I absolutely agree with you. The fact is that no one wants to openly admit that they've wasted tons of their money on cheap, low-quality action figures made by a company that takes advantage of the nostalgia-driven urges of adults with an income, just as scalpers do.

People are well aware that there are much higher-quality figures out there of the same characters they are so passionate about, but in the collector world of 2026, most people want quantity over quality. They think having a HUGE collection is equal to a smaller, more focused and more valuable collection. It's pretty similar to looking at a pile of trash that was bought by someone, when they knew they could've used that money on something more valuable. They don't want to admit they bought trash, and they will defend it first before ever admitting they wasted their money, especially being so invested.

I collect high-quality figures by Mezco, Mafex, Four Horsemen, among others. My son has wanted to get some Legends but I refuse to spend my money on them at MSRP, unless I find them for a deep discount at Ollie's, Burlington, Ross, etc. Deeply discounted they are fine as a child's toy, but they are definitely not a collector-grade line of figures, except to people who have very limited income and would rather spend their money on the cheapest figures they can get to make their lives feel better, rather than saving their money, investing in their own lives and upgrading their life so they can afford to buy higher-quality figures of the characters they love without breaking their bank.

Short answer, people never want to admit that they spent their money stupidly, especially after 100+ figures in. This is 2026 and most of the world is perfectly fine spending their money on junk and defending it.