Pin budgeting: Multiple grail listings?

Aloha Princes and Princesses,

I'm back, yet again with another post. This time I'm seeking advice on grails. I have recently bought three of my grails. That hurt my wallet a lot. I'm getting paid soon and a lot of other grails are popping up out of nowhere!!

Questions:

• When grails multiple grails appear, do you choose one over the other?
  
• If you have purchased an expensive grail, do you hold back for another week, month, year?
  
• How do you budget grails?
  

My fear is that I won't see them again or never have a good enough trader for it. :anxious:

Advice is highly desired,

Have a magical day ohana,

-Jonathan

Hmmm. Well, in general, my grails show up so rarely, this is never really an issue (we're usually talking once a year).

But in general, I would always take into account how often it shows up, whether or not I feel it's a fair price for it, and how high on my priority list it is.

If it's a pretty good deal on one I never see, I'll usually jump on it, even if I have to budget somewhere else or sell some traders to make up for it. The last thing I'd want is for it to show up later at an even higher price (see: Sleeping Beauty Gomes).

Buy the one that is the hardest to find. It may be the cheapest grail or the most expensive. However, it is less likely to come up again than the easier ones to find.

Haha this happened when both the Kingdom Hearts II logo and the Sora on the throne pin showed up. In the end I went for the the throne pin. While it was on auction I ended up selling as many traders as I could to afford it ^^;

This happens to me ALL THE TIME because when sellers list one great pin, they tend to list multiple great pins and my Wants are pretty similar in collection so I tend to see my grails popping up at the same time a lot >_<

When grails multiple grails appear, do you choose one over the other?

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Yes. I always choose one or two that I want the most because the way I see it, it's going to cost a lot of money so I'd rather put all my money that I can spend towards one or two pins to help my chances of getting those pins than buying all of them as they end and then realizing once you get to your favorite that you cannot afford it.

Make sure you take into account when each pin ends that way if you lose one you can put what you were willing to spend on that one towards another that hasn't ended yet.

If you have purchased an expensive grail, do you hold back for another week, month, year?

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Kind of. I don't buy pins unless I can afford them because being in debt from pins isn't a position I want to be in >_< So generally, if I buy a grail I'll already have the funds for it or know that the funds are on their way. For this reason, I don't hold back from buying pins but rather just wait until I have enough for afford another.

How do you budget grails?

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I rank them. I'm a compulsive ranker, I rank things like my life depends on it so when it comes to grails, ALWAYS know exactly which one you want the most and which ones you want the most after that. I generally have a Top 5 (with no ties in the Top 3) and this really helps me focus on which pins I want the most and which ones I'll pay the most for. For example, right now my grails are:

1. Jessica Stitch Be My Valentine pin
2. Belle Stitch Be My Valentine pin
3. Jessica as Cat Burglar pin
4. Ariel Stitch Guest Star pin
5. WDI Tangled Thrill pin / D23 Wreck-It-Ralph pin

So I know that I would spend the most on the 1st pin and then work down the list. This way, if all of them come up, I know where to focus on first and foremost. Of course, if I spent all my money on the 1st pin but then the 5th pin is about to sell for 1/2 the price, I make special exceptions here and there when the deal is SOOOOO good. However, if the pin goes over what I'd pay for it, even if it is the top spot, or goes for around what it normally goes for and it isn't in my top 3, I pass.

Can't really help. My most wanted pins are ones I'd never really be able to afford, so I'll probably have to wait until the magical day that I can trade for them

Kupo, your long essays are well worth the read. They are filled with great info. Love them :]

I'm an impulse buyer, so I have a hard time not buying any pin on my wants-list that pops up somewhere. But I'm also fully aware of what my disposable income for the week is, and I don't go above that. I figure that if I want to buy some pins instead of going out to a movie, then that's okay.

Credit!

starry_solo said:

Credit!

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Guys, don't do this. I have a few credit cards that I tool out when I was 18-20 and I'm now trying to pay them off I'm 23 now and it'll probably take til I'm 30 to clear the debt that I've mounted up. Don't use credit unless you can pay it back in full each month. It's a slippery slope.

Jazzy B Bunny said:

Guys, don't do this. I have a few credit cards that I tool out when I was 18-20 and I'm now trying to pay them off I'm 23 now and it'll probably take til I'm 30 to clear the debt that I've mounted up. Don't use credit unless you can pay it back in full each month. It's a slippery slope.

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Haha I have to agree with this! I'm 25 I've only had two small credit cards but I did rack up a small amount of credit in two years (not more than $1300) that'll take me a while to pay off x_x;

My grails are pretty much old ones, so they don't come up very often. And they tend to be expensive, especially the Club 33 ones, so even if it's available, I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on it.

Abyssinian28 said:

Hmmm. Well, in general, my grails show up so rarely, this is never really an issue (we're usually talking once a year).

But in general, I would always take into account how often it shows up, whether or not I feel it's a fair price for it, and how high on my priority list it is.

If it's a pretty good deal on one I never see, I'll usually jump on it, even if I have to budget somewhere else or sell some traders to make up for it. The last thing I'd want is for it to show up later at an even higher price (see: Sleeping Beauty Gomes).

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Well said. To me grails are often on radar for a period of time, and during that time it should be considered A: How often they pop up and B: How much they are being offered. I also want to add that if it's a grail that is up for sale that hasn't come up in a very very long time, you may want to consider when the next time you will have that deal again. Then again, say if it's a limited edition 150, there's bound to be another one coming from the other 149 editions that may make their way for sale. You never know.

I think it is important to tell yourself how much you are willing to spend to get that pin, no matter what. For example, if you top budget grail pin you are willing to spend is $500, stick to it. If you see it for $650 or $700, you have to ask yourself if that's TRULY worth it. Yeah prices go up as the pin gets older, but between auction websites, pin websites, and simply trading, there's more than one way to skin the cat.

On a final note to consider (And possibly annoying, my apologies) is how much patience you have. Are you a patient person?