Gigabyte
Posted 29 December 2014 - 02:53 PM
This is a paper I just wrote on a lark a year or so ago:
http://thecurioustas...res-part-i.html
I was wondering if people had thoughts on it. I quite like writing when I can get a few hours to just sit down and write a big paper of sorts.
This article was not for a class or anything. I just wrote it because I wanted to put thoughts to paper.
Coffee Cat
Posted 29 December 2014 - 03:23 PM
I'll always remember how I had a $20 wand from Sailor Moon that my parents bought me when I was five. I would take that thing everywhere, I used it so much it was absolutely destroyed, and now it goes for $100. And then of course, my sister and I collected Pokemon cards thinking one day they'd have some value, but for the most part, they're still pretty worthless.
People will pay for action figures, toys, figurines and all those collectables. I'm actually looking at collecting Nendoroids once I get my own apartment and a place to display them. It is pretty interesting (and totally unpredictable) which ones will be valuable one day. Do you buy a bunch, leave them in the box and hope one day they'll be valuable or do you take them out and enjoy them as you're meant to? It's a conundrum.
Gigabyte
Posted 29 December 2014 - 03:24 PM
Toys intended for young kids are rarely kept in good condition, in box or otherwise.
Of course, 20-40 year old nerds who like the stuff young kids are into as well may buy up a bunch of these and then sell them years later at ridiculously inflated prices that only other massive nerds would ever spend that much for a piece of refined and molded petroleum.
I get into that in the paper, eventually.
It's called speculation, something that nearly destroyed comics a decade or two ago. When a product meant to be enjoyed is merely collected to sell later, more of it is saved. The value the original stuff had was because no one saved them. Now, everybody is saving stuff and not enjoying it. Like morons.
Kilobyte
Posted 30 December 2014 - 01:16 AM
Good Read. Also to prove your point, kids don't care about previous generations of action figures, they want what's new and in style. An example of this would be the new Pop Funko Figurines. At Fan Expo, every vendor was nearly sold out of the Groot and Baby Groot figures that are $10. The ones that were left went for like $30-40.
How I Feel When People I Hate Have A Miserable Day
Gigabyte
Posted 30 December 2014 - 01:57 AM
Good Read. Also to prove your point, kids don't care about previous generations of action figures, they want what's new and in style. An example of this would be the new Pop Funko Figurines. At Fan Expo, every vendor was nearly sold out of the Groot and Baby Groot figures that are $10. The ones that were left went for like $30-40.
Well, Pop by Funko are the collectible for the people. Most collectibles are too expensive for most people to afford.
Certain people hate them for "not being differently sculpted" but that's the point. That's how they're able to sell them for such good prices.
Tentacular!
Posted 30 December 2014 - 06:40 PM
I have to be honest, I don't understand why action figures and whatnot are such a big deal. But mostly I don't understand the people who buy them, and then keep them sealed. Especially when you see them on those TV shows, where they show off their collection of toys and stuff they've had since they were like five, and talk about how difficult it was to not take them out and play with them. It's a goddamn toy, if you don't play with it you're doing it wrong. Holding onto it solely because it'll be worth more later is just... I can't even properly emote how irritating that is. You're not getting any enjoyment out of it, especially if it's just sitting in a box in the attic with hundreds of others.
/rant
“Shimatta! Bare… nan no koto kashira?”
Byte
Posted 30 December 2014 - 06:53 PM
Hindsight is always 20/20, of course... I can't believe how the price of some figures I've bought more than doubled. If I'd know, I totally would've bought as many as I could have. The thing is, some things are so rare and sought after that taking them out of the box barely makes a dent in price. As long as you still have the box, you're still going to make some good money.
http://myfigurecolle...n.net/item/6605 is wanted so badly I saw one that was broken sell for over $200! That's more than it retailed for!
Gigabyte
Posted 31 December 2014 - 01:29 AM
Hindsight is always 20/20, of course... I can't believe how the price of some figures I've bought more than doubled. If I'd know, I totally would've bought as many as I could have. The thing is, some things are so rare and sought after that taking them out of the box barely makes a dent in price. As long as you still have the box, you're still going to make some good money.
http://myfigurecolle...n.net/item/6605 is wanted so badly I saw one that was broken sell for over $200! That's more than it retailed for!
Well, that's a sculpture. And of course a Morrigan sculpture would sell well.
I have to be honest, I don't understand why action figures and whatnot are such a big deal. But mostly I don't understand the people who buy them, and then keep them sealed. Especially when you see them on those TV shows, where they show off their collection of toys and stuff they've had since they were like five, and talk about how difficult it was to not take them out and play with them. It's a goddamn toy, if you don't play with it you're doing it wrong. Holding onto it solely because it'll be worth more later is just... I can't even properly emote how irritating that is. You're not getting any enjoyment out of it, especially if it's just sitting in a box in the attic with hundreds of others.
/rant
I open mine. I don't see the point of keeping them in a box. I like posing them and such. I currently have an action figure of Evil Buu (the gray skinned one that had like five minutes of screen time before eating Fat Buu to become Super Buu) posed where he's creepily standing too close to another action figure, like Judge Reinhold in that one episode of Seinfeld (he was the "close talker.")
I also have a generic G.I. Joe action figure from a random dollar store-type place posed to bust a cap in skinhead-posed Dragonball-era Krillin's head. (These are on my computer desk, by the way.)
I also have that weird spider-ooze creation from that new TMNT Nickelodeon series entangling a Peace Corps. rubber duck (from those "grab-a-duck" games at like every movie theater chain for some reason) in its tendrils.
And there's Minecraft Steve holding a pickaxe and sword while sitting upright in his bed next to that weird Digimon with the headphones in an awesome action pose.
I can't seem to stop describing the action figures right above my head.
Kilobyte
Posted 31 December 2014 - 01:42 AM
"But It's Mint In Box" - The Big Bang Theory LOL
These days some cartoons and tv shows success is based on how well their action figures sell.
How I Feel When People I Hate Have A Miserable Day
Gigabyte
Posted 31 December 2014 - 01:46 AM
"But It's Mint In Box" - The Big Bang Theory LOL
These days some cartoons and tv shows success is based on how well their action figures sell.
Yep. So we get awesome things, generally. Because marketing people are finally running the merchandise asylum. (Marketing people can easily put two and two together and go "Hey, maybe there should be awesome-looking characters on the show so they can be made into equally awesome action figures?")
