Ever bought something by accident and then found out you got something great?

TheUltimateTFOL

The thread of this title pretty much sums it up. One of my neighbors knew I was interested in Lego and offered to sell me some he had gotten a while ago. I asked him if he had a Republic Gunship and he said yes, but it had no minifigures, box or instructions so I passed. I then asked him if he had a Star Destroyer and he said yes and brought it out but it was actually an 8039 Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser. I almost passed but I decided it looked kind of cool and bought it. 4 years later I just looked on eBay and found I could sell it for around $200 with the minifigs for an extra $30. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Fauch

"buying something by accident" doesn't make any sense since an accident is supposed to be something which isn't in your control. unless maybe someone stole your credit card and bought you lego? :o

TheUltimateTFOL

I meant buying something without fully realizing its value or through circumstances you can't control. I guess the title should be "Buying something while trying to buy something else and getting it instead".

Yodalicious

Sort of...

Intended to buy my son the latest City police mobile command unit. A police semi truck? Yeah, he was hooked from the first time he saw it. I could have sworn I grabbed it off the shelf at Target. Got home, took it out of the bag, and it was the set with the police truck, trailer and boat. I wasn't too pleased with myself, but he ended up loving it and must have cranked the boat into the trailer 1,000 times the first day he had it. 

Pitfall69

Yeah, I bought this album back in 1980 from this group called Iron Maiden.

Fauch

I'm not sure if that fits the topic, but when I got back to lego, I started with stagecoach escape because I didn't want to get something too expensive in case I would be disappointed. so it costed me like 30€ and I liked it.

so then, I decided to try a bigger set, a flagship, and there were several that looked very tempting, such as arkham asylum breakout, medieval market village, kingdom joust, fire temple, vampyre castle... but they were rather expensive, and I didn't want to take the risk to spend 100€ or more yet. and I saw portal of atlantis for 30€. I was like, yeah, it doesn't look as good as the others, but for 30€ it does seem pretty ok. well, I was really impressed and I still like it more than all my other sets (including arkham asylum breakout and kingdom joust)

The_Mad_Vulcan

Pitfall69 said:

Yeah, I bought this album back in 1980 from this group called Iron Maiden.

What were you trying to buy?

Pitfall69

The_Mad_Vulcan said:

Pitfall69 said:

Yeah, I bought this album back in 1980 from this group called Iron Maiden.

What were you trying to buy?

Well, he said maybe the title of the thread should be changed. Yeah, I did not buy it by accident, but I had no idea what I bought until I listened to it. Fantastic!!!

Pitfall69

This doesn't exactly scream, "Hey you!! You should buy me; I sound great."

Poisso3

Ended up winning a lot off ebay on a relatively low bid because my daughter clicked bid when I showed her. It had a couple pieces from a Friends set my daughter wanted, and I figured I would be outbid anyway so I didn't care. Ended winning the auction and when the box arrived we ended up having 2 complete Friends sets ( #3061 City Park Cafe and #3188 Heartlake Vet) and a near complete #3187 Butterfly Beauty Shop. Needless to say, for my little girl, it was the best thing ever.

rawbob

I once bought a Yes LP and it had a signed photo of the band inside.

alldarker

In a lot buy of about 20 G1 Transformers I bought on eBay, I found a G1 Optimus Prime trailer signed by Peter Cullen himself (Optimus Prime voice actor). Sold it, easily making the rest of the lot essentially free. And a boxed Tranmsformers G1 Thunderwing which was specifically advertised to be without paperwork actually DID include all the paperwork tucked in the box (definitely upping its value).
As far as Lego is concerned... Not so much, unfortunately. I don't buy lots very often, and I guess that's where the surprises usually are. 

paul_merton

I genuinely bought several HP TouchPads "by accident". They went on a fire sale one evening a few years ago, but the crazy demand for a £500 tablet that was suddenly being sold for less than £89 caused most retailers' websites to stop working properly, so the first one I tried to buy didn't look like it had gone through (website was giving errors, timing out, etc). A few hours later, I tried another retailer as soon they had changed their price, but the same thing happened.

One order placement seemed to work, but a friend had their order from the same place quickly cancelled due to lack of stock. His order number was less than mine, so I assumed mine would also be cancelled. I really wanted one (especially at that price!) so I carried on trying to buy one from anywhere else I could find.

I thought at best I would end up with the one TouchPad I was really after, but realistically I might not get anything. But to my surprise, not only was my successful order not cancelled, but all of the other orders I tried to place had actually gone through as well.

A few days later, I was the bemused owner of 5 HP TouchPads, all from different retailers.

Shib

I picked up a couple of the LEGO board games from a charity shop for a couple of £ each (thinking there would probably be missing pieces etc but not too worried at that price) got them home and realised they hadn't been taped up by the shop, they were still sealed.

Legoist61

 A few years ago I bought a mixed lot of 5 kg LEGO for € 70,-. When the seller brought it along (:)) and we went through it we found an almost complete #6285 and some more pirates sets in it. Also in the lot were several Fabuland sets which we sold for more than € 300,-

All in all an unexpected good deal.

TheUltimateTFOL

Sorry for mini-modding, but this is getting a little off-topic. The title wasn't very descriptive but I want this thread to be about Lego.

Pitfall69

TheUltimateTFOL said:

Sorry for mini-modding, but this is getting a little off-topic. The title wasn't very descriptive but I want this thread to be about Lego.

Oh, ok, I'm sorry.

1) I never tripped and accidentally fell into the Lego aisle at the store and bought something...I mean bought Lego

2) When I buy Lego, I know exactly what I am buying and I am more apt to be disappointed than pleasantly surprised.

So, I guess I have nothing more to add :)

1265

Yeah, bought some cheap condoms and 9 months later I was a Dad.

Bumblepants

Pitfall69 said:

This doesn't exactly scream, "Hey you!! You should buy me; I sound great."

Well, kind of it does... The scream part is definitely there at least.

Pitfall69

Bumblepants said:

Pitfall69 said:

This doesn't exactly scream, "Hey you!! You should buy me; I sound great."

Well, kind of it does... The scream part is definitely there at least.

You should have seen my father's face when he saw the cover :) I have a picture of him sitting on my bed reading the lyrics of a Metallica album. I believe it was "Ride the Lightning", the disgust on his face was telling :)

Oh yeah...Lego...Wait...I have nothing, but at least I mentioned Lego.

chuxtoybox

Pitfall69 said:

This doesn't exactly scream, "Hey you!! You should buy me; I sound great."

Yeah, it does!

SumoLego

Where is @CCC?

Although, I think @Fauch pretty much summed things up.

chuxtoybox

This is just another thread that is the same topic as the "brag" thread that for some reason I can't make a link to.  

Usually, I'm the one having some  (CENSORED)  tell me that a thread I've started covering a certain topic already exists, but lately I've found myself having to be the (CENSORED) telling people that a thread covering this topic already exists.

If you had at least taken the time to think about what you were trying to say in the first place before you hit "post", I might have been more forgiving. 

chuxtoybox

A better album.

Pitfall69

^Isn't that just "The Trooper" EP?

Pitfall69

Yeah, there are better albums than their first, I was just pointing out that I was pleasantly surprised when I bought the album having not heard them before :) I am certainly dating myself.

Lego...

dougts

Not really accidental purchases but I've got to say that it's a shame that Lego's in house non-licensed themes continue to be completely obscured by the overwhelming abundance of licenses IP sets.  While the licenses draw all the attention, quite often they are mostly
minifig driven efforts with lackluster builds that often feel both phoned in and half complete. By comparison LEGO is really doing most of its best design work in some of the in house themes, particularly the one offs

I recently built the Agents chopper, boat, and HQ sets and man are they all exceptional designs, pleasing builds with all kinds of cools touches and play features.  The color scheme is outstanding and there are some exciting parts as well. To top it off, the minifigure designs and details are top notch. Really happy I picked these up 

I also think the same can be said with regards to the overall quality of some recent one off themes like Alien Conquest, monster fighters, Galaxy squad, and Dino

i know the minifigure is the center of everything LEGO to most people, and licenses get almost all the buzz, but those passing over these in house designs are really missing out on some high quality stuff.  And the
value proposition is much better to boot 

chuxtoybox

Pitfall69 said:

^Isn't that just "The Trooper" EP?

Yeah, I forgot that this is the actual album that song's on. I picked that picture because of the flag. I used to buy Maiden albums for the cover art.(And I mean album.)  The band is awesome too.

I bought a Rock Raiders once not really knowing about it and thought it was cool. I can't remember if I bought it cheap at a yard sale or thrift store.

I never bought any of the bigger LEGO Movie sets but I found  the parts to the garbage truck at a yard sale mixed with K'Nex. All of it was there except for a grey tire rim which I had to replace with a white one. I thought that was cool after I built it too. 

I bought a gold-colored minifigure that looks like the Monopoly guy for a quarter but I'm not sure if he's worth anything. 

O.K. I'm lying about that last one. :blush: 

Fauch

for a quarter of a million

SumoLego

^ Sold!  Where am I shipping?

Bosstone100

Number of the Beast was the best one. Not a weak song on it.

khmellymel

Not in terms of value, but when I first started getting enough money to buy Lego again (ie, not a kid), it was Star Wars that drove my purchases (and I was getting into HP then as well).  I didn't even really look at the other sets and wasn't very interested in them.  But then I went to the Calgary store opening and couldn't really find anything I wanted.  I then decided that driving 12 hours and not getting anything would be a waste and bought #4996 Creator Beach House.  I was absolutely shocked at how much I enjoyed building that set.  That REALLY expanded my buying tastes and now I'm overrun with Lego! :)