Toy Show Remorse

[palitoy]

Every Year in October, I get up early and drive the two hours to the Buffalo toy show. I've been doing this since I don't know when, mostly because I really like Buffalo, growing up on it's TV stations, I feel like I lived there.

I should mention that I have never found anything of any signifigance at the show itself but it's a fun day spent hitting flea markets and Target. Usually coming home with nothing more than some boxes of "Boo Berry".

For a number of reasons (broken spark plugs being the big ones), I decided to pass on the trip on Sunday. Oddly enough, I really felt like I was missing out despite knowing the show isn't all that important.

It's a strange feeling really, there probably was more of the same as last year but I was still at home kind of feeling like I missed out. Anybody ever get this?

[Twiki1979]

I know this feeling very well...There aren't as many things today you can do that give you that "nostalgia" feeling and for you this show is probably one of those events. I feel that way when im on tour alot and find myself looking for vacant old stores that i remember or old style toys r us buildings....just for a little bit of that nostalgia =)

I go to my local toy show too and even though it's the same people,same stuff usually I still enjoy it because i've been doing it for so long....

Buffalo is a cool city by the way !

[Wee67]

I felt this way after visiting with my in-laws this summer. Not because I missed out on a show, but because we drove past yard sale after flea market. I really couldn't ask her whole family to humor me and wait while spent hours sifting through the next set of neighborhood driveway goods.

You see, my wife is from a small, small town in northern Idaho (765 people). And as we drove through several of these towns, I couldn't help but think these garages and attics might still hold some untouched treasures that bigger towns hadn't yet pulled away.

I wonder about what I would have bought, but I also wonder about the things I wouldn't have bought but would have got a huge kick out of seeing again- those ugly brown mugs we used to have or the silly "love is..." statues my mother had about. I still wonder what I might have missed.

[EMCE Hammer]

Megocon:-( I waffled, and waffled, and finally decided not to go. At least you get another crack at it next year. There will never, ever, be such a spectacle as Megocon again.

[EMCE Hammer]

I wonder about what I would have bought, but I also wonder about the things I wouldn't have bought but would have got a huge kick out of seeing again- those ugly brown mugs we used to have or the silly "love is..." statues my mother had about. I still wonder what I might have missed.

You mean these Bill?



I have the whole dinner set in storage - it was my mom's first dinnerware. I can still remember eating cereal in our kitchen that had an "accent wall" of paneling.

[AJ Collector]

I know just what you mean, in a sense you not attending means you will miss that red haired drac in the dollar bin....

There is a flea market all summer on Saturdays less then a mile from my house and If I am not there to pass over the same tables every Saturday I to will have missed good ole drac!

[nvmbrsdoom5]

I always lament missing the local toy shows, even though when I do wind up going, I very rarely find much of any interest. I think I mostly enjoy just being there, being around the toys and the other like-minded collectors and the whole vibe of it. I don't even feel that bummed when I walk out of a toy con empty handed, I still usually enjoy myself regardless. So it's always a bummer when I have to miss one. Plus I can't help but wonder if the one that I didn't attend would happen to have a dealer with a bunch of good stuff! I've been to shows where a dealer showed up with amazing deals on good toys, and then I never saw that dealer again at any other show afterwards. So yeah I can't help but wonder if I'm missing out on something like that when I don't attend.

[toys2cool]

Happens to me all the time, only difference is i end up going to the FX toyshow every year at the last second

[cjefferys]

No remorse, I usually just forget to go anyway because I'm so absent minded, which apparently has happened again in regards to the Buffalo show. I just tell myself that unless I got to a show really early, which is usually very unlikely to happen, I wouldn't miss anything great anyway. That helps me feel better.

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Know the feeling all too well.
I used to go to the toy shows in Syracuse, NY at the fair grounds faithfully twice a year back in the late '80's to mid '90's. The show used to be great in the beginning but then it got to where it was smaller and smaller each year and then went to just to once a year. I stopped going one year because the year prior was soooo small that it only took up a 1/4 of the building, the year after that it ended all together, I missed that show for several years when I knew it was time for it to be around and knowing it was nolonger there. I miss going to it to this day.
Lynn

[vulcan2074]

I feel remorse everytime I miss the local Toy Show. One of these days I'll make it out there. It's my destiny
Sammy

[HardyGirl]

This one is kinda weird. I have a younger half-sister I don't see very often. She invited me to her baby shower and it was on the day of a toy show, but I went to the shower instead. As it turns out, many members of my family who I had been estranged from for a long time were there. My half-sister had been getting close to many of them, and I didn't even know them. I felt like a stranger in my own family. I was REALLY wishing I had gone to the toy show instead of being ignored by my own family.

[jasonmego1277]

Actually I used to go Apple picking every fall in Boston. As I got older we still went , but always felt like something was missing. For me I think it had to do with the fact that the family ( Immediate and extended ) was starting go each their own way. I can say that I do know that feeling.

[palitoy]

Know the feeling all too well.
I used to go to the toy shows in Syracuse, NY at the fair grounds faithfully twice a year back in the late '80's to mid '90's. The show used to be great in the beginning but then it got to where it was smaller and smaller each year and then went to just to once a year. I stopped going one year because the year prior was soooo small that it only took up a 1/4 of the building, the year after that it ended all together, I missed that show for several years when I knew it was time for it to be around and knowing it was nolonger there. I miss going to it to this day.

Oh man, those were the days. I drove four hours, got a hotel and never went home empty handed. When Mark Clarke (RIP) was in charge, those shows were a must.

The last one I went to was 2001, it tiny, mostly sports cards and I kind of felt sad about the whole thing.

[VintageMike]

I feel a level of remorse any time I miss any show I want to attend.
But I have to remind myself there's no way to do/attend everything. In recent times the most legit remorse I had was missing the '08 Mego Meet. There I KNOW I'm missing a lot so that one bummed me out quite abit.