Transformerland.com

Pick a length of time--a month, a week, a year, 1064933 astroseconds--doesn't really matter. Call this period of time t.

Call x the amount of money you are willing and able to spend on Transformers during t.

Now consider 4 TF toys that you want--call them A, B, C, and D. You want A more than you want B, B more than C, and C more than D.

Now suppose that
A costs significantly more than x,
B costs slightly more than x,
C costs less than x if you can find one in stock,
D costs less than x and you are at a store/website where they have one or more of D in stock,
and x is enough to buy C or D but not both (and C might be the same price as D, or more, or less).

In what order do you buy A, B, C, and D?

Alternate scenario: Same as above, except that you already own D, and the question is, would you ever sell/return D (remember, it is a figure you want, even though there are others you want more) to get some of the money you'd need to buy A, B, or C?

If I lack all of them and C is scarce compared to D, I'd go for C. My strategy has always been to get the harder first. And if I had already D but not C, I wouldn't sell D to get another. I haven't done that and I won't.

However, my problem is that I already have all Ds... What I need at this point are all A's, and probably they will remain elusive as I don't handle high budgets for Transformers anymore.

First, I eat bread and water, walk to work, and do some odd jobs, then buy all of A,B,C,D as soon as available.

IRL, I'd go for C first. If it's shortpacked, the price will be through the f***ing roof in about 3...2....1.... *cue $80 deluxes on ebay*, then A or B, then B or A, and D last, cus it's probably Bumblebee, and I can catch him on clearance.

F

I go for the harder to find or least amount on shelfs first.

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"C" would be the first purchase. I've gotten to where I've given up searching brick & mortar stores for toys around here so I pre-order new releases, when I can afford them, to avoid not finding them and paying an astronomical amount later on the secondary market. "D" I'm not worried about and are shelf-warmers so I should be able to find those relatively easy. Even if I wait too long and my nearest retail store has pulled that said product from the shelves. If it was truly a "shelf-warmer" then the secondary market will reflect that with minimal-to-no markup (or even a sale) through online retailers. If "B" is slightly above what I'd like to spend at that time on a toy/collectible. Then I sacrifice or budget accordingly depending on how bad I want it. Now "A" we're talking used car prices. Or significantly above my spending budget for a single toy. "A" is for items I consider out of reach (like Igears TF-007) or an item that I would have to have the perfect mixture of luck, timing, extra cash, exc....like the Fort Max I thought I'd never, ever own.