andersonh1 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:47 am
I hardly ever shop at Target, because all of them around here are out of my way. But I went over to one of them on Saturday and had the same experience you describe. Just a few Cyberverse figures, nothing more.
Can't do it often, but once or twice I've spent more than I probably should have on a few figures that I really wanted, or that last one or two to complete a line, especially when I know the price will just go up.
I've got both Walmart and Target within really close driving distance from me. Target is pretty good. I flat out refuse to go to that Walmart for anything (not just toys) because it's an absolute shithole. There are several other Targets within about a half hour drive and I check them on occasion, there's also a Walmart about a half hour away that I've had pretty good luck at.
I've gotten pretty lucky with Earthrise. I went a little higher on some figures, most notably the ones that are original G1 characters: Ironhide/Prowl, Ratchet/Paradron. Luckily I didn't have to go TOO much above retail for those. Dirge and Ramjet were the ones I spent the most on. I also went a little higher on the Netflix Bumblebee and Soundwave, mostly because I knew I'd never find them in the wild. I did manage to find Elita-1 at the aformentioned Walmart (the one a half hour away). I also got lucky on a few of the other exclusives and was able to get extras and sell some of Runamuck and Runabout and Thrust. I still have extras of those and I also have two extras of the Barricade/Punch Counterpunch set. I also sold off previous versions of characters like Prowl, Bluestreak, Ironhide, Ratchet, Mirage, etc... I also still have some to sell off, Barricade, Arcee, Megatron and a few others. So selling previous ones does offset the cost a little bit.
I do think some of this has been stress purchases. We had a water line leak at our house on January 11th. It flooded the water table, leaving us without water until it was fixed. I called one leak detection company (American Leak Detection). The guy basically pointed to the wettest spot in the house and said it was under the slab and that we would have to replace the entire plumbing in the house. The estimate was $8,000. For JUST the hot water lines. Then they said that they could add the cold water line for another $4,000. I told him we couldn't afford that and they said they could knock it down to $2,000. That was still $10,000 and I told him we still couldn't afford that. I got three other estimates and wound up going with a company that did it for 6500. After that was done and they were about to turn the water to the house back on, we still heard running water. The water from the line to the house was on, but not the house itself. Insurance called another leak detection company to come out and they found that the leak was actually right under the valve to the house. So we had the plumber that did the house replace that. Then we had to have another company come out to fix the drywall from where the plumbing was replaced. As part of all of this, we had a company come out to dry out the carpets from the water. They had to have an asbestos check done, which wound up ruining the flooring in the bathrooms (they cut out samples of the linoleum). So the construction company had to drywall, paint and replace the bathroom flooring, then put the toilets back. That was last Friday, March 19th and we moved back in on that Saturday. So we've been stuck in a hotel for the last 2 1/2 months.
But, the story gets better. So after American Leak Detection gave their appraisal, insurance said they wouldn't cover the plumbing because it was inside or under the house. So my parents helped and paid for that up front. They were covering the leak detection and the hotel and other repairs needed as part of this issue. When the other leak detection came back and said it was the line from the street to the house, they then covered the plumbing. So, fortunately, I'm not out any money for this and I was able to use the check I got from them to pay my parents back. The only remaining parts of this are to pay the construction company and to have the carpets replaced. There was water damage. My parents offered to pay for replacing the flooring in the entire house (minus the bathrooms since those got replaced already). So insurance is sending a check to replace the hall carpeting because it was so damaged it couldn't be cleaned. We have yet to get that replaced, but we will soon. As for the flooring in the bathrooms, there was originally sheet vinyl in both bathrooms, but they don't really make that anymore, so we had to pick something else. We wound up going with vinyl tile, but even picking a pattern for that was a pain in the ass because we had picked some patterns from Home Depot only to be told they don't make those anymore!! After cussing out a lackey there, they were able to get the tile for our half bath, but not our master. I actually just went on Amazon and ordered it directly. And shipping for both of them took a week and a half!!
And throughout all of this, my wife is "working from home" in the hotel room. The hotel didn't have room service, so we basically relied on delivery services for dinner every night. And for me, dealing with the situation of trying to get us back home was a full time job unto itself. The stress of it was so bad, my wife's boss told her to take two days off after the weekend to decompress. We needed it. We did barely anything except cook and some light cleaning, but mostly it was spent in bed watching tv with the dogs, who we hadn't seen the whole time because they were with her mother. Oh, and in the middle of all of that, my wife got a new car. Her battery died back in early September and then died again when I was moving it so the people could work on the house. I was able to get it back in the garage without any help, but that prompted her to look into trading it in. Which she did. She was driving a 2017 Chevy and now has a 2021 Mazda, which we know for sure won't die on us anytime soon. That was about three weeks ago, so with that happening while we were still at the hotel, she can still count on one hand the number of times she's driven it.
I was going to Target almost two or three times a week for things like water and food for us at the hotel. And you can bet some of the stuff I bought there were stress purchases. I can say for sure that Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Ironworks, Airwave, and the Botropolis set were all 100% stress purchases. I can say that having them at the hotel to fiddle with in the evenings really did help to lower my stress level. I'm a very hands on person and constantly feel the need to have something to keep my hands busy. So they really did help. And, I will give Hasbro credit, the figures are far better than I expected so I found myself glad that I had got them, especially Primal and Rattrap. And the micromasters and weaponizers are just fun little toys. The week leading up to when we left the hotel, I had Siege Jetfire, Earthrise Astrotrain (I only make that distinction because that's the packaging he came in, it's the same as the Siege version), Sky Lynx, Airwave, both Ironworks, both space shuttle micromasters, both missile truck micromasters, core class Prime. There was basically a mini Cape Canavral there lol. I'm honestly surprised I didn't buy more, like SS86 Hot Rod, Kup, and Jazz or the fossilizers or Warpath.
So yeah, glad to be back home. FAR less stressful and I can go back to selling off the extra parts of my collection.