I have an Earthrise Runabout that I haven't gotten around to opening. I love Runabout and Runamuck. The original Runabout was one of my favorites as a kid. I loved their comic appearance and was just as crushed when they died as I was when Scrounge took his lava bath. And I was elated to find a Runabout at a Target in Portland while I was there on a work trip last year or whenever it came out. It was the only one I ever saw. It's special.

But holy hell they're going for like $100 on ebay and it keeps rising. I don't care about the money as anything other than an indicator of someone's passion to own something. And someone willing to pay a hundred bucks is obviously more passionate about this toy than me. I don't think it's worth 100 dollars.

Maybe my relationship with this toy ends here. But then, why did I buy it and keep someone else from owning it if all I was gonna do was get rid of it anyway? I hate the secondary market sometimes. Makes me feel bad for owning things that others value more than I do, even if I truly love these things a lot. (Just not 100 dollars love them.)

On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 12:07:31 PM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
> But holy hell they're going for like $100 on ebay and it keeps rising. I don't care about the money as anything other than an indicator of someone's passion to own something. And someone willing to pay a hundred bucks is obviously more passionate about this toy than me. I don't think it's worth 100 dollars.

Okay, but here's the thing. It's not the secondary market at large who is setting those ridiculous prices. It's one or two insane people who have way more money than sense. I mean, somewhere out there exists a guy who has, like, every Transformers toy released, right? He bought every single Siege and Earthrise toy but for some reason he missed out on Runabout. His Target probably cancelled his pre-order, because that's a thing they do. So all he needs is Runabout to complete his entire set. He eats, sleeps, and dreams this toy because it's the only one he needs. And finally he says, "screw it, I'll pay $100 and then I don't have to stress about it ever again" so now he's got that last toy he desperately needed.

But now the next guy who comes along and sees the completed eBay auction takes note that Runabout sold for $100, so he assumes that this is the current market value for the toy, and adjusts his auction accordingly. And so do twelve other people who all have one to sell, because obviously they want to get the most bang for their buck. You don't want to be that one chump who sells it for $30 if everybody else is getting a hundred bucks for the toy.

But just because a toy is selling for insane amounts of money doesn't, or at least shouldn't, affect how you perceive it as part of your own personal collection. I'm sure I have toys that are worth many, many times what I originally paid for them, but I don't always have that knowledge in my brain. If I found a toy at retail and somebody else didn't, and they're willing to pay crazy amounts of cash for it, that doesn't mean they love the toy more than I do. It could just mean they're more willing to part with their money to get what they want, or need, or are obsessed with.

> Maybe my relationship with this toy ends here. But then, why did I buy it and keep someone else from owning it if all I was gonna do was get rid of it anyway? I hate the secondary market sometimes. Makes me feel bad for owning things that others value more than I do, even if I truly love these things a lot.

It's certainly possible to get all worked up about this, but you really can't know all the variables and facets. I mean, maybe the day that you went out shopping for Runabout created some kind of butterfly effect where you affected hundreds of people without realizing it. Just by driving through traffic, or being in Target, or by interacting with a sales clerk or cashier.. There's some alternate quantum reality in which you never owned Runabout, but events unfolded in completely different ways, both major and minor, for hundreds of people. It sounds absurd, but we really have no idea what effect we have on the greater world around us.

My point, I guess, is enjoy your Runabout, and don't feel guilty for owning him. Or, if you really feel that bad about somebody else out there being deprived, sell him off and make that unknown person happy. But, what if it ends up being one of those idiot YouTubes who destroys toys by lighting them on fire or dropping them out a hotel window? Something to think about. It's bad enough that Runabout died an awful death in Marvel Comics. Don't do that to him a second time!

Zob ("a pretty toy makes an even prettier wreck!")

On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 5:05:55 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 12:07:31 PM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > But holy hell they're going for like $100 on ebay and it keeps rising. I don't care about the money as anything other than an indicator of someone's passion to own something. And someone willing to pay a hundred bucks is obviously more passionate about this toy than me. I don't think it's worth 100 dollars.
> Okay, but here's the thing. It's not the secondary market at large who is setting those ridiculous prices. It's one or two insane people who have way more money than sense. I mean, somewhere out there exists a guy who has, like, every Transformers toy released, right? He bought every single Siege and Earthrise toy but for some reason he missed out on Runabout. His Target probably cancelled his pre-order, because that's a thing they do. So all he needs is Runabout to complete his entire set. He eats, sleeps, and dreams this toy because it's the only one he needs. And finally he says, "screw it, I'll pay $100 and then I don't have to stress about it ever again" so now he's got that last toy he desperately needed.
>
> But now the next guy who comes along and sees the completed eBay auction takes note that Runabout sold for $100, so he assumes that this is the current market value for the toy, and adjusts his auction accordingly. And so do twelve other people who all have one to sell, because obviously they want to get the most bang for their buck. You don't want to be that one chump who sells it for $30 if everybody else is getting a hundred bucks for the toy.
>
> But just because a toy is selling for insane amounts of money doesn't, or at least shouldn't, affect how you perceive it as part of your own personal collection. I'm sure I have toys that are worth many, many times what I originally paid for them, but I don't always have that knowledge in my brain.. If I found a toy at retail and somebody else didn't, and they're willing to pay crazy amounts of cash for it, that doesn't mean they love the toy more than I do. It could just mean they're more willing to part with their money to get what they want, or need, or are obsessed with.
> > Maybe my relationship with this toy ends here. But then, why did I buy it and keep someone else from owning it if all I was gonna do was get rid of it anyway? I hate the secondary market sometimes. Makes me feel bad for owning things that others value more than I do, even if I truly love these things a lot.
> It's certainly possible to get all worked up about this, but you really can't know all the variables and facets. I mean, maybe the day that you went out shopping for Runabout created some kind of butterfly effect where you affected hundreds of people without realizing it. Just by driving through traffic, or being in Target, or by interacting with a sales clerk or cashier.. There's some alternate quantum reality in which you never owned Runabout, but events unfolded in completely different ways, both major and minor, for hundreds of people. It sounds absurd, but we really have no idea what effect we have on the greater world around us.
>
> My point, I guess, is enjoy your Runabout, and don't feel guilty for owning him. Or, if you really feel that bad about somebody else out there being deprived, sell him off and make that unknown person happy. But, what if it ends up being one of those idiot YouTubes who destroys toys by lighting them on fire or dropping them out a hotel window? Something to think about. It's bad enough that Runabout died an awful death in Marvel Comics. Don't do that to him a second time!
>
>
> Zob ("a pretty toy makes an even prettier wreck!")

I got mine at Target. Had to ask them to get one out of the back. Wish I'd bought the Target Leadfoot when they were sitting out.

I disconnected limbs of Runabout and Runamuck and swapped parts, now they both look like the old Gateway computer boxes.

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 12:07:31 PM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> But holy hell they're going for like $100 on ebay and it keeps rising. I
>> don't care about the money as anything other than an indicator of
>> someone's passion to own something. And someone willing to pay a hundred
>> bucks is obviously more passionate about this toy than me. I don't think
>> it's worth 100 dollars.
>
> Okay, but here's the thing. It's not the secondary market at large who
> is setting those ridiculous prices. It's one or two insane people who
> have way more money than sense. I mean, somewhere out there exists a guy
> who has, like, every Transformers toy released, right? He bought every
> single Siege and Earthrise toy but for some reason he missed out on
> Runabout. His Target probably cancelled his pre-order, because that's a
> thing they do. So all he needs is Runabout to complete his entire set.
> He eats, sleeps, and dreams this toy because it's the only one he needs.
> And finally he says, "screw it, I'll pay $100 and then I don't have to
> stress about it ever again" so now he's got that last toy he desperately needed.
>
> But now the next guy who comes along and sees the completed eBay auction
> takes note that Runabout sold for $100, so he assumes that this is the
> current market value for the toy, and adjusts his auction accordingly.
> And so do twelve other people who all have one to sell, because obviously
> they want to get the most bang for their buck. You don't want to be that
> one chump who sells it for $30 if everybody else is getting a hundred bucks for the toy.
>
> But just because a toy is selling for insane amounts of money doesn't, or
> at least shouldn't, affect how you perceive it as part of your own
> personal collection. I'm sure I have toys that are worth many, many
> times what I originally paid for them, but I don't always have that
> knowledge in my brain. If I found a toy at retail and somebody else
> didn't, and they're willing to pay crazy amounts of cash for it, that
> doesn't mean they love the toy more than I do. It could just mean
> they're more willing to part with their money to get what they want, or
> need, or are obsessed with.
>
>> Maybe my relationship with this toy ends here. But then, why did I buy
>> it and keep someone else from owning it if all I was gonna do was get
>> rid of it anyway? I hate the secondary market sometimes. Makes me feel
>> bad for owning things that others value more than I do, even if I truly
>> love these things a lot.
>
> It's certainly possible to get all worked up about this, but you really
> can't know all the variables and facets. I mean, maybe the day that you
> went out shopping for Runabout created some kind of butterfly effect
> where you affected hundreds of people without realizing it. Just by
> driving through traffic, or being in Target, or by interacting with a
> sales clerk or cashier. There's some alternate quantum reality in which
> you never owned Runabout, but events unfolded in completely different
> ways, both major and minor, for hundreds of people. It sounds absurd,
> but we really have no idea what effect we have on the greater world around us.
>
> My point, I guess, is enjoy your Runabout, and don't feel guilty for
> owning him. Or, if you really feel that bad about somebody else out
> there being deprived, sell him off and make that unknown person happy.
> But, what if it ends up being one of those idiot YouTubes who destroys
> toys by lighting them on fire or dropping them out a hotel window?
> Something to think about. It's bad enough that Runabout died an awful
> death in Marvel Comics. Don't do that to him a second time!
>
>
> Zob ("a pretty toy makes an even prettier wreck!")
>

The other fact of a capitalist society is that $100 to some people is like
$1 to you. You probably don’t think about spending a dollar bill on
something. If you are making $1M a year, or (more frequently) you
inherited a business or millions from your parents, $100 is a rounding
error. It literally doesn’t matter.

The other thing to consider is that some people are just TERRIBLE with
money. I have friends who max out their credit, drive (not own) German
cars they can’t afford, and live in homes that they can’t afford to
maintain properly. (I also so have a few wealthy friends, who are almost
invariably cheap.)

My point is not everyone values $100 the same way. It more about how they
value money than how they value the toy.

-Banzaitron

On Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 3:05:55 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:

> My point, I guess, is enjoy your Runabout, and don't feel guilty for owning him.

Thank you and everyone else who responded and gave me the perspective I needed. I opened it up. YOLO and all that. Plus the last two sealed Runabouts on ebay went for like 60 bucks so maybe all the crazies that want one have one.

On Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 7:30:50 PM UTC-8, Banzaitron wrote:
> The other thing to consider is that some people are just TERRIBLE with money.

I must consider the possibility that my ebay purchase history is evidence that I fall into that classification. I was feeling bad that my ebay toy buying total spent for 2022 would have bought me a very large, very high end 4k television, sound system, and library of UHD blu-rays. Now every time I see a Studio Series deluxe I would like I also think about how that money could buy me a copy of some movie I love instead. It's enough to make me cry almost. I'm sure somewhere there's a rich guy who's a home entertainment moviephile with awesome home entertainment system who thinks about how all his money could have been spent on Transformers, but then he just laughs.

> My point is not everyone values $100 the same way. It more about how they
> value money than how they value the toy.

I just don't recall any other time when there were so many crazy rich and/or bad with money people buying Transformers. I thought vintage Star Wars collecting was the hobby where all the people with money were. What I don't understand is why people with the means to spend so much are spending it on these old toys instead of the nice high end product that is aimed more at their level.

Back in the mid 90s I could get just about any '85-'86 Autobot deluxe car for 50 bucks with the packaging and everything. Nowadays 50 bucks buys me an '84 minicar with the backer card if I'm lucky. I don't get where all the crazies came from. Maybe they left Star Wars and came over here. Maybe this is the transition period where the young people buy the collections of the old people.

But it's not just G1. There are crazy buyers and sellers across all eras of Transformers. There's an MP-10 with an asking price of $24,479 on ebay right now and I think they're serious:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/354449387944

The other day an auction for just three loose figures-Roadbuster, Getaway, and Nightbeat-ended at $510 (https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/125686915588) FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! I was thinking 300 tops. I thought I had a chance. I think maybe I need to accept that there are some things I will never own in my lifetime. Maybe a variant of that thinking is driving the market. I can imagine some people thinking hell no, I am not dying before I play with a loose Getaway!