In my last couple posts, I examined my budgetary spending for the year and analyzed the purchases that I felt were the most and least satisfying. Now, I’ll point out some other figures I might have gotten this year if I had to do it all over again.
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In my last post, I took a big-picture look at my budget plan for the year and how it turned out. Now, I’m going to examine the figures I obtained over the course of the year and decide which ones were the best purchases and which were the worst.
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Here’s the first part of the promised annual financial report. In a previous post, I laid out the budget I had set for my 2009 figure purchases. Now, I will look at my spending behavior in detail and analyze the effects of working within a budget.
As you can see, I managed to stay under budget. (Yay!)
You’ll notice that I burned through my allotted funds rather quickly, making the vast majority of my purchases within the first four months of the year. To be fair, I didn’t actually commit myself to a budget until a month or two into the year, so my first three or four purchases of the year were made without regard to any particular financial plan. Even so, I had thought my initial budget rather generous and I was disappointed to see how quickly those funds disappeared. I had to curb my figure spending drastically in the latter half of the year to ensure that I stayed within my budget. As a result, I missed out on several figures I probably would have otherwise jumped on.
You may also notice that my two costliest transactions were both through Tokyo Hunter. I think this is, in large part, due to the fact that both of these figures were Japanese-exclusive releases. In addition, the Miku figure was purchased well after the period of general availability, so market supply and demand forces were well in effect. I do think Joseph’s proxy fees run a tad higher than others I’ve dealt with, but he also offers the most personalized service I’ve seen.
Now, for some statistics:
My net gain from selling a figure from my collection was only about 1/3 of the cost of a new figure. While this number can vary quite a bit depending on what you’re selling, it does give you an idea that it’s not unreasonable to expect to have to sell several quality figures to finance the purchase of just one new figure.
That’s it for my annual financial report. I plan to follow up with my personal best and worst of 2009 and highlight some of the key figures that I missed out on this year.
It seems like the K-ON! figures are finally starting to come in. I think this is the third Mio figure I’ve seen and there are previews for a forth Mio from another manufacturer floating around the net. I’m liking Mio’s outfit in upLark’s version as compared to Alter’s version, but I’m still not sure they got the face right. I’m also kind of disappointed to see that no one seems to want to do a 1/6 scale K-ON! figure yet.
It’s kind of late in the year to be doing this, but one of the key topics I wanted to discuss when I started this blog was the financial side of figure collecting. I hope to eventually share tips on how and where to save money on figures and provide examples of the real-world costs of figure collecting.
Along those lines, I established a budget for myself to cover all figure purchases for the 2009 calendar year. I plan to share the results of that budget at the end of the year and take a look at whether or not I was able to stick to my budget, what figures I was able to get, and what I wasn’t able to get due to budget contraints.
Without further ado, here are the rules:
Basically, I gave myself $1,000 to spend on figures for this year. If I feel like I need more than that, I can sell something from my collection to give myself more funds. At the end of 2009, I’ll look at my spending patterns for the year and make adjustments to the 2010 budget.
Bandai’s new Ranka Lee figure scores points for Ranka’s charming facial expression and a cute miner’s (??) outfit. It might well lose points for Bandai’s fit and finish, which is largely unknown to me, but at this point I would still pick it as one of the best new figure announcements for November.
It’s been a slow month. -_-
![Alter - 1/8 Yagyu Jubei [Hobby Japan Ver.] PVC](https://figyura.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/alter_18_yagyu_jubei_hobby_japan_ver_pvc.jpg?w=326 "Alter - 1/8 Yagyu Jubei [Hobby Japan Ver.] PVC")
It seems that Alter has managed to sneak in another Yagyu Jubei figure before their first one has even been released. Jubei’s looking great in her new swimsuit, but acquiring her could get downright ugly.
First, this figure is a Hobby Japan mail order exclusive. Second, it’s limited to 1,500 pieces. Third, those 1,500 pieces will be distributed via lottery rather than first-come, first-served.
All of this means lots of uncertainty and added expense for potential buyers outside of Japan. For what it’s worth, ToysLogic seems to be accepting a limited number of orders for Jubei and I will be trying my luck with them.
Clayz has translated a gorgeous piece of famed ero artist Tony Taka’s artwork from E2 (Etsu) magazine into figure form. I am a huge fan of Tony’s work so I was immensely pleased to see some of his work outside of the Shining Tears/Wind series get the figure treatment.
Other than the lofty price, which is largely mitigated (IMO) by the fact that you’re essentially getting two figures in one, the trouble with this figure is that it’s an exclusive for two Japanese online shops: E2 (Etsu) and AmiAmi (see links above). Ordering through E2 will probably require a proxy, but it looks like AmiAmi has an English website and will ship internationally.
Alter appears to have done an excellent job of rendering Odin Sphere’s unique, painterly style into 3D space with their new Mercedes figure. I’ve never even played the game, but I’m tempted to pick up this figure after seeing the elaborate detail in the preview shots. I did find the pose kind of odd at first, but I eventually realized that Mercedes is shown in flight with her crossbow acting as a cleverly-disguised support peg. All in all, the design looks very smart and well executed.
Figyura (フィギュラ) 