Collecting changes

So I've just been looking through my recent purchase history on Ebay as well as here and FB and I currently have items en route from Canada, USA, USA via Norfolk, Argentina, Japan, Thailand as well as various parts of the UK.
I'm also picking at least two bits up in person next Friday from London yet all of these things have been ordered from either my phone or my office desk which got me thinking about this thread from a little while back and how much collecting must've changed for the more experienced guys on here.
If any of you would like to share your greatest road trips, best 'wild' finds or even just what your longest wait for an item and what it was.

Cheers

Carl

To be honest the only thing that has changed massively for me in the last few years is Facebook. I was buying from all over the world on eBay, forums etc in 2002 and I know some were doing it well before then. So for me the biggest change was from the mid 90s to the early 2000s when it all moved online.

What is surprising is how long Facebook took to take off, it's been going since 2006 and I've been on there since 2007, yet don't recall it being a well known place to buy, trade and discuss Star Wars until about 2013.

There was a time when internet collecting was like a revelation after so many years of trying to track down items in the wild. Now, as collecting has become so popular, it seems to be getting harder again. Not surprising really when there's such a huge demand and a finite number of items to go round.

My best pick up was a Blue Snag. It was in the Sansweet book which was like the bible to me back in the day. Something I have to thank this forum for as this is where I eventually picked a nice example up. Only took about 24 years

Only been collecting seriously for the past 2 years and at the beginning i was buying anything vintage i could find. That left me with a lot of stuff i didn't really want so I'm in the process of thinning out the collection and just buying mocs/beaters, my loose run and side focus.

Best find was a loose AT-AT for £35 that came with chin guns on ebay about a year ago.

Not on Facebook is it worth going on... Any good value items??

coomber75 said:

Not on Facebook is it worth going on... Any good value items??

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Faster paced and a lot of loose, prices are all over the place. You can get a bargain but you also get cockwombles (to coin a FB phrase) taking the piss and there friends saying its a great price :roll:

coomber75 said:

Not on Facebook is it worth going on... Any good value items??

Click to expand...

For buying and selling, keep your wits about you and it's not bad.

For general conversation it falls well behind forums, although the odd thread is very good.

For expertise and advice it is full of people who haven't a clue. There's also a lot of ego on there and I have to be careful as I struggle to keep my opinions to myself on some issues.

Oh, and despite the champions of Facebook arguing about the community aspect, it is driving prices to a dangerous point. Something becomes flavour of the month on Facebook and the price can double overnight. Look at solid black blasters, black endor blasters and things like hollow tube Tuskens and red bar r5s for evidence of this.

Mr-shifter said:

coomber75 said:

Not on Facebook is it worth going on... Any good value items??

Click to expand...

For buying and selling, keep your wits about you and it's not bad.

For general conversation it falls well behind forums, although the odd thread is very good.

For expertise and advice it is full of people who haven't a clue. There's also a lot of ego on there and I have to be careful as I struggle to keep my opinions to myself on some issues.

Oh, and despite the champions of Facebook arguing about the community aspect, it is driving prices to a dangerous point. Something becomes flavour of the month on Facebook and the price can double overnight. Look at solid black blasters, black endor blasters and things like hollow tube Tuskens and red bar r5s for evidence of this.

Click to expand...

Sums it up for me...
You can get a great deal and some great info, but you need to tip-toe through the **** first...

Been collecting for about nine years. From 2007 - 2014 I bought everything on ebay and the odd wild find. From 2014 - 2016 I've bought almost everything on this forum and the odd ebay purchase. Have only bought one item a moc on facebook in the last year, don't really like facebook. Don't really buy from abroad. So I've found the forum to be my best place to buy and my collecting changing massively since joining. Have become a bit jaded with ebay of late for action figures but it's still pretty good for other items. Best wild finds, 12 inch R2 with plans for a fiver and a mint loose Stormtrooper for 1 pound. The explosion of sales on the web/facebook and rise in popularity of collecting has slightly ruined it for me if Im honest. Not buying half as much as I used to.

The Internet has surely made those 'rare' items more common, but has since showed us some absolute gem rare items that exist.

Collector fairs are a thing of the past mainly... well apart from FF. Once big name dealers have thrown in the towel. Even the monthly Model and Collectors Mart ceased a fair few years back. Loved hunting through the classifieds in that.

FB has become a good and bad place for vintage. You get some good deals, but as already said some items have shot up within hours to ridiculous prices.

You have to near enough live on there now though to get the best deals.

Oh.... There seems to be an influx of so called 'experts' on there too.

hmm maybe I may need to join and try and get the odd bargain

Collecting in the 90s was all done at toy fairs, comic marts, car boots, or my personal favourite - Model and Collectors Mart. Buying that on the day it came out and scouring the adverts was brilliant. Seeing 2-page adverts from the likes of Jim Stevenson was great - especially when they had pictures of stuff I'd never seen before.

Finding out what some of the later figures/vehicles/playsets looked like was difficult pre-internet. I used to own what I thought was the Ewok village, a purchase from a car boot sale. I sold it about 15 years ago as an Ewok Village (complete with plenty of pictures on ebay) and it's only recently I found out it was actually the Robin Hood set!! :lol:

Receiving catalogues through the mail was fantastic too. I really miss those days, and not just for the prices!

I was buying stuff through ebay in 1999/2000, and up till this time still hadn't owned a POTF MOC. The last 17 were something I'd heard so much about and I was desperate to own one, but they were going for silly money. Eventually I came across a Romba being sold on ebay in Australia, and I managed to snag it for £30. There was a nervous wait for it coming through, but when it arrived it seemed so exotic and unusual :lol: :lol: I'd never seen a POTF MOC before!

Collector fairs and finding collected shops were the best, it was such a thriller to see items that you only seen pictures of, I remember going to a small collectors shop in Erdington (Birmingham) called Acme toy store and buying POTF Luke stormtrooper moc! Never seen it before and couldn't pass the opportunity.

Also going to Mem in the early days and seeing a POTF Yak moc, i was shaking with excitement and panic as I used my new credit card for the first time.

Ahhh the good old days!

Carl Waterworth said:

I remember going to a small collectors shop in Erdington (Birmingham) called Acme toy store and buying POTF Luke stormtrooper moc! Never seen it before and couldn't pass the opportunity.

Ahhh the good old days!

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It'd still there I think, the website is certainly still running, not been myself though.

I still like trawling through ebay

Looking for hidden gems

becoming harder though of late

I Still enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

found an awesome oddball the other day for peanuts too. I guarantee you wont see another set.

i miss yahoo auctions and paying for stuff with cheques ha ha

lejackal said:

Carl Waterworth said:

I remember going to a small collectors shop in Erdington (Birmingham) called Acme toy store and buying POTF Luke stormtrooper moc! Never seen it before and couldn't pass the opportunity.

Ahhh the good old days!

Click to expand...

It'd still there I think, the website is certainly still running, not been myself though.

Click to expand...

Is it? Wow!

I know one of the guys who owned it now has a shop in Warwick called metropolis toys!

Popped in a few times, normally has about 7 or mocs (afa) and a box full of non afa stuff in the back, mainly jedi.

As well as a selection of loose figures, i am sure he had a blue snaggletooth there.

Carl Waterworth said:

lejackal said:

Carl Waterworth said:

I remember going to a small collectors shop in Erdington (Birmingham) called Acme toy store and buying POTF Luke stormtrooper moc! Never seen it before and couldn't pass the opportunity.

Ahhh the good old days!

Click to expand...

It'd still there I think, the website is certainly still running, not been myself though.

Click to expand...

Is it? Wow!

I know one of the guys who owned it now has a shop in Warwick called metropolis toys!

Popped in a few times, normally has about 7 or mocs (afa) and a box full of non afa stuff in the back, mainly jedi.

As well as a selection of loose figures, i am sure he had a blue snaggletooth there.

Click to expand...

Chris at Metropolis? Lovely stuff but not cheap by a long way the last time I saw him at the NEC.
The Acme site says it's owned by a Peter Hall and Colin

lejackal said:

Carl Waterworth said:

lejackal said:

It'd still there I think, the website is certainly still running, not been myself though.

Click to expand...

Is it? Wow!

I know one of the guys who owned it now has a shop in Warwick called metropolis toys!

Popped in a few times, normally has about 7 or mocs (afa) and a box full of non afa stuff in the back, mainly jedi.

As well as a selection of loose figures, i am sure he had a blue snaggletooth there.

Click to expand...

Chris at Metropolis? Lovely stuff but not cheap by a long way the last time I saw him at the NEC

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That's him! Just recently sold him my late farthers train collection, his shop is in the main high St in Warwick.

poncho said:

I still like trawling through ebay

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Yeah I do as well, I like browsing through at stuff, but I don't buy much! I find myself not searching for Vintage SW in action figures but in all categories so you get all sorts of ****, it's just more interesting. Or I'll search for all action figures between 1970 - 1990 etc just to mix it up a bit. I dunno, maybe it's just hunting for Vintage SW action figures for many years becomes a bit monotonous or that you get to the point where you've got a fair collection and most of what you set out to and so it will naturally slow down. It comes back to that whole discussion about is it the buying or the having or both that people like about it?

Robstyley said:

poncho said:

I still like trawling through ebay

Click to expand...

Yeah I do as well, I like browsing through at stuff, but I don't buy much! I find myself not searching for Vintage SW in action figures but in all categories so you get all sorts of ****, it's just more interesting. Or I'll search for all action figures between 1970 - 1990 etc just to mix it up a bit. I dunno, maybe it's just hunting for Vintage SW action figures for many years becomes a bit monotonous or that you get to the point where you've got a fair collection and most of what you set out to and so it will naturally slow down. It comes back to that whole discussion about is it the buying or the having or both that people like about it?

Click to expand...

this is what i do i widen the net to 1980s toys in general now aswell as SW it reminds me of my childhood seeing all the cool 80s 70s stuff.