchases on other toys that they do not usually collect.  They give in to their emotions because the alternative toy looks cool and is ‘cheap’, many others are buying it as part of the latest toy trend, and also not to make this trip to the flea market a wasted one.  I fell into this impulse buying ‘trap’ countless times during my ‘Rapid Growth’ days.  When I could not find My Little Pony toys there, I ended up buying classic He-Man and Battle Cat, Skeletor and Panthor, and some Silverhawks figures etc.

Now I set aside 10% of my monthly income for toy purchases, whether it is from the flea market, physical retail store or online stores.  It helps a lot to constantly remind me not to overspend and subsequently regret those ‘impulse purchases’.  It also keeps me more focused on acquiring the toys that I collect.  However, I am the type of collector who gets easily influenced by the latest ‘in-thing’ toys because of its blockbuster movie release, which is basically a 2-hour long ‘toy commercial’ to sell its accompanying merchandise.  After all these years, I still sometimes ‘fall for’ and give in to these marketing tactics.  A recent example would be the Transformers movie and its toys.  As such, I had less monthly budget leftover for buying the current toys that I specialize in, like My Little Pony and Justice League.  At least my toy budget controls my spending on toys each month, better than not having one at all!

Also read: The 5 stages of toy collecting.