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Saito2

Purchases regretted

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Did you ever buy a kit or part and look at it once it was in your hands and think "oops, I made a mistake here."?  Buyers remorse. What follows (for cathartic reasons to an extent) is a tale of the last Tamiya product I bought (twice!) and a warning against getting sucked in by buying frenzy hype (of which I was a guilty party). 

It had been some time since Tamiya had rereleased something of interest to me, but when news of the forthcoming Super Astute hit, I was cautiously optimistic. The Super Astute was a bit of a rare beast in its day so it definitely piqued my interest. As the release date drew nearer, so did the hype and I got sucked right in. I didn't just want one, I had to have one. With the ominous specter of "limited edition" being bantered about, the hype grew more. Of course, its still being sold now, but hindsight is 20/20. I usually bought from Tower Hobbies, but their shaky status plus MAP pricing led me to look elsewhere.  I came across an ebay auction for one at a descent price.  IIRC, the ad said several had been sold but 3 were available, so I clicked "buy it now" foolishly before scrutinizing the seller. It was good old RCMart from whom I could never procure Top Force Hicaps. But this was ebay. Surely if they had an auction with 3 available they would actually HAVE them right? So, I got and email saying I would receive another email in a couple days with a tracking number when it shipped out. Two days later, I got an email alright. They were out of stock and I was fooled again. Drat.

So, I head over to Tower and pre-order it with the understanding, pre-orders would be fulfilled first. The SA came in and showed up as "limited quantities" on Tower's site but they never sent mine claiming those limited quantities sold out instantly. I'd have to wait for the next shipment some time down the road. Sigh. Back to ebay I went, determined to get a Super Astute. I got one from a Hong Kong seller. They packed it perfectly and sent it quick. I was happy. Stupidly, I never cancelled the Tower pre-order and they magically got a shipment in (2 weeks earlier than planned) and promptly sent me a SA. Now I have two. I tried selling one once it arrived at $50 cheaper than I paid for it, but no luck. I guess everyone got theirs at that point. I was very foolish with my money, totally getting sucked into the hype. Embarrassing really.

Sorry for the long read. Has anybody else fallen into such a trap? 

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I regret waiting about a quarter of a century before finally buying a CC01, with a bunch of necessary hopups of course, only for them to announce the CC02 a few months later.  :lol:

It's not really worth anything to sell it, and once I get a CC02 I'm not sure I'll use the CC01.  I might remove things handy for trail driving, like the stroke extension kit, and just use it for a bit of fun on and off road.

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I recently bought an Arrma Infraction from my LHS.  My brother was hyping it up and it got me focused on it and I ended up buying it.  Got it home, opened the box, then I thought about the fact that I bought a Kraton earlier in the year that has never made it out of the box.  I have bought way too much this year so decided one had to go.  My son says the Kraton was what interested him so I just sold the Infraction.  Good news for me is that the Infraction isn't a Tamiya and they are in short supply so I was able to get my money back less $50 or so.  Every time I sell a Tamiya I seem to take at least a 50% haircut.

On the other end, I have on multiple occasions sold a car and immediately known that I would buy the same thing again.  Talk about wasting money!

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Years ago I went through a phase of buying re-releases and holding them for future builds.  After a little while I realized several of them were flawed from a design/durability standpoint, so I sold them off NIB to local buyers.  They were never even opened, but I lost about $20/kit just to unload them.  How do you make a little money in RC?  You start with even more money!  :lol:

I suppose passing some re-re's through my home to other people isn't a terrible thing, though.  A few airplane/heli purchases from HobbyKing haven't turned out well.  Some OFNA/Hong Nor/Hobao buys I regret.  There are some cases where I bought X number of something, and in retrospect I have to wonder why.

So yeah, I think the regrets come from cases where I bought multiples of something, bought something off-brand or generic, or bought something with inherent flaws.

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Very interesting topic.  I can't say I've had the feeling, but can definitley sympathize.  Most of my many RCs start out as parts or basket cases and I build them into what I want them to be, so I guess that let's me avoid being disappointed with a purchase.  I dont buy many new kits, but when I do it's usually something I really want.  

 

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Je ne regrette rien! :) 

Toys are needed to cheer me up, RCs still provide decent cheer-per-$ value IMHO

 

Just got back from tyre shop, another unplanned visit :( one screw wrecks near-new radial, newest one of the 5 too... dayum if I didn't need to buy that tyre I could've bought a SnackBox instead :unsure: c'est la vie

 

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Good topic! There has always been rc's that I have regretted buying not because they have been rubbish but more to do with I've had (if I was honest with myself) more important things I needed to do with my money! and the short fix of having a new kit in my hands has always blocked that thought until its sitting on the dining room table fully built and then that guilty thought smacks straight back into my brain🤔, but the main one that sticks in my mind still to this day is the losi rockrey I bought a year or so ago I sold one of my avante's and put a wedge of money towards it, when it arrived that rc fix was ripe but after a few days I began to think "how much has this thing actually cost me??" And I had really nowhere to put it so it sat in the bottom of my wardrobe for about a year not turning a wheel and I got sick of looking at it every time I opened the wardrobe doors and to add insult to injury I decided to spend a bit of money on hopping it up so I might begin to like it😏.........but no! I sold it for less than half what I bought it for🙈.

Now don't get me wrong it was a fantastic bit of kit but to this day I didn't know what I was thinking  and when I decided to expensively hop it up those types of rc buggies just don't do it for me but the one ray of sunshine is I got a fantastic deal with the money I got for it at my local hobby shop on the turbo optima so not a total loss but still a bitter pill of my own making!

20180721_125902.jpg

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I had a lot of it, the cars that I  regretted the most

boomerang I hated that thing, the car had a lot of flaws, front drive shafts that bind, all the wheels on that car had a terrible wobble in them, hated those yellow cva shocks they where not smooth, stuped steering rack that locks up if you run it on the beach, and with al the play in the car and al the abs parts that looked fragile, drove it 2 minutes and sold it.

Sand scorcher, I did a lot of changing on the car shocks, tires, direct links to the servo, alloy chassis, but in the end the car runs like ....... even with a mild brushless motor It spins out al the time on the beach for me no fun to drive, sold that to.

Bullhead, bought that car cheep 160 euro NIB, than after  some months thinking what to do with it, wanted a lexan body shell, dual brushless, oil shocks, alloy servo mounts, alloy suspension links and some other stuff. I decided to sell the car NIB and not spend all the money on it because its not going to be the car I want, the nice thing about this one is that I made some profit out of It sold the car for 210 euro so 50 profit.

Red dt-02 holiday buggy, I do not like the color red but I thought I could paint the body, then I discoverd that the body is not paintable so I sold the car.
 

When I started this hobby 4 years ago I bought a lot of stuf that I reggretted and did a lot impulsive shopping buying cars and parts, I am on a differrent path now,  I reduced my cars from 18 to 8 sold a lot of rc stuf that I don't need and stop the impulsive shopping, decided to spent my money on my 8 cars until they are the way I wanted and then buy another one, I do not buy cars anymore because its a good deal, now I think it 10 times over instead of just push the buy it button.

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Regret nothing, run everything!

The only thing I regret isn't even regret per se.  I bought a TA03R then the parts to convert it to a TA03R-S for the 2014 Lancia 037 re-release body.  I really didn't like that the front wheels are outside of the front wings.  The few times I ran the chassis I noticed it was way too low in the front and would get scraped easily.  Perhaps it was bad setup.  I also did not like that it seems heavy and brittle compared to modern touring cars.

The rest of the story is that I did find a chassis I love for my Lancia 037 body.  Along the way I converted a TA05 to 239mm wheelbase too, which once again too wide in the front for the 037 but is absolutely perfect for the 911 GT1 body.  I made a firm decision that I would make an M04 work for the Lancia 037 as its track is narrow enough in the front and it is mid-motor like the full scale car.  This decision was affirmed by building my M06 to accept a 911 GT2 body (me, i just have to have layout, motor position, as the full scale).

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Starting to see a theme here.  Most regrets come from impluse buys that sit in the box unused.  Personally, I use mostly everything I buy and I feel that enjoyment comes with running them.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a few RCs in the box, but I always buy them with a plan in mind and will get to them eventually.  

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2 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Starting to see a theme here. 

...a theme that surprises me admittedly. Whatever I buy, I'm excited to get, just like a kid. Also, just like a kid, I tear into it the second I have a moment to spare. I have some kits squirreled away for future enjoyment (glad I did that before Tamiya MAP hit the US) but nothing new and exciting. I take my time now, mulling over details and assembling with fine precision but I'm still too thrilled to let something sit. RTRs don't do it for me unless they're used and I can tear them down anyway.

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I bought a Konghead thinking it would be fun, but I just don't get it. Lunchbox drives more fun, and the Konghead just seems heavy and slow.

 

I massively regret selling my TA03F, and have been slowly building one out of spares, most likely costing more then if I had just bought a NIB off ebay.

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38 minutes ago, Chaosfruitbat said:

I bought a Konghead thinking it would be fun, but I just don't get it. Lunchbox drives more fun, and the Konghead just seems heavy and slow.

 

No way!😁

G6-01 is way better, just put a faster motor in!

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I don't regret any of my purchases. I do regret buying my T-maxx though. Don't regret buying the truck. I regret who I bought it from. I got proper screwed over thinking I was buying something good which turned out to be a total nightmare and I ended up spending a lot of time doing a lot of work that I shouldn't have needed to do.

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Most recently: that silly Carisma scaler. Frustrating build, cheap flimsy materials, and kind of dull to drive. I bought it with a gift certificate, which is annoying because it means I "wasted" a birthday present. I'm trying to sell it now to recoup at least something.

Previous: Hotshot. It looks so good, but that creaky suspension and the terrible steering put me off. I have a Boomerang now instead, and I like that much better.

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 I spent a lot of money on a NIB vintage Clodbuster in 2013, built it, never run. It took me 2 years to sell it for less than half the price I paid :wacko:

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I suffer from impulse eBay bids and end up with multiples.

I bought an ORV mash-up runner and then a job lot of 2 ORVs in bits. Why? I already had a runner....

I had a TL01LA which I had never run. And was too nice to run. So I bought another one. Which I have never run.

I recently bought a NIB M04 Alfa Giulia. Very pleased with it. I already have an M04 BMW 2002 and (nearly) enough bits to make two more plus my my M03/M04 hybrid. So, just a little eBay bid and... d’oh!!! I bought another M04 Giulia runner.

CR-01. A while back I bought an FJ Cruiser from Tamico on sale. That’s that itch scratched, I thought. Then a Rock Socker comes up on eBay for not much and I had a money off voucher and.. you guessed it, another one bought.

I’m not too remorseful about these purchases but I’m not very good at letting go of stuff so I’ve only moved on my first TL01LA and a TT01 since I started the hobby. I keep telling myself that I’m storing up projects for the future.

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Probably all the hopups trying to turn a TT02 into a plastic tyre drift car. It never handled how I wanted it to and just wasn't enjoyable to drive, probably because I didn't have the correct surface to run it on. It's much more enjoyable as an overpowered rubber tyre go-anywhere basher.   

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Traxxas T Maxx back in the day to get away from lousy battery life and wanted to run on grass.

Man what a pain to get started and to keep engine running. Gave up in end and bought for £400 sold for £30 GULP about 2 years ago. It had the .19 motor with EZ start.......LOL

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Hats off to @Saito2 for yet another great thread 

Purchases regretted really comes down to my early days - so making Tamiya TV replicas with my kids ... then making them insanely fast + spending ludicrous amounts for power they at best couldn’t use ... or  at worst obliterated first out 🙄

Beyond that, hopping up w/o a budget or plan is my next worst noob snafu.

You can ruin any half decent kit by ubiquitously adding weight - esp in the wrong places ... or by moving plastic stress points from one place to somewhere worse that Tamiya hadn’t planned for. 

Either way - a £450 pimped CC01 ranks amongst my worse purchases ... followed closely by a £1200 Traxxas X Maxx disaster. 

Lovely thing initially  - boring + pointless inside 6 weeks ...

My worst purchases have been solely down to self indulgence though.

Hoarding different body sets / kits of one vintage model when only one really holds value is a classic ?

Cheaply buying crap tools + parts when I knew I shouldn’t a close second ?

Buying incomplete, piece part vintage crap thinking I can miraculously do better than the poor ****** selling the worst ...

And with that catalogue of shame I’m hiding away 😂

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On 9/29/2019 at 9:14 AM, Chaosfruitbat said:

I've got a brushless combo sitting here. Time for an experiment :)

I have a konghead with a 4000kv on 3s and it isn't that fun, it gets squirrely and the 4 rear tyres expand that much they touch. It is probably more behaved on 2s, but I think the truck is too vanilla. I much prefer my heavy dump truck with a sport tuned on 2s.

In fact, I might sell off my konghead...

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Pre Y2K I bought a HPI RS4MT (The electric one) was a great buy until I slid it into a curb and ripped off the front right hand corner in the first week. The importer had ordered in the car, but no spare parts. Was rather annoyed at spending a week's pay on a car (before I put motor/ESC/servo/receiver) which was pretty much shelved till a slow boat made it to AU with some spare parts some months later.

Sadly was a model well ahead of itself. If it had have been released in the last few years it may have been able to compete with the SCTs. Alas it was not able to race with 2WD trucks and there was no 4WD truck class.

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1 hour ago, LeftyAl said:

Pre Y2K I bought a HPI RS4MT (The electric one) was a great buy until I slid it into a curb and ripped off the front right hand corner in the first week. The importer had ordered in the car, but no spare parts. Was rather annoyed at spending a week's pay on a car (before I put motor/ESC/servo/receiver) which was pretty much shelved till a slow boat made it to AU with some spare parts some months later.

Sadly was a model well ahead of itself. If it had have been released in the last few years it may have been able to compete with the SCTs. Alas it was not able to race with 2WD trucks and there was no 4WD truck class.

nah not HPI fault, distributor BoltOn was hopeless simple as that :( 

Same timeframe I was into racing NRS4s... managed to break a shock shaft. LHS tried to order it in, they act like they've never heard of such a sparepart... Whats that all about then??!

Late 90s predated easy online ordering, had to get HPI parts to fix my race car via friends going shopping in Honkers & from Tower Hobby via pal at Stanford. Ended up buying several RS4 kits for parts supply.

 

Yet years later... broke diff case in Blitz. Shouldn't be too hard, shared part with a few HPI models, LHS can get it in right? WRONG takes months to be told nobody can find any actual stock on this whole island - HPI oz distributorship has changed once if not twice. After a long wait... meh gave up, ordered it myself come via USA mailorder.

 

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