The economy and your collection.

[Arthurius]

there goes the neibourghoud, just lost my job today... will keep collection, for now...

[edwin3060]

there goes the neibourghoud, just lost my job today... will keep collection, for now...

Sorry to hear that. Hope you can find a new job soon!

[MacrossMan]

Yep. Gas was $1.66 a gallon just two weeks ago. It's now up to $1.80 as of yesterday. I won't be surprised if it has gone up again when I go fill up today. Frickin gas is cutting into my toy money!

$1.88 yesterday afternoon...$1.91 when I left for work this morning. Ridiculous!

[MacrossMan]

I wish I could get gas at those prices. I'm paying 6.92 USD per gallon...

Cry me a river when you're paying $27.68 USD a gallon or about 4 times that what you're used to paying. That's what it felt like stateside back this summer when gas prices were over $4 a gallon.

I can't tell you how much of my toy money went into the gas tank then! And it's looking like it might be starting all over again.

[Bri]

Sorry to hear it's cutting in your toys. Not meant to insult, just made a comparison to show how bad it can be. During last summer prices were up here as well and it cut in my wallet too.

And as soon as the economy picks up, demand for oil will go up as well, cheap fuel wont be around forever.

[D_Unit]

I made a appointment to open an investment account with a new bank tomorrow. After liquidating all my investments BEFORE the crash to settle all my debt, I'm going back in debt to invest. I don't know if I'm still up to it but I fell so helpless not doing anything (or maybe that's the best thing to do... nothing).

Oh well, I promised one of my best buds that if I fail miserably I would give him the "last shirt" on my back. It's actually the only piece of clothing I had on (besides my ginch) during a very "traumatic" moment of my life - on the shirt I will write my name and the words "I suck" next to it. If by chance I make some good dough, I'm going to buy him a Hugh Hefner robe with his name embroidered on it. If I end up with a mediocre performance, I'll just buy him a cheeseburger.

PS: Sorry to hear you lost your job Arthurius.

Edited March 24, 2009 by D_Unit

[myk]

Holy crap... If gas cost that much where I live I'd probably have to use one of these:

I wonder how many people are siphoning gas as I speak.

Here in San Diego there're cases of people crawling under vehicles, cutting their fuel lines and draining tanks that way. It's nuts. And it's going to get even worse now that THAT many more people are jobless or are otherwise sinking...

[miriya]

I am not buying any more toys for now. I just cant. I can barely make rent. And I cant sell most of the toys I already have because their value has gone way way down.

It is ironic that right now is the largest explosion of macross figures, amazingly cool ones at that, and at the same time a huge financial crisis. For me, I wish I could get a Macross Quarter, a Yamato SDF-1, a VF-25 DX (or 4), some V.2 1/60 valks (I did get one), and so forth, but at this point I am scrambling to find things of value in my house to sell on ebay to pay for day-care for my son.

[big F]

The fuel prices in The U.S.A always look so inviting to us in the European block. The fact that the U.S has alot of its own fuel and keeps what it gets out of the ground helps no end in keeping the prices down. No expensive shipping and therefore less cost past on to the consumer, Unlike Eurrope due to the rather stupid E.U regulations we sell what we get to other E.U members and then buy it back add that to the rest of the fuels comming from the old Soviet union states and the arabic nations no wonder its so high. Plus the U.K goverment loves to tax it, because if you make it expensive people wont use their cars aparently.

Well Im suprised that fuel theft has hit the states, its not that bad over here yet only really truck parks and over night Motel/hotel carparks are getting hit.

Hopefully the goverment wont bring out a tax on toy and anime collections.

[VFTF1]

Dag. Reading some of these posts is really gutt renching - not heart renching - just gutt renching. That is to say; it sounds like the USA is just coming apart at the seems and there's no end in site.

Here in Poland, unemployment is 10%, which is like, 2% higher than it was last year, but people still remember when half the country was unemployed and the other half had jobs that paid money which was worthless the next day.

I guess, given these circumstances, people here are more psychologically resilient to the crisis. Dag, I mean, there were tanks in the streets and people getting shot up in 1981 - so I guess until that happens again, people in Poland are not going to go bonkers over a little recession or even a larger depression.

That said, people are annoyed. It's like - finally, after hundreds of years of war, occupation, war again, in-fighting and stagnation, these last twenty years have seen the country grow in ways that - honest to gosh guys - it's like living in Boston or Detroit circa 1995 or something. There are some problems, but basically it's a modern European country with cute girls, good food and...did I mention cute girls?

I remember when I moved here for keeps I wondered whether I wouldn't have been better off staying in the USA. But slowly "the USA" came here - in the sense that really just about everything I could get in the States I could get here...

I dunno... I can't complain. There are problems, but I don't think I'm suffering. Maybe I have low expectations?

But it's wierd to hear all of this bad news coming out of the States...

Now - here's a funny bit of trivia:

I remember when I was still teaching english in Poland, and I taught business students - that is to say, working professionals who were learning english. We had these text books with business articles from various press sources, and one of them was about AIG. I never heard of them before. The article basically said that AIG was the biggest hugest insurance group in the whole world, and the article focused on how AIG expanded into Asia.

And it was all about how their main strategy was to become friendly with government ministers and people in power who would in turn grant them licenses and permits to do business on their territory.

And I thought: "Huh? That's it? They just cozy up to people in authority and get licenses and permits to do business (thereby exluding competitors)?

That's IT?!

I thought "no wonder I have never heard of AIG. It's not a real business. It's just some company that lives off of lobbying for privilages from various governments rather than actually making anything productive that people would want to pay for out of their own free will rather than via government privileges and handouts."

And I didn't think about it at all after we finished the chapter.

Fast forward to now.

Jeez.

How pathetic.

What peeves me off is that rather than read about YOU GUYS loosing your jobs, I would prefer reading about those retards at AIG loosing their jobs since unlike you guys, those guys never actually did ANYTHING except kiss up to people in power and live off of other people's work.

I really hope things turn around cause it sucks to think of the USA going down the drain

Pete

[505thAirborne]

Well Pete, lets hope this country doesn't go down the drain just yet, between to much stupidity, fear and allowing our selves to get kicked in the Family Jewels pretty dam hard, were not out of the race just yet. But we got a ways to go!! Slowly things will get stabilized and even improved, people just have to be willing to accept change and make sure mistakes like AIG don't happen again!!

Hang in there Miriya, things will work out!!!

[Kicker773]

Man miriya, i'm sorry bud. I hope everything is alright man.. hang in there.

[Vegas]

I am not buying any more toys for now. I just cant. I can barely make rent. And I cant sell most of the toys I already have because their value has gone way way down.

It is ironic that right now is the largest explosion of macross figures, amazingly cool ones at that, and at the same time a huge financial crisis. For me, I wish I could get a Macross Quarter, a Yamato SDF-1, a VF-25 DX (or 4), some V.2 1/60 valks (I did get one), and so forth, but at this point I am scrambling to find things of value in my house to sell on ebay to pay for day-care for my son.

same here man. except that i dont care about those vf-25 dx's

[miriya]

Thanks friends!

[ff95gj]

I am not buying any more toys for now. I just cant. I can barely make rent. And I cant sell most of the toys I already have because their value has gone way way down.

It is ironic that right now is the largest explosion of macross figures, amazingly cool ones at that, and at the same time a huge financial crisis. For me, I wish I could get a Macross Quarter, a Yamato SDF-1, a VF-25 DX (or 4), some V.2 1/60 valks (I did get one), and so forth, but at this point I am scrambling to find things of value in my house to sell on ebay to pay for day-care for my son.

I am sorry to hear this too... Don't worry about the toys, they will get re-issued some time later. And some of them don't worth your time/ attention at all (better versions may come out when things get around). It's always more important to tend to your kids, no matter what.

Hope you get a good job soon.

[m0n5t3r]

I am not buying any more toys for now. I just cant. I can barely make rent. And I cant sell most of the toys I already have because their value has gone way way down.

It is ironic that right now is the largest explosion of macross figures, amazingly cool ones at that, and at the same time a huge financial crisis. For me, I wish I could get a Macross Quarter, a Yamato SDF-1, a VF-25 DX (or 4), some V.2 1/60 valks (I did get one), and so forth, but at this point I am scrambling to find things of value in my house to sell on ebay to pay for day-care for my son.

yeah, hope things get better for you and your tot (and everybody else having a hard time right now) soon...

[D_Unit]

Dang, sorry to hear about your situation miriya; I really hope things get better for you (& your boy), soon.

Although I've personally been though some rough times (horrifyingly rough); the current situation that average people are suffering from seems much worst. When I was a poor kid things were cheap and inexpensive, and there were always kindhearted people that could afford to help. When I was a badass adolescent I always had my bros to back me up (or at least roam the streets with me when I had no place to go).

But what's happening now seems systemic and hitting people from all walks of life. I don't think the kind of "salvation" that society used to provide is going to be around much longer if the economy gets any worse. Let's hope the upsurge in the markets is a sign of good things to come and not a "dead cat bounce".

[Roy Focker]

It has been well over a year since I bought a Macross toy. First it was by choice. Saw nothing that I had to have. Then saw plenty of great things to come later. Reduction of work hours prevents me from actually buying. A couple hundred dollars on Macross Toys could also be a couple hundred for a vacation, to pay off debt, to save if I lose my job completely. I still treat myself but to small stuff of no more than $60 (Video Game price or less). All these treats are domestic toys. Any import from Japan comes with an average $20 of shipping charges. Even if I see a $20 Macross Toy I can't justify spending 100% of its value in shipping cost. I gotta get the most for my buck and right now that excludes Macross.

[CF18]

Many pages ago...

The economy and my irresponsible relyance on credit cards (7 of them almost all close to being maxed out)

Have you figure out how to reduce the debt yet? Those 10%+ interest credit cards are endless money pit.

[Hiriyu]

Dag. Reading some of these posts is really gutt renching - not heart renching - just gutt renching. That is to say; it sounds like the USA is just coming apart at the seems and there's no end in site....

Pete

The situation here in the US is really not as dire as our media would have it seem. As Jenius mentioned many pages back, we are simply in a correctional phase after many years of unwise financial practice and billowing bubbles. Those businesses and people who have always worked and lived within their means are really not having widespread problems.

This is not to diminish the issues of people who really are having problems. I believe that the chief factor at fault is the ridiculous notion of perpetual sustained "growth" as some sort of inalienable capatalistic right [read: unchecked greed], which has lead to some extremely predatory business practices becoming mainstream. What we are experiencing is simply economic Darwinism. The silver lining is that hopefully, the current economic situation will be a wake up call, and we will not gladly march down that path again.

Just my opinion....

[MacrossMan]

The situation here in the US is really not as dire as our media would have it seem. As Jenius mentioned many pages back, we are simply in a correctional phase after many years of unwise financial practice and billowing bubbles. Those businesses and people who have always worked and lived within their means are really not having widespread problems.

This is not to diminish the issues of people who really are having problems. I believe that the chief factor at fault is the ridiculous notion of perpetual sustained "growth" as some sort of inalienable capatalistic right [read: unchecked greed], which has lead to some extremely predatory business practices becoming mainstream. What we are experiencing is simply economic Darwinism. The silver lining is that hopefully, the current economic situation will be a wake up call, and we will not gladly march down that path again.

Just my opinion....

Probably the best stated post in this thread IMHO.

[VFTF1]

Well - it's good to hear that someone thinks things aren't so bad. I'll admit that, having not lived in the USA since 2003, everything I know about the country comes from the media. I try to diversify my reading/viewing - usually going to fox and cnn for mainstream media, and relying on other niche sites for non-mainstream news, but I guess it is all NEWS coming through a filter in the final analysis.

Add to that the fact that here in Poland...knock on wood...there really hasn't been a crisis. Yeah, unemployment is up from 8 to 10% - but we've been living with 8% unemployment for many years now (down from a peak of 18% in the mid 1990s) and this is the first time that instead of falling, it's gone up.

There is absolutely no banking crisis in Poland (Gordon Brown is talking out of his poopo hole on this point).

In fact - it's impossible for there to be any kind of banking criss in Poland, because NOBODY has any savings. 94% of credit holders (people in debt) make their monthly payments (up from 92% this time last year), and even if all the banks collapsed - the majority of people would not loose money - because they don't have any significant savings.

This is largely because - up until very recently - Poland was still way below a level of per capita income that could actually sustain savings and capital accumulation.

Yeah - there was a bit of a real estate bubble - but it lasted about - oh - six months - and it exploded pretty quickly because we don't have HUD or FDIC - so as soon as things got rough globably - all of the banks here decided to stop handing out credit TO ANYONE.

There's been a credit freeze on for about six months now - but the only effect is that I can't buy triple my warehouse this year rather than, say, doubling it (which my sales will permit me to do), and my neighbor can't buy a fourth car, and his neighbor can't buy a fifth condo.

In other words: the credit freeze is a good thing because we were all on the brink of over-extending ourselves.

I have a credit line, a credit card and a loan that I'm paying off. I paid off my credit card in January and am now again in debt, but will have it paid off totally within about a month. Then the credit line gets paid off by summer. The loan is paid off over 7 years or something and it's pocket change per month so it won't kill me.

Most people here are starting to make money, and the economy is growing - in fact- I think Poland has the only economy in Europe that is still growing despite the crisis.

But this is likely because the government here - as well as businesses - all reacted in a very simple manner to the crisis: they cut spending, stopped giving out credit and started saving.

It was painful last year - but - I'm being a bit adventurous here - I think it's over. I honestly think that the crisis (globally) is over.

It will only continue in America - and the dollar will go bust. China will no longer take American dollars and send them back to the USA for pieces of paper saying "IOU" and with the flood of dollars on the horizon, things don't look pretty.

I might be wrong - we'll see.... I'll be curious to read this thread three or four months from now and wonder whether I'll be swallowing my words or relishing in the fact that my feelings on this matter were accurate

Pete

[VFTF1]

There's a "No Politics" rule in the Macrossworld Rules and Regulations thread that I suggest you familiarize yourself with. Topics like this one do lend themselves to a bit of political commentary from time to time, and the mods are lenient about it - but in general they discourage starting explicitly political discussions.

And before you think I'm trying to keep you down - I'm a Ron Paul supporter myself so I'm really not typing this because I disagree with your opinions (although I have qualms with some of them) - but please let's respect the wishes and rules of the Forum administrators.

The rule exists because this website is dedicated to Macross and the idea is to really try to keep the focus on Macross.

The topic is "the economy and your collection" - and there's nothing in your post about...well... your collection.

Pete

[MaveRick]

being in a "3rd world country"... situation like this isn't really something new for us.. it's already a lifestyle

but most of us here have really good disposition in life despite all constrains especially on the financial aspect.. it doesn't hurt to play, be happy and collect whatever catches my fancy.. i'm a happy fool

Edited June 29, 2009 by MaveRick

[nugundamII]

well as a contractor for the worlds largest computer company it sucks!!

I just found out today that the customer did not sign off on the SOW a for tech conversion which means my last work date is around october.

I just had a baby and was without pay for 1 week so hospital Bills need to be paid off and enough saving to last for a while and my buddy was telling me now is the time to buy a house. Dumbass pissant!

I dont want to but if it comes to it I will be moving into my moms condo. But its a small place in a area I dont like.

Man I was riding on a high when I was PM then all of a sudden bam im a grunt. Well got to go and get my master his coffee

later

PS

Just need to mention. Low pay or high Pay I think governments would benefit their communities they serve Yeah remember that your under the employ of the public you mother*&^&W@

and wipe out Agencies all together. For too long these slave labor pimps have gotten away with reducing living wages of workers. Be it intellectual or manual labor these Mother*&%& which are owned by major corporations keep trying to figure out to pay you less while professional slave labor pimps spend days on end looking for legislative loopholes

!!!!

Edited June 30, 2009 by nugundamII

[SilentCrossHairs]

Finally got a job after 18 months. Some of you may have read my pain on the 5th page. Not as cushy as the last one. Before, I was a in house tech now I'm a field tech. Glad to be working again but I hate my job. No benefits no nothing just a check.

My collection has shrunk. But really I had too much stuff and needed to get rid of it anyway. I think I have all the macross toys I need. The rest of my money will be going to taxes. Its part of the hustle I guess. To all those who are scraping to get buy. I say, "KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!". It can't rain forever.

Edited June 30, 2009 by SilentCrossHairs

[D_Unit]

Old thread but... you know I've posted about the fact that in my area that someone(s) is returning old Transformers in exchange for new ones (in the new packaging), well there's a sighting today at a local Wal-Mart that some bastard returned a deluxe ROTF Rampage inside a Voyager Mixmaster box.

The recession is no excuse to rip stores off... what if some unsuspecting mom bought that for her kid?!? If they can't afford the toy then just do without it (or do without something else and save-up for it). May that idiot rot in cheapskate hell for all eternity!!! Sorry for ranting.