Sealed Sears mailer

[starwarsdan]

Sears mail-order 3-pack
SKU 38720
Catalog # 49-59417
Jawa & 2 sand people

Value?

and opinions- is it better to leave this sealed when selling or to open it to show the contents are authentic?
I notice that afa opens them to grade and case them. Wouldn't the buyer want to see the contents? On the other hand, there's the idea that this has survived this way for over 30 years. It's like a relic.

I've been collecting standard store packaging sealed for years. This is my first mailer. The blank box presents a bit of a dilemma for me!

 

[Grant_C]

I'd PM frank (frunkstar) about this one mate. He's a regular on here.

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

Hi Mate Welcome over to SwFUK

Thats a nice piece there. 8) I agree with Grant Frank is the Man for baggies

 

[tiefighterboy]

With it being a plain brown mailer with hand writing on it...I would open it as it really does nothing for me. I do not usually say this about sealed items, but to me this is just a plain cardboard box. Oh and welcome to the forum Dan.

 

[Frunkstar]

Its a 50/50 split decision TBH, some would want to preserve its purity as a sealed item, others would like to see it opened so the figures can be displayed.

The biggie is that it has been written on, if it had not I would say sealed the price would be more, but I suspect with the righting it would bring back the same price either way.

I am interested should you decide to sell it.

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your stay :wink: & BTW nice find!!

 

[starwarsdan]

Thanks for the welcome & for the responses.

I have been active for a while over at rebelscum & have been meaning to check in over here as well. I have heard good things

So this is what finally gave me the shove to come over & check it out. I posted to RS as well but didn't get many responses, and it was 50/50 over there as well on whether to open or not.

I've been collecting sealed for a long time, so my natural inclination is to preserve them in their found state. One of them was opened by the people I purchased them from, because they did not understand what they were! Despite the writing on the boxes, they had to open one to confirm the contents.
This also has me wondering about what I paid for them- did I get a good deal or overpay? I have no experience with mailers, and I'm accustomed to paying more for sealed pieces. It was a real gamble for me to buy these. It was a surprise find, yes, but did not come "cheap" IMO.

Next question: who wrote on them? I assumed this might have been done by the person at the warehouse filling the orders, to keep it straight what to ship. So I didn't expect that to have a great impact on the value. Or did the person who originally owned them write on them?

I have 4x of them, and they are all penned on the front as to the contents. So at one point I also thought it might be proper to keep them as a set, clearly all coming from one source

But I have a duplicate of the one pictured, with jawas/sandperson. I wish the seller had opened the duplicate, but they opened 3PO/Chewey/R2 instead. On the other hand I get a thrill out of seeing the contents of that one. (Interestingly, it came packaged with two Kenner catalogs, one inside the other- how weird!)

So I'm uncertain if I should sell the duplicate jawa/sandperson & make some of my investment back, or open the duplicate & display one sealed/one open of the same piece... you get my drift, right?


Still conflicted!

 

[tiefighterboy]

I would sell the duplicate. As far as value go...there are others on here that would know it better. I have bought items from you on RS before and I can vouch that you are a stand-up guy.