Getting Priced out, how about you?

[Nick D]

Imagine something so silly becoming the only thing that we're remembered for as a species.

 

[BACON!]

This September brought me InArt The Batman All-In set and Aragorn, among others. Those two alone are over $1,500. Yeah, I'm priced out.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Do I have an endgame in sight for the collection?

IMHO, the most effective way to sell a large collection today, best guess, is to optimize the Craiglist and Facebook marketplaces. Meet people face to face, get cash. No shipping, no taxes, just what you can move locally. My thinking has always been if you set a goal to sell five things a week that way, over time, it adds up. A collection took years to assemble, it will take years to unload. I think the hesitation in unloading a big collection is it looks overwhelming at first.

 

[MGS_OldBoy57]

Same boat here as well. I’m currently selling things to pay for things. Payment plans help me balance my monthly budget but even then, like some of you, that is getting difficult.

 

[Wor-Gar]

most effective way to sell a large collection today -- Craiglist... Meet people face to face, get cash.

Day 1: Give me yo toys and yo money!

 

[greymask]

Bandai/SHF will make something that interest me once in a while and a big chance it was web exclusive. Sort of how overprized it is like Mezco exc if you buy it from Asia.
Everytime I put order on these thing, I sounded like old man in wheelcair : back in the day I start collecting, these sum could afford one Hot Toys or whole line of figure

 

[Solidus]

IMHO, the most effective way to sell a large collection today, best guess, is to optimize the Craiglist and Facebook marketplaces. Meet people face to face, get cash. No shipping, no taxes, just what you can move locally. My thinking has always been if you set a goal to sell five things a week that way, over time, it adds up. A collection took years to assemble, it will take years to unload. I think the hesitation in unloading a big collection is it looks overwhelming at first.

Counterfeit bills are a problem with cash payments, though. And there'd be no way for you to tell, until a bank rejects it from being deposited.

 

[jaztermareal]

Counterfeit bills are a problem with cash payments, though. And there'd be no way for you to tell, until a bank rejects it from being deposited.

You are correct, selling is a huge hassle.



Give your collection to me for freeeeeee!!!!!!!

 

[Solidus]

You are correct, selling is a huge hassle.



Give your collection to me for freeeeeee!!!!!!!

 

[IANR]

My solution to the original question is 1) i usually i have just one pre-order at a time to keep maximum money to take deals when they come up usually on ebay 2) dont panic about getting the figure straight away ,this year i bought 6 endgame figures new for £700 3) try to find suppliers who dont charge taxes 4) if someones selling a figure as ``new`` but it looks used then mention this and offer them the used price,its fair. 5) now ebay are offering 300 no fee listings a month ask sellers to pass some of the saving onto your purchase. 6) sell everything you will never use, i sell all my boxes even just the fronts for eople to display, fists & closed armour that i never use , spare batteries & stands it mounts upto thousands of pounds since 2016 7) consider that a figure like the eg patriot is still being offered by companies for around £500 but second hand £150 ish so if you can live without the new car smell unboxing then enjoy the savings. all the best ian.

 

[JohnnyStarTrek]

Over $600 CDN before shipping & customs for the new Hot Toys Chewbacca is just kinda gross to me. I just don't place that high a value on these figures...

Can I afford it? Absolutely.
Do I want to? No.
Chewie, or plane tickets somewhere? Plane tickets wins.
I wouldn't be able to look at Chewie in my collection without feeling slightly foolish- & that's where the hobby stops feeling "fun". So, yes, unfortunately being "priced out" too

 

[Wizardjones]

I’ve switched to Gunpla and for the most part(except 1/6 Nada from They Live) I haven’t gone back.
I invested in an airbrush and several jars of Japanese paint and have bad a blast ever since.

 

[shells075]

I keep my old, outdated figures... so I can laugh at them, and make them feel bad.

Bring new meaning to the expression figure shaming.

 

[crows]

Counterfeit bills are a problem with cash payments, though. And there'd be no way for you to tell, until a bank rejects it from being deposited.

how common is that? and what happens to the bill? does the bank destroy it?

 

[crows]

IMHO, the most effective way to sell a large collection today, best guess, is to optimize the Craiglist and Facebook marketplaces. Meet people face to face, get cash. No shipping, no taxes, just what you can move locally. My thinking has always been if you set a goal to sell five things a week that way, over time, it adds up. A collection took years to assemble, it will take years to unload. I think the hesitation in unloading a big collection is it looks overwhelming at first.

optimize Craigslist and Facebook how?

I also wanna sell most of my stuff. I just want it gone. have no idea where to start

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Yeah, I'm priced out.

Something I said in 2023:

There is an overseas dealer that I still talk to, after all these years, he observed to me, that in general, this hobby on the production side is in pretty bad financial shape right now. IMHO, SSC should start to scale to shift directions domestically for the sake of their long term survival. War is coming. I'm not here to get political about it, it's just that it will kill the entire pipeline of production overseas. It's inevitable at this point.
SSC has endured for the long term as a distributor. What happens when there is nothing to distribute? It won't all end tomorrow, but this "Golden Age" is going to hit a decline phase very soon. It's the cyclical nature of things. It's been a good run. I appreciate all the early years when SSC was so generous to so many collectors and to so many people here. I'll always appreciate that.

It's not just the prices of the internal hobby itself for collectors, it's the range of "budget" that's available against all your other obligations. It's not just people dropping out of the hobby for the cost of the hobby and Hot Toys, many are also dropping their gym memberships, Netflix, any subscription service, reducing how much they drive or go out to eat, if at all, or are changing some of their long ingrained habits to save money. Also people have families and sometimes others in the family are hurting badly in this economy and then many are stepping up to make up that shortfall. People have kids, people have elderly dependents, etc, etc. Nearly all people here are working class people. And the hits are coming from all directions.

If I was in the shoes of most people here, I would just stop preordering period unless it's slated for a widespread brick and mortar release.

It's not just the pricing, it's the shift to "crowdfunding" without being implicit about regular releases now being crowdfunded. Again, most of 1/12th is not in that zone. I am not saying eveyrone should shift to 1/12th, I am saying people will tend to always move towards "cost certainty" whenever possible.

There are other things I can say that is not being discussed in the general public nor in the mainstream media right now, but I'll leave it as it's difficult to impossible to have stability and good business while widespread chaos is going on. I would encourage folks to not support this new pseudo crowdfunding movement in our hobby for regular releases. Assess that any "brand" right now is a potential threat to you once they have your money locked into their hands. I'd softly suggest for folks to figure out where they really find love and passion in this hobby, focus on that, and jettison the rest. And there's a lot the average collector can jettison, in hand or with preorder.

 

[DEADDACK_33]

This thread is an interesting read. I've become increasingly selective, for a few reasons:

1) While I wouldn't say I'm priced out, the weak Canadian dollar and high cost of shipping has made collectibles more expensive than ever. With customs factored in, it's usually a minimum of $500 CDN per figure. I bought a lot more when I was paying $400-$450 CDN all in. $500 just feels like a lot to pay for a 1/6 figure IMO.

2) Directly related to my point above, I sometimes question if the value is there on 1/6 figures and the prices being asked. I'd really like to order Sideshow's Beetlejuice figure, but $280 (or $393 CDN before shipping and customs) for a figure with a few small accessories is hard to stomach.

3) The long pre-order windows have become a drag. I remember my first ever 1/6 pre-order was a Sideshow Indiana Jones back in '08 or '09. From the time orders opened to when the figure shipped was like six months IIRC. But now, with most Hot Toys being a wait of 12 to 18 months, I'm less inclined to pre-order because in that time, I might lose interest. I might see other collectibles that I'd rather spend my money on. A better, improved version of practically the same figure may get announced in that time or not long after (like the first Beskar Mando and the second Beskar Mando that had a shinier paintjob and a Pedro Pascal head sculpt). What I'm finding is when a figure is first announced, I'm excited about it, but by the time it's shipping, that excitement has worn off and a different figure has my attention. Rinse and repeat. Probably why I've only bought one Hot Toys this year, and it wasn't even a 1/6 figure. It was the 1/4 ROTJ Boba Fett.

4) I'm becoming more interested in statues. While they're certainly not inexpensive by any stretch of the imagination, I feel the value is better. I think I'd rather spend $1000-$2000 on a really nice statue once a year, opposed to spending the same amount in 1/6 figures. For example, ECC just revealed a 1/1 bust of my favorite Velociraptor from the Jurassic Park franchise. If I bought it, I likely wouldn't buy much else for a while as I'd be so excited about it.

5) Space. My collection has gotten to the point it's feeling cluttered. I have some on display, the rest in storage, and rotate things from time to time. It works, but I also sometimes question what's the point of owning something that spends 75% of the year in storage. I have some stuff that's never been on display and has been in storage for years (Battle Above the Black Gates diorama, Dark Rider of Mordor PF, Breakout T-Rex, for example).