What's the craziest thing you've ever done for a collectible?

[kristenabelle]

I've done some really dumb things - taking a personal day to wait in line at the Disney Store or sleeping out overnight at D23 Expo for first dibs on Merch. But this was possibly the stupidest...

I have a few Funkos, though the majority of my collection are disney figures. I'm a huge BATB fan, so I've been seeking out all the live movie figures that were recently released. I was able to order or locate every single one EXCEPT the Walmart exclusive Belle (Village) #249.

It started out simple - scouring walmart.com a little bit every day, navigating their really bad search engine. For weeks there was nothing. A ton of 3rd party items and an older version of figures I already had.

When it finally FINALLY appeared on walmart.com, it wasn't for sale. In fact, the web listing was a shell with no information/image, just the item title. Just a big fat tease, taunting me. The walmart.com associates said to "keep checking, we don't have any information on a release," so I kept checking at coffee, lunchtime, and on the train home every day. After weeks of checking, I resolved to hit the stores in person and see if I'd have better luck.

I'm not a Walmart shopper. I've always been a Target fan, and the Walmarts in North Jersey aren't close or convenient for me. That said, I LOVE anything blue dress Belle and had to have this stupid little $10 toy. So for three weeks after my online trolling (yes..3 weeks. 21 days of my adult life) I drove around to four area Walmarts after work, wasting 2 hours each day and God knows how much gas, all in search of this plastic thing. Of course it was never in stores, and any associate that I asked had no idea what the hell I was talking about. I don't blame them - it's probably not one of their more sought-after items.

I finally found the damn thing on eBay today - only one listing, and only from Canada. Thanks, Canada Walmarts for releasing your merch on time, I guess? Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to ask what some of the crazier things other people have done to get something they really, really wanted. What's your story?

 

[Dashzap]

When my son was a preschooler, he loved beanie babies. At one point, little beanie babies were the toy included in McDonald's Happy Meals. I was driving from Connecticut to Massachusetts for some reason, so we got off the highway and stopped at every McDonald's we saw to get a complete set.

It's funny to look back at now, almost 20 years later. It taught me that I am not a good collector as I get obsessive about completing a collection.

The only thing I collect now is pressed pennies, sticking to ones that are location-specific and that I have pressed myself. This limits my access, plus pressed pennies can never be completed, as machines come and go and exist all over the world. Collecting 20 years and have 265 pennies.