You know what I’m talking about. The toy that you left at your cousin’s house and never saw again. Or your brother broke it. Or, if you’re JPX, your mother threw it away. Thanks to eBay we no longer need to wait for good luck to right those terrible wrongs. Here’s some that I’ve corrected in recent years:
I replaced my Dinky Eagle after I, myself, threw away the middle section during a big room clean.
I replaced my Doctor Fate and Green Arrow, both of whom disappeared after being informally absorbed into my brother’s G.I. Joe collection. (Dr. Fate’s severed forearm did show up.)
I finally purchased an American-produced Super Powers Cyborg, after I’d bought two unimpressive knock-offs and accidentally thrown one of them away (or so I presume, a container of things I wanted to make molds of vanished from beneath my desk at Deathmatch; my best theory is that it tipped into the waste basket).
Also from that mysterious vanishing, I replaced the Alpha Series Cloud Car. As a result I have three regular Action Fleet Cloud Cars, which isn’t a toy worth having even two of, let alone three.
When I was in NYC I snagged a loose Captain Kirk in his spacesuit and lost the helmet that same day, which naturally drove me nuts. I replaced that during a particularly jobless and moneyless month during my early days of living in San Francisco.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, some time back JPX was visiting me in New York, and when I spotted an exclusive glow-in-the-dark Radioactive Homer at St. Mark’s Comics for 25 bucks, JPX said:
“Nah, don’t buy it for that. They’ve got one at my store in Massachusetts for only 20. And if it isn’t there, you can have my glow-in-the-dark Radioactive Homer.”
Pretty convincing, right? I figured I’d have one in my mitts either way.
BUT, very shortly afterwards that figure turned out to be extremely rare and sought-after – before today I’ve never seen one listed for less than 100 bucks.
Today, however, there’s a loose one on eBay and I threw down for it. I don’t know if I’m going to win; I’m the high bidder right now at 51 bucks and I shouldn’t even be spending that much this week. The auction ends on Sunday.
I don’t blame you, JPX, for needing to hold on to the one you have once you realized its value. But you were the certainly the frontman in this particular “D’oh!” If you advise me not to go for this one, I probably won't listen to you.
Update: I had to let this one go, I'm too broke this week. It sold for 68 bucks, and I definitely would've gone higher. Ah well.
5 comments:
Fifty-one bucks? Don't do it! I swear there's one at my store for $46. You can have mine if it's not there.
Gee, yeah, I've always felt bad about this. Not so bad that I want to give mine up, but a little bad. However it's important for everyone to know that you and I kind of watch each other's back when it comes to toy collecting. That is, we try to be the voice of reason when the other one falls under the toy seduction and loses all critical perspective. I just didn't want you to have buyer's remorse. Heck, even now $25 seems too expensive. Truthfully I had no idea that they go for over $100. At the time you saw him in ths store they were all over Newbury Comics.
He's really cool by the way.
Some day some how I'll make it up to you.
We both have stories of lost toys and accessories. As you well know, Octopunk, I once lost my Chewbacca playing at Bryce Hall's house on an old tractor. Literally a year or so later I found him. The side that was in the grass was green!
George Barlett was, for some reason, the kid on the block who got the Early Bird set before anyone AND a Han Solo before anyone. Then he lost Han's gun (at that point, the only one like that released) in the grass in his front yard. And cried.
The following spring I happened to let my eyes fall on exactly the right spot and there it was.
Did you take it?
Nah, there was more glory to be had being the one who found it, and by that time I had my own anyway.
Post a Comment