GRAIL Splurging on a Grail: How do you decide?

Addicted to Alice Pins said:

<whimper> And today you'd be able to pay off school loans, mortgage, whatever you need to by auctioning off the "extras" if you'd bought them. Ha.

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I know! Dolls, more pins, lol!

I saw the BATB Masterpiece pin on ebay not that long ago... it sold mid February for a little over $300, so I would keep your eyes open on a disney masterpiece pins search, I have it as a followed search bc I am looking for the masterpiece stitch ones to start with, but ebay alerts you when new items match your search.

As for me personally on how I choose to spend money... Initially this year I was going to only go after grail like pins... Ones I have been looking for forever... Now I have widened that search just because I really want some traders and I want one pin collection art piece I am working on to be finished.

I have found when looking at the price of one pin vs but I could get 4-5 pins for that price... I look at the wish list I have of pins and see if there are 4-5 pins on that list I would want right then instead of that pin... Same goes when looking at any pin, a $30 pin I love and I say would I rather put this $30 towards another pin or do I want this one... I often come to an answer quickly... and it goes both ways and tells me how badly I want certain pins.

I can say I have never regretted buying a grail pin, but have regretted not buying one and then spent months looking for it and wound up buying at a higher price. The other thing I do is set in my head a price I am willing to pay and put that as my highest bid amount, if it goes over that I am bummed but I know they wanted it more and I am ok because I put the amount I was ok spending in and then I walk away (don't bid again higher quickly to try and beat them) and keep my eyes out for another one later. I do look at it as an investment, but an investment in art, I display them and would be spending a ton on art for decor, instead I would rather turn my pins into art and decor because they have sentimental value and bring back memories. I also see them as things I can pass down... Disney (hopefully *knock-on-wood*) isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable future and so passing them down to future generations will bring them joy as well!

I do have to say reading through some of the posts here I do agree wholeheartedly with the having a savings account for future unforeseeable problems and then what I do is have a bills account, a spending account and a savings account. This way all my bills are covered, I save so much a month, and whatever is left over can be spending for whatever.

starry_solo said:

I remember when those sat on ebay for $20 BIN without any takers, LOL.

But, to get back to the original discussion, you have to answer a few questions and then you will know:
1. How often do I see this pin(s) for sale?
2. Can I afford it, right now, for that price?
3. If I can, do I want to wait to see if it will go down?
4. If I can, will I regret buying it now and seeing it for less later on?
5. If I can, will I regret not buying it now and seeing it for more later on?
6. If I can't, well then, there's your answer.

I just splurged on a big grail for sis (BatB masterpiece pin from Jabberwocky) earlier this month, even though I had sold at least half of my traders and was supposed to cut back this year. I splurged even more on some good deals for pins I kind-of liked, but will probably eventually end up in my traders pile (yay, I find it hard to resist a good deal even if it's for a pin that I don't collect).

For the BATB masterpiece, I haven't seen it for sale or trade in my few years of collecting (although I am told it popped up for sale 2-3 years on ebay for a hefty price so I must have missed seeing it then). I had to decide whether to splurge that price (yes, it came with in a "lot" of pins, but unless I sell/trade those other pins away for pins for my collection, I don't count those yet.)

And, I'm about to buy some more pins for another side collection. I almost bought them today but wanted to think about it. Fortunately, I have the seller's phone number to make arrangements to buy them in a few days

I set aside funds for pins, vacations, etc. Different funds for different items and I don't dip into one for the other.

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eesser said:

I saw the BATB Masterpiece pin on ebay not that long ago... it sold mid February for a little over $300, so I would keep your eyes open on a disney masterpiece pins search, I have it as a followed search bc I am looking for the masterpiece stitch ones to start with, but ebay alerts you when new items match your search.

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Really? Last month? Dang it, oh well. I stopped looking for it after I bought the pin, LOL. Before that listing (I think I bought mine in January), it hadn't shown up in a few years and was selling for $300-ish as well.