The Soapbox IX: Budgeting Basics

[STL]

My apologies for the late Soapbox. It had originally been intended to be more timely for the beginning of this year but circumstances prevented me from completing it earlier as I toiled through recounts of the Melbourne BBQ and the Transforming Contest. Anyways, enough of my grumbling, here is the latest instalment of the Soapbox for your reading pleasure.

The commencement of a new year always brings with it many New Years Resolutions. Among collectors, one of the most stated ones would be to spend less on this healthy little obsession we have called Transformers. It’s no secret to anyone that 90% of resolutions are soon forgotten. And I’m certain many of us will find ourselves breaking this resolution pretty easily. Nevertheless, this Soapbox hopes to come up with some ways to save money and budget.

A collector’s buying has three components:
1.) New Local Stuff
2.) New Overseas Stuff
3.) Old Stuff

Let’s look at each of these individually.

1.) New Local Stuff
Of all of the releases we buy, the local stuff is the one that offers us the most flexibility in our budgets. There’s two main parts in this. A.) Savings and B.) Returnability

A. Savings
The discounts, the special prices and clearances all help but how much do they help? Some feel that there’s way too much effort and that it’s a waste of time. Some want the best bargains they can get and maximize their savings. The only real way to test this is with real data. Here is my budget spreadsheet from last year:

In it you’ll find give columns: the first two are the name and class size (where relevant) followed by the Retail Recommended Price (the Retail Price), my Budgeted Cost, my Actual cost. Most of the data represented items that were found at Australian retail in 2008 so there was an opportunity to acquire them.

Abnormalities:
This section here identifies some of the special items in the year in terms of how they were achieved at such prices
- Importation direct from the US when the dollar traded at close to parity (AUD/USD = 0.96USD)
- Price-Matching with Bonus Percentages
- Clearance Items

Having cleared all of that out of the way, let’s look at the numbers.

Item A.1: Actual Cost to RRP: +$848
$848. That’s a massive saving if you hunt very hard and avoid paying full RRP amounting to a discount of 32.1% to RRP. In TF terms, this effectively represents a loose Fortress Maximus. Or 31 full priced Deluxe, 18 Voyagers, 14 Ultra Class .or 9 Leader Class figures..Even more if you buy them at further discounts,

Item A.2: Actual Cost to Budgeted Cost: +$562
There was a saving of $562 which represented a decrease of 23.9% on my Budgeted Cost. Again very healthy in terms of extra funds available for alternative purposes.

Item A.3: Budgeted Cost to RRP: +$286
Amounting to a 10.8% discount to RRP, the budgeted figures were somewhat based on the premise that hunting would be a pain. Not a significant savings but still healthy if you knew you saved that much for the year. It’s better to budget negatively so that your pocket is prepared for the worst case scenario.

So there is no myth to the savings. There are savings. However, frequently it’s argued that the savings generated come at a high cost due to the search costs, petrol and time, involved. But how many working hours does this come to? The average wage before tax in Australia is $28 per hour. This amounts to approximately 30 working hours or 1.25 working days a year more once you factor in tax. Do the savings then really justify you committing to the hunt? Is it worth it? Could you spend those hours doing something more productive?

That’s a tough call.

One thing you have to remember is that most of us shop. Hunting for TFs therefore really isn’t that much of an added cost in terms of petrol. Especially if you are shopping with the partner/better half. So is it a cost? Sometimes but more often than not you can view it as a social activity too. On top of that, there’s the thrill of the hunt. The joy of finding something new adorning the shelves is a special one. It’s an experience different to the virtual buying environment.

Conversely, there are those who work fulltime and hunting would detract from their limited personal time on weekends. Maybe in those cases saving $850 a year just isn’t worth it. It all depends but that’s the subjective part. The objective point is that there are savings and massive savings at that. Anybody would want an extra $850 a year.

Hence, we see that being a savvy consumer and hunting at retail, chasing down sale prices and specials can be a very effective means of savings that gives your $$$ more mileage.

B.) Returnability

A core advantage of buying domestically. If you are dissatisfied with the QC or design inherent in a toy, 90% of retailers offer a free change of mind policy. If you have a figure that’s not up to scratch its easy to replace, This is a massive benefit for a collector. Too often do you buy that figure that seems faulty compared to everyone else’s. Well, it’s a right you have and it’s a right you should not fear exercising.

The second advantage with returnability is the ability to return anything you buy at an expensive price for a cheaper price later on. This negates you having to be on the hunt 24-7 as long as you hold onto your receipt. Your receipt is a powerful little document. Once you find the cheaper item, dig up the receipt and take that item to the retailer you bought it from previously that was more expensive. Returning is a pain? Not really. If you hunt/shop regularly enough it isn’t at all.

In short, buying from retail is the budgeting point that you have the most control over. Your discretion is broader and your window for savings is far more expansive and you should get the most you can.

2.) New Overseas Stuff
The difficulty with budgeting for something released by TarkaraTomy or the exclusive is more problematic to budget for. Postage costs become a frustrating and variable factor as you can’t be 100% sure of how much to anticipate. Then there is the issue of exclusivity. This means its very hard to predict the price of the item itself. And that’s not mentioning the stability of the Australian Dollar (AUD). The AUD is one of the highest traded currencies in the world with very high volatility.

But that’s where having a close knit community such as Ozformers comes in. It gives you a range of options to minimize search costs.

Another means is to buy in large quantities and save on postage costs. For instance, ordering 1 Henkei at a time will incur a far higher postage cost than ordering 10 Henkei. So hold out and buy items together. Whether it be a mix of Encore and Henkei or several Encore, you can mix and match on sites such as BBTS and Robot Kingdom. The only qualification is with exclusives b/c you know the window for getting them before they appreciate is so small and the outlets by which to get them is limited. So

3.) Old Stuff
This is the final component of acquisitions. Whether it be a Japanese release or a Hasbro list, we are frequently limited by the volatility of the AUD. This first problem is just something that we have to accept though b/c as individuals few of us would be capable of hedges and whatnot.

It’s the second problem that we really have control over. the availability of items. For instance, holding out for that vintage G1 Bludgeon or original Beast Wars Rattrap is very problematic and difficult to budget for. You could budget to buy Rattrap in January but if he doesn’t show up on eBay or alternative source, you have nothing to show and your budget becomes useless. There is one way around it.

A basket. What I mean here is that you can package a basket of 30 vintage toys into a 4 month period. You form a list of 20-30 with the highest price you intend to pay (shipping included factoring in that it might come from overseas). Then you constantly hunt for the toys within this basket only in the 4 months.

What happens if the toy doesn’t appear in that 4 month period? Roll it over into the next 4 month period.

What happens if you find another vintage toy that you want but didn’t put in the basket? Remove another item(s) of equivalent value from the basket. That way you maintain the same amount of expenditure in the 4 month period without compromising your pocket.

Vintage buying is harder. Simply b/c it comes down to a matter of impulse and perception of how easily it is to find an item again. This is perhaps the hardest area of budgeting b/c it’s harder to maintain control over.


And there you have it. An examination of a number of ways that will help us to buy more responsibly. This year looms as being one of the worst in our lifetime, saving $$$ and prudent budgeting will be something that will not only help out our hip pockets but also help us to continue enjoying our hobby responsibly. Hopefully, this Soapbox has helped come up with a few good ideas.

[snazzbot 101]

Another great Soapbox STL - though I'm surprised that until now it hasn't elicited any responses.

No-one has any money problems? There's too many words?

Money never was an issue for me. I made enough from my steady job to buy the things I liked whilst my lifestyle choices (or you could say lack of them...) meant I still had enough left over to save and invest.

But that's all changed and in a little while - one month and one day as a matter of fact - I'll have a place of my own and a mortgage to match.

Eeep!

This marks the first of many changes for me and how I live. There are the average workaday things - cooking all my own meals, doing all my own washing (I'm 33 and I still live at home) - and the Exciting things, like finally being able to showcase my collection the way I've always wanted (I've already picked out the room for My Boys).

But it also means for the first time I'll need to live on a budget - and not my usual: Oops I just bought Brave Maximus, I'll restart it next week budget. But a real honest to goodness budget.

It's all rather daunting.
A bit terrifying too.

But personally, future budgeting for my collection needs to be about priorities and balance. I will have a mortgage and I have no desire to still have it 30 years time. Or 20 years. Or 10 years. So I must do everything I can to pay it off. Showcasing my collection the way I've always wanted - glass display cases and all - will need to wait.

That said, an aspect of moving out is to live my life on my terms - something I feel I cannot do now - so if everything does revolve around reducing debt then I'm just trading one sort of self-enforced captivity for another.

Hence the need for balance.

But recently, perhaps as my new reality has sunk in, I have found it harder to add to my collection. Something I would've bought without hesitation six months ago I find myself looking at and actually thinking "Do I truly WANT this?" It's as if I'm in some Pon farr style self-combat between my desire to buy things and my need to live my life responsibly.

And I really like buying things. I really do.

[jacksplatt11]

I've only got 1 money problem, I don't have enough

[loophole]

There a couple of good ideas that i like in that and might take on for myself.

As for budgeting in the last 6 months of last year i went a bit nuts with my TF purchasing especially the vintage stuff and probally spent more that i should have, oh well thats my own fault.

However this year i have given myself a couple of goals one of which is to complete the 84' series of TF's which i have most of them but not all, but since doing this i have found that im not looking at every single vintage TF that i dont have and thinking i'll buy it!! and so far it has been a great help and all im doing now is looking for those select few of about 12 figures ranging from someone expensive as Wheeljack to one as cheap as Gears and because it is so few i only need to buy 1 a month and that way by the end of the year i will have acheived my goal without buying every other TF, and i can still afford to buy the new toys that i actually want.

[blackie]

ive got the problem of wanting lots of different stuff, which is killing me.
i tried to stay to only retail products, which lasted about 3 weeks.... and back i am into buying G1 again :S

after my current few orders, im going to be majory cutting back, and starting to do what a lot of people do, setting monthly goals for completing series or years or teams.

I did have one goal last year to complete my Masterforce Godmaster leaders, which i did in about 2 weeks (and about $500 later)... so i wont set myself the goal of buying all the victory leaders.... thats going to be an expensive time for me.

that and now i owe my parents money for my car services (who knew a clutch could cost so much) so i think that im going to move away from G1 for a while, and work on completing later lines etc, untill i find a better/get another job to up my cash influx and give me more disposable income. that and if i see any takara collection TF's going for less than 40, i think im going to kill myself for doing this :P

[STL]

I just realised guys that I forgot the spreadsheet I mentioned but realised what happened. The site doesn't let us upload the Excel format. I've pasted the Excel document into a textfile so that's for your reading pleasure.

And thanks guys for letting me know that this was read. I thought it was my biggest failure in terms of the Soapbox. With the Soapbox, I want to tackle things that can add to us and I knew this was a challenge to get right but I'm glad that it did offer some good ideas.