snowtrooper1966
Freakzoid
Greetings, all!
Short time lurker, prompted to post tonight for the 900th post thread. I also replied to the star Wars 3 3/4 thread, and realized it was a prety good intro for my collecting habbits. I will add a few details not included in that post. I am 40, grew up in San Diego, CA. Moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA three years ago to snowboard as much as possible (hence my online alter ego, snowtrooper1966, describing my love for star Wars, snowboarding and my birth year) and recently had a son, now six months old.
Now for the post from the 3 3/4 line thread...
Greetings!
I was a serious collector of the line, starting in '95 with the POTF2 line. Right off the bat I was drawn to collecting the errors and variations coming out of the factory. I surmised that ALOT of folks would be after these figures, and to make my collection stand out (and have some real intrinsic value) I went after these hard to find oddities. I spent an incalculable amount of time running around town, scouring the toy store shelves looking through thousands of toys. In the end, I amassed a fairly complete collection spanning 10 years. With all the errors and variations, I would sometimes wind up with 10+ of the same character. I finally was able to get the cream of the crop graded by a well known company (AFA) @ last year's SD comic con. I spent over a thousand bucks just to get the 40 or so figs graded. At that same convention, I first discovered Side Show. The first things I bought were the Sauron and Witch King helms. I also started collecting signed movie posters. Something had to give, and it seemed silly to continue to buy the 3 3/4 stuff, as most of it was sitting in storage. With a new baby on the way (James JR., born 9/16/05) I figured that if I was ever going to sell and try to recoup any of the dough I put into collecting them, the time was right. ROTS was just released, the market was hot, and I had some prime graded errors and variations. I also wanted to shift my collecting focus to the more expensive posters I mentioned, as well as the high quality Side Show items I saw at the con. I did pretty well with the graded stuff, one figure in particular, AFA graded 90 POTF2 transition tray Luke, went for 700+ dollars. All in all, I think I made around 5K, far less than I invested. I have kept a few of my favorites, not necessarily the most valuable ones (that would be the Luke mentioned earlier) and some of the 12 inch two packs.
It was kind of sad to see all that go, and I may regret it in the future, but am very happy with my current collection.
My Side Show focus is LOTR and, of course, Star Wars. I have the helms I referred to, the Morgul Lord, King of the Dead, Sauron and Battle Troll of Mordor polystones (hope to have the Witch King o' Angmar someday). Have Vader PF exclusive (my personal fave!), with Obi exclusive and Greivous on the way! As a long time comic book fan, also like the Marvel VS stuff as well. Have the exclusive X-Men VS Sentinel and Wolverine VS Sabertooth exclusive, with Hulk Vs Spidey ordered as well (not grey, unfortunately...) Looking forward to much more quality Side Show product!
Too much info? Probably, but I had a few minutes to kill...
Best,
James W Barron
[email protected]
Short time lurker, prompted to post tonight for the 900th post thread. I also replied to the star Wars 3 3/4 thread, and realized it was a prety good intro for my collecting habbits. I will add a few details not included in that post. I am 40, grew up in San Diego, CA. Moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA three years ago to snowboard as much as possible (hence my online alter ego, snowtrooper1966, describing my love for star Wars, snowboarding and my birth year) and recently had a son, now six months old.
Now for the post from the 3 3/4 line thread...
Greetings!
I was a serious collector of the line, starting in '95 with the POTF2 line. Right off the bat I was drawn to collecting the errors and variations coming out of the factory. I surmised that ALOT of folks would be after these figures, and to make my collection stand out (and have some real intrinsic value) I went after these hard to find oddities. I spent an incalculable amount of time running around town, scouring the toy store shelves looking through thousands of toys. In the end, I amassed a fairly complete collection spanning 10 years. With all the errors and variations, I would sometimes wind up with 10+ of the same character. I finally was able to get the cream of the crop graded by a well known company (AFA) @ last year's SD comic con. I spent over a thousand bucks just to get the 40 or so figs graded. At that same convention, I first discovered Side Show. The first things I bought were the Sauron and Witch King helms. I also started collecting signed movie posters. Something had to give, and it seemed silly to continue to buy the 3 3/4 stuff, as most of it was sitting in storage. With a new baby on the way (James JR., born 9/16/05) I figured that if I was ever going to sell and try to recoup any of the dough I put into collecting them, the time was right. ROTS was just released, the market was hot, and I had some prime graded errors and variations. I also wanted to shift my collecting focus to the more expensive posters I mentioned, as well as the high quality Side Show items I saw at the con. I did pretty well with the graded stuff, one figure in particular, AFA graded 90 POTF2 transition tray Luke, went for 700+ dollars. All in all, I think I made around 5K, far less than I invested. I have kept a few of my favorites, not necessarily the most valuable ones (that would be the Luke mentioned earlier) and some of the 12 inch two packs.
It was kind of sad to see all that go, and I may regret it in the future, but am very happy with my current collection.
My Side Show focus is LOTR and, of course, Star Wars. I have the helms I referred to, the Morgul Lord, King of the Dead, Sauron and Battle Troll of Mordor polystones (hope to have the Witch King o' Angmar someday). Have Vader PF exclusive (my personal fave!), with Obi exclusive and Greivous on the way! As a long time comic book fan, also like the Marvel VS stuff as well. Have the exclusive X-Men VS Sentinel and Wolverine VS Sabertooth exclusive, with Hulk Vs Spidey ordered as well (not grey, unfortunately...) Looking forward to much more quality Side Show product!
Too much info? Probably, but I had a few minutes to kill...
Best,
James W Barron
[email protected]
