My Sylvanian Ville - Sylvaine's Toys: November 2018

Friday, 30 November 2018

Won Another SF Toy Auction

So today I won a big online SF toy auction. It's for a red hotel building that's boxed, complete, with figures, PLUS extras too! Hehe!

I promised myself not to join any auction anymore because I find them too much trouble for me. I don't have much time to track its progress and trying to outbid each time even with auto bids, and it's kinda annoying (even if exciting) doing so. I didn't buy the same on regular sale as they don't come with extras and usually cost more than auctions for the same buildings I've come across just prior.

This time I just put my maximum bid, or the highest price I'm willing to pay for the whole set and, whaddayaknow... I won it even after a sneaky bidder tried to bid at the last minute by about $50 dollars more than my bid before I won. Sorry dude, my highest bid is just too high, knowing the demand for this listing. Didn't want to waste time manually outbidding. I let the system do the automatic bids for me. Lol!

What's even yummier is that the auction site is currently running a 10% off promo on toys too. Lol! So between my highest bid and how much I won it for, I'd say the difference was $95. Awesome!

*Images are screenshots from the web.

Sunday, 25 November 2018

2018 Black Friday Purchases

It's that season again... and of course I made sure to check what kind of deals if any would be available online.

Suffice it to say I found and purchased the following brand new (prices rounded off) on amazon:

CC Ellwoods Elephant family
- from $35 to $21
- I don't buy figures at full price usually (since I'm more into accessories and buildings), especially at more than $30 when it's not yet exactly rare, so when the set went down to $21 and it's about the cost of used version online, it was a no brainer to get the set brand new at $21.

CC Ellwoods Elephant twin babies
- from $24 to $16
- I don't get why these elephant babies cost more than normal, so $16 brand new is a good deal.

Playmobil Guest Suite Building Set
- from $100 to $70
- This one has sat in my cart for more than a year so when I saw the discount, finally, I just went ahead and bought it. Now amazon nor Playmobil sites no longer sell it themselves. On amazon it's now by 3rd party sellers.

Playmobil Pirate Stronghold Building Set
- from $50 to $37

Gege Mini Doll x 3
- from $20 to $12 each
- It was my first time to see these dolls and they look absolutely adorable. Lol! I think from now on, they will be my SF figures' playmates. Lol!

CC Town Series Chocolate Lounge Set
- from $17 to $12

CC Deluxe Kitchen Set (discontinued)
- from $54.25 to $36.40

The elephant family usually gets sold used for the sale price I got it for, without the babies. All in all, I'd say not bad. Funny thing is, for some of these items, like the elephant figures and the Chocolate Lounge set, amazon listed it at their lowest price about 2 days before Black Friday and that was when I bought them (awesome!). After that I noticed the price increased incrementally.

On the other hand, the Pirate set's price went down by only about 3 dollars the day or two before Black Friday (to which I didn't bite), then on Black Friday, the difference became more than $10 (for which I'm glad I didn't bite on the first minimal discount. Lol).

So I think I know now when to buy brand new the more current (but discontinued particularly) Sylvanian Families (SF)/Calico Critters (CC) releases... around Black Friday week. Lol!

*images are screenshots from the amazon.com product page