I've missed a few outfits by playing chicken with when they were going to retire, and hopeing they would evntually end up on sale. The fact that I didn't want them enough to purchase them as soon as they came out, or to pay full price also means that I wasn't too upset to miss them. In almost every case, I was able to eventually get them on e-bay for less then original price. The one exception was the martial arts outfit. We had no interest in it until DD started karate lessons. It retired about a month before DD decided she *had* to have it. I paid $3 more than the original price for a mint in the box from e-bay.