The "Gaaaahhh, I wish I had bought...? Thread

[John in Missouri]

The only time I've ever regretted not buying something was when KB Toys had about 30 Mater's Rollin' Bowlin' Playsets on a table for $9.95 each. I bought 8 of them, went out to the minivan, went back inside due to my wife's prodding, and bought 4 more. Was I happy with 12? Sure, but on the drive home I knew I should have bought all of them.

Actually, looking back, I suppose I also regret not buying all 100 or so expensive pegwarmers that was The Screaming Banshee. But I had neither the money, the time for several roundtrips to an out-of-town Walmart, or the room to store them all for 5 years or so.

[Clearysdad19]

The only time I've ever regretted not buying something was when KB Toys had about 30 Mater's Rollin' Bowlin' Playsets on a table for $9.95 each. I bought 8 of them, went out to the minivan, went back inside due to my wife's prodding, and bought 4 more. Was I happy with 12? Sure, but on the drive home I knew I should have bought all of them.

Actually, looking back, I suppose I also regret not buying all 100 or so expensive pegwarmers that was The Screaming Banshee. But I had neither the money, the time for several roundtrips to an out-of-town Walmart, or the room to store them all for 5 years or so.

You have any of those bowling mater sets left.

[John in Missouri]

Nope, long gone -- sorry!

[Micky]

I have a few regrets. The biggest one of course is not having a SOS set. I was collecting at the time but just didn't know enough about how to get one. I hadn't stumbled onto Take5 yet and was still just buying what I could find in stores and going on ebay to find out what new Cars were coming out.
Second is the old Rollin Bowlin Mater story. My KB had a pile of them on clearance and it took forever for them to sell out. I did buy 2, one to open and one to keep in box.
Third is Bessie. I found 4 at TRU around Christmas time the year she came out. I did buy all 4 but here is the dumb part, I returned 2. It was Christmas and I wanted the money to buy something else. Of course I never saw her again. There are probably lots more sad stories, I just can't think of any more right now, it's too painful LOL.

I just thought of another regret. A few years ago at either SDCC or D23 (I don't remember which one) a limited edition chrome McQueen was for sale. I had the chance to purchase it from someone at the show for $99. I turned it down. Oh well...

[Enzo]

Admittedly not exactly on my top 10 list of time travel stops but in hindsight I remember a colleague back in 2007 having an Apple iCar on his desk. Was a freebie gift from a client apparently, something he'd just chucked on his desk because of the logo. Not a regret as such in that Cars had passed me by until 2011, but we all used to play poker occasionally and he was always the 'pigeon'. I could have taken him anytime.

[PopeMobile]

Great thread. Since I only started collecting around June 2012 I was never around for the glory days of the prior 6 years. As a result I've had to pay a lot of $$$ to get the key collectibles from those years (SOTS, Factory Sealed Set, etc). So my regrets are:
1) Not being a collector from day one. I didn't even know the Cars movie existed until 2011. It was 2 year old sons at the time that made me aware of it.
2) Getting started in the dreadful Cars year of 2012 when nothing was on the shelves except pegwarmers. Many of the main cars I bought for my young sons had to be purchased on ebay since nothing was in the stores by me. Didn't know anything about the line and was just an impatient dad at the time trying to find the cars for his kids that they wanted - so I overpaid - ugh!
3) Giving my 3-year a Race Damaged Mood Springs to play with and calling it "broken Mood Springs" for him to understand at his age. it was lost 24 hours later. We wife figured out he put it in the trash can and it got put out to the curb with the garbage the next day. The reason? "daddy said it was broken"

[jestrjef]

3) Giving my 3-year a Race Damaged Mood Springs to play with and calling it "broken Mood Springs" for him to understand at his age. it was lost 24 hours later. We wife figured out he put it in the trash can and it got put out to the curb with the garbage the next day. The reason? "daddy said it was broken"

OUCH!!!!!!!! Totally cute!! BUT OUCH!!!!

[ksammut]

I remember being at Targets in 2006. They had about 5 SOTS, but bought none. I saw them there a lot of times. I also bought the El Materdor playset, but opened it. Oh, well. Well at least I have a plastic El Materdor to display.

Kenny

[cac1959]

Another regret... My wife and I were on vacation in Fort Myers (Florida) in summer 2007... One of the Target stores had several of their exclusive Dinoco 400 8 packs on clearance for $14.98 each... I didn't have room in my suitcase... and at the time I didn't realize that I could have bought them and mailed them to myself for a lot less money than paying extra bag fees to bring them on the plane.

Those were great sets - that may be the one you mentioned in the previous post, Kenny - the Speedway of the South was never sold in stores.

[jeff]

These stories are heart wrinching and humerous at the same time (dark humor I guess). Well, as I have been collecting since day one on a budget I have many "blast it" moments.

* Bubba and Mater set on clearance at Target that I though I could come back the next day and get...nope.
* Not having saved the dough to get the SOTS set or the Factory Sealed set.
* Never seeing a Bessie ANYWHERE even though I searched high and low.
* Not being in the trading game sooner. (I have seen TONS of things in stores and never got em cause I already had one)
* Ol' Rollin Bollin Mater. I saw him in Walmart, thought it was a terrible color and keep stepping. Had a change of heart and was disappointed when he was not available any more. The KB toy clearance escaped me. It was like one minute I was there buying transformers for my boys then the next they were closed.
*Missing my "go to" person who owned a booth at an area antique mall. Prices were slightly above store, but less than ebay. i guess they moved or decided to just have Hot Wheels in their case. (sigh)

So, boys and girls the moral here is to realize that you may be a day late and/or a dollar short, but sometimes you get that E.S.P. moment and correctly align your purchases with future needs,wants, demand!

[ksammut]

This is why I am starting to buy box sets. I meant 2007-2008 also.

Cac1959, I remember seeing the Dinoco 400 sets. Didn't buy one, but it was the first appearance of Vinyl Toupee! He's been a hard one for me to find. I also don't have his Rubber Tires model. I am sorry, but I did make an error. I meant the Dinoco 400 set.

Kenny