The Energon Pub

How would you say a bent card like this affects the grade? If all other aspects of the figure are near-mint/mint - what would you grade this figure based on the bend in the card?

No thoughts? By anyone?

A bent card may put a slight dent in the grade and it's overall value, but not as much as a non-mint figure would. Of course, investing in Transformers toys won't yield major profits, that warning is worth repeating over and over. That goes double for newer toys.

Is that PotP Dinobot Swoop btw? I noted the product code on the bottom.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Is that PotP Dinobot Swoop btw? I noted the product code on the bottom.

That's one heck of a super power you have there.

But yes, what she said. If you're just scalping it on eBay you won't do any better or worse than retail price just because of a slight bend in the card. Now if you're buying it as an investment to sell in 5 or 10 years to MIB buyers then that bend might come back to haunt you. Might as well remove that bubble wrap now while you're at it, even someone buying it to open may be weary about buying something they can't see and anyone looking to buy it sealed will want to see every bit of the card.

And if you're thinking AFA grading it's probably pointless at this point.

Emerje

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:A bent card may put a slight dent in the grade and it's overall value, but not as much as a non-mint figure would. Of course, investing in Transformers toys won't yield major profits, that warning is worth repeating over and over. That goes double for newer toys.

Is that PotP Dinobot Swoop btw? I noted the product code on the bottom.

Can't say I totally agree with that. Not saying the toy in question is ever going to obtain any further value over retail price but you never know. I happen to love the Armada/Energon/Cybertron lines(as blocky and gaudy as they are) and trying to find MISB or MOC versions is not exactly a cheap endeavor. I'm getting a select handful of loose but complete figures for generally what they went for at full retail when they originally came out and anything still in the box and sealed is costing me anywhere between double to triple the price depending on the figure. These figures aren't that old and I don't think they are as popular as other lines and the competition is still there.

lakebot wrote:These figures aren't that old and I don't think they are as popular as other lines and the competition is still there.

Just to put it in perspective: A kid that was 7 when Armada came out would be turning 23 this. That's the key time when they're out of college, have some spending money and nostalgia starts taking hold, even more so if they were 8 or 9 at the time. This was about the same time frame when G1 prices started to really climb as well (late '90s). At that time there was a bit of a perfect storm generated by a combination of adults that were kids in '84 now being in the workforce, rising interest generated by Beast Wars, wider access to the internet and something called eBay, and the rise of BotCon. Takara Tomy is currently trying to cash in on the nostalgia factor with Beast Wars and you can bet in a few more years they'll be looking towards the Unicron Trilogy as well (technically they and Hasbro have already started with remakes of Hotshot, Megatron, Starscream, and Tidalwave in recent years).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

lakebot wrote:These figures aren't that old and I don't think they are as popular as other lines and the competition is still there.

Just to put it in perspective: A kid that was 7 when Armada came out would be turning 23 this. That's the key time when they're out of college, have some spending money and nostalgia starts taking hold, even more so if they were 8 or 9 at the time. This was about the same time frame when G1 prices started to really climb as well (late '90s). At that time there was a bit of a perfect storm generated by a combination of adults that were kids in '84 now being in the workforce, rising interest generated by Beast Wars, wider access to the internet and something called eBay, and the rise of BotCon. Takara Tomy is currently trying to cash in on the nostalgia factor with Beast Wars and you can bet in a few more years they'll be looking towards the Unicron Trilogy as well (technically they and Hasbro have already started with remakes of Hotshot, Megatron, Starscream, and Tidalwave in recent years).

Emerje

You may be correct. I can say I’ve gotten some decent deals on g1(although the popular ones I still want are a little more than I’m willing to pay at the moment) as of late. Cheaper than I thought I would. But as the toys age, I can’t see the popular ones plummeting in price. My only thought was, while I personally wouldn’t “invest” in any newer figures, I don’t think it’s exactly throwing money down the drain.

The problem is people tend to overestimate the possible profits with old items and antiques, with only a handful of examples to go by... examples that just happen to fetch high justified prices, then they start thinking "O, I got something old, I'm rich!"

Go watch shows like Pawn Stars and Storage Hunters to see what I mean. The former even had someone selling off his G1 collection, but was offered a way lower price than anticipated. Citing cataloging, reselling and whatnot as offsets, the deal didn't go through of course.

Yeah, but that guy was being seriously low balled for reasons other than worth and that was on top of their already normally low offers as a reseller. If he had stuck them on eBay he would have made more for himself after fees by selling directly.

Something else to keep in mind is that eventually nostalgia starts going the other way. The chances someone in their 60s still holding onto their Transformers collections is fairly slim, let alone buying vintage figures online. Right now the antiques market is having a bit of a price crash because younger people don't value it as much as our parents or grandparents. The same fate will eventually fall on every Transformers line as fewer collectors exist that grew up with each one. Of course there'll always be people that will keep buying old things because they're old, but eventually the bubble will burst.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Yeah, but that guy was being seriously low balled for reasons other than worth and that was on top of their already normally low offers as a reseller. If he had stuck them on eBay he would have made more for himself after fees by selling directly.

Something else to keep in mind is that eventually nostalgia starts going the other way. The chances someone in their 60s still holding onto their Transformers collections is fairly slim, let alone buying vintage figures online. Right now the antiques market is having a bit of a price crash because younger people don't value it as much as our parents or grandparents. The same fate will eventually fall on every Transformers line as fewer collectors exist that grew up with each one. Of course there'll always be people that will keep buying old things because they're old, but eventually the bubble will burst.

Emerje

Old topic I know, but it got me thinking.

As I have started following comics again, the one constant I have noticed is nothing seems to have gone down in value as far as key issues(non-TF, and even a few TF ones as well).I'm sure someone can find examples to dispute this but I'm seeing steep increases if anything. I do understand the role the current movies play in this. But I'm looking at a lot of issues that have no movies or no new movies currently out which relate to them. And a lot of the collecting demographic seems to be people growing up when comics started to fall in popularity(late 90's to early 2000's). Anecdotal for sure, but I'm simply relating what I am seeing. In essence, things are being collected by people who have no seemingly good reason to be collecting them.

How that relates is I am wondering if G1 stuff and even newer won't be popular and sustain that popularity?

This may be and probably is still OT but when I noticed what I am describing, I immediately thought of this exact thread.