2020 Australian recession and collecting

[Skyfire]

Now that we are officially in recession, how is that going to affect your collecting? Many of you guys would have gone through the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and can probably remember how that went down. I was out of Transformers around that time so I don't know how the market went. Apparently TFs did pretty well then according to https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2009/10/20/10-products-that-boomed-during-the-recession. And apparently toys also are recession-resistant generally speaking and one of the last things to go in terms of discretionary spending. Even though this is the worst recession in history, I have a feeling collectors here would consider their left arm versus another (exclusive) toy ;).

Fortunately for me, I only focus on early G1 era (for nostalgia and room space reasons and I hate Michael Bay), so I don't need to buy 5000 TFs. Helps to keep costs down :p.

[SMHFConvoy]

We were already headed to one before COVID anyway, because good ole Clean Hands Morrison doesn't hold hose or know how to run a country. Anyway in regards to collecting I'll probably slow down or stop.

[Sinnertwin]

Not worried tbh. Plastic trinkets rank quite low on my priorities, if I need to stop, I won't be losing any sleep.

[Thurmus]

Thankfully they have ruined the Masterpiece line with the over priced cartoon accurate releases recently so they have recession proofed my collecting.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Eh. My budget's pretty tight anyway, and there's not a heap coming out that I want as a priority.

[Seraphim Prime]

I think toys are recession proof generally as parents will still want to provide for their kids and they sacrifice things for themselves to achieve it.

I'm fortunate to still be in a job, and one that is pretty well protected, but I have already been considering how much I spend and trying to bring it into a better balance.

We'll see what this means for collecting, whether it becomes a reduced focus or not. I'm already thinking that the end of Kingdom will be a good step off point from wanting to have almost all releases to being much more selective.

[GoktimusPrime]

The 2008 GFC was worse for overseas buying as I remember a lot of toys that I'd pre-ordered suddenly becoming more expensive when they were released as the AUD took a nosedive (e.g. Encore Metroplex, eHobby GADEP etc.). I haven't noticed anything like that for this year though, it's more just trying to get things to ship that's a bigger pain in the sparse. But even currency-wise it's still not as bad as 2000 when the AUD hit 45 US cents. That really sucked and made importing Car Robot and the new Japanese G1 reissues more costly. :(
(although I'm sure it was a godsend for local hospitality and tourism in the year of the Sydney Olympics)

[Skyfire]

Man, 45 cents would have made TFs seriously expensive given how much Aussie collectors rely on overseas hobby shops and retailers. If we're lucky our economy won't be too bad relative to the US and our dollar may continue to creep up this time round.

If WFC Kingdom turns out to be Beast Wars themed then that will be a natural cut off for me as I never got into Beast Wars. I'd still like to get the reissue G1 cassettes if/when they come to Australia but after seeing them in Singapore for SGD$40 RRP, I'll have to think twice if they're overpriced like the Kmart G1 minicars.

[High_Q]

I am unlikely to change my collecting habit, even if i were to lose my job, since i mostly collect G1 MP car bots and G1 reissues. Since I'm not a fan of getting repaints and exclusives, there aren't too many TFs for me to purchase. My only TF purchases this year so far has been two Reaction figures and an upcoming MP Arcee.

I'm more worried about Tomy discontinuing the G1 MP line due to fall in demand as a result of worldwide recession, or due to MP fans turning to Studio Series if that line starts including animation accurate G1 figures (SS 86?).

[Bidoofdude]

I am lucky as I am quite young compared to a lot of the fans here, and without nowhere near the responsibility of most others here. I have been in casual work for all of my career so far (I am a student), and typically TFs have come out of the pretty regular pay I was on without much issue or being in the hole at all. However the industry I have been working in most recently is hospitality, which runs on almost exclusively a casual or part-time basis and has been shut down completely. Likewise, casual workers go unprotected under JobKeeper, so I have had a pretty steady stream of $0 coming in since about April.

I have generally had to be much less trigger-happy with my purchases, where I would sometimes be liberal before. This has caused me some frustration, as Unicron is coming fast in February and I have to make up the funds to pay it off (I currently cannot). Safe to say my plans have been turned upside down, and I'll probably end up selling some stuff to get it done. I hope things change soon and work gets going so I can at least have a semi-strong looking account balance and still make purchases now and again. That can't happen obviously without some element of safety in a preventative intervention, so it can't be rushed. I am definitely envious of some of my friends who have managed to stay with a source of income given their line of work (food service, grocery stores, etc.).

I am still relatively privileged so I can hardly complain next to a lot of people going paycheck to paycheck, but that's my experience as a young student. I certainly hope things improve soon. It is so difficult with all this great new stuff coming out too.

[High_Q]

I have generally had to be much less trigger-happy with my purchases, where I would sometimes be liberal before. This has caused me some frustration, as Unicron is coming fast in February and I have to make up the funds to pay it off (I currently cannot).

Sorry to hear about the impact the COVID19 situation has had on your work and collecting. Hope it ends up well for you and you get to enjoy Haslab Unicron.

[Jellico]

Wife cracked down this year, when 84-86 made a big comeback which annoyed the heck out of me. Really wanted those Seekers.

OTOH next year is looking naturally bare for me. Minimal interest in Beastwars neo. Not many SS leap out at me. Except maybe the rumored 86 movie ones, whatever happens there. Even MP is turning me off, too expensive, too MPM, and with only Arcee announced so far, not up to standard. So I guess this works out for me.

[klystron]

The Australian economy runs off household consumption, so I'll help out our hyper-consumerism based capitalistic society by continuing to purchasing Transformers. (Its the least I can do).
In reality, I'm lucky to have been relatively unaffected by the pandemic, and am very much looking forward to upcoming Netflix, Kingdom and SS releases. 2020 may well turn out to be my biggest collecting year so far.

My best wishes go out to any forum members that have been negatively impacted by COVID.

[Skyfire]

The Australian economy runs off household consumption, so I'll help out our hyper-consumerism based capitalistic society by continuing to purchasing Transformers. (Its the least I can do).

I just read the below from https://www.watoday.com.au/business/the-economy/thrifty-consumers-ensure-a-slow-grind-recovery-20200910-p55u9a.html

"Not only does household consumption account for more than 60 per cent of economic activity, the thrifty mindset also complicates attempts at government stimulus, because people might choose to save the proceeds of tax cuts or payments. And when consumers are so cautious, businesses are also reluctant to invest their capital."

Klystron the Keynesian economist!

[sideswipes brother]

Thankfully they have ruined the Masterpiece line with the over priced cartoon accurate releases recently so they have recession proofed my collecting.

This

[Skyfire]

With MP-52 Starscream at preorder for $400, these are valid points. But I suspect Hasbro and Takara Tomy have crunched the numbers and perhaps view the MP line as a luxury that wealthy collectors will keep buying (like luxury cars). I do wonder about the Kingdom toys perhaps going up in price. That's their bread and butter.

It would be interesting to see behind the scenes how buying one line affects decisions to develop new toys (less famous characters) or new lines especially when consumer confidence is generally low.

My work is recession resistant, I have a limited TF focus and I missed out on the MP-11 series. So I'll probably buy MP-52 and the (more expensive) Thundercracker and Skywarp variants. I'll draw the line at the coneheads. Masterpieces are close to prohibitive now but I don't want them to fail. Still, Hasbro/TT is strangling the golden goose.

[SharkyMcShark]

The recession itself hasn't changed my collecting. I've had the good fortune to have had two significant pay increases this year, and also to work in an industry that hasn't been affected by COVID.

That said, I'm also in the process of buying a home, which is changing my collecting habits. Naturally I've tended to be a bit more choosy with my retail purchases, and most 3P stuff is just beyond me financially. The only upcoming retail figures I have any interest in are WFCE Sunstreaker, WFCK Cyclonus and WFCK Megatron. Aside from needing to pick up the two leadr class SS Constructicons at some point, that's about it for me.

In all, 2020 is looking like a pretty quiet year for me. I'm not particularly moved by any of the SS86 stuff or the WFCK stuff, and I lost interest in Masterpiece a good half decade ago.

I've got a few 3P bits and bobs on order from OMP though, but it's all sub $100AUD stuff.

[GoktimusPrime]

We've been through recessions before.

* 1990
https://i.ibb.co/2vrKkwj/temp.jpg
"The recession we had to have" - although TF collecting got a lot cheaper thanks to Micromasters. I wasn't importing anything at this time.

* 2000
https://i.ibb.co/kDZFY63/temp.jpg
Although Australia managed to avoid the recession that hit many other countries at this time, we did experience a massive dip in the AUD, down to <45USc at one stage, which made importing Car Robot and the new Takara G1 reissues more costly. I collected CR sparingly, but then RiD in 2001 helped me complete a lot of the CR figures that I'd missed out on. I also skipped Brave Maximus but got the Korean version in '02.

* 2008
https://i.ibb.co/nkyFvBx/temp.jpg
GFC - Australia did recover relatively quickly compared to some other countries, but again, sudden dip in the AUD did make importing suddenly expensive. My Encore Metroplex and eHobby GADEP suddenly cost a lot more than I'd expected just due to loss in currency conversion. Thankfully I hadn't pre-ordered Encore Omega Supreme too, but for those of you who did it would've been an extra punch in the gut.

* 2020
https://i.ibb.co/bR9TPLr/temp.jpg
I'm doing more online purchasing than I've ever done before. Otherwise it's still all steam ahead with TF collecting as it's always been, really.

[1AZRAEL1]

I was always collecting figures that haven't had a CHUG upgrade, and even though there's alot that are coming or have come out, I haven't had the desire. Mostly because it seems I'm being priced out of collecting because of the prices of the exclusives, and the rise of wages not keeping in line with the rise in costs of living. Toys are on the chopping block in favour of living.

[Jinto]

I've slowed way down on my collecting in recent years, mostly because I feel the quality of figures and content has been declining.
Unfortunately(?) for me, I'm mostly just interested in beast-formers these days... so I guess Kingdom will be pretty tempting.
I'm cautiously optimistic about the security of my job, but I think I'll maintain a healthy level of restraint and be a bit more discretionary. Not toooooo discretionary though. ;P

[GoktimusPrime]

If it makes you feel any better, only 7 out of the 11 Wave 1 Kingdom TFs are BW TFs. 5 if you only include characters who were originally from BW (so discounting Vertebreak and Paleotrex). <shrugs>