GRAIL Splurging on a Grail: How do you decide?
Addicted to Alice Pins
Just here for the DMI codes; y'all have gone cray
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OK, I've been wanting to ask this for a couple weeks now. Elsewhere in this forum is the wonderful "Patience Is a Virtue" thread about the pin gods smiling on you when the time is right.
But sometimes you hesitate to spend too much on a pin, only to discover that the market swings to your disadvantage and now you will have to spend EVEN MORE on a grail if you're ever going to add it to your collection. In other words, for every great deal or stroke of luck, it seems like there is a "Darn, I should have ..." moment.
Like, I remember a few occasions when I saw the Alice Beloved Tales, new on card, for about $80. Both times, I didn't have $80 to spare. I let them go. And now every time I see one for sale, it's at least $200. I know everything in the pin world is cyclical, but does anyone really think the older BTs are going to drop to, like, $50 one day? And/or how many decades would that take even if it did happen? (Yes, I have no patience. Ha.)
So how do you decide when to suck it up and splurge on a grail? What considerations/rationale do you factor into your decision? If you splurge, do you consciously avoid new listings for it so you don't notice if a cheaper option becomes available? How often do you regret those splurges?
I'm talking 100% keeper pins that will stay in your collection unless or until a dire emergency arises that necessitates selling (and even then you'd auction a kidney before you'd part with that particular pin). And yes, buying/selling, because I'm in the subgroup on this forum with no regular access to parks or other sources of "at cost" pins. Trading just doesn't work for me, because acquiring pins to use as traders is so time-consuming and expensive that I'd rather just buy the exact pins I want.
Discuss! =)
But sometimes you hesitate to spend too much on a pin, only to discover that the market swings to your disadvantage and now you will have to spend EVEN MORE on a grail if you're ever going to add it to your collection. In other words, for every great deal or stroke of luck, it seems like there is a "Darn, I should have ..." moment.
Like, I remember a few occasions when I saw the Alice Beloved Tales, new on card, for about $80. Both times, I didn't have $80 to spare. I let them go. And now every time I see one for sale, it's at least $200. I know everything in the pin world is cyclical, but does anyone really think the older BTs are going to drop to, like, $50 one day? And/or how many decades would that take even if it did happen? (Yes, I have no patience. Ha.)
So how do you decide when to suck it up and splurge on a grail? What considerations/rationale do you factor into your decision? If you splurge, do you consciously avoid new listings for it so you don't notice if a cheaper option becomes available? How often do you regret those splurges?
I'm talking 100% keeper pins that will stay in your collection unless or until a dire emergency arises that necessitates selling (and even then you'd auction a kidney before you'd part with that particular pin). And yes, buying/selling, because I'm in the subgroup on this forum with no regular access to parks or other sources of "at cost" pins. Trading just doesn't work for me, because acquiring pins to use as traders is so time-consuming and expensive that I'd rather just buy the exact pins I want.
Discuss! =)