Boba Fett eBay Watch

[kodiak8658]

The first Boba Plastic I've seen for sale on eBay just went for $261.69 plus $29.95 shipping. Fetched more than I thought it would. Maybe this thread will help some of us determine if it's going to be worth cancelling our order for a shot on the secondary market. I've got an Exclusive coming and haven't cancelled yet. :emperor

 

[Vader AL]

The first Boba Plastic I've seen for sale on eBay just went for $261.69 plus $29.95 shipping. Fetched more than I thought it would. Maybe this thread will help some of us determine if it's going to be worth cancelling our order for a shot on the secondary market. I've got an Exclusive coming and haven't cancelled yet. :emperor

exclusive or regular?

 

[tomandshell]

That was for the regular version. Two other regulars have sold after the plastic announcement, for $275 and $280. There is one ending in twenty minutes, currently bid up to $205.

I wouldn't expect to see many Exclusives on eBay. People who don't want to keep it have just cancelled rather than try and sell a controversial piece for a profit.

 

[kodiak8658]

exclusive or regular?

Regular. So you figure the exclusive should fetch a bit more. There were 15 bids on it.

 

[Bannister]

I still think this will end up cheaper down the road. Lots of items sell for near retail when they first ship and then drop later.

 

[kodiak8658]

I wouldn't expect to see many Exclusives on eBay. People who don't want to keep it have just cancelled rather than try and sell a controversial piece for a profit.

Or wondering if the piece you pay top dollar for will be worth half of what you paid. Although I like some pieces, if there is the possibility the piece will skyrocket, I may consider letting it go. With Boba, that option looks like it won't be there. Maybe the people winning these on eBay don't know the full story because these sure sold for more than I thought they would. The all-plastic should reduce the price about $100 in my estimation. But who the hell knows what people will pay. If we knew, we'd all have a dozen Balrogs, Stone Trolls and X-Men vs. Sentinel #1s.

 

[Darth Loki]

Or wondering if the piece you pay top dollar for will be worth half of what you paid. Although I like some pieces, if there is the possibility the piece will skyrocket, I may consider letting it go. With Boba, that option looks like it won't be there. Maybe the people winning these on eBay don't know the full story because these sure sold for more than I thought they would. The all-plastic should reduce the price about $100 in my estimation. But who the hell knows what people will pay. If we knew, we'd all have a dozen Balrogs, Stone Trolls and X-Men vs. Sentinel #1s.

This isn't made from Hasbro plastic you know.

 

[Vader AL]

$100? that's insane(in my opinion). i think once the piece is out and people see how great it looks the price will on par where it would have been if it was poly...maybe slightly lower(there is a larger edition size for boba) after the initial flood of course, as always, when it first starts shipping. heck even large numbers of grey hulk pf's on ebay hurt that pf's price on ebay somewhat.

 

[tomandshell]

OK then, here are the last four auctions for our eBay watchers:

3/4---$280
3/5---$275
3/11--$261
3/11--$247

All regular versions.

 

[tinister]

Sorry. I'm a little behind. What's the controversy?

And are these prices lower or highter than expected?

Thanks.

Tin

 

[Ven]

Sorry. I'm a little behind. What's the controversy?

And are these prices lower or highter than expected?

Thanks.

Tin

turns out SST pulled another bait and switch, turned fett into plastic, everyone freaked and now the prices should be dropping.

 

[tinister]

Dang. Plastic instead of polystone? That's a big difference.

I'd be pissed.

 

[DouglasMcc]

OK then, here are the last four auctions for our eBay watchers:

3/4---$280
3/5---$275
3/11--$261
3/11--$247

All regular versions.

Give it time. I won an auction for an exclusive Vader MIMB last summer for 258 before shipping. Boba will also drop below retail ... however, it would have done this even if it was poly. Its the edition sizes. However, I am not complaining. I would never have paided 380 for Vader anyway.

 

[Amir]

Give it time. I won an auction for an exclusive Vader MIMB last summer for 258 before shipping. Boba will also drop below retail ... however, it would have done this even if it was poly. Its the edition sizes. However, I am not complaining. I would never have paided 380 for Vader anyway.

Exactly all the PF's seem to suffer from this fate. The price has dropped below retail on every single one released to date, why should Fett be any different.

 

[kodiak8658]

This isn't made from Hasbro plastic you know.

What type of plastic is it made of? Injection molded plastic can vary quality depending on what's mixed with it. Looks as though the plastic used for Boba was fairly thin as described by SS, to mold to the curves and shapes of this piece. What we're getting here compared to the Medicom Boba is a figure 7" taller made of the same injected plastic for $200 more. You may be sold on the materials used for Boba Plastic by I certainly am not. The jury is definitely still out.

 

[kodiak8658]

$100? that's insane(in my opinion). i think once the piece is out and people see how great it looks the price will on par where it would have been if it was poly...maybe slightly lower(there is a larger edition size for boba) after the initial flood of course, as always, when it first starts shipping. heck even large numbers of grey hulk pf's on ebay hurt that pf's price on ebay somewhat.

The price set for Boba by SS was for what EVERYONE assumed to be polystone, a more desireable media for collectors of high end SW collectibles and the media that had been used up until this point. But it was never mentioned in the item description so we have to assume injected plastic for the body was the plan for this piece for some time now.

Right before shipping, SS announces the piece is not made of polystone, but of injected hollow plastic. Still think this piece is worth $325 made of the less desireable media? I don't, and reading about the amount of cancellations for this piece, others don't as well. SS should offer a dramatic discount on this piece but they can't because of their inflated costs associated with changing the media mid stream. This is a lose/lose situation for SS and the collector. And one has to wonder if the PF Darth Maul will be made of the same injected plastic.

 

[El Roranous]

I don't want to spoil your fun and complain but I don't think that this thread belongs in the For Sale section or even the commerce section. Maybe you guys could move it to the Star Wars or other discussion sections.

 

[kodiak8658]

I don't want to spoil your fun and complain but I don't think that this thread belongs in the For Sale section or even the commerce section. Maybe you guys could move it to the Star Wars or other discussion sections.

I started it here because of the 'sales' discussion. Maybe it's time to start a 'Pre-Order Discussion' section.

 

[tomandshell]

And one has to wonder if the PF Darth Maul will be made of the same injected plastic.

Dusty confirmed for us that the Darth Maul PF will be made out of polystone.


And I don't know exactly how much cheaper the actual materials are. Cam anybody confirm that the amount of ABS needed would cost Sideshow $100 less than the same amount of polystone? With all of the combined costs of bringing a piece to completion, I don't really know how much of the cost is directly attributed to the materials. Maybe somebody with more experience can help me. I'm just making these numbers up, bu if a typical PF requires fifty bucks of polystone, but instead they are using thirty or thirty-five bucks of ABS plastic, then it is not appropriate to expect the cost to go down by $100.

Nevermind the fact that increased production cost for the tooling for plastic--not required for polystone--balances out the costs at their end. They have to charge us for ALL of the expenses required to produce the figure, not just for the materials. If the manufacturing costs go up while material costs go down, then there will be no savings to pass on to the customer through a dramatic discount. R&D, all materials, labor, packaging, etc.--$325 only gets you one week of all that work at minimum wage, so there's no way that I could get a Fett of this quality if I had to hire someone to do it on my own.

Like all previous PFs, the price will go down on eBay. The Luke PF recently sold for $76 and there was no plastic controversy. Be patient and anyone will get Fett at a great price if they so desire. But I don't think that the plastic issue will immediately lower the price as dramatically as some expect. In general, the large edition sizes on these pieces are what cause their value to go down on eBay. There are simply too many of each piece out there.

 

[Darth Loki]