Iron Studios 1/4 Darth Vader

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I'm just as tired of people complaining about statues that don't increase in value.
Well, if you actually read the posts there wasn't any complaining, just remarking it was surprising that it hadn't. So maybe save the preaching for when it actually happens?
 
I'm just as tired of people complaining about statues that don't increase in value.

You have to admit that it does enhance the collecting hobby. There’s nothing wrong with it and it use to come standard with the hobby until the “Great Flood”.


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Well, if you actually read the posts there wasn't any complaining, just remarking it was surprising that it hadn't. So maybe save the preaching for when it actually happens?

Like I said, if you don't like my posts use the ignore button. Thank you.


You have to admit that it does enhance the collecting hobby. There’s nothing wrong with it and it use to come standard with the hobby until the “Great Flood”.


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It's kinda funny when you see some people enjoy their statues getting high in price, until they miss something, and they start whining how much that particular item raised and they cannot afford it anymore.
 
Like I said, if you don't like my posts use the ignore button. Thank you.





It's kinda funny when you see some people enjoy their statues getting high in price, until they miss something, and they start whining how much that particular item raised and they cannot afford it anymore.

I never wine. [emoji51][emoji23]


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I never wine. [emoji51][emoji23]


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Not you LOL. Look at other boards or even here on various forum sections and threads. Not long ago there was a dude on Rebelscum who got a Wedge helmet for $800 from EFX, from one of the recent warehouse finds, and about a week later he wants to sell it for $2000. And he is not alone doing this. These are also the people who cry out louder than anyone when they cannot buy something for the price they want. EFX, with the recent "warehouse finds" and high prices, is not better than these scalpers and flippers, and they all definitely learn from each other. All for the "benefit" of the collectors.

Unlike some people, I would be really happy to see Deedzy and other collectors get this statue for a good price, identical or as close a possible to MSRP. I prefer pieces like these to go in hands of collectors who treasure them for their quality and less for the monetary value. Maybe I'm a fool or a dreamer, but I prefer a collector to a flipper/scalper any day of the week.
 
I personally think there’s a huge difference between buying a statue (or multiples) with the intention of selling at a markup shortly after a retail sellout, and buying a single statue with the expectation (or hope, whatever) that it will be worth more than you paid for it at some point in the future. Doesn’t seem like a big deal either way. But one is scalping or flipping in my view, and the other is a natural part of collecting.

As for this statue, I’m not shocked that the market has cooled a bit. After the initial retail buyers and the wave of panicked (to greater or lesser degree) second hand buyers, maybe much of the demand is met for now. I imagine the majority of statue buyers figure once a piece sells out, it’s gone for good. Most don’t come here or on other forums, and most probably don’t care to spend the time eBay hunting when there will be more Vaders to come (whether better/more accurate or not, and that part is possibly not of great importance to these same people).
 
Not you LOL. Look at other boards or even here on various forum sections and threads. Not long ago there was a dude on Rebelscum who got a Wedge helmet for $800 from EFX, from one of the recent warehouse finds, and about a week later he wants to sell it for $2000. And he is not alone doing this. These are also the people who cry out louder than anyone when they cannot buy something for the price they want. EFX, with the recent "warehouse finds" and high prices, is not better than these scalpers and flippers, and they all definitely learn from each other. All for the "benefit" of the collectors.

Unlike some people, I would be really happy to see Deedzy and other collectors get this statue for a good price, identical or as close a possible to MSRP. I prefer pieces like these to go in hands of collectors who treasure them for their quality and less for the monetary value. Maybe I'm a fool or a dreamer, but I prefer a collector to a flipper/scalper any day of the week.

But there’s a market for it. Sucks for some people but some others are willing to fork over the cash if they’re crazy and want it bad enough. Can’t just blame the seller. It’s not the sellers fault, it’s the buyers demand.

I believe in snooze you loose. You can’t get hung on a piece if it wasn’t your time when it came to purchasing it. There will always be another. Especially in today’s climate. Maybe not the same piece but something else will catch your eye.

But it feels damn good when you do score a piece that you really like and everybody freaking wants and can’t because they can no longer afford it and they snoozed when they had the chance.

That my friend is collecting.











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I personally think there’s a huge difference between buying a statue (or multiples) with the intention of selling at a markup shortly after a retail sellout, and buying a single statue with the expectation (or hope, whatever) that it will be worth more than you paid for it at some point in the future. Doesn’t seem like a big deal either way. But one is scalping or flipping in my view, and the other is a natural part of collecting.

As for this statue, I’m not shocked that the market has cooled a bit. After the initial retail buyers and the wave of panicked (to greater or lesser degree) second hand buyers, maybe much of the demand is met for now. I imagine the majority of statue buyers figure once a piece sells out, it’s gone for good. Most don’t come here or on other forums, and most probably don’t care to spend the time eBay hunting when there will be more Vaders to come (whether better/more accurate or not, and that part is possibly not of great importance to these same people).

Yeah, **** on the guys that do that stuff. That is wrong.


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Unlike some people, I would be really happy to see Deedzy and other collectors get this statue for a good price, identical or as close a possible to MSRP. I prefer pieces like these to go in hands of collectors who treasure them for their quality and less for the monetary value. Maybe I'm a fool or a dreamer, but I prefer a collector to a flipper/scalper any day of the week.

:duff
Well cheers to that. It's my fault at the end of the day but I'll keep a look out for a bargain. One will pop up eventually.
 
Like I said, if you don't like my posts use the ignore button. Thank you.
I don't block anyone, and that doesn't help everyone else who has to read it...

There is nothing wrong with making money as epitaph04 said, and it's not mutually exclusive from hoping a member gets a good deal.
 
There is nothing wrong with making money.

Depends on how you make the money. Or I guess for some it doesn't.


I personally think there’s a huge difference between buying a statue (or multiples) with the intention of selling at a markup shortly after a retail sellout, and buying a single statue with the expectation (or hope, whatever) that it will be worth more than you paid for it at some point in the future. Doesn’t seem like a big deal either way. But one is scalping or flipping in my view, and the other is a natural part of collecting.

As for this statue, I’m not shocked that the market has cooled a bit. After the initial retail buyers and the wave of panicked (to greater or lesser degree) second hand buyers, maybe much of the demand is met for now. I imagine the majority of statue buyers figure once a piece sells out, it’s gone for good. Most don’t come here or on other forums, and most probably don’t care to spend the time eBay hunting when there will be more Vaders to come (whether better/more accurate or not, and that part is possibly not of great importance to these same people).

We've had people buying multiple statues and props, for example just check the Rebelscum Vader Legend helmet thread and the classifieds section there, where a few guys bought 3 and even 6 Vader Legends, just to put them on sale some time later after it was sold out, when you were allowed just one per order. When some other collectors mentioned it, there were also people who heavily defended them. Thanks to a friend who was not greedy I managed to get my Legend for close to US MSRP, and I also helped 2 collector friends get theirs for a good price from elsewhere. And I sold my LE for the exact price I got it for to a good friend, though I could have earned more for it and he would have paid it no problem. Not long after that the same friend, without me asking for it, helped me with something else.

Some collectors only want low edition pieces, no matter how good a piece is, and how much they like it, they won't touch it, because the edition size is too big or no edition size at all. I don't care about that. I buy something because I like it, I want to have it in my collection and enjoy having it, not with the purpose of reselling later. It is good when an item raises in value, but for me it is way less important as it seems to be for some people. I also sold very few items from my collection since I started collecting decades ago.


But there’s a market for it. Sucks for some people but some others are willing to fork over the cash if they’re crazy and want it bad enough. Can’t just blame the seller. It’s not the sellers fault, it’s the buyers demand.

I believe in snooze you loose. You can’t get hung on a piece if it wasn’t your time when it came to purchasing it. There will always be another. Especially in today’s climate. Maybe not the same piece but something else will catch your eye.

But it feels damn good when you do score a piece that you really like and everybody freaking wants and can’t because they can no longer afford it and they snoozed when they had the chance.

That my friend is collecting.

The market for this statue doesn't show that is double the price yet. It is raising slowly, but not double. So is good for buyers to look for better options out there, than just pay double price. But we live in a greedy society, so no wonders after all. My problem is when the same guys who increase some of these prices cry all over the place (and they are the most vocal), that they cannot get other items, because of the high price, which people just like them raise. Look at EFX site and their warehouse finds, the perfect example in how the market evolves. People also forget the way world works, you get big money on something, but you also need to pay big money for something else. There is a balance in the end, I've seen very few collectors becoming rich in this field.

But it feels damn good when you do score a piece that you really like and everybody freaking wants and can’t because they can no longer afford it and they snoozed when they had the chance.

Not in my case. I did my best in helping various friends get their hands on pieces they wanted at the best price possible. And I was helped like that as well. There are times when you are greedy and you get greed in return, or you are not greedy and get friends who help you in return. You can even consider that you will reap what you sow. Food for thought...


:duff
Well cheers to that. It's my fault at the end of the day but I'll keep a look out for a bargain. One will pop up eventually.

Good luck :duff, if I see one for a good price I'll let you know.
 
It's definitely starting to feel that there is a glut of statues (and statue companies) out there right now. There are a lot of options & choices for collectors to pick from--more than at any other time. Also, buyers are a lot more discriminatory now given the fact that prices have doubled the last 5 years for a new statue. Combine all this and that's recipe for a flattening in the secondary market for most (not all) future pieces. The supply side has picked up a lot of steam against the demand and yes, there may be a statue here and there that doubles in value on the secondary market, but that's gonna prove more to be the exception, not the rule.
 
The market is very saturated.

This Vader was only a 1,000 Es but how many Vader’s products are there out there and how many more are gonna be made ? Vader might be overdone.

I think these companies need to get back to doing really cool unique products with shorter number runs. Have a limited line or an occasional bad ass piece that will do very well and be extremely limited or fairly limited at least.

Prime1 does cool pieces but then they kill it with a high Es. Except for a rare few. Like my Beast Wars statues. But Prime1 mostly makes so many versions of one character. I’m all for variety but hell, they haven’t even tackled some of the really cool characters like Iron Man and Keaton Batman? But I guess that’s marketing.

I like what they did with that HCG Alien Queen Wall mount. Only 125 made. That’s how it’s done.

The Dog Alien thats coming should only have been at the most 1,000 total. Maybe even less. $1,700 a pop, how in the hell are they gonna sell 1800 of them. It’s no wonder it hasn’t released yet, they’re still waiting on more buyers.


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There are Vader statues out there already, some better than others: the IS Vader from this thread; the old Gentle Giant kneeling Vader; the Attakus v.1 (because Attakus 1.2 is not as good as the v.1); XM Vader with the trio set is in fact the least interesting of the bunch, little Ani being the best; the Cinemaquette $2000 MSRP Vader was such a missed opportunity alas with its high price and weird pose and small T-rex hands; Sideshow has three 1/4 Vader PF's, but I think the best SSC Vader remains the smaller Mythos. And we'll see more and more Vaders in time for sure, and coming faster one after another.

There is something different when talking about Star Wars (and Alien, Predator and Terminator) collectors compared to comics collectors: accuracy. People want less idealized characters, not just Vader or troopers, but human characters as well. Ok we got the Bishoujo line from Kotobukiya, but that is a different animal. Overall these collectors want characters to resemble as much as possible the movies. They don't need accuracy like some rivet counters like myself might want, but people complain for a good reason when a sculpt doesn't resemble enough the character.

Then as discussed above there is the sculpt, pose and details. A new statue needs to impress the collector. Personally I love museum poses, but when got the Iron Studios Vader I realized its superb quality instantly. And I wasn't a fan when I saw the first proto pics. Companies must realize the market is kinda saturated already. It is not bad for a collector who wants to get a Vader statue, he has a lot of choices, but not that good for collectors who want to resell various pieces.

All these things affect the market in a way or another. But the good thing is collectors can get a statue of the character they love. Maybe not the statue they wanted, like my friend who missed the Iron Studios and had to get the PF, but still a statue of that character, there are enough out there these days.
 
True, lots of Vaders out there, but I don't think the market is saturated. So many collectors, different tastes etc.
I have quite a few, different scale and type ( Don't have the IS Vader though ). My favorites are the Mythos, and the GG 1/6 Chrome Vader. Don't like the prequels, but love that statue. Statue, not the bust.
 
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