The Energon Pub

When i was young, i threw away all my toys, many of which i very much regret when i see what people pay for them on Ebay these days. I had alot of toys that i can't even find anymore or seem rather obscure.
Looking around today, i see all kinds of toys that could be potential collectors items years down the road or perhaps turn out to be very rare to find in mint condition. I think there are alot more collectors and traders of current toys now to suggest that very few toys today will ever hold any real value,plus the market may be alot more flooded now than it used to be, but ya never know i guess. I dont think any of todays Star Wars figures will have much value simply cause its Flooded and so many collectors have them. Gi joes and TF's are being re-issued/updated so i dont see them as ever holding value,much less being rare,


So what kinds of toys today do you guys think will be rare or be collectors items in the future?

I don't think EVERYTHING will be worth an increased value, Blurrz. I remember everyone running around buying Beanie Babies like they were a retirement plan. Those people are idiots. The reason toys like the G1 line are expensive are BECAUSE everyone threw theirs out. The ones that survived, in that rare = expensive way, are worth cash.

HK

Blurrz wrote:I'm not an idiot...

Yes you are and you know it, after all you collect Transformers, stupid little chunks of plastic that cost more than food and hookers.


I think one particular toyline will be pretty expensive in future is the Mattel Ghostbusters toyline, with them being the first GB toyline that has live action Ghostbusters looking like their actors, but then again those ar internet exclusives.


But it's mostly going to be toys nobody bought that are going to be very expensive collector's items in the future due to next to nobody owning and preserving them.

the only toys of today that will be as expensive as G1 stuff is today are the toys that already are effing expensive and hard to come-bye today, like henkei Crystal Convoy, jumping from just $80 to what $300 in a matter of 2 months?

In the future we will all be kicking ourselves because the collectors market will only be interested in one line from current day.

To take part in the future you need to be collecting:

Littlest Pet Shop.

All the TF's, Joes, McFarland, Ben 10 will be worthless. Only LPS will have collector value, buy them now.

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seriously thou, anything at this point is speculation and really who knows. Of course the Convention specials will hold collectors value, as will most of the Takara releases with their shorter production runs, but beyond that in TF's and even further in toys in general, any answers are as informed as asking who'll win the Superbowl in 2012.

Dead Metal wrote:

Blurrz wrote:I'm not an idiot...

Yes you are and you know it, after all you collect Transformers, stupid little chunks of plastic that cost more than food and hookers.

BEST QUOTE EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Editor wrote:All the TF's, Joes, McFarland, Ben 10 will be worthless. Only LPS will have collector value, buy them now.

I wouldn't necessarily count out Ben 10. People that grew up on that show might want the toys they couldn't buy as a kid.

I use to think Power Rangers were worthless but was quite surprised to see how much the early 90s toys can go.

It's hard to believe that some of this crap that fills up the Toy ailes are going to be worth more later unless the toys are never opened. I think much of the inflation is due to online price hikes.

I personally think online exclusives, store exclusives and Japanese exclusives will be worth more.

I'm not sure if this is really that current, but what about Pokemon cards? I was collecting them like 10 or so years ago, still keep my all holographics. When are these gonna be worth a few bucks? LOL

DecepticonKing86 wrote:I'm not sure if this is really that current, but what about Pokemon cards? I was collecting them like 10 or so years ago, still keep my all holographics. When are these gonna be worth a few bucks? LOL

I have the same problem with all of my Magic: The Gathering cards. For a few series I literally bought boxes upon boxes of cards. They are now pretty much useless thanks to what cards are allowed to be used in tournaments. Even complete sets are worth less now more than when I bought them.

As for toys, I used to collect just about everything Mcfarlane made besides the sports lines. That was probably one of the biggest wastes of money I have ever been a part of. You know what happened to the most of them? After Ebay failed, I boxed them up and sent the ones I didn't want anymore to BBTS. At least I was able to get a few Masterpiece, Alternators, and Henkei Classics for them.

In the end, I still got ripped off, but now whatever I buy I plan to keep. I'm not in this to make money, just to feed my Transformer addiction. As far as the future market goes, it all comes down to production numbers. The less that are made, the higher the potential value may be.

SentinelA wrote:It's hard to believe that some of this crap that fills up the Toy ailes are going to be worth more later unless the toys are never opened.

Dont ya think people back in the, lets say 80's thought the same things about many of the toys that filled the isles back then? Like Crystar, dunno if they have any decent value but i remember thinking those were kinda generic crap toys even as a kid but often times it only takes a movie,cartoon..etc release to make them popular.

Naturally i do agree with production numbers but also amount kept as well. Some toys are so common its rediculous but not many people actually keep them because of that, they think nothing of them just like i never thought anything of Garbage Pail Kids collectors cards, all of us kids in my area had tons of them yet today none of my friends still have them. I think Spongebob toys may one day, theres so many Spongebob stuff out there, but their mostly throw aways and IF the show dies out, eventually it may come back like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did.

What about happy meal toys? i think few keep them and production is short lived but i dont really know for sure however i do try nowadays to collect a few various toys here n there just in case.

The thing about people buying them in the 80's is that the whole dynamic behind collecting/buying/scalping and such has changed over time.

From the point of living thru the toy fads of the 80's and working in a comic shop for a good chunk of the 90's I can say that things changed with the introduction of eBay and Todd McFarland in the toy industry.

Yes, there have been toy scalpers for longer than that, and i'm sure there is plenty of video still out there of the hysteria from the hey days of Cabbage Patch Kids, and Tickle-me Elmo. But those two changed a lot.

The scalpers for Cabbage Patch Kids got their money selling thru want ads, and Flea markets. With the introduction of eBay and other online site, a small hobby for some people looking to capitalize on a quick buck suddenly had the world at their finger tips and the means to find profit from people all over. Just look at the rise of Beenie Babies and how much of it was fueled by the net.

Think of a case of Transformers arriving at your local Target, Wal*Mart, or TRU. the odds are if it contains 12 pieces, that it will be made up of 4 of shelf warmer A, 4 of shelf warmer B, 2/3 of interesting figure C, and 1 or 2, of Chase figure D. Compare that with the 80's and the initial boxes of TF's that stores received.

1 Box all Primes
1 Box all Megatron
1 Box all Soundwave
1 Box equal numbers of Seekers
1 Box equal Mini-cars
1 Box Half Rumble/Ravage, Half Frenzy/Laserbeak
1 Box of 12 Cars
-- 1 Jazz
-- 1 Wheeljack
-- 1 Ironhide
-- 1 Ratchet
-- 1 Hound
-- 1 Trailbreaker
-- 1 Prowl
-- 1 Bluestreak
-- 1 Sunstreaker
-- 1 Sideswipe
-- 2 Mirage (due to the dropping of Hauler from the initial selection, released a year later as Grapple)

The point is everything was released in equal numbers, as was common for the time, with a few variations based on company policies. This was turned on it's head when McFarland decided to release his Spawn Toys on his own (then named Todd Toys) and not to chain stores but specialty comic stores, creating a new level of collector's market fueled by his addition of case specials that were the norm in trading cards at the time. With the addition of the emerging secondary market, the scaling down of some companies and the shrinking numbers of companies as some when under or were acquired by others, the big companies adopted a number of things from smaller companies (like shifting case allocations) and rather than setting an assortment that was locked in advance (Look at the second year when rather than waves we would see whole assortments like special teams released at the same time) we get things spread out with different pieces releasing months or weeks apart (how long did it take to complete Energon combiners??)

Makes you wonder how much of the perceived 'collectors market' is fueled by company execs figuring out when they'll drop certain pieces into the market, how much time between shipments, and what gets shortpacked. It's amazing how much some people will pay for an item perceived as being rare because only 1/2 are put in a box, only to find 3 months later that it's now 4 to a case.

ok enough rambling but that's my two cents.

hellkitty wrote:I don't think EVERYTHING will be worth an increased value, Blurrz. I remember everyone running around buying Beanie Babies like they were a retirement plan. Those people are idiots. The reason toys like the G1 line are expensive are BECAUSE everyone threw theirs out. The ones that survived, in that rare = expensive way, are worth cash.

HK

Hey HK, liking the new pic down there.

Ok, aside from that, someone else said about MacFarlanes;' being a waste, I have to agree. And I love MacFarlane figures. But geez loiuse, they're twelve-16 bucks for a statue, and when I'd see them I'd end up buying the entire series flatout, so I didn't miss any of them and then kick myself later. Did that with the Age of Pharohs set and boy was I disappointed. Local TRUs seemed to get one box of MacFarlane's that would be almost instantly sold out so I'd always try to be quick. I loved, and I mean loved, his Dragons figures. Bought every one of them, until I realized that only the boxed set ones were any good.