I open a lot of the figures ive picked up over the years. But since im 37 maybe when I was 20something I started to run out of room to display my figures and many have been unopened to this day as well. I know keeping some unopened harkens back to my younger days when it was very uncommon to keep unopened toys.
I opened all of the toys I ever got except for 1 or 2 I didnt like as much and kept the cardbacks of things like Star Wars and Transformers stuff for a lil while then threw them away too.
Now My Dad always said to me be careful with those toys im giving you, keep the boxes, dont open some of them. "they'll be worth money someday."
I think I laughed to myhself a lot about this but stunningly the old man was proven so right it hurts. course no one was hardly doing it so I never thought it would happen.
Like this Amazing Stories episode in the mid 80s tv show had a bit with a young man who keeps all his stuff in mint shape and drives around all his life until hes an old bum with "nothing" in his life besides a car full of crap he thinks. except.. hes got stuff like action #1 comic, some rare action figure this, an old elite that. and finally hes an old man who proved his folks wrong and got rich off his collection. that story still gets me a lil bit, darn you steven spielberg! lol
and Mark Hamill was the actor who played that role as well in the amazing stories thing.
which gets me back on track, my Dad was right and I was wrong, at least for the old vintage stuff, not the new stuff that everyone has a load of carded and boxed stuff in their garage etc. holy moly, the prices on old carded star wars figures drives me up the wall. at least they were for a while.
And I think that lil life lesson has backfired on me a tad. I tend to think that some of the stuff Ive kept sealed up will at the bak of my mind or hte end of my life make me retire in splendor.
Unlikely though.
More like since everyone is keeping stuff new in boxes ( not everyone but many collectors and casual toy trending scalpers are im pretty sure) the value of them is of course low since the supply is high.
Maybe if we live to be 200 years old theyll finally pay off in some sense
But anyway I enjoy my figures and toys open, though i do try and keep them in better shape than I used to when i was young and played them out. Now I figure if I keep them nice boxed or no but in good condition they might make some other soul happy someday too and that keeps me upbeat.