Quotable #1: Saving vs. Collecting

I will occasionally take excellent quotes from others, buried on the board and not fully explored to their full potential, and turn them into a thread topic. Sometimes, you read a great post, and a “thank you” is just not enough. Welcome to the quotable series.

Quotable # 1, Saving vs. Collecting

SR, wise beyond his years, stated:
“When you’re young: yoyos > money, but when you’re older: money > yoyos. Those who have multiple rare high end throws know they can get a good sum of cash if they sold off one of their throws.”

MikeEff’s signature, as of this moment, reads:
“I used to have a savings account. Now I have yoyos.”

Now my thoughts…

I do not view my yo-yo collection as an “investment,” or anything that is likely to grow in value. But, I see it similar to cash in some ways. I have seen people liquidate their collection, to save for a wedding, or buy a house.

Having said that, yo-yos can easily become cash. The only problem I anticipate, is that if I liquidated my collection, I might only get back .70 on the dollar, on average, or a bit less, for what I spent retail on a mint throw. Bottom line is, I’m okay with losing .30 on the dollar for the joy of collecting and the fulfillment of the hobby as a whole. Also, in this community, from a trade perspective, yo-yos are used to get other things we want, most commonly, more yo-yos. This could be why, when I buy yo-yos, I do not always view it as “money I didn’t save.” I see yo-yo collections as similar to a savings, but the difference is that:

  1. The cash value, will not be as readily available as money in a bank;
  2. It has about a 30% to 50% chance of depreciating in value (dependent upon condition);
  3. You have to self insure your investment (otherwise, house burns down…no more savings).

Believe me, I keep some cash around in case of emergency, but I view a yo-yo collection as very similar to a savings, with the above exceptions. I never stress about my yo-yo spending because I have confidence in my ability to sell them, if I need to. Every time I buy a yo-yo, I have confidence in being able to get 30% to 50% of the cash back, if I ever need to. No guarantee when things will sell, but I’m confident the throws will retain some cash value and sell at some point at cash value.

I agree with SR. As an adult, money is better than yo-yos, because of the reasons listed above. It is more readily available to use the value of it.

What’s deep about that quote from Mikeeff, is that I view a savings and yo-yos, as similar in a lot of ways. Except, a yo-yo collection is like a savings account that may depreciate 30% (mint) to 50% (used), it is not FDIC insured, and you have to make the effort liquidate the throws, to get the available cash value (inconvenience). A savings account gives you some “security.” But, a yo-yo collection can do the same, if you treat it right. and plan accordingly. Well…to a lesser extent.

I liked those quotes, and thought they deserved a bit more attention. Any thoughts?

Personally, I never plan on selling my yoyos, because all I end up with then is slightly less money than I started with, and little to show for it, so overall I’d feel at a loss. I’d rather have the throw than the money, unless it was one I really didn’t like.

However I would never spend money on throws if I didn’t have the disposable income to spare. If I was saving for something, or had to watch my spending because of rent/expenses, I’d be happy with just my Rally. The only reason I have so many throws is because I can afford it at no real cost to myself or my quality of life.

That being said, I have curbed my spending simply because I feel so guilty about spending so much money on yoyos.

However, the way I justify it is that I can still be playing with them when I’m 60 or 70 (if I live that long, which I highly doubt), so over the course of their life and in a cost>return way, they’ll pay for themselves in the amount of years of fun I can get out of them. There’s no way my car is gonna last another 40 years, or my laptop/phone, whereas these yoyo’s could potentially outlive me and give joy to others for years to come provided they are well looked after. =)

I think I neither save nor collect. :wink: Much like Gambit, there are two things governing my buying and selling habits:

  1. I’d rather have the yoyo than the money it could now fetch

  2. I only spend my “funny money” (an alotment of cash that can be spent on things like junk food, movies, etc). As it turns out, I value yoyos more than some of those other frivolous things, so I have less of those and more of yoyos. :smiley: When I do see a few movies and swing by Subway a couple times in a week, I just have fewer yoyos. And that’s OK, too!

Here’s the funny thing I’ve noticed about resale: if you are not a collector like TA, you don’t necessarily need a mint yoyo. So you might buy a yoyo on the BST for, say, $50. At this point, it’s already previously used. It has battle scars but it works, and you have proven that someone (in this case, yourself) will buy it for $50. There’s no reason that if you decide to sell it for whatever reason, you couldn’t get that full $50 back, provided it’s not much worse off than when you got it.

Although I wouldn’t do this myself (it just doesn’t feel right to me personally, but I don’t judge other people for spotting opportunities!), if someone sold a yoyo for $35 that was still in pretty good shape you could be a more patient seller and move it forward for $50, making a small profit.

If you do it right, you stand more of a chance to break even in used yoyos, as well as spending less cash to begin with.

That all said, most purchases are made without worrying about a ledger. There’s nothing like a brand-new yoyo (especially when purchased from YYE, of course!); also, some forms of collection (like TA’s) demand nothing less than mint yoyos.

The thing about that is, it’s a dangerous thing to use yourself as a barometer for if the yoyo is worth $50. You might be the only one willing to pay that much for it! Plus, presumably you’re paying for shipping charges when you buy the yoyo, and that’s money you’re never recovering.

Granted, presumably with enough B/S/T experience, you get a sense for what things sell for. And even if you’re off the mark once or twice, you’ll still be able to get back 80-90%+ of the money you spent, which is far better than the 50-70% of buying new yoyos.

Another point I wanted to make, that TA sorta addressed, but not in enough depth; liquidating yoyos is a pretty in-depth process. You need to take the photos, write the post, negotiate with buyers, package the yoyos, go to the post office and (in my case) fill out customs forms. It can easily take hours and hours, which is fine if it’s something you enjoy doing, but if you’re financially strained and dependent on selling them, it seems like you’d be much better off with money in a savings account.

Yup, a fair point! If you overpaid, there’s no saying someone else will do the same. I think this is more likely to happen in the “just depreciated” phase (near-mint selling for $100 when the original retail was $120); however, it can happen at any level. If you’ve watched yoyos come and go, you can get an idea for what someone else might pay for it; but if you just took a gamble, there’s no way to know.

As for shipping, there’s no loss there. Presumably when you paid $50 that was either shipped or you paid extra for shipping. When you resell you can obviously sell for less if you choose, but there’s nothing stopping you from listing it for $50 shipped or $50 plus shipping.

Sure, it’s easy to conceive of scenarios in which you will lose money just as you would on mint resale. But I think it’s easier to conceive of scenarios in which you can break even. With mint or NMIB, unless it’s a true collector’s item there’s only the possibility of losing money.

In my case, it’s all academic anyhow; I will possibly trade or sell some days just to fund other yoyo purchases; and I’ll do it at a loss if I don’t value the yoyos I’m selling anymore. The more likely scenario: I’ll just keep hoarding both new and used yoyos and never/rarely sell or trade’em.

Sorry, but if you view a yo-yo collection as similar to a savings account then any non-perishable possession is similar to a savings account! The only difference is the degree of depreciation.

I do both, I keep the hawk eye out for rare or signature models to keep in the safe because you never know what turn of events will make a return top more valuable, I do not rely on this… No, a buddy of mine and myself have kicked a old habit and we now call it “yoyo money” this is how I fund my new hobby, I have about $100 extra a month he has about $500!!! A month so when you see people buying up all the throws on eBay… It’s probably us lol

Long story short, it’s your money spend it how you want, unless you’re buying throws over necessities… That’s just irresponsible.

Good points in here. I agree with this. I view most of my possessions this way for the most part. I am a gadget/toy person anyway, and over the years, I have found it very easy to unload things, if I decide to sell them. Being into electronics, things get outdated, and need to be upgraded, so I am very experienced in the buying and selling of things. But, the main exception to the rule, when it comes to viewing things I own this way…would be clothing. I do not collect a lot of clothing, or buy high end clothing items a lot, so I cannot imagine it would be worth the effort to try to sell them. I usually donate clothing. I do not really “collect” many other things. For instance, I have a few televisions around the house, but there is not such a mass quantity of TVs, that if I needed to sell things, it would be at the top of the list. I would look at having a few hundred throws and clearly they would be the target first. They are more viewable as a “savings,” for that reason. I have several guitars. But, even the guitars would not be the first target…as I have a lot more throws than guitars. So, for the sake of this topic, the yo-yos are easily viewed as cash, before anything else I own. Collectively, they are worth more total than most things I own. Also, they are not as “necessary” as other things I own. But, like Gambit, I would much rather have the yo-yos than turn them into money, and would only do it if I had to. Just for the sake of perspective though, I look at my collection and do not view it as “money I could have saved.” I think some people view it that way and stress about spending for that reason. As long as I have some cash on hand in case of emergency, and find a balance, I totally look at a lot of my possessions similar to having money in a “less accessible and less secure” personal account. :smiley:

It’s always cool when I hear of people liquidating their whole collection, and getting a nice chunk of money, while far less than what they paid, it does seem to turn into a nice lump sum.

TA I would buy any and all your Tis in mere minutes of an invoice. No need to even ask if I’d be interested just an invoice would be all that’s needed! Savings account, CHECK!

Well, I hope I will never need to sell. I want my saving to “grow.” :smiley: But, if I do sell, I know I can count on you. :wink: Thanks ;D

I recent fell into the quote SR has said.

I love the high end throws, my plan was always this, Use high end throws, if you ever need cash, or don’t want to yoyo anymore, you have cash to make back.

I’ve needed money for college and make $340 just from 3 yoyos :slight_smile: It really helped me out to pay for college tuition.

I’m a strong supporter of that theory!

^That’s true, I’ve read more than a few posts from people who refuse to buy certain brands, because they don’t believe they will retain value. It’s almost like certain brands are perceived to be a more “secure” bet, in the event that the yo-yos have to be sold.

Beyond that, there’s pure speculation in the yo-yo sphere, look at what happened to the Yeti. It’s pretty easy to tell that anticipated releases, especially smaller runs, are a fairly effortless way to buy some money with your time.

In the past/last 15 years, I have acquired a pretty large number of yoyos. I do not consider myself a Yoyo Collector… Never thought of myself of a Yoyo Collector.

I just bought yoyos as time moved on. I Never thought of what might or might not retain value.

I have literally hundreds of yoyos, but do not display yoyos in my house. And have zero plans to display yoyos ‘in the house’.

I have some pretty cool yoze: Original Handquakes, Powder Coated Cold Fusion GTs, Superyo Samurais, Original in the package Freehand 1’s, Brand new 3n1 No Jives, a Black Pyro, Nuclear Aces, New MG yoyos, New Transitional Renegades, a whole case of polycarbonate Wheel halves. <> that’s just the top of the Iceberg, lol.

I must have 2 four level office file cabinets full of yoyos. And a 2500 pound electronic Meilink Safe(for the special stuff), and a four drawer Wooden Highboy full of yoyos(so full, I have to make sure they are laying just right so the drawers will close).

I have another 4 high office file cabinet with Hyperyo yoyo cases and old school soft Yomega yoyos bags, full of yoyos.

I have at least a dozen new Hyper Vipers from Japan. I prolly have a hundred new Raiders. A hundred new Flow Hyperloops. Hyper Wasps, Fireballs, a case of Spintastic Tiger sharks and Manta Rays. A few dozen spintastics Glow Technics. I have enough Yoyojam yoyos to fill a wheel barrel.

A few dozen One Drops. About 5 dozen YYF yoze. Several Titanium yoyos, including several Yoyojam Prototype Titanium Yoyojams, none of you have ever seen. I even have a Mini Motu with Titanium weight rings.

Xcubes, you betcha, several of each, mostly, except the Original Steamroller. The Only Xcube I didn’t really care for.

Etc…

How do I view them? 1. I like them. 2. I view them as ‘Dead Money’. I may at any time decide to sell some of them, but you guys don’t see me on the BST very often, lol.

I do not look at them as money in the Bank. I mean, I know I could move certain ones, but I would never count on them as some Emergency source of money.

Question and answer… how do I afford all of them? Well, I don’t: drink, smoke(anything), no drugs, don’t gamble, don’t travel much, don’t buy extravagant items(expensive watches, jewelry! Porsches, Speedboats, etc). So, it really wasn’t my Plan, but because I don’t have any ‘Vices’ that deplete my money, I have 'discretionary funds to ‘Buy yoyos’. I guess it is actually a ‘Habit’ come to think of it, lol.

I think my favorite thing to do is Ending certain Yoers/collectors Quests for yoyos. A certain 888 or a Freehand or whatever. When I see people looking and looking for a yoyo and getting nowhere, if I have the yoyo, I will contact them to set up a trade. I usually get something nice for my trouble, but that is not my mission. I just think it is fun to end somebody’s’ Search. I feel kinda like Santa Jr.
Right now I am in the process of ending a lonnnnnnng search one of the guys has had for a Catch 22 yoyo. He had one way back when they came out but for whatever reason traded it away. And regretted it ever since. I have a Brand New, in the Pelican box, YYF Catch 22. The Pelican box is still in the Box it was shipped in. The yoyo has been in my safe since I bought 2 of them from Yoyonation when they were released.
I just can’t think of having that yoyo sitting in a Safe for possibly years, when somebody is looking for one.
Hey, I’m no hero. He will be paying for it. But I am not holding the yoyo hostage, lol.
…it just seems like he will have more fun with it, outside of the box, than am having with it inside the box. And if for some reason, he decides he can turn a profit on it, fine by me. At least somebody will end up with it and be all happy to get it. I still have another one left.

Do I need All the yoyos that I have? Absolutely not. Did I have any idea or any plan to amass a ton a yoyos? Absolutely not. Could I have Worse habits? Absolutely.

Why did I type all this borderline useful, semi interesting information? Simple… So any of you people that even considers that are spending too much money, cuz they have 2 dozen yoyos, think again, lolol.

Rule number 1. Don’t spend yourself into a yoyo hole, but buy within your means and have fun. Rule number 2. Recognize that you only need a few good yoyos, because none come with ‘Tricks included’. Rule number 3. Never buy yoyos thinking of them as ‘investments’. <> Realize that when you might seriously need to liquidate some yoyos, your market of perspective buyers is very limited. Only other Yoers/and/or collectors are interested in your stuff, if that. It is not like you are selling an Apple Iphone.
… Ever notice how many yoze in the BST, just sit there, for-Eva?

I will Always be 1 yoyo short of too many. I just got another HOT(totally under-rated yoyo). And I have a Werrd Minute and an YYR Overdrive coming in the mail… And oh noooooo, the G2 Quake!? Heck yeah.

Finally, Rule number 4. NEVER be upset because you can’t afford to buy all the yoyos you might want. Yoing is about having fun. Throwing is about having fun. If you waste time being bummed because you can’t get some high end metal or whatever, you are just neutralizing the ‘fun factor’.

The end.

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I don’t put much thought into any of this.

Here’s how I go about it:

Do I want it? If yes, then:

Can I afford it? If yes, then get it.

The number is large.

This isn’t an investment as far as financial thing. Investment in my mental health? Sure. Investment in my enjoyable use of spare time(should I choose to use it by playing with a yoyo)? Yup.

Yes, I’m collecting. But, they aren’t for being pretty in cases or displayed. They are to be played. My friends raid my cases. Heck, even my kid raids my cases, freely helping his 7-year-old self to anything I got.

The thoughts of selling or trading the stuff away is something I don’t waste time on. If I dislike something, I’ll take the effort to get rid of it.

I want it, I get it, I enjoy it, I share it, I move on. I’m having fun and enjoying the heck out of myself.

Thanks for putting some thought into this. I saw that line in Mike’s signature “I used to have a savings account. Now I have yoyos.” I thought it was pretty deep. Not that I took it literally, but it caused me to think about whether, if taken literally, that is such a bad thing, and if so, to what extent. Again, there is no substitute for cash in an emergency. But, for me, anything I don’t invest sits in a “savings” and it’s just there. I have now realized that I should turn that into yo-yos too :smiley: Why have perfectly good money sitting there…just because? Beyond an emergency fund, no need to keep money sitting there. :stuck_out_tongue:

But, I used to view my yo-yos as you do now, as “dead money.” After seeing that quote from Mike and thinking about it some more, I see it from a different perspective now. While yo-yos are not an investment, or a source of cash readily available, I don’t view them as dead money anymore. I have seen yo-yos sit on the BST forever, but I have also seen them sell in minutes. I have seen people sell some pretty average stuff and get thousands for throws when they liquidate. So, on average, with some patience, you can unload most of them.

I would definitely call some of what I do “collecting” because I will buy a yo-yo I have no interest in playing, simply because it matches other things I’ve got. The stuff I play is different altogether, but there is definitely some “collecting” going on with me. If it has that YYE theme, it’s on the list, if it has the micro theme, it’s on the list too. Now, if it’s something I think I’d love to play, it just goes to the top of the list as a “priority.” I have bought things I had no intention of playing regularly, as a collector, and fell in love with it. My trade feedback is overwhelmingly from buying, not selling.

So, I used to consider throws as dead money too. I just thought, I bought what I wanted and the money is gone forever…turned into a yo-yo. But, not entirely the case as I see it now. I always get requests to buy my stuff, but I rarely sell. As time goes on, I am more choosey about what I purchase in the first place. Thanks to Mike, I look at my yo-yos and think, “The money would just be sitting anyway.” It looks better as yo-yos anyway. :slight_smile:

I’m curious what color H.O.T.s you have. I agree it’s awesome. I have that YYE themed one black, red splash white logos, and the gold one too. They put out another YYE colored one, silver with black and red splash…it’s on the list too. 8) That happens to be one I needed for collecting and playing. I beat up that gold one daily. :smiley: I’m dying to hear your opinion of the Overdrive too.

Certainly any quote can allow us to follow any train of thought and it can lead us in useful directions. It’s worth considering that one simply meant, “I spend a lot of money on yoyos.”

“…buy some money with your time.”

If that wasn’t already posted in a “quotable” thread, I’d pluck that one out. I like that. Yeah, I have heard some of the stories about the Yeti. I would call that first run more of an “investment” opportunity actually. It sounds like you could flip that Yeti into a Peak as one story goes. I guess with anything, you just have to find the right buyer willing to pay or “trade big.” Like any investment, there is some “luck” involved. But yeah, many people are looking at yo-yos from the perspective of sale and trade value.

“Collecting is for collectors, playing for players, collecting and playing is for the enthusiast.” ~noisy lurker

If you asked me about 3 or 4 months ago, I would have considered myself a collector. I had many rare yoyos, one off ano jobs, test yoyos etc. I loved my collection and some of my rare throws, but then life happened. A difference in my planned orders happened and the ability to buy a house surfaced. As much as I loved my collection, I needed the cash plain and simple. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a good deal of rare and valuable yoyos, but some crown jewels of my collection, ones that I knew would sell for good prices had to go. In the end,
This
http://i.imgur.com/nHNLCowl.jpg
is more important than this(among others lol)
http://i.imgur.com/eTjL8pMl.jpg

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