The One That Got Away: Biggest Non-Purchase Regret

BoiseState

Imperial Flagship.. Just waited too long even though it was on sale for a few times. Although I just recently found out it was a bad guy ship. Also, I always thought the Rebels were Darth and Co.

bea

I suppose I somewhat regret I did not buy sets like Green Grocer or Grand Carousel. I saw them in stores but was not interested at the time. But there have been more modulars and sculpture sets so I'm not particularly upset I don't own those specific ones.

What I really regret is the monorail. I was a child at the time it was in the stores and my parents could not buy it for me. I badly wanted it and I don't think anything as cool as the monorail has been made since.

FollowsClosely

Grand Carousel

mathew

This doesn't really count, but when I came out of my dark ages in January 2012, the one I really regretted was the Imperial Flagship. I remember looking at on Amazon when I was shopping for a basic Lego kit for my son in November 2011. I eventually acquired it. However, as much as I liked it, it didn't fit in with the rest of my collection so I sold it.

TheLoneTensor

My white whale is also the Grand Carousel. Though I will admit, the new #10235 Winter Village Market horses will likely spark me enough to make my own version.

EKSam

The Taj Mahal followed by the Grand Carousal. Almost happened again with the Hogwarts Castle. (phew)

Crowkillers

When Lego clearanced out the 10179...

chertik

For me it's the Model team Giant Truck (5571). I remember standing in Toys R Us Lego aisle on my birthday as a kid, and my parents asked me to pick one lego set. I was debating between 5571 and 5591 (Mach II Red Bird Rig), and ultimately picked 5591 because it contained more "stuff". In hindsight that was probably the wrong decision though :)

aduk

Only been out of the dark ages for a little while but missed the MMV at rrp....not too far over but so will just need to go for it

TheLoneTensor

^If you really want it, It certainly won't get cheaper as time marches on.

augen

Chromed Naboo Starfighter #10026.

RomanticWarrior

I guess for me it would be the UCS Death Star. When I got (back) into LEGO, I watched it go from $200 to $150 on [email protected] That was still way too much for me to spend on a LEGO set. Since then, I've bought probably close to 10 sets that cost more than that.

Johnnyfinlandia

I had #10178 in my basket at S&H at least 3 times and then though OK I would buy it the next day .. and yep next day came and all were gone :( I then started collecting LEGO in earnest with my son. At least I got one Emerald Night #10194 when I thought not again. Both sets were £79 RRP at S&H, so I learned not to wait at least for one ;) I did feel though that omg I just spent £79 on LEGO !!

I have not bought anything over £100 even when I know they will increase in price as 'you can't buy everything'. I did buy 2 expensive sets this year: one #10188 Death Star when it was £229 at Smyths earlier this year, and one #41999 for £139 from S&H which has just shipped. So I can say I haven't missed these :)

I think the new Winter Village Market #10235 set will be a good buy and one not to miss! The older Grand Carousel #10196 was amazing .. too much for me now :( .. I need a #21103 :D

Crooz

I regret taking a break from LEGO from the age of 18-26 and missed out on some amazing sets. I sold all my early Star Wars sets to make rent money when I moved out at 21 years of age because I did not display them nor play with them. I now have a great job, a good amount of disposable income but still cannot justify buying the old sets when new re-vamped versions of the older Star Wars sets keep coming out.


I am kicking myself for passing up the early Modular Buildings. I saw them on display at my local LEGO store many years ago and thought OMFG those are cool and checked out the price and kinda talked myself out of it. I have all the available Modular Buildings and still think back on that time when they were at retail and I was talking myself out of them.


One cool thing that I saw was that my Local Stores (Bay Area) like Target and TRU (over priced I know) have been getting in retired sets slowly. I asked a worker and he said that the sets have been returned by law enforcement from the former SAP Exec. who made his own bar codes and bought LEGO sets on the cheap. I picked up a brand new MISB Slave 1 a few weeks ago for $50 at TRU on clearance. Basically Law Enforcement is finding these sets and the receipts and are returning them to the stores they were purchased at if they are still able to be sold. So once a week I am hitting up my area TRU's and Target Stores just searching for some retired goodness.

Big_Blue_Winky

Crooz said:

I regret taking a break from LEGO from the age of 18-26 and missed out on some amazing sets. I sold all my early Star Wars sets to make rent money when I moved out at 21 years of age because I did not display them nor play with them. I now have a great job, a good amount of disposable income but still cannot justify buying the old sets when new re-vamped versions of the older Star Wars sets keep coming out.

I am kicking myself for passing up the early Modular Buildings. I saw them on display at my local LEGO store many years ago and thought OMFG those are cool and checked out the price and kinda talked myself out of it. I have all the available Modular Buildings and still think back on that time when they were at retail and I was talking myself out of them.

One cool thing that I saw was that my Local Stores (Bay Area) like Target and TRU (over priced I know) have been getting in retired sets slowly. I asked a worker and he said that the sets have been returned by law enforcement from the former SAP Exec. who made his own bar codes and bought LEGO sets on the cheap. I picked up a brand new MISB Slave 1 a few weeks ago for $50 at TRU on clearance. Basically Law Enforcement is finding these sets and the receipts and are returning them to the stores they were purchased at if they are still able to be sold. So once a week I am hitting up my area TRU's and Target Stores just searching for some retired goodness.

That's essentially the same here, although my break was 18-25 and Lego really did go through an awesome period of making fantastic sets, I'm playing catch up now and the ones I really want are massively expensive, the tower crane from the City sets is one I particularly want but they seem to fetch anything up to £200!

maniac

I was in my dark ages from about 2006 - 2h 2010. Looked once in 2008 for a nosey at [email protected], saw #10179 and didn't bite.

SquareSide

Before I got back in to LEGO which was last year. Couple years earlier I passed up on the LEGO Speed Racer theme, it's pretty much one of my favorite movies. I remember my brother saying hey, Lego Speed Racer is on clearance when we were looking around at Target and I passed on them. T_T

tedward

I regret missing the opportunity to buy an anniversary Town Plan autographed by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen himself. It was in the silent auction @ BrickCon that year and sold for right around regular retail price. I had just bought one the night before @ the LEGO store event and while it was cheaper, if I had known it was available I would have at least bid for it.

I now check the Silent Auction (if there is one) religiously before spending my brick budget at the con. Sadly nothing that interesting to me has come up since.

madforLEGO

I guess I would say UCS Millennium Falcon, but then again at the time it was very expensive for my pay grade so I opted not to, would it be great to have? Sure, but I'm not losing sleep over it.
I kinda miss not buying LEGO Cargo trains from the mid 90's when the cool stations and trains were out and I had disposable income at the time.

ravnut

Loads of sets have passed me by for different reasons. However the closest "miss" was HP's #4840 aka "The Burrow". We had bundled the family into the car in John Lewis' car park and I quickly announced I was dashing back in to look at something. Picked up the elusive set (priced @ £35 I might add) only to realise I had left a gift voucher I wanted to use in my jacket. Ran back to the car to find 2 out of 3 kids having screaming habdabs for no apparent reason. Cue big eyes and a "come on, we need to go" from my dear wife and that was that. I never saw the set in the wild again and I certainly can't run to the aftermarket prices the set goes for. Ah well...

Crooz

Johnnyfinlandia said:

I had #10178 in my basket at S&H at least 3 times and then though OK I would buy it the next day .. and yep next day came and all were gone :( I then started collecting LEGO in earnest with my son. At least I got one Emerald Night #10194 when I thought not again. Both sets were £79 RRP at S&H, so I learned not to wait at least for one ;) I did feel though that omg I just spent £79 on LEGO !!

I have not bought anything over £100 even when I know they will increase in price as 'you can't buy everything'. I did buy 2 expensive sets this year: one #10188 Death Star when it was £229 at Smyths earlier this year, and one #41999 for £139 from S&H which has just shipped. So I can say I haven't missed these :)

I think the new Winter Village Market #10235 set will be a good buy and one not to miss! The older Grand Carousel #10196 was amazing .. too much for me now :( .. I need a #21103 :D

You will get that Delorean! I bought the last two at my local LEGO store when they arrived and gave one to my buddy and kept one for myself as we are both huge BTTF nerds. I gave it to my buddy and he happened to find a way to get Huey Lewis to sign it. The set now sits proudly amongst his collectables with "That's the power" and Huey Lewis' autograph. The story behind it is pretty hilarious and could get me in trouble at work but oh wow... I was blown away by Huey Lewis' politeness and willingness to sign the box.

mcvitie

Kicking myself for not biting the bullet and getting Medieval Market Village. I ummed and ahhed so many times, and now its gone :( £71.99 RRP to boot - it was steal at that price! Released now I would expect it to be £130 at least. Oh well

14hours2save

^ Plus one for MMV here. I came out of my dark ages last year...browsing the lego site I saw that set, thought it looked great but a bit more than I wanted to spend at the time. Of course once I'd worked out what I was going to concentrate on collecting and what represented a good deal, it had gone.

Steve_J_OM

When I was just getting back into Lego and still a bit green, I stumbled across a Lego store while abroad. My abiding memory is being captivated by the Grand Carousel but thinking it was too much money for Lego (also don't think I had the luggage room).

That store didn't have it, but 10179 was still knocking about for about 4-5 months as I was getting back into Lego as well. I don't think the thought of spending that much even entered into my head as a fanciful notion. It still blows my mind that you can sometimes see four-figure sums for it being described as a 'bargain'.

lazybear

I was the first wave to buy the 10179. Held it for less than 2 weeks, took some happy pictures...my girlfriend said it was a big waste of money, returned it back to store. Now when she sees the price on ebay, she'll say "I am sorry...". The only thing I have now is the picture of happy me with the falcon in my arms.

Steve_J_OM

^Sackable offence IMO.

iancam33

Imperial shuttle for me. Shoulda, coulda, woulda, didn't. I kick myself to this day.

AdeelZubair

Taj Mahal, 3p per piece.

Billybrown

Taj Mahal for me as well. I phoned to enquire prior to the Lego sale. The response was "8 left, strongly advise that you buy before we sell out" ...I passed on it...crazy fool

jonboy2000

A new Taj Mahal for £150. I couldn't be bothered to go and pick it up as I had a new sealed one(I still have it) and a second hand one that I bought for £150 (and sold for £600). On the plus side I do still have 2 MISB Grand Carousels : )

jonboy2000

I would have to say that missing out on MMV is not that bad as it can still be had for a very good price via auction on ebay and even if it was in the £130 region it is still very good value for money when you consider the price per piece.

EDIT: £100 new,buy it now including postage. THAT'S A BARGAIN IMO

ACWWGal2011

jondesouzaCE said:

Not including things that were released during my dark ages, my top 3 would be:
1) Emerald Night
2) Grand Carousel
3) Mill Village Raid

In each case I prioritised other sets and then these were removed from general sale.

Actually since mvr wasn't that popular, you can get it at retail price on Bricklink last time I checked

wRuB

Holidaying in Zandvoort, Holland at the moment, and saw MVR a few days ago in the local toy store, Interplay, on sale at 59.99 Euros...

Paperballpark

I held off on MMV until after xmas '12, only to find it had gone EOL a month earlier. Fortunately though, I was able to pick up a set on BL for £95. Phew! That's my only close shave; there won't be any more!

Paperballpark

wRuB said:

Holidaying in Zandvoort, Holland at the moment, and saw MVR a few days ago in the local toy store, Interplay, on sale at 59.99 Euros...

Arghh MVR for £50?! Dammit I'd have snapped it up! That's the only set I really want that is EOL. I don't want it enough to pay more than RRP for it though...

Yellowcastle

I imagine that missing sets helps drive the collector in each of us. I, for one, do all of my buying these days out of fear. :o)

Blue1dot

10182 Cafe Corner, I passed it up, thinking it was too expensive at the time. Can you hear me kicking myself?

jadedanc

Me....the 4x4 Crawler :(

beegeedee

I remember going to a local Tesco in the UK and next to the check-outs they had a Technic storm trooper and C3PO. Nothing special really but I always thought they'd look good on my desk at work but I never did buy them. I don't specifically regret not getting those sets but I do regret a lot of the ones that followed and I never gave a second thought to - I was going through my mature phase.

greekmick

I regret turning down two opportunities to purchase the Chrome Vader 18 months ago for £20. I thought at the time it was a lot to spend on a LEGO minifig. I still think its a lot to spend on a minifig but would bite your hand off at £20 for a used one nowadays.

CCC

jadedanc said:

Me....the 4x4 Crawler :(

Me too. I could have flipped it for a decent profit :-)

JessyDooDah

jadedanc said:

Me....the 4x4 Crawler :(

Ah, but not any more! :D

BoiseState

Stacks and stacks of HP castles.. I already had quite a few at the time.

monkeyhanger

UCS Falcon and UCS Vaders Tie are my 2 biggest regrets - but £350 for Lego (MF) seemed ridiculous money back then. If only i'd have come out of my dark ages a year sooner. I'd have loved a UCS ISD too, but I will make do with the Executor.

atxlee

LegoFanTexas said:

If you want it, you'll kick yourself for not buying it now...

I fully expect that by this fall, new this set will be $500 and used sets will be $300, so you might as well buy a new one now for $300.

Just my opinion anyway... :)

I second this... #10196... Haizzzz

jondesouzaCE

ACWWGal2011 said:

jondesouzaCE said:

Not including things that were released during my dark ages, my top 3 would be:
1) Emerald Night
2) Grand Carousel
3) Mill Village Raid

In each case I prioritised other sets and then these were removed from general sale.

Actually since mvr wasn't that popular, you can get it at retail price on Bricklink last time I checked

Not in the UK you can't!

binaryeye

My biggest regret is not buying Star Wars LEGO when it first came out in 1999, because it likely would have brought me out of my dark ages 13 years earlier. I was big into collecting the Hasbro action figures and was often tempted by the LEGO that was usually displayed nearby. But I thought it was a bit too expensive and passed on it.

My biggest recent regret is not getting MMV for ~$80 from Amazon (gold box deal) just before it EOL'd last year.

Renegade007cjh

Regrets whilst deep in my Dark Ages:
Eiffel Tower
Statue of Liberty

Missed because I was focusing primarily on licensed sets:
Cafe Corner
Market Street

Nearly pulled the trigger on, then didn't, then immediately afterwards went EOL:
Grand Carousel
Taj Mahal (literally, the next day)

At least I managed to get a UCS MF (2 days before it went EOL), otherwise that would be at the top of my list...

oldtodd33

My latest regret would be not buying set #4440 at an out of town Target store for $23.99. I said to myself " I'm not buying Lego on vacation".

flecski

I saw #852293 at LLW on a pre Christmas sale for £100, but didnt bother as I hadnt played chess in years and didnt think I could put it anywhere. Im sure it would have been a great way to get our kids into games.