I've managed to do one of the hardest things in collecting: limit the scope of which items I'm chasing. It's still several bookcases of material, but I've managed to say "no" often enough that I may actually be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So, as the want list shrinks (I'm down to a few dozen books and maybe twice as many magazines remaining), I'm of course left with only tricky items left to find.

Some are easy to think about. For a very limited edition, or otherwise particularly rare item, hope to get lucky but expect to pay a lot. Simple.

But then there are the items that aren't truly all that rare, but have hung out on the want list for a very long time, really for the opposite reason: they're not interesting/valuable enough to come up that often. I'm mostly thinking about small market magazines in my case, but this could apply to less popular RPGs or other oddball items. What to do there? When one comes up, do you just grit your teeth and overpay if it happens to be priced painfully (say, $50 for something that might fetch $10 at an open auction), or leave it on the want list for another few years and wait? I normally counsel patience, but for items that have been on the want list for 5-10 years, I'm starting to wonder if the pleasure of crossing something off will outweigh the pain of the cost.

If something fetches $10 at auction, unlikely it would take 5-10 years to acquire, and in all reality the "sting" of overpaying by $40 is relatively negligible.

I submit a more accurate example would be the semi-rare, something in the $200-400 range that you know will be a competitive bidding situation - rare enough for wide interest, but low enough to encompass most collectors, and the premium you might pay to ensure the win can be significant. My tendency in these circumstances is to really think about what it is worth, and determine what I am willing to pay - expecting that this is an overpay situation, not a bargain - and make that informed bid. That minimizes the sting of the premium, knowing it was well considered, as opposed to wild impulsive increase in the closing seconds of the auction.

If I lose - the chase continues. In some ways the hunt can be better than the kill, after all. And lets face it, if you complete your want list and have the perfect collection - you'll probably draw up another want list in short order.

This is where I've been for the last 6 months too.  I've decided to just get the things I need instead of hunting for rare items within my original price range.  I'll lose 20-30 auctions in a row just to get one that is close (but still over) my target price.  So, why not just pay a little more and get it?  How much is my search/bid/communication time worth to me?  I can tell you this, it's worth a lot more than the $10 or $20 I might have saved.

Sure, I have a few good stories to tell; several auctions where I won the mislabeled or unseen treasure.  But those are rare and waiting for the next one is just too much work.  There's a lot on my RPG bucket list and to get to them, I need to clear my path of "wasted" time... I mean, collecting is not a waste of time, it's quite enjoyable actually, but searching for and bidding on items with a refusal to expand the top line price (even by a few bucks) is a drain on my free time, the little that I have.

With this mentality, I've finished several collections in the last 6-12 months.  I haven't drastically overpaid yet I've gained a lot of free time back - time to read, write and enjoy more gaming!  I may have spent more to get those last few things but I've saved hundreds of hours.  To me, it is (and was) worth it.

Oh, and for the last couple of near impossible items, I'd overpay for those, just to finish the collection.  

~throwi

I have had great success just networking with other collectors!  Also occasionally I list a few wants in the classified and get lucky.

A good example of this is a few years ago (probably more than a few years actually LOL) I posted a want list for a few rares in the classifieds.  It happened that an older member had some and  I scored a limited Inverness in gorgeous shape for just under the Acaeum price list as well as a few other items.  It had been so long since a limited Inverness was actually offered for sale or auction I am sure it would have gone for much more on Ebay.

TheHistorian wrote in Overpaying (OR how do you close out a want list?):

Grug Greyskin wrote in Overpaying (OR how do you close out a want list?):If something fetches $10 at auction, unlikely it would take 5-10 years to acquire, and in all reality the "sting" of overpaying by $40 is relatively negligible.

Examples: The last issues of certain 1980s-2000s US/UK/AUS magazines that I need, like Adventures Unlimited, Valkyrie, and Australian Realms. They strike me as the sort of items that are sitting in piles collecting dust in gaming/comics/book stores around the world, but don't have enough value to generally make it to online sales. Occasionally they do, and often I do fine. I wasn't 100% convinced that Fantasy Chronicles 9 existed until I bought one for well under $10 (I wish you well finding another copy!). But then there are others that come up and I stare at them in the $30-50 range.

Maybe the answer is to just start posting my want list in a few places...