Selling the collection to fund a house deposit

[Zippo]

So, several people at work suggested this and I have thought about it in the past.

Selling the collection I have in storage (that after the break in is now at risk from further damage or spending more on storing it safely) in order to gather a deposit in order to purchase the house that I should at this stage in my life have purchase by now - or at least be 50% towards owing.

In the last purge of the collection I cleaned out everything that could go, so I would be putting up for offer things that I have deemed as part of the collection and forever staying in the collection - AFA and Sealed G1, G2, Reissues/e-Hobby, BT/Kiss and Alternators, Classics/Universe and Henkei as well as Masterpiece

My thoughts (Random)
1) Good idea, you need a house and since I am having trouble finding that perfect partner of mine in order to save together, rasing a large amount of cash by myself seems to be the only way to get a deposit

2) Don't do it - you don't need to full into the modern age New Zealand 'dream' of having a property. The collection is awesome, you love it and thats it.

3) I need a house in order to store the collection, but I won't have a collection to store in the house. So do I need the house

4) Yes you need a house - you can't live with the parents for ever (or until they die and you hope that they haven't followed through with the threat of not leaving everything to there only son, but to the SPCA

5) Only the good parts of the collection will sell, leaving you with gaps that you need to fill. Filling those gaps will be near on impossible because the prices on the secondary market is insane. Also even if you have the deposit, you will need to pay of the rest of the house purchase price and that will take your entire income each week leaving nothing to spend on toys

6) The collection is not worth enough even if you sell it all to even get 1/2 of the deposit required. Only a sucker would pay what you have paid in the last 8 years for a bunch of toys


... Thoughts? ....

[jaydisc]

Home ownership is vastly overrated unless you lack the self discipline to manage your finances correctly. Keep the collection and rent.

[1orion2many]

In Australia I believe it's near on impossible to buy your own house with out a significant other or an extremely well paying job. I don't know if they have this in NZ but over here you can get a loan for 70% of the house or what ever percentage you can afford and the goverment own the other 30%. Later on down the track you are able to either buy the 30% at the current market prices or you can sell the house and end up with 70% of the profit and the other 30% goes to the Government. This could be a way of keeping your collection if you have this sort of set up in NZ.

[kurdt_the_goat]

Pass on a sealed BT Wheeljack to kurdt_the_goat for a reasonable price. That is all :D

In all seriousness.. i'm all for collections that you can interact with often, but the idea of a storage shed, especially for what seems to be your most prized items has always struck me as odd. What do you really have them for at the moment, other than to say you *do* have them?

In the partner-less situation, i can't see much point in owning a home, as the extra space would only amount to an equally easily break-in-able place for storing your collection by the sounds of it.

I'd rent and focus less on the 'perfect partner' and instead the 'attainable' partner that still ticks most or your important boxes :)

[reillyd]

I don't think you could trust ANY of our motives for recommending you sell your collection Zippo. Because that would be a real good collection to buy up, especially individually

[kup]

Home ownership is vastly overrated unless you lack the self discipline to manage your finances correctly. Keep the collection and rent.

I tend to agree with Jaydisc.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Seems to me you'd be better off living overseas for a year or two and working on that perfect (or realistically close enough that you're good with it) partner bit. I suggest Canada, so you can take advantage of the cheap US TF prices while you're at it.

[Sharky]

This is something i am currently going through myself, there is no need to sell the collection, most likley you are correct in assuming you wont raise enough for a deposit. the collection can stay, and you can get what you want, i was more tight with the cash flow, and the collection stalled, but i managed to raise enough for a deposit.

you canhave your cake and eat it too but there are sacrifices.......

[Sam]

At the risk of oversimplifying the thought process - I think it ultimately comes down to what you want more - the TF collection or to be able to save up and pay off your own place.

I don't think there are any right or wrong answers - in the end, we can't take anything away with us (but we can leave it for someone close to us, so that may affect your decision).

[Of course, I am operating on the assumption that you are in a situation where you need to sell your TF collection in order to acquire the necessary funds to put a deposit down for your own place.]

[Lint]

Wise words from Grandmaster Flash:

"d,d,d,d,d,d,d do, don't, d,d,d do, don't don't do it! b,ba,baby... b,ba,baby" (sell your collection that is :p)

[liegeprime]

You will have to make sacrifices in purchasing new TFs. I admit it is rather harder for you since your collecting is rather more "disciplined" than mine - ie MISB, AFA graded stuff, et al. For me it took a year of splurging to complete most of G1 as much as I could - buying out the bigger stuff , then stop by 90% purchasing on the second year and putting it all in saving up for a down payment... half of my salary goes to my mortgage , but Ive already paid off about 8% of my mortgage now in just 2 years. I knew before I bought my house now that Tf purchase is going to be curtailed massively when I start a mortgage which is why I bought off as much as I could and slowed down drastically the 2nd year to save up. Then by the time I had the house Im used to the drastic cut in buying Tfs it doesnt feel like Im scrimping. I still get to purchase expensive (IMO) ones but limiting my purchase now to mebbe 1 expensive Tf in every 2 months and the rest is by laybuy, but hey it beats not having to purchase any at all, which is not bad as well, if there none out there anyways that interest me atm. I mean I have a room full already anyways to keep me occupied. I from the very start when I came here am decided to OWN a house not rent. Others here prefer and have decided they will RENT and never own. So its all up to you assess your wants veeery clearly.

Then it boils down to planning for what you want really. You know you want to keep the collection (well, the really importnant ones), you know you want a house. You need a roof (whether rent or owned) so you can keep your collection and yourself safe. If you are living with your parents well - do you pay rent? If not then that's better coz you can save up for the house, If yes you can still save. So work around what your resources are atm, and project/calculate how your spending will be once youve purchased which will give you an idea how to go about still collecting and owning a house feasible. If by chance its going to be reaaaaaalllly hard, I suggest you save for the house ( if you really want to own) for about 2 years. This would mean a cutdown on TF purchasing and really culling your collection to the really cant live without pieces only and putting all your resources to saving up. You can still give yourself a treat every now and then with buying small things but it comes down to really what you yourself set as a priority.

[VERT]

I tend to agree with Jaydisc.
Yeah I rent. The repayments on a house are murder.

[To Punish & Enslave]

I dont think buying a home will ever get less expensive or easier overall. Yes from time to time the housing market goes up and down but over all its getting further out of reach. I worry how my kids will afford a home. Ask some one you know who bought a house 40 years ago and they will most likely say something like $50G or less. Im sure back then it wasnt easy to manage a mortgage of that amount aswell. One thing i notice with age is ya look back and say I could of bought that unit for only that much but look at the price today its doubled.Look at the stock market i hear people loosing coin all the time. I have family and friends that find it difficult to get a good rental property as they are in demand. Why pay someones elses home loan off by renting.If you have a glimpse of hope to purchase a home for you your future family and tfs grab it with both hands and do it. I worked 2 jobs most of my working life to buy a modest home that no one can kick me out of when the lease is up.Just the bank knocking on the door instead if you default on a payment then they kick you out. (Sorry not talking by experience but thought id throw that in for good humor or before some one else did)

[heroic_decepticon]

I don't know about NZ, but I would say that buying a home in AU is killer. Here, people are left and hung out to dry, in that there is very little assistance from the government, not in terms of money, but really initiatives that will help younger people along with a home. My wife and I looked into buying earlier this year and decided to scrap the plan. The repayments are just insane. And at the end of the repayment period, we would have paid 3 times the purchase price (ie: for a $500K property, we would have paid $1.5mil at the end of 30 years; yeah, wtf).

It just does not make sense to me. Repayments are high, tax is high. It'd almost be like being worked to the bone, with a monkey on the back for the next 30 years. Not that it can't be done, but it's hard to see how the "average" Australian can comfortably afford his/her own place unless its far out in the 'burbs requiring substantial commuting to work (which for me is in the city).

That's my 2 cents, but like I said, don't know the situation in NZ.

[kup]

I don't know about NZ, but I would say that buying a home in AU is killer. Here, people are left and hung out to dry, in that there is very little assistance from the government, not in terms of money, but really initiatives that will help younger people along with a home. My wife and I looked into buying earlier this year and decided to scrap the plan. The repayments are just insane. And at the end of the repayment period, we would have paid 3 times the purchase price (ie: for a $500K property, we would have paid $1.5mil at the end of 30 years; yeah, wtf).

It just does not make sense to me. Repayments are high, tax is high. It'd almost be like being worked to the bone, with a monkey on the back for the next 30 years. Not that it can't be done, but it's hard to see how the "average" Australian can comfortably afford his/her own place unless its far out in the 'burbs requiring substantial commuting to work (which for me is in the city).

That's my 2 cents, but like I said, don't know the situation in NZ.

Every once in a while I think about the benefits of buying my own home and I come to the same conclusion - It's not worth sacrificing your quality of life for one, specially for 30 years.

By the time your done, the best years of your life are gone and wasted in what? A home which you will have to sell anyway because you are likely too old to maintain it. The savings you would have accumulated without the house (in bank or investments) should be more than enough for a comfortable retirement if you have been responsible.

[liegeprime]

....... if you have been responsible.

that is something one has to be always mindful of otherwise one would end up in the gutter whether your renting or owning a house.:)

[To Punish & Enslave]

Yes the so called great australian dream is slipping out of most peoples grasp. Unless your DINKS = double income no kids. A quick point though yes you may pay over 30 years 1.5 mil for a $500.000 loan but what would the land and house be worth in 30 years esp in Sydney. Its mind boggling

[kup]

Yes the so called great australian dream is slipping out of most peoples grasp. Unless your DINKS = double income no kids. A quick point though yes you may pay over 30 years 1.5 mil for a $500.000 loan but what would the land and house be worth in 30 years esp in Sydney. Its mind boggling

Say it doubles in price in the next 30 years to 1mil - You are still .5 mil short and even if you break even, the 30 years you lost due to a very restricted budget cannot be bought back.

The only way that a home may be worth it today (probably wont' be in the near future) is if you have a medium to high dual income with your wife and plan to have children, that way you have something to leave behind for them. However that only applies to the Now since in a couple more years, the sacrifice will probably not be worth the benefit even with a dual income and kids since you will likely be affecting their quality of life too due to the overwhelming mortgage.

About the '40 years ago it cost 50k to own a house'. Yeah that is true and it may actually have been less. My uncle bought a home in Sydney about 30 years ago, it took him and my aunt about 10 years to pay it off on a single average income with some 'casual' help from my aunt. Their property is now worth about 1 mil. Yeah 40-50k was a lot more back then but I doubt many can payoff a mortgage these days in 10 years.

[To Punish & Enslave]

spot on kup My complete perspective on life changed when i had kids. It wasnt all just about me anymore. I live for my kids its a kinda primal instinct that takes over and i became less selfish. If I was batchen it with no wife or kids god help the state i would be in covered in tfs to my eyeballs and living on tin food im hopeles. But my life changed and id rather hand my kids my home than a bunch of tfs when i pass.Kup live in the moment your state of mind is as it should be your living life the way you see it but boy life can change in a flash.

[SharkyMcShark]

I've been told by my mother that I'm guaranteed a spot in this home as long as I'm at uni.

I'm 3rd year law now and intend to drag this out for as long as is humanly possible, starting with a year off law next year to do honours in politics.

[To Punish & Enslave]

I've been told by my mother that I'm guaranteed a spot in this home as long as I'm at uni.

I'm 3rd year law now and intend to drag this out for as long as is humanly possible, starting with a year off law next year to do honours in politics.

Thats funny as i love it milk it mate mmm lawyer in the making eh sharkymcshark is a fitting name lol

[The_Damned]

Say it doubles in price in the next 30 years to 1mil - You are still .5 mil short and even if you break even, the 30 years you lost due to a very restricted budget cannot be bought back.

The only way that a home may be worth it today (probably wont' be in the near future) is if you have a medium to high dual income with your wife and plan to have children, that way you have something to leave behind for them. However that only applies to the Now since in a couple more years, the sacrifice will probably not be worth the benefit even with a dual income and kids since you will likely be affecting their quality of life too due to the overwhelming mortgage.

About the '40 years ago it cost 50k to own a house'. Yeah that is true and it may actually have been less. My uncle bought a home in Sydney about 30 years ago, it took him and my aunt about 10 years to pay it off on a single average income with some 'casual' help from my aunt. Their property is now worth about 1 mil. Yeah 40-50k was a lot more back then but I doubt many can payoff a mortgage these days in 10 years.

um you are not taking into account the rent you would have paid how much would have that added up to? where i live my repayment is only a little more then what i would pay for my house if i rented so a mortgage is the way to go .

[Bartrim]

um you are not taking into account the rent you would have paid how much would have that added up to? where i live my repayment is only a little more then what i would pay for my house if i rented so a mortgage is the way to go .

I agree with this also their something very important to take into consideration... getting old. When I lived in Sydney I worked alongside a Vietnam Vet in his late 60's. The army had lost his papers so he couldn't get his army pension now since he has rented his whole life he has to work until the day he dies to continously pay rent. What alot of people do in Australia is go to some mining community work in the mines for 5 years and buy a house outright. Seriously their pay is crazy and there is nothing to do so you save your money real quick. One friend had just finished his electrical apprenticeship and went for a job as a maintanance worker on the equipment. They told him "We can give you a job but because you have only just finished your apprenticeship and don't have any real experience as it was through the local council in a small town we can only offer you a wage of $150,000 p/a". My friends response ".... ok... I guess that'll have to do"

[1AZRAEL1]

My fiance and I looked at it both ways Rent vs Buying. We tried for about 12 months to find a place to rent, and got rejected every single time. And with the rising rents, we were looking at $350+ to rent. So because we got rejected from every place we went for, we decided "screw it, let's try for a home loan". Went to Rams and on our wages could have gone as high as a $350K home loan. Could look at it either way, but I think we were lucky in the fact we got a no deposit home loan when we did, because they were stopping that only a few days after we went in. Saving up a deposit would be hard enough when you are renting at $350+ a week. Now we are paying roughly $450 a week on a mortgage, which is only $100 more than what I would expect is the going rate for renting in a decent place. But at the end of the day, I am paying off for my own home and will have something to show for it at the end of 30 years, rather than paying off someone elses mortgage and have nothing.

I have also thought about selling some of my collection to actually have more cash, but I just can't bring myself around to doing it. As Liege said, I have had to massively cut down on my spending, but I am way further away from completing my collection than he is :p

[kup]

um you are not taking into account the rent you would have paid how much would have that added up to? where i live my repayment is only a little more then what i would pay for my house if i rented so a mortgage is the way to go .

Yeah but the situation changes considerably the closer you are to Sydney. I would have to pay well over double my current rent for just a small flat.

[The_Damned]

Yeah but the situation changes considerably the closer you are to Sydney. I would have to pay well over double my current rent for just a small flat.

i am paying $360 in repayments for a 4 bedroom home, i think that is quite affordable:confused:

[Zippo]

*Reads*

Cheers for the thoughts so far

[The_Damned]

*Reads*

Cheers for the thoughts so far

i wouldnt sell the collection unless you really had to. i would maybe really cut down on all expenses and try and save like buggery and then try and find the cheapest house you can in a few years time:) nothing like having your own house worth the blood sweat and tears:)

[The_Damned]

1) Good idea, you need a house and since I am having trouble finding that perfect partner of mine in order to save together, rasing a large amount of cash by myself seems to be the only way to get a deposit


maybe perfect partner is aiming to high? as they dont really exist;)

[kup]

i am paying $360 in repayments for a 4 bedroom home, i think that is quite affordable:confused:

I would be looking at around $700-$1000+ p/w for something like that here in Sydney suburbs, price would range depending on location and proximity to the CBD.

[The_Damned]

I would be looking at around $700-$1000+ p/w for something like that here in Sydney suburbs, price would range depending on location and proximity to the CBD.

there is the problem right there sydney is an expensive hole, i dont know why any1 would want to live there...... :confused::confused:



um sorry zippo i will shutup now sorry for derailing the thread :)

[heroic_decepticon]

I would be looking at around $700-$1000+ p/w for something like that here in Sydney suburbs, price would range depending on location and proximity to the CBD.


Yup, agree with that. I just have to live in the city. Taking public transport to the city is something that would drive me bonkers because of the sorry state of the transport infrastructure.

With all that being said, I do encourage buying a place, if its at all feasible and especially so if you have kids.

Wife and I are just not going to buy in Sydney because it does not make sense and anyway, we have properties in Singapore and Hong Kong so we're not fussed.

***

Question to the guys who have their own place, do the amounts of $350, $450 on the mortgage per week include a pro rated amount for tax, cost of water (don't pay for water if renting), strata levies, council fees and thing like that? Again, the nearer one is to Sydney, the higher such fees are.

[1AZRAEL1]

Question to the guys who have their own place, do the amounts of $350, $450 on the mortgage per week include a pro rated amount for tax, cost of water (don't pay for water if renting), strata levies, council fees and thing like that? Again, the nearer one is to Sydney, the higher such fees are.

Mine does not include council fees and such, mine is about $230 every quater for that. Water is whatever I use :p but strata fees I avoid because I bought a house, that mainly applies to units and such. Not sure what the pro rated tax thingy is, should I be worried? :confused:

[Bartrim]

I've got my loan as a viridian line of credit with the bank. Thats where all our money goes straight against the loan and we take out what we need to survive.

[The_Damned]

what is a pro rated amount for tax?

[kurdt_the_goat]

I dunno if Perth's better than Sydney in terms of cost of living, but i can say i would have no problem paying off a 2k a month loan living by myself on a single income. I don't think my pay is that great either, but even with that i'd be able to save a steady amount or pay a mortgage off quicker.

[Sky Shadow]

maybe perfect partner is aiming to high? as they dont really exist;)

Sure the perfect partner exists - my wife has a perfect husband. :p

Zippo, I think it's up to you to decide what you want more - a house or the Transformers. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer: as you've demonstrated, there are potential benefits to both options.

[The_Damned]

Sure the perfect partner exists - my wife has a perfect husband. :p

Zippo, I think it's up to you to decide what you want more - a house or the Transformers. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer: as you've demonstrated, there are potential benefits to both options.

does that mean you are offering yourself?:p

[1orion2many]

:)No I think his better half is falsely advertising him to get rid of him:p:D

[langzixinxin]

I think your collection represents your past, you should keep it. Just in future, make house purchase your first priority over TF purchase. :rolleyes:

[Doubledealer]

Forgetting about the collection for a second, you would be far better off saving for a house rather than renting for the rest of your life. The people against buying must live in ridiculously expensive area's so no wonder they don't recommend it. Having your own house means you can do whatever you like to it, you'll never have the fear of being booted out and in 25 years (a lot less if you, and hopefully a partner too at some point, get payrises/higher paying jobs along the way) you'll have it all paid off. Just as house prices go up, so does the cost of renting. I hate to think what the rent prices will be like in another 25 years from now...

My advice is to keep saving for a deposit on a house until such time as you find your perfect partner, then at some point BLAMMO buy an awesome house together (the amount the banks will loan you will obviously go up on dual-income so you can afford something nicer). If you can't afford to buy your ideal house then you'll either have to move/look at some more affordable area's or get a higher paying job. ;) Good luck with whatever you do!

[Zippo]

To dig up an oldish topic ...
I have been thinking about this again - the merits of selling the majority of the SEALED collection to find a deposit of a house, but really because it is all getting out of hand/control etc.

My thought - sell everything aside from my Generation One items (compared with selling it ALL)
That is, I sell my collection of the following lines and sub lines: G1 Reissues, eHobby Reissues, Masterpeice, Binaltech, Binaltech Asterisk, Kissplayers, Alternators, Classics, Henkei, Universe 2.0, Generations, Music, Sports and Device Label, Beast Wars, Car Robots, Armada, Micron Legend, Superlink, Galaxy Force, Collectors Club and Botcon

The sticking point - Euro G1 and G2. Not sure exactly where I would cut the line regarding these figures - the way I have stored my G2 stuff does take up a fairly large box.

Why keep G1 - well, it is after all the stuff that I grew up with and if I was looking at it from a pure financial aspect then it is the stuff that has more value than at lot of the new stuff (there are exceptions to that, some G1 stuff is cheap and some modern stuff is expensive). Selling the sealed items from my collection would not only give me a cash injection that I would use to either fund a house or purchase AFA graded G1, but also empty out a large storage shed and given enough time could also reduce the need to even have a storage shed.

Why sell stuff I adore (Binaltech, Henkei etc) - because I have it twice! Once sealed inside a storage shed that I never look at and once opened in my room that I look at each day and sometimes even play with. As people say time and time again - transformers have two or more modes and keeping them sealed inside plastic is denying you of the enjoyment of transforming and enjoying the second or more modes. Somewhere along the line this has sunk in and I am opening more than I used to, while also keeping a lot of things sealed away.

Again - this is selling the SEALED part of my collection - none of the loose stuff would be sold
Thoughts?

[Sky Shadow]

Again - this is selling the SEALED part of my collection - none of the loose stuff would be sold
Thoughts?

Do it. Definitely. I don't see any reason for you to keep it. Particularly since you're paying for storage (and in light of the sad storage disaster you had to face last time.)

[kup]

This is what I would do:

Keep Classics/Henkei figures and a selection of BW characters such as the show bunch. Also keep the hard to reacquire items. Keeping a selection of G2 stuff would be good as they are very hard to get in the market.

All the other lines can be sold.

[GoktimusPrime]

Again - this is selling the SEALED part of my collection - none of the loose stuff would be sold
Thoughts?

I seriously think it's a good idea. Do it. :)

[heroic_decepticon]

I'd say sell them if you have no more need of them. It'd be good if you don't need a storage shed to keep them because that defeats the purpose of collecting. BUT, Im not really sure how much selling them would help toward a house deposit, bearing in mind the effort it would take to sell them separately to get max profits (sometime time ago i did a calculation of how much my entire MIB g1 collection cost me, excluding doubles and only counting each figure once, and that was only $28K thereabouts).

Therefore if it's newer stuff, I'm not sure how much you'd actually get by way of aiding with house deposit. I'd do it to get rid of the need for a storage shed though...