How do you find your grails?

[Wardah]

And more importantly how do you find them without having to pay some kind of insane amount? I've been searching for a few things for a while and I've just been feeling discouraged. One is a fakie type toy with a really really generic name and the rest is stuff that was only released in other countries.

[kaoskat]

Well, mostly I just wait and keep hunting. Eventually it will come around for a price I can afford if I want it badly enough. Either because I saved up and have what it's worth or because I got lucky and found it for less before then.

[Galactica]

It depends on the kind of grail you are going for.  My grails are vintage prototypes. I've collected the ones I have through insane amounts of patience, sleuthing, more patience, more sleuthing....  following up on as many leads as possible- being rejected, treated as an insane person, and then finally, FINALLY a bit of luck and overwhelming success.  I've lost or exhausted the few contacts I had though, so it would be back to square one for me if I had the energy to start again, which I don't, lol.

[Wardah]

Oh I can understand the lure of vintage prototypes. I have often found myself drooling over unproduced toys on ghostofthedoll. The problem with the foreign (mostly UK and European) stuff is I can't search the thrift stores and car boot sales there so my only option is ebay and the prices on there make me cry. The other thing I'm searching for is difficult because it's not a big name company toy and it has a rather generic name. And loose they could be mistaken for a bunch of different much more common things.

[Sebby6]

I pretty much only get my grails when an old time collector decides to sell up. It can be a bit bittersweet sometimes

[LunaDehligt]

i get my grails by making deals with the seller ^-^
and some times the seller is the one that gives me a good deal! 

[otocolobus_manul]

Finding cheap sellers with huge stores on ebay and checking daily until one pops up, browsing taobao and investigating the stores of anyone selling related objects, constantly browsing the arena, simply googling their name and looking for more website possibilities... basically, patience and persistence.

Though im sure there are quicker and more efficient ways. But eh.

[invaderhorizongreen]

I simply wait and watch, if I miss them I will find them again.

[hathorcat]

I pretty much only get my grails when an old time collector decides to sell up. It can be a bit bittersweet sometimes

Yup this for me now as well or when a fellow collector decided something in their collection is worth trading for something I have.

Or just good old fashioned luck or fellow collectors, of different toys, who stumble upon some epic finds.

[FantasticFirefly]

How rare are these items? If you can do an ebay search and see them listed often with shipping available to you, then it's a matter of patience waiting for an auction that ends lower, or a lower auction for a poor condition example that ends low. An example, TAF babies usually end high, but you see them all the time on ebay! So even though they were sold through points only, in reality they were mass-produced and really, not rare.

Most of my grails were almost always unavailable to me. I wait months or years for these very specific things to even be listed on ebay only to see it not in my country, with absolute refusal to even ship to my country. 1 item took me over 10 years to find, and found by accident! I bought a high priced grail item from a collector and she asked if there was anything else I was looking for, she just happened to have my ultimate grail. Another set was a few years of searching intensely, I could have gotten this set mostly complete in played with condition a couple times, but I was picky about completeness and condition.

[Rachel-Eyes]

What exactly is it that you're looking for, Wardah? Perhaps we can keep our eyes peeled for you during our own treasure hunts in case we happen to see it.

I know that I'd be more than happy to PM you a link to an auction if I ever found one.

[Wardah]

These are ones that I can't seem to find at all.
http://mlparena.com/index.php?topic=358463.0

And I have been searching for transparent G3 LPS pets that are not at highway robbery prices.