Prior to his transformation from miser to geyser (of charity) in A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge refers to the holidays as “a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you.” In that spirit, and inspired by yo go re of OAFE, I decided to keep a running tally of every toy I bought in 2008 to find out exactly how much money I spend on this hobby. The list does not include any toys or figures I received as gifts from friends or family. Shipping costs are included in the price.
This certainly isn’t an attempt to brag. It’s often considered gauche in America to reveal anything about one’s salary or spending habits, but suffice to say DMG and I are by no means rich. Also, keep in mind that this is all spread across twelve months, and that it comes at the cost of a number of DVDs, videogames and other items I might have bought for myself otherwise.
OK, I’m done trying to downplay spending thousands of dollars on toys. Without further ado, I present to you Poe’s Official Toy Tally of 2008.
| Date | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1/3 | Animated Hellboy (CSC) | $36.97 |
| 1/4 | Mattel Batmobile (eBay) | $18.00 |
| 1/14 | Futurama Wave 2 (BBTS) | $32.28 |
| 1/15 | Secret Files Joker (eBay) | $16.99 |
| 1/16 | Batman and Robin TRU exclusive | $17.84 |
| 1/25 | Batman & Son Batman | $15.00 |
| 2/2 | DCSH Batgirl (eBay) | $22.25 |
| 2/3 | DCUC1 Batman | $10.00 |
| 2/27 | McF Master Chief & Cortana (TRU.com) | $31.72 |
| 2/28 | M.A.C. Futurama Leela (eBay) | $25.28 |
| 3/5 | Zoidberg (Universe-1) (Free w/ sub) | $0.00 |
| 3/15 | Hanuman (Kridana) | $22.94 |
| 3/22 | Iron Man Mark 03 | $11.00 |
| 3/23 | Iron Monger | $11.00 |
| 3/26 | DCSH Killer Croc (eBay) | $14.00 |
| 3/27 | Stealth Operations Suit Iron Man | $11.00 |
| 4/1 | DC Universe Classics Wave 2 | $70.00 |
| 4/9 | NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | $65.00 |
| 4/9 | Enterprise Broken Bow Lt. Reed (eBay) | $20.00 |
| 4/10 | 25th Anniv. Snake Eyes | $6.00 |
| 4/10 | Madball Horn Head | $5.00 |
| 4/10 | Plasma Kreaps Gargoyle | $5.00 |
| 4/24 | Real Stands | $20.00 |
| 4/28 | Clear Plastic Display Stands | $17.00 |
| 4/30 | Ramathorr | $35.00 |
| 5/2 | Helm of Xaanm | $30.00 |
| 5/8 | McFarlane display stands | $23.05 |
| 5/15 | Marcus Fenix (Gears of War) | $17.00 |
| 5/17 | Care Bears (eBay) | $17.30 |
| 5/20 | Futurama wave 3 | $32.28 |
| 5/30 | Iron Man Mk 02 | $10.00 |
| 6/17 | Zipline Batman (eBay) | $7.79 |
| 6/26 | Dracula (Toy Island Universal Monsters) | $18.24 |
| 7/6 | Frankenstein (Toy Island Universal Monsters) | $8.00 |
| 7/6 | Mummy (Toy Island Universal Monsters) | $8.00 |
| 7/6 | Wolf Man (Toy Island Universal Monsters) | $8.00 |
| 7/7 | Bane (DCSH) | $15.00 |
| 7/22 | Lego Batman figure (eBay) | $11.00 |
| 7/26 | NECA Mousers Exclusive | $20.00 |
| 7/26 | Lobo Exclusive | $25.00 |
| 7/26 | King Grayskull Exclusive | $30.00 |
| 7/28 | Dark Knight Movie Masters Case | $60.00 |
| 8/3 | Hulk Legends Wendigo | $15.00 |
| 8/5 | DC Universe Classics Wave 3 | $80.00 |
| 8/11 | 2 Blackstar Demons (eBay) | $19.00 |
| 8/22 | Ryu/Sagat SOTA two-pack (eBay) | $25.00 |
| 8/27 | Four Horsemen Timekeepers | $34.25 |
| 9/6 | Castle Crashers Blue Knight | $29.62 |
| 9/13 | Skeleflex Alien | $11.00 |
| 9/13 | TML Black Suit Spider-man | $16.00 |
| 9/13 | NECA T2 Endoskeleton (eBay) | $16.94 |
| 9/29 | Deathstroke variant (eBay) | $20.00 |
| 10/3 | DC Universe Classics Wave 4 | $70.00 |
| 10/5 | NECA Predator | $23.00 |
| 10/18 | Futurama waves 4 & 5 | $56.58 |
| 10/19 | Movie Masters Batpod | $20.00 |
| 10/26 | Santa Mr. Potato Head | $8.00 |
| 10/30 | Young Buck Rudolph (eBay) | $9.00 |
| 11/8 | Iron Man Stealth Striker | $7.50 |
| 11/8 | Iron Man Satellite Armor | $7.50 |
| 11/9 | Probots Tom Brady | $15.60 |
| 11/12 | DC Universe Classics Wave 5 | $80.00 |
| 11/16 | Rayman Rabbid (NECA) | $5.99 |
| 11/16 | Barbie Batgirl | $42.99 |
| 11/16 | Plan-B Special Forces Accessories (eBay) | $13.49 |
| 11/17 | DCUC4 Artemis | $15.94 |
| 11/29 | DCUC Orion/Lightray two-pack | $28.82 |
| 11/30 | DCUC Wave 5 | $80.00 |
| 11/30 | E. Honda and Dhalsim SF | $36.68 |
| 12/7 | Firestorm (Jason Rusch) TRU.com | $15.13 |
| 12/12 | 12" Jack Skellington | $20.00 |
| 12/16 | Store Horsemen sale | $28.00 |
| 12/26 | Vintage Robocop toys | $20.00 |
| 12/29 | DCUC Aquaman (modern) | $12.00 |
Total number of toys: 112
Total amount spent: $1,762.96
Happy New Years Poe and Gang!
Did you guys see wave 7 packaged photos at Fwoosh's wave 7 anticipation thread?
One of Flash's hands is open. That really sucks.
I really think Mattel is doing that so people buy Kid Flash for the close fist so as to pop that off and use it for the Barry Flash figure.
Sneaky Sneaky Mattel I think.
Pretty restrained – I tried to do something similar in 2006 but ran out of discipline and realised I better not compile any more evidence of my habit for my better half to pounce upon. Suffice to say that ran to considerably more than your total – in the spirit of not boasting lets make it clear that isn't big-headed or smug……well, maybe a little.
I don't want to work out this year's – suffice to say it would be horrific.
And a happy new year to you Poe.
Impressive list, my boy!
Maybe I should do the same for you next year???
Sweet. Fucking. Christ.
That's insane!
Also, I'm jealous.
Did you click the link through to yo go re's haul from last year? I'm an amateur…
Think I may be on par with you in spending, don't want to know though!
Interesting idea. Sadly I'm way over that, mostly because of Joes. So much Joe stuff came out this year.
I'm with Motorthing on this…..I don't want to compile evidence for my wife to use against me.
My spending was about 40 percent of that… and about 60 percent as many toys which is still ALOT of money!
An excellent list! Do you have a favorite, or is there anything you regret buying?
Regrets? A few, but nothing glaring, with the exception of the Tom Brady Pro-Bot. A few of these I ended up selling or trading over the course of the year (thereby mitigating some of these expenses).
As for favorites–I'll be getting to that in a post soon enough.
I never make it through two months whenever I try to do this…
I added up everything I posted in my "Toy Box" over at OAFE and its roughly $1,200, though I'm sure I spent more. Not too bad, about $100 a month is pretty decent.
My resolution for 2009 is to pay cash for everything (other than online orders), and if I don't have the money, I'll either have to wait or find a good hiding spot for it!
I saved all my receipts in case I can use them for tax purposes and I'm afraid to total them up.
Heh… can collecting toys be used as a tax write-off?
I get paid to blog part time and since it's a toy blog, I hope so.