Time for me to vent-vehicle spares.

Guys,

Ive been relatively quite lately, and keeping on the down low but the situation regarding selling spare ship parts here is getting way out of control. I think its disgusting how most here think it is fine to strip a ship down to sell as parts, and if thats isnt further diminishing numbers of items available i dont know what is. For example, there is one for sale thread that contains almost every single part for a Falcon going. It seems that people are buying complete or near complete pieces just to strip them to sell as parts to make more money. The aim of this forum, and places like it is to protect the hobby and preserve as much as we can but it seems to me like there is a no go for one shady practice, yet this is viewed as ok. Im probably in the minority here, but ive just had enough of seeing cannibalised parts both here and on Ebay. It sickens me that people will buy a complete piece just to strip it down, when another collector would happliy have it in their collection, even if it is missing a few pieces.

Someone asked me a while ago if i was comparing this practice to repro weapons, cards and even grading services. Obviously its not a comparison, but IMO it is very damaging to the hobby and does compare in that respect. If anyone thinks its ok then they are obviously making rules to suit themselves.

This isnt meant to start a flame war, and i have no interest in doing so. Im just seriously pissed at the amount of this that is happening. There is no defence, although people are saying they are helping to complete other loose examples-which to me is bollocks. I myself bought a boxed Palitoy Falcon complete for £35 a few months ago, so dont go spewing that line of defence. People who do this, are doing just as much damage to the hobby as the repro dealers etc. What good is a falcon when you strip it down even to the last screw??? its another one out of a collectors hands thats for sure.

It will be good to hear some comments on this...

I'm ambivalent to repro. Repro make collecting originals harder but the practice you describe is destructive. It looks more than a bit grabbing too.

I've seen a complete ( or so near I never noticed ) Palitoy Death Star sold piece by piece on eBay.

edit - I got a Falcon in a ROTJ box for similar to yourself. I was glad I found it and not someone wanting to strip it to sell even the bit of original string separately.

I've been doing up my childhood Millenium falcon which was missing a few parts (still missing the struts if anyone has any). I've bought a few little job lots of falcon parts to get the bits I want and I have probably got two thirds of falcon parts spare and no falcon of which for these to go on. I have contemplated buying a second falcon shell and putting a second together but not really sure I need a second falcon.

I'd agree on buying a complete ship and stripping it to pieces though, doesn't make any sense and is purely for a money reason, but there are people out there with many ship parts who haven't stripped these down.

Its a tricky one. I completely agree with you on people stripping down complete ships to sell for a profit, but then I do think there is a market for spare parts as the guys who buy job lot childhood collections will have vehicles and ships that are only part complete or even have smashed parts. These are the spare part candidates. Just as if you had a crashed ferrari.

How do you police it though. Sadly, there are a lot of greedy people in this world, and as vintage becomes more valuable, greed takes over.

How do you know people on here are stripping down good vehicles? I have bought lots that have had figures and parts in them. Kids back then as now just had a tendency to rip stuff apart and sometimes what was left was at the bottom of the toy box. Also sometimes the vehicle itself is beat to **** or incomplete so selling the parts makes more sense. I am sure there are those who do cannibalize perfectly good vehicles for profit, but I am unsure to if that is happening on this forum.

I only know it's going on when I see every part of a toy listed separately on one day.

EDIT - I read that as in general, not people on here, sorry.

I've sold on a few spare parts. The most recent one was an X-Wing canopy from a toy which was broken and incomplete in every other respect.

I'm a little confused about all this. We are talking about parts that were put together at factory level - there is nothing 'unique' about each part.

For me there is absolutely no link between this and some of the repro debates going on. I also don't see the harm in removing parts from ship so that someone can add them to another in order to complete it?

Considering some of your posts on the reproduction thread and your regular support for a well known U-Grader then I am amazed at how much THIS bother you??

itfciain said:

I'm a little confused about all this. We are talking about parts that were put together at factory level - there is nothing 'unique' about each part.

For me there is absolutely no link between this and some of the repro debates going on. I also don't see the harm in removing parts from ship so that someone can add them to another in order to complete it?

Considering some of your posts on the reproduction thread and your regular support for a well known U-Grader then I am amazed at how much THIS bother you??

Click to expand...

I think the point being made is speculation that due to a vehicles sum of its parts being worth more than its whole, people are buying complete ships or playsets and then dismantling them to sell as spares, rather than using incomplete or broken examples, meaning complete examples are being dismantled unnecessarily.

At least thats what I thought the original point was.

OK, even if that is the case then surely those parts are being used to complete another ship (either a childhood toy or a restoration project) - so I really don't see the issue

It is no different to selling loose weapons. I would be amazed if anyone has a collection that is complete with the exact weapon that came with each figure - this is next to impossible even if you have ALL of the weapons from your childhood collections as there are examples where more than one figure has the same weapon

These parts are not being used for anything other than completing vintage ships - for every part removed from one ship is going to be added to another ???

I was trying to figure out the assumption that members on here are tearing down complete vehicles. I do not agree with taking a complete vehicle/playset that is perfectly good and parting it out....but I may be a hypocrite there as I would have no issue with buying just the box off someone from a complete set.........so maybe my point is zero'd out with that.

Just thinking it through, not formed a complete opinion on the matter…

But lets say you do strip down a complete or perhaps near complete Falcon…

In the scenario i imagine in my head, you have 1 guy with a complete or near complete falcon.
You have 6 other guys with near complete Falcons and each need a part to make a complete Falcon. To do this they need parts from another Falcon.
So the first guy sells each of the 6 guys the pieces they need to complete their Falcons.

In this scenario. How many complete Falcons ("in the collecting community") did you start with?
And how many complete Falcons did you end up with?

To me, i don't see how completing incomplete ships, even at the cost of another complete or more like incomplete ship, in order to create more complete ships is such a bad thing.

Am i making any sense here??

I certainly don't see how it compares to flooding the market/community with a wash of illegal reproductions.

Just my 10 pence.

I guess with that scenario you are right. That would help complete more vehicles.

An interesting argument Iain, and to be honest, one I had not considered. I see where you are coming from there.

As I'm not into vehicles and playsets, its not a market I dip my toes into, but I would assume there were more than enough broken or incomplete vehicles to patch up all the ones people are restoring or am I wrong? Also, the only true way to ensure a vehicle is all of its original parts, the same as a figure, is to buy a MOC or MISB, otherwise you can never be 100% sure someone hasn't swapped a part or weapon (you will have a pretty good idea with childhood collections, although I remember taking my childhood hoth base to my mates and playing star wars with him and his, and getting all the parts muddled up, so they still might not have been the original bits)

I also fully agree, repro is far far more destructive to the hobby, and this is nothing like the repro debate.

Im still not sure many collectors would dismantle a good complete example though to piece out.

itfciain said:

Considering some of your posts on the reproduction thread and your regular support for a well known U-Grader then I am amazed at how much THIS bother you??

Click to expand...

Iain, firstly the reproduction thread posts i made were not in support of anything. I dont like them, but ive come around that we cannot do nothing about them. Ive seen repros become bigger and more accurate as time has gone on, and ive been collecting for 20 years. Since 2000 onwards ive noticed them pick up speed with regards to accuracy etc, and its something that we are powerless to stop IMO. The only people who can stop it is now Disney...

Secondly, how many times have i got to say this 'I DONT SUPPORT U-GRADING'. Yes, Robbie is a good friend but he knows full well i dont like it. FWIW he doesnt U-grade anymore, but what this has to do with this thread is beyond me. Im sick to the ****ing back teeth of this being brought up, and wish you wouldnt use it as a last line of defence. Jesus, think of something else....

Rainbows.

When I joined the forum I bought a ROTJ MF box only from Darth Stanley for a great price he did me a great deal ( thanks buddy) and when I arrived to pick up in person he threw in an incomplete Falcon, I was over the moon, it was an introduction to the type of guys on this forum....who are 99% all about protecting the hobby for themselves and future generations.

Since then I have been waylaid as we all are in collecting, but have bought a couple of pieces from ebay....still need some parts to complete the falcon.

I am certain that over the years picking up job lots and incomplete ships, many people have a stock pile of parts, and therefore listing them for sale so people like myself can complete a falcon is fine in my opinion.

I would be astonished if anyone one here would take a complete falcon and strip it to sell as parts, that I would not agree with, I'm sure that's not happening though.

As Iain points out, I'm certain most collectors don't have the original loose weapons and accessories for their loose runs, so same principle.

Fully get where the original post is coming from....complete falcon strip down for profit is a no no, but I would be astonished if that was happening on here....now on Ebay etc....that's a different story the lengths some will go to to turn a quick buck!


Just MHO

Palitoy78 said:

itfciain said:

Considering some of your posts on the reproduction thread and your regular support for a well known U-Grader then I am amazed at how much THIS bother you??

Click to expand...

Iain, firstly the reproduction thread posts i made were not in support of anything. I dont like them, but ive come around that we cannot do nothing about them. Ive seen repros become bigger and more accurate as time has gone on, and ive been collecting for 20 years. Since 2000 onwards ive noticed them pick up speed with regards to accuracy etc, and its something that we are powerless to stop IMO. The only people who can stop it is now Disney...

Secondly, how many times have i got to say this 'I DONT SUPPORT U-GRADING'. Yes, Robbie is a good friend but he knows full well i dont like it. FWIW he doesnt U-grade anymore, but what this has to do with this thread is beyond me. Im sick to the ****ing back teeth of this being brought up, and wish you wouldnt use it as a last line of defence. Jesus, think of something else....

Click to expand...

Lee, my point was that you are writing threads about this (which I consider to be pretty trivial) yet have in the past been far less vocal in your condemnation of both reproduction and Ugrading

PGowdy said:

Just thinking it through, not formed a complete opinion on the matter…

But lets say you do strip down a complete or perhaps near complete Falcon…

In the scenario i imagine in my head, you have 1 guy with a complete or near complete falcon.
You have 6 other guys with near complete Falcons and each need a part to make a complete Falcon. To do this they need parts from another Falcon.
So the first guy sells each of the 6 guys the pieces they need to complete their Falcons.

In this scenario. How many complete Falcons ("in the collecting community") did you start with?
And how many complete Falcons did you end up with?

To me, i don't see how completing incomplete ships, even at the cost of another complete or more like incomplete ship, in order to create more complete ships is such a bad thing.

Am i making any sense here??

I certainly don't see how it compares to flooding the market/community with a wash of illegal reproductions.

Just my 10 pence.

Click to expand...

I thought about this scenario pete. The counter argument would be if all the incomplete ones were missing just one part, break one of those up, as the complete one would stay complete, and all the others would be complete, and you would still be a falcon down.

But then are the incomplete ones in better condition than the complete one, or are all the incomplete ones childhood falcons that have sentimental value. What do you do then?

I am now thinking there is no right answer to this question.

At the end of the day.....something ends up complete.......so maybe there is no point.

"The counter argument would be if all the incomplete ones were missing just one part, break one of those up, as the complete one would stay complete, and all the others would be complete, and you would still be a falcon down."

That would be the ideal senario Ben and I am sure in some cases it does happen - but in some cases, as I suggested - if it is a childhood toy or a restoration project then it might be more important to that party to complete the ship than some others