The Energon Pub

I have been pondering wether to buy two of the same figure, 1 for play, and one for investment. I have no idea, I am working on a money standpoint

my opinion only:

don't buy Transformers from an investment perspective. as most of the guys here can tell you, TFs are an awful investment, unless you're into G1 and/or BotCon exclusives. it takes many years for them to reach their full potential, and with the wide market release of TFs today, almost everyone has access to a certain figure.

why are older generations worth more? because back then, TFs were not produced on a massive scale as they are being produced right now. that is why for G1, you can fetch commanding prices for MISB toys.

with the advent of the Movie, Hasbro/Takara has cranked up their production to keep up with the increased demand - that is why come Christmas time (if all the reports are true), you can expect that most people will have what they want from the current line of toys.

if you want advice, here's mine: change your perspective and buy TFs ONLY because you want to enjoy them, not because you want to invest in them. but that's just an advice, it's really up to you if you dig it or not.

:MAX:

i guessed gen 1 are more valuable as back then the idea of toy collecting was in its infancy, most toys were ripped from boxes and thrown into ponds and played with by the dog, only a small % were well looked after or indeed kept MISB!! think how many TF collectors there are now, many with lots of minty cared for open examples and MISB too. I bought an insecticon at the age of about 14 and even then when my appreciation was for the look of the thing and not play I threw away the box! Again, in 1992 I bought eurpoean classics reissue jazz and threw away the box!!

Invest in the recent lines? Nah. Just save your money if its an issue.

Buy two only if you want two. I loved the Classics line and had to get two of all the regular issues. I'm glad I did, makes for a cool display.

microclone wrote:i guessed gen 1 are more valuable as back then the idea of toy collecting was in its infancy, most toys were ripped from boxes and thrown into ponds and played with by the dog, only a small % were well looked after or indeed kept MISB!! think how many TF collectors there are now, many with lots of minty cared for open examples and MISB too. I bought an insecticon at the age of about 14 and even then when my appreciation was for the look of the thing and not play I threw away the box! Again, in 1992 I bought eurpoean classics reissue jazz and threw away the box!!

that's not quite accurate. toy collecting started waaay before TFs got out. remember Star Wars toys and the original GI Joes? and believe me, there are a LOT of G1 collectors who have kept their toys MISB - mainly because the G1 toys had so much collector appeal, with die-cast and all.

and oh, G1s are more valuable because they were not released in massive quantities, compared to toys today.

:MAX:

For investments, go buy stocks. I am not kidding. :p They take up no storage space and give you much better earning.

Many TFs are too cheap to earn you a good profit gain, unless its MP or BT or G1. But even a lot of G1s are being reissued, and both MP & BT are at its high price mark already. So might as well buy yourself some stocks.

The only reason why I buy two is one to play with and one to keep MISB for display purposes... they look so much more organized sitting in their boxes on a shelf instead of a massive multi-colored clutterfudge.

mpchi is right. Toys are not really a good investment. They are are not as liquid as say stocks. You can't move toys quickly when you need cold hard cash.

If you want to invest, go to the bank or get insurance.

mmm... I do not collect G1 stuff(still don't mind a Perceptor classic reissue/encore f/ Japan, though). Other dan dat, repaints of da same fig would me my dilemma. But double of da same figure... only if one has superb overall factory paint, and the another has wicked package condition, which only applies to voyager class or higher, then i would.

zemper wrote:my opinion only:

don't buy Transformers from an investment perspective. as most of the guys here can tell you, TFs are an awful investment, unless you're into G1 and/or BotCon exclusives. it takes many years for them to reach their full potential, and with the wide market release of TFs today, almost everyone has access to a certain figure.

why are older generations worth more? because back then, TFs were not produced on a massive scale as they are being produced right now. that is why for G1, you can fetch commanding prices for MISB toys.

with the advent of the Movie, Hasbro/Takara has cranked up their production to keep up with the increased demand - that is why come Christmas time (if all the reports are true), you can expect that most people will have what they want from the current line of toys.

if you want advice, here's mine: change your perspective and buy TFs ONLY because you want to enjoy them, not because you want to invest in them. but that's just an advice, it's really up to you if you dig it or not.

:MAX:

QFT! I tried to tell this to a member in another thread since he was debating buying multiples of MP05. The profit is far outweighed by the amount of time you would have to sit on the bot before you sold it.

Sure people can sell a sealed G1 dirge for $300 bucks on ebay, but they had to wait over 20 years for that profit.

By the time its ripe for profit, you probably wont even care, stick the money in a GIC, the interest alone will FAAAAAR outweigh the return on a bot.

Personally I but two of the figs that I like or that maybe worth something in the future. The figs that I keep MISB are for my son when he grows up to have.. Thats my take on the subject anywho

I always buy only one of each. I hate duplicates in my collection.

zemper wrote:and oh, G1s are more valuable because they were not released in massive quantities, compared to toys today.

:MAX:

Can I ask where you got your information from? I would have thought the G1s are more valuable simply because they're the oldest, and therefore the hardest to find in good condition.

Sledge wrote:

zemper wrote:and oh, G1s are more valuable because they were not released in massive quantities, compared to toys today.

:MAX:

Can I ask where you got your information from? I would have thought the G1s are more valuable simply because they're the oldest, and therefore the hardest to find in good condition.

hmm? that was just my opinion, derived from our experience as TF collectors in a 3rd world country. we always get the back-end of toy distro, and if we suffer from TFTM toy distro now, think back '85-'88...in our locality...

and yes, you are correct also in that G1s are valuable also because they are much harder to find MISB or good condish.

:MAX:

Just speaking from my own experience, Transformers were far more common in my neck of the words back in the days of G1/G2 than they are now. Even when the line was winding down, and without a cartoon supporting it, there was more variety and quantity on the shelves than I've seen at any time since, with the possible exception of about a month before the release of the Movie this year.

zemper wrote:

Sledge wrote:

zemper wrote:and oh, G1s are more valuable because they were not released in massive quantities, compared to toys today.

:MAX:

Can I ask where you got your information from? I would have thought the G1s are more valuable simply because they're the oldest, and therefore the hardest to find in good condition.

hmm? that was just my opinion, derived from our experience as TF collectors in a 3rd world country. we always get the back-end of toy distro, and if we suffer from TFTM toy distro now, think back '85-'88...in our locality...

and yes, you are correct also in that G1s are valuable also because they are much harder to find MISB or good condish.

:MAX:

There are many reasons why G1 stuff is/was/will be valuable. Zemper isn't wrong, so there's really no reason to question him. His comment didn't sound like a pig headed "blanket statement" to me ... go after those kinda guys!

I'm doing 2 each of movie and classics stuff. Binaltech/Alternators would be a stupid amount of money, so I'm only going 1 each there.

So, the 1 line that I should be collecting 2ea. I'm not. Go figure!

Autobotic9 wrote:I have been pondering wether to buy two of the same figure, 1 for play, and one for investment. I have no idea, I am working on a money standpoint

Buy just one. Put in inside the box after you finish playing with it. It's not like you are going to play with it everyday. The figure will be fine. That way you have more money saved up to get other molds that you don't have and really want.

G1 is really abundant back in those days.

I agree, espcially from a $$$ point of view. When I started collecting Alternators I only bought one of each mold to save cash. I didn't have any display case then so they ended up MISB. It would have been nice to have a MISB and loose set but I don't regret the decision I made back then.

For the movie line, I having been buying double but not for investment reasons. It's because I HAVE to open them up when I get them but I know that a few years down the line I'll have MISB remorse. It works out well though because I'm slowly funneling the loose ones to my cousin as long as he does well in school. Whenever I do decide to sell them I'm just hoping to break even.

Sledge wrote:Just speaking from my own experience, Transformers were far more common in my neck of the words back in the days of G1/G2 than they are now. Even when the line was winding down, and without a cartoon supporting it, there was more variety and quantity on the shelves than I've seen at any time since, with the possible exception of about a month before the release of the Movie this year.

G2 was more common than G1 in my experience, but personally the line was not that much popular compared to G1 and the later lines that followed it, such as Beast Wars. it's true that there was variety and some new molds, but most of them were repaints of G1 characters.

Auto Bot wrote:G1 is really abundant back in those days.

in Manila and the northern parts maybe, but i live here in the south, where we always get the back end of distros, even now in the TFTM era. plus, back then in the 80's we only had one shopping center (it was not even a mall back then) for all our toy needs. so toy abundancy is still a question of distribution.

I was not aware there's a "G2" back then. So i may have merged them with G1 in my mind.