One for the Tri-logo fans...

NB: No danger of outing, here - this is a public sale, commercial auction (no danger of back-dooring), already taken place (SW items have gone, anyway).

OK, I'm gradually working my way into Tri-logos and have a reaosnable idea when something is fairly priced or not. But today's auction has be a little bit baffled:

http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/nesbits-auctions-ltd/catalogue-id-srnes10015/lot-39f284d8-415e-4a2b-afce-a50700a8c14d#

For when it disappears, here's the pic of what was on offer:



Now I know there are a couple of nice cards there; the Leia had me particularly excited (no, not the same way as you Pete) as did the Luke, Han and even little Wicket....but really? A total (after fees) of £707 for 8, very, very battered MOCs?

Have prices for Tris really gone this mad?

i have a feeling some of these tri-logos rarely pop up, not seen a luke or leia for sale for awhile thats for sure.

The price is about right IMO. Even in that condition the Luke Bespin is worth £250-£300, Leia £200-250, and the rest easily add up to another couple of hundred quid. It's not excactly score of the century, but a fair price IMO. Probably not much profit to be made from a resellers perspective either.

I would say that in the shape they are in than as a minimum you could get the following for them

R2 - 50
8D8 - 25
Luke Bespin - 250
Han Bespin - 50
Vader - 50
Han Hoth - 80
Wicket - 25
Leia 200

So 730 - which is probably about bang on what was paid

As Edd says - not much resale but sure that won't stop millions of toy dealers trying their luck

Cheers guys. Still got a way to go in my quest for understanding prices, it seems. Shocked by the price for Luke and Leia given their condition; I thought they were about £100 each like that

itfciain said:

I would say that in the shape they are in than as a minimum you could get the following for them

R2 - 50
8D8 - 25
Luke Bespin - 250
Han Bespin - 50
Vader - 50
Han Hoth - 80
Wicket - 25
Leia 200

So 730 - which is probably about bang on what was paid

As Edd says - not much resale but sure that won't stop millions of toy dealers trying their luck

Click to expand...

Well, the winning bidder of that lot did indeed go on to sell all of the above on eBay (as some of you probably noticed):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=mikestrange1978&nma=true&hash=item210354caf6&item=141789809398&LH_Complete=1&orig_cvip=true&_osacat=0&si=zaTcii88Ql4rbUROFg4pgAcjzmU%253D&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xtri.TRS0&_nkw=tri&_sacat=0

Ending prices were:

R2: £78.42
8D8: £29
Luke Bespin: £252
Han Solo Bespin: £62
Vader: £90
Han Hoth: £109
Wicket: £23
Leia: ?? (Auction ended early)

I'm a little shocked that they went as high as they did if I am honest, they were all in pretty horrible condition. It wasn't long ago you could buy a mint Vader or R2 Trilogo for under £100 and a Luke Bespin for £250-300..but hey, this is 2015 and there are people paying $1800 for AFA 80's!!!

£643.42 total minus whatever the Leia sold for..(possibly £200?) minus paypal/ebay fees means he probably hasn't made out like a bandit on this purchase..I guess he might have made a few quid but definitely not the best bulk buy if the intention was to sell them off individually.

I liked the look of the Leia. Han Hoth has become extremely popular too over the last couple of years. The Luke Bespin will always be a favourite. £750 doesn't surprise me. I wouldn't pay that myself but it doesn't surprise me.

I would've been tempted by the Luke Bespin if it was a blonde haired one, but I already have an AFA 80 Brown haired one so meh.

I had my eye on that Leia as well!

Yep was watching these, prices pretty much as expected although agree with Joe the Vader and R2 went pretty high considering the condition. Luke Bespin is rare enough to sell for good money in any condition these days. I remember picking up a beater one with torn hanger for £30 about 10 years ago

Edd, the blonde Luke Bespin is rarer on tri logo, isn't it?

They've certainly come up for sale less often recently, but back when I had my Luke Bespin focus they were pretty even (in fact I had two blonde ones and one brown.) But I haven't seen a blonde one for sale for ages (ignoring stupidly priced graded ones.)

Ok thanks! I'm building a Luke Bespin focus so I need to know these things Do you have much of yours left?

No none of my old ones unfortunately, but I did pick up a brown haired trilogo Luke Bespin from Vectis earlier this year for my trilogo run. The one in my avatar used to be mine.

Can I ask how much it cost you on Vectis?

Wow! I would love a blonde haired tri-logo one

Jester said:

Can I ask how much it cost you on Vectis?

Click to expand...

...I think it was about $1335 less than this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRI-LOGO-LUKE-SKYWALKER-BESPIN-AFA-80-NM-UNPUNCHED-JUST-GRADED-SUPER-RARE-MOC-/291541358294?hash=item43e13816d6&nma=true&si=zaTcii88Ql4rbUROFg4pgAcjzmU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I bid on a couple of these but the only one I was remotely close to was 8d8 and I bid 21 or 22, didn't have the funds for anything rare and as mentioned the Artoo was quite high for the condition.

Joe said:

Jester said:

Can I ask how much it cost you on Vectis?

Click to expand...

...I think it was about $1335 less than this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRI-LOGO-LUKE-SKYWALKER-BESPIN-AFA-80-NM-UNPUNCHED-JUST-GRADED-SUPER-RARE-MOC-/291541358294?hash=item43e13816d6&nma=true&si=zaTcii88Ql4rbUROFg4pgAcjzmU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Click to expand...

Cool

Joe said:

itfciain said:

I would say that in the shape they are in than as a minimum you could get the following for them

R2 - 50
8D8 - 25
Luke Bespin - 250
Han Bespin - 50
Vader - 50
Han Hoth - 80
Wicket - 25
Leia 200

So 730 - which is probably about bang on what was paid

As Edd says - not much resale but sure that won't stop millions of toy dealers trying their luck

Click to expand...

Well, the winning bidder of that lot did indeed go on to sell all of the above on eBay (as some of you probably noticed):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=mikestrange1978&nma=true&hash=item210354caf6&item=141789809398&LH_Complete=1&orig_cvip=true&_osacat=0&si=zaTcii88Ql4rbUROFg4pgAcjzmU%253D&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xtri.TRS0&_nkw=tri&_sacat=0

Ending prices were:

R2: £78.42
8D8: £29
Luke Bespin: £252
Han Solo Bespin: £62
Vader: £90
Han Hoth: £109
Wicket: £23
Leia: ?? (Auction ended early)

I'm a little shocked that they went as high as they did if I am honest, they were all in pretty horrible condition. It wasn't long ago you could buy a mint Vader or R2 Trilogo for under £100 and a Luke Bespin for £250-300..but hey, this is 2015 and there are people paying $1800 for AFA 80's!!!

£643.42 total minus whatever the Leia sold for..(possibly £200?) minus paypal/ebay fees means he probably hasn't made out like a bandit on this purchase..I guess he might have made a few quid but definitely not the best bulk buy if the intention was to sell them off individually.

Click to expand...

Looks like I got them pretty much spot on - Vader price is very high as he seems to pop up quite regularly

Glad to read the flipper who got these didn't make too much, if anything at all, actually.

Still surprised by some of those prices but there we are. They're worth what someone will pay for them, I guess.

ScruffyLookingNH said:

Glad to read the flipper who got these didn't make too much, if anything at all, actually.

Still surprised by some of those prices but there we are. They're worth what someone will pay for them, I guess.

Click to expand...

Further to that, I doubt he made anything. The original sale was in Portsmouth and he's from Cardiff. As such, he probably had postage fees plus plus 3% on top of hammer for bidding through the-salesroom (if indeed they did). Those extras could have put the original purchase price around 750.

Apologies if this comes across as sour grapes. That's because it is. I have zero issue with dealers buying stuff up and selling it on. Really I don't! If I did I'd be some kind of mammoth hypocrite: I have a business selling comic books and all our new stock comes from auction houses and even eBay. The difference is we'll pay only up to 50% of market value. That's not an altruistic decisions, it's simply a business one: after costs of attending auctions/get items delivered, the costs of listing, selling, sending, etc. the margin reduces to a point where a) it's not worth the bother and b) there's better items to invest in with better returns. And don't forget risk: Most of the time you're buying almost blind so you will, inevitably, buy some bad lots. Occasionally you'll lose money.

This means a profitable business but it also has the side benefit of not driving market prices up.

What really, really riles me is when some "dealer" pays market value for stuff and wants to make a profit on that. That's what drives prices up. It's idiotic business sense, too, and that also pisses me off This guy has spent about £750 and has sold them on for £850+.....before fees, risk and effort. Well done buddy, maybe you should appear on The Apprentice. Alan Sugar needs business acumen like yours.