Lost-a-gotchi: tales of woe about tamas lost, stolen, or sniped in an ebay bid

As the title says, this is a space to vent about those tamas that are literally, physically, no longer with us. I'm genuinely curious to hear others' stories (as I'm sure any dedicated gotchi parent has had this sort of experience on some level); plus, telling those stories can be strangely cathartic.

Topics include, but are not limited to: lost or stolen gotchis, lost eBay bids, online scams, accidentally (or purposefully) broken gotchis, and so on

Stories with happy endings are welcome, too!

This thread was inspired by the absolutely tragedy that happened to me today. The holidays are upon us, so I wanted to treat myself to some gifts - self love and all that. I had my eye on a few vintage Tamas on eBay; the starting bids were fantastic, even with shipping included, and hardly anyone was bidding. There was an Oceangotchi, Angelgotchi, and P1, each for under $30 including shipping! Tomorrow is the last day to bid, so I was keeping close watch but hadn't made any bids yet. Well, last night I learned that my card information was stolen and someone was making fraudulent purchases using my money. I'm not sure what this says about me as a responsible adult, but I was seriously considering leaving my card open until the bidding was over - however, with great suffering, I did the responsible thing and cancelled my card.

Until a new one comes in the mail, I won't be able to make any purchases - and by that time, the bidding for these Tamas will be long over. Again, not sure what this says about me and my priorities, but I'm considering swallowing my pride and asking a family member to place a bid for me.

Anyone else have a tragic tale they'd like to share?

My first tamagotchi was a V3 with clovers all around and I loved it. I got it when I was about 13 so I was embarassed to ask my parents for it since I wasn't a small child. But my parents understood somehow that I wanted it so they bought me one as a present and I loved it. However, about a couple of years afterwards, they made me give it to my much younger cousin because then "I was too old for this anyway". I didn't want to but I acted like it was totally fine. She was a very spoiled and difficult child whom I never really liked, and that was the secondary reason why I wasn't happy about giving it away. I think she played with it for about a day or two. I saw it some days later, inactive, with a very scratched screen, in a box of toys and I had to contain my frustration. Needless to say, I never saw it again.



(Same design.)

When it comes to lost bids, I really regret not buying some rarer shell designs and version back when they were way cheaper than they are now. Sometimes they're downright impossible to get on ebay anymore. I also never got my Cheeks Chan which I ordered, but thankfully I got my money back.

And when it comes to actual lost tamagotchis, the closest to the experience I had was a trade that I regret now. I traded my white-and-red v5,5 for a purple v5,5 with someone here on Tamatalk and I was pretty disappointed with the toy's condition, while mine was pretty much perfect (and it had a pretty good history on a polish forum I am on).

Oh boy, do I have a lost Tamagotchi story!

Ok, so, in 2008, I got a V5, and it looked like this



I had this V5 for about three years, and in that time I also had a newspaper delivery job. Anyway, so in 2011, as I was delivering newspapers, I had the V5 in my pocket, and it ended up falling out of my pocket. I had no idea where exactly on my route it fell, and I looked around where I thought it could have fallen, but I couldn't find it. Fast forward to about a month later, as I was delivering the newspapers, I found it again - or so I thought... when I picked it up, it turned out that all that was left of it was the shell. I'm not even kidding. The screen? Gone. The buttons? Gone. The infrared sensor? Yep, you guessed it - that was gone too!

So, yeah, that's my lost Tamagotchi story.

Also, my sister once accidentally threw her V4 over a tree (she had it attached to a lanyard and she was jumping on our trampoline and swinging the lanyard around at the same time, and she let go of the lanyard by accident), and then we never saw that again either, no matter how hard we looked for it

One Christmas quite a few years ago, I and my brother were gifted a V3 each by an aunt and uncle. Between that time and late last year, I had completely forgotten about Tamagotchis. When I finally remembered them I leapt to start mines up again and later, as my interest began to build, I decided to look for my brother's V3. I looked through his entire bedroom with no luck and was half-way through a deeper scouring when I had to refocus on school. I've never picked up the search and there seems to be some vague memories of the V3 in question maybe getting lost or broken. But since it was so, so long ago, nobody really remembers.

I vaguely remember taking apart two tamas and changing their backgrounds, but I'm pretty sure neither was his V3. I kept the parts in a small container which was eventually thrown out as I reorganized my room to house my doll collection (a 5 year collection at that). I wish I had kept the parts as I would have really liked to put them back together to see if they still worked. It would be quite interesting either way and I probably would have a broken or half-zombified tama as I'm sure I wasn't careful in taking them apart.

I never really bid on Tamagotchis as I find the buy it now option to be more secure. I do remember two I put a bid on during the last day of their auctions. I prefer bidding that way on things that would be nice to have but I don't really need especially since there is a more likely chance I'll actually get it. Things were looking fine till the last few hours where someone swooped in and became the highest bidder. I abandoned the bidding since I already had that version and I would really only be happy if it was a bargain anyway. I do remember being a little peeved and feeling like the other bidder was being malicious as if they wanted to make it harder for me to buy those tamas. Of course, I knew there was no reason to think like that and all grudges were forgotten the next morning.

You're right Wagaturtle, this is cathartic.

Ok so sometime last year I won a pink and white music star that I found completely gorgeous.

At the time we also had a 6 month old puppy.

Puppy found the tama and chewed it to pieces in a matter of minutes.

I'm still a bit heartbroken over it.

I "lost" my first four or five Tamagotchis to a thrift store... My mom was really wanting us to participate in spring cleaning, so I threw out my tamas because I hadn't used them in a little while. I was not a smart seven year old. I REALLY regret doing that because I threw out my first tama (a V5 Celebrity) and a P2 that I had found brand new at a thrift store. The P2 was boring to me at the time, so I remember being pretty satisfied to get it rid of it... I was a fool.

I also bought a bundle of seven tamas a few years back. The bundle consisted of four V1s, two V2s, and one V3. Unfortunately, one of the V1's buttons didn't work and I had to toss it out (and I tried everything I could to fix it). Then I bought a Plus Color a couple of years ago, but the A button didn't work and I had to return it. I never bought a new one.

I know the last reply to this topic was last year, but I have a story of lost tamagotchis.

When I was a kid, Tamagotchis were a thing. I had a few and played with them for a while, months later I got bored and stopped playing with them. I didn't think about them for a while and thought that they weren't in production anymore. In 2008, I was going to Cosmetology school and one of the other gals that was going there had a v4. I remembered the tamas that I had, so I decided to buy another one. At that time, the v4.5 were still sold in store, so I purchased the purple puzzles v4.5. I loved that tama so much. For Christmas that year, I asked for another v4.5 , to which my cousin admitted that he was embarrassed to walk into Toys R Us to purchase it. I ended up getting the Tamagotchi plus a landyard to go with it. I played with both of them for years, until I went to the Philippines for vacation in 2012 and saw that they had color Tamagotchis. I've always wanted a color Tamagotchi, especially the Tamagotchi +Color, but I never got one because they were expensive and you could only buy them from Japan or eBay. So I bought two ID L. My first color Tamas. Oh my, they were fantastic. Unfortunately, I got to caught up in school that I couldn't take care of them, so I put them in a drawer. One day my dad was doing some cleaning and came across them. He asked me if I still needed them and I told him that I didn't and he can give them away. That was the biggest mistake EVER. I could NEVER get those ID L's back. I mean I could buy them off eBay, but they're so expensive now. They were cheaper when I bought them in the Philippines. Fast Forward to a couple weeks ago....my dad was in the Philippines and asked me what I wanted him to bring back for me. I told him to go to Toy Kingdom and see if they still have the Tamagotchi color. Unfortunately, they no longer have it and all they have was the Tamagotchi 20th Anniversary. I really missed my two ID L. Since they didn't have what I wanted, my only option was to go on eBay and find an ID L. I couldn't find any that were in my price range, but I did find a 4U+ that was decently priced, so I bought it. In the end, I still miss the ID L's that I had, but the 4U+ will do.

Ebay isn't the only option of buying tamas, there are decently priced iD L's on JapanYouWant.

hoo boy this t e c h n i c a l l y isn't my loss but im still pretty bummed over it

i was talking to my girlfriend a while ago about tamagotchi's, and she sent me a link to a really pretty connection v5, the cherry blossoms shell. She knew i had been looking for that specific shell for a while, and even though it was a bit on the pricey side, she told me she'd get it for me as a present when she got her paycheck. Eventually the day came, and tams around that price range do tend to stay on ebay for a while, so she decided to go and order it. Unfortunately, somebody had already gotten to it. I was kinda bummed, but i know that there will probably be another one on sale soon, since it isnt that rare of a shell.

When i was 8 or 9, i got two v3s from my parents and grandma, the pink ice creams and zebra striped ones. I had them for a few months, at least between april and june. around the end of fifth grade, i noticed that there was a girl up my street who i'd never talked to before, so i went to say hi. we ended up playing at my house that day, and for the rest of the summer and school year after that. However, after the first day she came over to my house, my tamagotchis mysteriously disappeared. I never found them, or any trace of them, until near the end of that summer when i found only the beaded chain i had used to clip them together (and never took them off, mind you) on the floor of her bedroom. She denied knowing where they were, but i never believed her and i stopped hanging out with her as much or trusting her around any of my more valuable toys from then on.

I had also started hanging out with another girl who lived next door to her. This girl and i started playing together a lot more after i discovered the thief's crimes, and she told me that around the time my tamagotchis would have gone missing, the thief had been playing with her and made her help destroy two tamagotchis. She couldn't remember the colors because she was like, four years younger than us and six-year-olds don't exactly have photographic memory, but she was pretty sure they had been mine.

it was awful, but a single item on the list of awful things thief did to me, so it wasn't really that bad in comparison. The other girl also had a really wealthy family and ended up with a lot of tamagotchis but got bored of them often, so she would lend them to me a lot as well, which was really nice.

A recent heartbreak:

I sold my car but unfortunately did not clean it out well enough and my V6 music star (and my Nintendogs+Cats game) went with it in the glove box. I am still very gutted, but I bet the new owner had a field day when he found them