--Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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This stuff will be worthless in 10 years..
- Thread starter The Chaver
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--Sun Tzu, The Art of War
omegaglory1
Super Freak
Well said. Unless you’re certain the item will definitely appreciate in value - and you won’t - then collecting with the aim of a financial return is likely to result in disappointment. In hindsight, if you bought multiples of the truly rare figures like the DX09 back in the day, you’d make a good profit selling them in 2021 but would there be any point besides making money?
I’m happy to say I’ve been able to keep my collection under control, about a dozen figures. I have some of the HT Terminator 2 figures - the T800 and T1000 - as well as a couple of Iron Man figures and figures from the Dark Knight trilogy. There are a few Medicom figures in my collection as well. These are the ones that interest me and I don’t feel much of a need to continue buying.
I’ve spent the last few months clearing out a large chunk of my possessions. Clothes I haven’t worn in years, books on my shelf, comics in storage boxes. 70% of my books and comics are replaceable, most of my comics being trade paperbacks. Like many people, I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff over the years but have realised much of what we buy won’t last forever. It’s better to have a smaller number of things that mean something to you.
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I love this so much! This makes me want to cry with laughter.
Ropen
Super Freak
I mean, there’s two sides of the coin when it comes to collecting.
I started collecting while married and she knew how much I spent because she was the one who gave me my monthly allowance, so yes that should be a dead giveaway right there exactly on how things went downhill.
When it came to the divorce, her lawyer considered my collection fair game and wanted it inventoried. Family law is dirty remember that(42 xtra large Home Depot boxes later), take care of you, i had to “gift” my collection to a family member and managed to get it all out of the house by the time the ink was finalized, she was pissed but she couldn’t do anything, she tried to go after my watches but those were a gift from my dad. She did get me on our other stuff so huge loss there.
Like everyone said a big eye opener for me was watching Pawn Stars, I am the type of collector that likes to complete entire lines, but watching Pawn Stars I hit the brakes because at the end of the day the only person who will pay and knows the value of the collection is of course “you”, Asking prices is totally different than Selling prices, I was always heartbroken to see bigger and more complete collections from die hard fans on the show try to sell their entire star Trek or transformer collection for like 18k and get offered like 7k and settle like 5k.
It makes you feel like everything was a waste of time that if you treat as an investment at which point it’s not fun, that’s when I realized to just focus on the little things and buy the stuff I like and it’s more personal that way.
That being said the value of Lego holds better than Gold any day of the week. Proven and tested %100. Heck I just got free 10th anniversary Legoland Ninjago coins today, just checked them out online and boom I could easily flip them for like $30-40 usd.
With free time from the pandemic though I did had Enough time to clear out a HUGE chunk of my collection, mostly duplicates I had, It took me like 2 weeks to sell everything and sustained myself for like six months that way, I was shocked i bought more watches but still unboxing old action figures that I haven’t opened in years made me mad because I of course ran into the usual ABS Yellowing, broken pegs on figures, broken plastic, rubber that’s breaking up, hot toy figures just rotting inside the box, die cast and zync rotten on my model cars, bigger headaches in my opinion, nothing lasts forever but now I get why Bandai releases figures every 2-3 years, it’s their literal lifecycle.
I started collecting while married and she knew how much I spent because she was the one who gave me my monthly allowance, so yes that should be a dead giveaway right there exactly on how things went downhill.
When it came to the divorce, her lawyer considered my collection fair game and wanted it inventoried. Family law is dirty remember that(42 xtra large Home Depot boxes later), take care of you, i had to “gift” my collection to a family member and managed to get it all out of the house by the time the ink was finalized, she was pissed but she couldn’t do anything, she tried to go after my watches but those were a gift from my dad. She did get me on our other stuff so huge loss there.
Like everyone said a big eye opener for me was watching Pawn Stars, I am the type of collector that likes to complete entire lines, but watching Pawn Stars I hit the brakes because at the end of the day the only person who will pay and knows the value of the collection is of course “you”, Asking prices is totally different than Selling prices, I was always heartbroken to see bigger and more complete collections from die hard fans on the show try to sell their entire star Trek or transformer collection for like 18k and get offered like 7k and settle like 5k.
It makes you feel like everything was a waste of time that if you treat as an investment at which point it’s not fun, that’s when I realized to just focus on the little things and buy the stuff I like and it’s more personal that way.
That being said the value of Lego holds better than Gold any day of the week. Proven and tested %100. Heck I just got free 10th anniversary Legoland Ninjago coins today, just checked them out online and boom I could easily flip them for like $30-40 usd.
With free time from the pandemic though I did had Enough time to clear out a HUGE chunk of my collection, mostly duplicates I had, It took me like 2 weeks to sell everything and sustained myself for like six months that way, I was shocked i bought more watches but still unboxing old action figures that I haven’t opened in years made me mad because I of course ran into the usual ABS Yellowing, broken pegs on figures, broken plastic, rubber that’s breaking up, hot toy figures just rotting inside the box, die cast and zync rotten on my model cars, bigger headaches in my opinion, nothing lasts forever but now I get why Bandai releases figures every 2-3 years, it’s their literal lifecycle.
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That's messed up. Cruel till the end.
Yeah I purged a bunch of my Legos in 2020. I've realized less is more in collecting and that when you have a lot it feels overwhelming. You just don't appreciate everything and I'm just sticking to Hot Toys now and very picky at that.
That's just awful.
Exactly. If you don't put a stop somewhere on the horizon, you'll never be done. These things keep going on and on. Upgraded versions, new costumes, different incarnations and on it goes. If you go into everything with a completionist mindset you've lost from the very beginning. No joke. What will you try to keep up with? There are tons of franchises out there. Not every single one of them is Star Wars, but there are new products being made every day. If you try to keep up with everything you've ever engaged, you'll be the same as an addict, always looking for a fix, no end in sight.
And then there is the fact that they are just plastic dolls. Well made ones, yes, but still. They're not singular pieces of art, but mass produced products. There's nothing wrong with representing thew few things that you have some genuien attachment to, but when you buy just to buy... what's the point? No, seriously, what is it? I doubt if I collected every single Iron Man merch it'd change anything over getting just the ones I truly want. There'd be no physical change. There wouldn't be some unlocked achievement. I doubt I'd be able to keep track of it all in the first place without the use of wikis and spreadsheets and everything. It'd just be a collection of plastic, nothing more. But, the two armours, that one statue, those Omnis and so on, a small space that exists as a memento to one of my childhood's favourite capes, then that does have some meaning. Subjective, yes, but still there all the same.
That's another risk too. These things break down. Not too fast if you take care of them and you make sure you don't buy extremely fragile things, but they're not there forever. So nobody in this hobby should be looking into it as a longterm one. You get what you need and you get out. You dip in once every blue moon to get something special, but if you're planning to be completing X team in Y costumes in 15 years, then chances are you'll need to replace key characters you already own and start the cycle again. You can always collect, I just don't think it's wise to plan out 20 years in advance to have the biggest Avengers collection.
Exactly. I sat down a few days back and I actually started writing down all the Omnis I wanted. I'd already trimmed down my comics Hard Drive, but even then, the results were shocking. I raised about 20K euros in collected editions, without accounting for aftermarket prices. And for what? Capeshit? Bloody capeshit? Just because I read a comic a decade ago it means I have to buy it now? I don't mourn the 200 I spent on the two Lucifer Omnis. I love that series. It's part of my teen Vertigo phase. But why the Hell should I waste 100-per-pop on Thunderbolts Omnis? Then get the figures, because of course. Just where does it end? What will this collection I'm building look like? A nonsensical hodgepodge of nothingness? Take Batman and Spider-Man. Two relics of my childhood. They have countless Omnis and Absolutes. Just where do I stop? Do I complete the whole line? Great, now I need 3K for each, minimum. Add the figures to that too. You gotta have Batman and Joker and Catwoman and Two-Face and Spider-Man and Venom and- there's no end. I'll get the Raimi-Man. I'll get the Baleman. I'll get the Ledger. But what's next? Take the X-Men. How many ******* Omnis do I need? It's all just too much.
I don't know, the more I calculate them the more it angers me that I want to spend the same amount of money on something I'm superficially attached to, and something that I genuinely like. It feels fake and hollow. It's all just plastic and fake yes, but some do transcend that to become a representation of something. And others are just "things". As time goes on I feel as if I need to be coherent in what I buy. Characters with similar, well, "character", attributes and the such. Focus on properties that share many common points with one another. Themes that speak to me, instead of just getting something because "come on, that's a classic, come on!" or "oh yeah, I got into that for like 5 months man, that was dope bro". I'm still tying to work it out, but every day I burn one more pop cultured decorated bridge...
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Damn dude, that's horrible and I'm glad you got back most of your collection.
I'm always meandering, about whether to sell my older Hot Toys figures or not. Nothing will stand the test of time, but it's still pretty ridiculous about the short life-span of plastic figures.
As for Pawn Stars, they're a total rip-off. Serious collectors will pay good money for a figure collection, you just have to find them...
Ropen
Super Freak
Yeah you never do appreciate everything, most of the time you buy something you always just look at it and put it somewhere and never worry about it again, now i focus on items i really really want!! Purging Lego is time consuming though, I have an extensive CMF collection and don’t know wether so sell entire sets or just the mini figs haha
That’s me and Micro Machines, Jazzwares made them impossible to complete entire waves, I mean they came back from the dead last July 2020 but after series 2 it all went downhill, it became a shotgun of exclusives and rare cars that made it impossible for me to get gold and silver cars, I literally drove to 20 GameStop’s around me to find a gold one, only saw it online so I gave up, must have seen like 2 or 3 on ebay for 300-400 bucks hahaha, now Jazzwares did me the favor to be honest, I just got put off in a big way and walmart completely stopped selling them, Series 5 is out somewhere in Ohio but my local targets still restock Series 2.
Neca’s the same way with the TMNT line I mean I got my basic turtles but me trying to get the other side characters was an impossible task, never saw them in stores, for me problem solved, Toy Brands are just doing their job right now on putting a colossal stop to my addiction.
I’m into Watch collecting for me it’s more personal
same thing different day, i’m just moving my money laterally.They always find a way to come after our money and it works, Toy manufacturers will always throw in something extra to make splurge on that figure to get it And it works BUT what I do is sell my older one and use the money I profit from it towards the newer one, sometimes It pays it self but my hobby is at that point that it’s basically sustaining itself really!!
I know I was being dramatic With Pawn Stars but I do have some personal experience with local comic book stores, back in 2016 I wanted some quick cash and went to one of the biggest comic book shops in my city, I tried selling my 2012 Hot toys Captain America, Iron Man MK VI, Hulk and Thor figs, the *!&^#*!)@&! Of the manager came back to me and quoted me for $100 for everything. I wanted to see what they would go for of course and didn’t give in but that was and example and you are right at the end of the day they have to turn a profit, same thing with my old school g1 transformers i had a sealed Optimus prime first issue and a trendmasters Voltron 1997 and the a holes were offering $50 for both lolololol
Retrospective I am patient, a happy ending to the Marvel Hot Toys I did made my money in 2019, I ended up selling all 4 for a little over $1000!!!
Model Cars is where the money is at IMHO. back in the 2,000’s I had like 300 model cars when Autoarts, kyosho’s, Exoto’s were cheap, ended up selling up my first toys to fund my marriage haha but one of those model cars the Exoto 1/18 Mercedes Sauber C9 prototype with no decals which I got for $169, sold it for $140, in 2021 without decals is worth close to $5k!!! Exoto still makes it but now they retail at $1.5k lololol either way you look at it, but that has been my biggest regret ever, i mean who ever knows.
Some noobs have ruined collecting action figures now, they will legit think 19.99 marvel legends are the best figures of all time and EXPENSIVE where as I see other people criticize them for being kids toys lolol then the people here who like Hot Toys are like $300 for a figure? That’s nothing lololol
Now it’s the perfect time to flip figures, just read an article where shipping is suffering worldwide constraints, if you don’t get your first issue that’s it, good luck getting it for a while or not at all, I mean a 7-10 day global return took like 41 days, My inside connection inside at Walmart just told me the Party wagon is being delayed again soooo whatever you see it’s what you got, it’s PS5’s shortages all over again, strange times indeed
That's the reason why I moved to 12". The higher cost makes you think twice about giving into your completionist mindset. I still struggle with it, but now at least it's not to the point where I'm paying 70 bucks for a Hasbro or have to juggle 5 different Han Solo variations in my 400-figure cluttered shelf. The smaller price point and scale just makes you buy more licenses, more figures, more and more, because they're relatively cheap. It's easier to fall down the rabbit hole the smaller an item is. I used to collect Minimates, and I'd try to buy literally every new release, across all licenses, simply because at 20$/4-Pack, they were too cheap. Now I have thousands and don't really care for more than a handful (ironically my favourites ones ended up with **** paint that rubbed off and plastic that broke, so I need to buy them again; only problem is they were con exclusives and now cost like 30$/2.5" figure which is a little hard to justify). I don't want to spend 30 times that in HTs and then end up with the same feeling.That’s me and Micro Machines, Jazzwares made them impossible to complete entire waves, I mean they came back from the dead last July 2020 but after series 2 it all went downhill, it became a shotgun of exclusives and rare cars that made it impossible for me to get gold and silver cars, I literally drove to 20 GameStop’s around me to find a gold one, only saw it online so I gave up, must have seen like 2 or 3 on ebay for 300-400 bucks hahaha, now Jazzwares did me the favor to be honest, I just got put off in a big way and walmart completely stopped selling them, Series 5 is out somewhere in Ohio but my local targets still restock Series 2.
Neca’s the same way with the TMNT line I mean I got my basic turtles but me trying to get the other side characters was an impossible task, never saw them in stores, for me problem solved, Toy Brands are just doing their job right now on putting a colossal stop to my addiction.
I’m into Watch collecting for me it’s more personal
Bezzerkerr
Super Freak
this hobby is great. The market is certainly getting flooded with things to buy, but i think that adds to the greatestness of this hobby.
Like many of you, I take a "Hunters" approach to my collecting. Only interested in certain specific pieces, of specific specific characters, from specific manufacturers.
i always wanted to build a display room-cave that was the equivalent to an idealized comic book store. I'm there, and it's sooooooooooooo cool to walk into my collection room everyday and look at all the specific pieces i've accumulated for specific reasons, whether if it was part of a line, or a one off...or whatever.
aside from the cost to acquire these pieces, and the hassle of storage and displaying them, unlike other hobbies there is no additional cost to maintain or own the pieces, unlike a Golfer who has to pay to use the course, or a car collector that has to pay for insurance and constant maintenance.
what is also really cool is that everyone's collection is quite different. I think it's funny when i look at the Youtube Statue "influencers" that have 1,000 statues they are all newER statues, they rarely have anything from the 2000s, it's all GIGANTIC $3000 pieces that look great but nothing from the early days. I think there is some serious charm to seeing collections from the early days of this forum, ect. Those collectors and collections are rarely kept together and i like seeing them much more than a room full of GIGANTIC, EXPENSIVE XM, Prime 1, Queen Studios new pieces. I have as much fun tracking down a 20 year old hard to find $50-$1000 piece than buying a brand new Prime 1 $1000+ statue.
Like many of you, I take a "Hunters" approach to my collecting. Only interested in certain specific pieces, of specific specific characters, from specific manufacturers.
i always wanted to build a display room-cave that was the equivalent to an idealized comic book store. I'm there, and it's sooooooooooooo cool to walk into my collection room everyday and look at all the specific pieces i've accumulated for specific reasons, whether if it was part of a line, or a one off...or whatever.
aside from the cost to acquire these pieces, and the hassle of storage and displaying them, unlike other hobbies there is no additional cost to maintain or own the pieces, unlike a Golfer who has to pay to use the course, or a car collector that has to pay for insurance and constant maintenance.
what is also really cool is that everyone's collection is quite different. I think it's funny when i look at the Youtube Statue "influencers" that have 1,000 statues they are all newER statues, they rarely have anything from the 2000s, it's all GIGANTIC $3000 pieces that look great but nothing from the early days. I think there is some serious charm to seeing collections from the early days of this forum, ect. Those collectors and collections are rarely kept together and i like seeing them much more than a room full of GIGANTIC, EXPENSIVE XM, Prime 1, Queen Studios new pieces. I have as much fun tracking down a 20 year old hard to find $50-$1000 piece than buying a brand new Prime 1 $1000+ statue.
Though a lot of posts here are on the right track, there's truth to this idea as well. Actually I don't think the two notions are mutually exclusive.
Yes, less is more and you should focus on pieces that truly matter to you, but high standards will also ensure your stuff holds its value in time. The best pieces from 10-15 years ago still fetch more than they originally cost. There are exceptions here and there, some may only break even, but generally speaking quality is quality and will always hold some sort of merit. If a company phones it in and it's obvious at the time of release, chances are it will only become more obvious in the future.
Look at the Hot Toys Predators. These days, you're lucky to find a new 2.0 Elder, City Hunter, or AVP Predator for under $350. Even the original Predator figures from 2006, silly as they seem today, never fell back to their $130 MSRP. They tend to float around $200-250 if taken care of.
Another example would be the piece I'm hunting above my signature. When that Endo bust launched a decade ago, people balked at the price, but it was a cool, unique item that found its audience. I haven't seen one on eBay in years. It's not even a matter of being able to afford the aftermarket value -- no one who has it wants to let it go.
tl;dr: Be a snob, buy the good stuff, and give it time. Your values will eventually rise.
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That is ultimately the correct sentiment, but there's still pitfalls in there. Godfather is a classic movie and a figure of Vito or Michael would be a timeless one. However, some guy likes Star Trek more. He likes the Godfather, but Trek's his obsession. Does he buy Chekov or does he get Vito? Throughout the years and the licenses you come across such dilemmas quite often. You generally have to prioritise among lines, characters, everything. And you have to eliminate stuff as well.
Personally I come across such problems often. I have enough Sci-Fi one-offs in my wishlist to create a proper shelf. Alien, Predator, Terminator, those are all classics of the genre. But, for example, I have like 10 X-Men figures I'd theoretically want. Who knows how many Star Wars. I'll buy a Deckard no matter what, but the T-800 comes before the Xeno which comes before the Pred, with all of them coming behind, say, Master Chief. And then you just ask yourself "is it better to have an Emma Frost to complete my X-Line or a T-800 due to its importance?". Someone who doesn't care about the X-Men doesn't have that problem, the same way I don't care for Superman. But maybe that other guy has to choose between a B-Tier Batman fig and a Cinema Classic.
I think you figure out these things as you, since a lot of wishlists are based on wishful thinking and nothing concrete. A lot of the stuff we want may very likely never happen. But you see the way it evolves and is shaped, so you stop going by "what ifs" and manage it.
I noticed that too, and it was one of the reasons that made me slash my wishlists. I watched their tour vids, and as I was looking around I saw just... stuff. They had everything and anything. You could tell what they were really passionate about as they gushed and had them in special places, but all that clutter was just too much. They had entire libraries full of Omnis. Captain America, Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman, Superman and on and on. Literally anything and everything. And at that point they all just bleed into one another. There's no taste present there, just a collection of everything. That's the very opposite of a collection. But it got even worse when they had those huge shelves and those huge, 1K/piece statues sitting there. It all just looked lifeless, as if some random guy unpacked things from boxes and decorated a store before opening.
Something like that makes you think about your own collection and what you want to accomplish with it. I think it helps to break down all your wants into categories and then break them down into sub-themes as well. See how much they veer off one another and and how many different things you have in there, then manage them accordingly.
Oh, I agree. My post was meant as an addition to the other filters people use. If I were in the situation you described, I'd go for the Trek figure -- but again, only if executed well. If the manufacturer phoned it in, I'd either take Vito or sit it out completely. Sure, that means missing out on a new figure and maybe even a hot investment, but I'll have saved some money and my collection will be neater for it.
The biggest factors should still be whether you like the property and, more importantly, whether you think a particular piece represents it well. Some of the new statue releases destroy the old grails, but others fall short. Recognizing this and curating your collection accordingly gives it personality.
The biggest factors should still be whether you like the property and, more importantly, whether you think a particular piece represents it well. Some of the new statue releases destroy the old grails, but others fall short. Recognizing this and curating your collection accordingly gives it personality.
I still struggle with it myself. There are things that are "Classics" but I have 0 interest in so I can easily pass on them and not feel as if I'm missing out. I'm not that far gone where I hunt down anything and everything. But I do have a rather extensive list and am pulled by different licenses. I never had that "obsession" with one or two things; I kept going and picking up interests. Some waned, some came and went, but nothing concrete. Now I'm in the proccess of dropping them, but since a lot of them were based on virtual means (games, comics I read online, things I watched, etc) and coupled with the non-existent merch industry here, it means that I don't have anything to fall back on. To go "well, I already have a sizeable collection of X and nothing of Y, so might as well skip it". Most of it all is "new" to me, I'm collecting them concurrently. So what I "get into" in this sense is new choice each time.
That is a head-on. The whole point of such collections is to more or less be reflections of us. If you just go "all in" with no picking and choosing, then it's a futile effort; might as well just buy whatever you see. Me, I tried to break down my interests in themes and in turn sub-themes. This way I know there are "closed avenues" where I can never go, and I focus on a few specific themes. The problem is that they're broken into lots of "parts". And from those "parts" whereas just a one-off figure to represent a specific thing might be enough, I get tempted to make it three or four. One extra here, two extras there, and you end up with 50...
My main problem is that I'm dealing with a lot of "what ifs", since the majority of the stuff I want are pure hypotheticals. It'll be 3 years or so before the FF arrive, and who knows how many until we get the X-Men, and specifically the ones I want. It's just that a time will come when I'll need to juggle a couple of long-running licenses and choose what "classics" I'll need "just because". I don't care for horror that's not Gothic (Dracula and Vampires in general, Frankenstein, etc) or Cosmic (Xenos, Lovecraft, etc) so I'll never need to buy a Freddy. My Marvel wants were never centered around the Avengers, and my favourite DC corner was GL, so I don't need much from the current offerings. I'm not interested in Die Hard or Mad Max and the such. My Batman wants are maybe 5 figures (beyond that I fall into the trap of hunting the Rogues and I don't want to go there) same with Spider-Man, and mostly for nostalgic reasons. So I'm not all that pressured right now. But there'll be a day when I'll need about 1K for the FF, not counting for anything else, and that's a bit overwhelming. I guess I'll just take it slow, see how it all evolves.
But in the end, you need to come up with a plan and see where your main interests lie. Build an imagined shelf and fill it. See how it all goes together. Movie Icons, Sci-Fi, CyberPunk, Batman, whatever the themes might be. If you go in without a plan you'll end up with clutter or a spot that could've gone to something you like much more.
Ropen
Super Freak
I grew up with a mentality of if you want something don’t hesitate and get it since you will miss your chance, it rings so true in this hobby more than ever, can’t tell you how many times you underestimate stock especially in these days and bam %1000 price surge.
The days of Stack ‘em High and Watch them Fly are loooonnng gone, I was just reminiscing about walking in the toys r us in manhattan and herald square and seeing shelves full of limited power rangers and batman merch now I’m lucky to find anything at all, just read a report about how holiday shipments are expecting colossal delays this year, Worldwide shipping is at a stand still so expect delays and more delays on top of it all if you don’t pre order what you want, you won’t get it in time.
It created a desperate collector out of me, stores like walmart only get one box for like a couple of months, stuff like GI JOE retro figs is just like 2 lonzo and 2 cobra troopers, once they sell out good luck finding them online or in store until who knows how long. I was there when the store opened yesterday and the stockers were putting up the shelves, boom, the only gi joe box they got was those once I got mine(you know i got the excellent cardbacks) i went back an hour later the shelve was gone. I also found one TMNT Leo vs Rocksteady with 2 figures, one sold, there was one in the shelf but you know it will be gone soon.
Toy collecting feels like extremely niched, yes of course you can flip your figures but no one really knows what the golden ticket will be, just because you got something 10 years ago doesn’t mean it will hold any value, you might get lucky But it’s rare.
You know the business is doing pretty bad whenever Walmart is not doing layaway this year, it’s like they know won’t have stuff in, i mean this time last year everything was stocked just for that.
The days of Stack ‘em High and Watch them Fly are loooonnng gone, I was just reminiscing about walking in the toys r us in manhattan and herald square and seeing shelves full of limited power rangers and batman merch now I’m lucky to find anything at all, just read a report about how holiday shipments are expecting colossal delays this year, Worldwide shipping is at a stand still so expect delays and more delays on top of it all if you don’t pre order what you want, you won’t get it in time.
It created a desperate collector out of me, stores like walmart only get one box for like a couple of months, stuff like GI JOE retro figs is just like 2 lonzo and 2 cobra troopers, once they sell out good luck finding them online or in store until who knows how long. I was there when the store opened yesterday and the stockers were putting up the shelves, boom, the only gi joe box they got was those once I got mine(you know i got the excellent cardbacks) i went back an hour later the shelve was gone. I also found one TMNT Leo vs Rocksteady with 2 figures, one sold, there was one in the shelf but you know it will be gone soon.
Toy collecting feels like extremely niched, yes of course you can flip your figures but no one really knows what the golden ticket will be, just because you got something 10 years ago doesn’t mean it will hold any value, you might get lucky But it’s rare.
You know the business is doing pretty bad whenever Walmart is not doing layaway this year, it’s like they know won’t have stuff in, i mean this time last year everything was stocked just for that.
The Toy Industry is in a pretty screwed up place, that's true. But I never saw the collecting of my dollies as any kind of serious investment. I like it when they rise in value, but I'm not collecting with that in mind. It's hard enough to juggle whatever I'm definitely interested in, let alone worry about things that might become valuable.
Ropen
Super Freak
Like I mentioned before I was surprised at how much stuff I had rose in value, you are right, it shouldn’t be an investment but I can’t lie that I did have a smile on my face when they kept selling throughout the hours.
Mind you I’m the collector that opens up everything so even pre owned items, I have this mentality that if I buy something I will open it an enjoy, not save it for someone else
The most expensive things I own are a Big Chief 10th Doctor with Tennant's Signature, and the first-print Infinity Gauntlet/War issues. But I don't know what their grade condition is, so I can't say that they're worth all that much. So, really, I'm small time. But I do like it when something I own gets a price increase, it's an ego boost. It sucks for the newcomers though, so I get people wanting rereleases; I'm hoping for some myself. However I support it only when it's a mega popular fig or when it's too old and can be legitimately improved. I think a T-800 from T2 could use an update with new pleather, for example. A GDT Hellboy (though I doubt they still have the rights for that). Still, I paid the 500$ for a Jack Sparrow because there's really nothing to improve. Now I just hope for a new Davy Jones and Barbossa (with a Monkey Jack)...Like I mentioned before I was surprised at how much stuff I had rose in value, you are right, it shouldn’t be an investment but I can’t lie that I did have a smile on my face when they kept selling throughout the hours.
Mind you I’m the collector that opens up everything so even pre owned items, I have this mentality that if I buy something I will open it an enjoy, not save it for someone else
I open everything as well. With 1/6th I keep all the boxes and such, but I've never kept some 6" figure in its box. I get those to fidget with anyhow.
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