What are YOUR regrets ?

[Jantrix]

Please don't hate me for this.

Back before I knew their value, before the internet, I build three Johans kits that I wasn't interested in and gave them to my sons as toy push cars. They loved them. I'm not gonna say which ones because you guys would certainly put out a contract for my assassination.

[ChrisBcritter]

Buying a Jo-Han '66 Chrysler convertible for 50 cents, building it, and reselling it for $9.00 (yes, this was in the '70s).

[vamach1]

I cannot really think of any.  I built all sorts of kits as a kid but nothing that I am really that nostalgic about.  I would say 95% of the kits I have I bought in the last 35 years so I missed the chance to buy any of the annuals in the 60's and 70's. Over the years I have bought some older unbuilt kits or glue bombs if the price was reasonable.  There are very few kits I do not have that I would not mind adding to the collection (Mangusta comes to mind) but all in all I can say no RAGRETS so  maybe I will get that tattooed on my chest. 

[forthlin]

Back in Nov. 2007 my hours at my job were cut from 40+ hours a week down to less than 20 hrs for several months.  Everything got behind including  a few missed mortgage payments so our house went into foreclosure. I was so depressed thinking my Wife & I were going to be homeless I threw 100+ built models out with the trash figuring I wouldn't have a home to put them in. A couple weeks after all this happened new owners took over the company I work for & I went back to fulltime. We were able to save the house from foreclosure & everything worked out great other than the regret I still have for being so hasty & stupid & throwing all my models away. 

[landman]

It seemed like a good idea at the time, I gave probably 30 model trucks c/w trailers to two truck stops to display in their restaurants.

[vamach1]

14 minutes ago, landman said:

It seemed like a good idea at the time, I gave probably 30 model trucks c/w trailers to two truck stops to display in their restaurants.

Given the room it takes to store them perhaps it was not a bad idea.  A lot more people would see them and appreciate them too.  Assuming my kids do not want my built models when I am gone I hope someday they end up somewhere on display.  Maybe I should get in line as there is a Mustang museum that is opening next year that might get a lot of donations.

[Tom Geiger]

Back in 2001...  Walmart had a gift set,  2 of their AMT Checkerboard 1/25 car kits, a showcase and an Ertl Hot Wheel size car kit, all shrink wrapped together for $20 or so.  I came across these on the clearance aisle for $5 each. There were 20 of them and it would've been a $100 purchase.

I had recently been laid off and was worried about money so I passed and walked away.  In the end I found a new job quickly, way before my severance ran out so I wound up being paid by both companies for several months.   I should've bought them!

[Draggon]

I had saved everything, including the spare parts and decals, since my first model in 1962. In 2005 it looked like I was going to spend extended time away from home. I would have needed to rent my house. The girlfriend was not up to moving and storing all that model "stuff" so "we" put 80% of it in the garbage. I hadn't built a model in 30 years so I thought it would be ok. It wasn't. I ended up staying home, and started building again a year later.  Then I found out what people are paying for kits and parts on ebay. 

Edited September 13, 2018 by Draggon

[Pete J.]

The main regret I have is I wish I had watched less TV and spent the time at the modeling bench.  Too late to recover that now!

 

[Jon Cole]

Having to sell 900+ unbuilt kits because we were bankrupt and were losing the house. That hurt.

[Jim N]

I do not have any regrets.  There have been a number of kits I passed on buying, but I am sure I had valid reasons at the time.  Yes, there have been some that when I looked back perhaps I should have pulled the trigger and bought them.  But looking at my collection now, I am not sure what I would do with another 2 - 3 dozen kits or where I would store them.

[Sport Suburban]

Regrets, sure I have some regrets but I don't dwell on them. Without them thou I would not appreciate the seized opportunities!

Also, I don't think I would remember some of the models I built if I didn't blow them up or shoot them!

[iamsuperdan]

I just wish I still had all the kits I built back in elementary and junior high. They all ended up broken and/or tossed. A few Tamiya kits, a Ford promo ESCI Transit van, handful of Trans Ams all come to mind.

 

Ah well.

 

[disabled modeler]

My regrets are not having my dads old ones protected enough or in a better place when the tornado hit us here in 2011...maybe I wouldn't had lost so many of them or had as bad of damage to them..??? 

[Daddyfink]

[Ace-Garageguy]

In the '70s, I was out of the country for a while. My girl didn't keep up with my storage unit payments, so I lost all my model stuff, as well as a truckload of irreplaceable vintage real-car parts. Same girl who sold my Karmann Ghia and Isetta for scrap prices.

I also regret (just a little, on some days) my lack of due-diligence when I got back into the hobby around 2005. In my enthusiasm, I bought a lot of kits (sight-unseen) I knew nothing about, assuming that everything available would be at least as good quality as the vintage kits I was most familiar with. Wrong, and as a result, I have a fair number of pieces that are disappointing at best (like the Aurora E-type Jags and their '34 Ford double kit; gorgeous box art, poorly-scaled and proportioned contents).

But the flip side is that I was able to replace some golden-oldies I was familiar with, well before the prices went nuts...so it all evens out.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ich_Will]

41 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Same girl who sold my Karmann Ghia and Isetta for scrap prices.

 

Ouch

[Bugatti Fan]

Selling my Lotus Cortina to raise a house deposit!

[ChrisBcritter]

If we're going for 1/1 regrets, (a) having to sell my '64 Catalina 2+2 convertible (which I only had for four months) because my roommate couldn't come up with rent money, and (b)misplacing all the photos of it except this one: