Destruction of ships/vehicles is getting too much.

[_Lee_]

A few years back I posted a thread about people ripping apart vintage vehicles etc just to sell as spares. Decided to have a look and see how frequent it is now and it seems to be ten times worse. Some collectors would just love to own the vehicles/ships in any way, shape or form and this is further restricting people. I understand the odd one here and there, but AT-AT legs??? falcon bottom shell??? Now the thread I posted the other year got a little heated but is it becoming too much??

Are the people doing this not destroying what there is left in the hobby??? As I said before, it was commonplace to do it now and again but it seems some people are actually destroying these for profit and it is happening at an alarming rate. I myself like to buy my ships as complete boxed and always look for signs of ships being taken apart etc- but that's just me. One collectors junk could be someone elses centrepiece, so why destroy these toys?? Some collectors can live without a canopy or another part and it also takes away the history of it as it has been altered from its previous state.

Lee

[Stubbs]

I think its a tragic shame that the part's are sold for stupid money and people paying encourages people to do it. For example people selling x wing canopy's on ebay the common price is buy it now £20-£25 and the x wing cannons £8 -£10 each with an x wing shell typically selling for £10 making an x wing in parts worth £62 (low balling) when a complete one could cost between £40 £50 on average. I could do a similar comparison to snow speeders as i have observed this for some time as i build complete ships for my own collection and piece complete ones together from lot's i have acquired and its very frustrating to think some one is ripping them apart for what a few quid.

I know there are lots of loose parts from ships floating around for one reason or another and thats fine people will possibly need an x wing cannon or b wing cannon to complete a ship but then i see people selling screws from falcons and snowspeerders as well check ebay there will be loads.

I know this happens as last year i sold a complete lovely condition Rebel transport complete with the hatch. The ship sold on ebay bids for £26 a week later the guy was selling the hatch for £25 and the gun turrets as an assembly for £20.

I suppose the argument is he paid for it and can do what he likes with it and i get that but still cant help but think what a C***t.

[Mini99]

so why destroy these toys??

One word comes to mind, greed.

[StarWarsFan]

so why destroy these toys??

One word comes to mind, greed.

Agree

[Frunkstar]

I have noticed this alarming trend seems to have got totally out of hand & is very disturbing, sadly greed seems to be human nature for the most part

It's a sad state of affairs, I remember stripping down an at at & falcon years back & giving the useful parts away to one of the guys on here & threw the 2 shells out (both had some serious damage BTW) but I never even considered giving the shells away or taking the legs off the at at as I thought who would even care or want that kind of thing, which back then (10+ years ago) no one did, oh how times change & not for the better.

[indianawars]

The snowspeeder is the most common one I see a lot of parts for. They tend to go for vehicles with the most parts to strip. But saying that, I've seen tri-pod laser cannons stripped down.

[Dannywhiteley]

No different to a car breakers yard imo. The parts usually end up going back to build full ships again (perhaps childhood toys) so apart from the cost, which does get a bit silly, I don't really see a major problem. Controversial perhaps?

Anything in parts will generally cost more than a complete item but there is a large demand for people wanting to finish partially complete ships. That's bound to create a marketplace. Same as a loose figure with accessories bought later it will cost at least 1.5x the price of buying complete in the first place.

[spoons]

I also think that most parts just go from one beater to the next. There are always going to be shells that someone wants to complete, and when they are done and bored I suspect the parts get sold on again

Has anyone here not bought a spare part to complete something? Most of us are guilty of supporting this practice even if on a small level

[olisuds]

Much like parting out accessories and weapons on large lots of figures and selling them for more than the figures are worth. Just comes down to greed!

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

A 100% complete toy is the 'final state' that all collectors are aiming for.

I spent a good amount of my collecting time buying up 'job lots'. Childhood collections, filled with many items that some might call junk. You know the sort; random pieces of a speeder bike, maybe the leg of a CAP-2, odds and ends from other toy lines thrown in too.

I'd have bags of bits, and when I could put a complete toy together that always felt like a little victory!

However for some toys I did sell individual pieces as parts because I thought the job was too big (such as the Palitoy Death Star with so many components), or the item too obscure (I had a ramp for the Ewok Battle Wagon, and thought I'll never get the rest of one of these to finish it off).

If buying parts allows a toy to be made complete, that's a good thing and it means that toy has been made whole again for the rest of its life. But if someone 'breaks up' a 100% complete toy to sell so that they make a couple of extra quid that is ridiculous and not good for the hobby. I'd also have thought it a false economy, as selling stuff does take time and effort, for just a few quid more is it really worth it?!

[SublevelStudios]

A 100% complete toy is the 'final state' that all collectors are aiming for.

I spent a good amount of my collecting time buying up 'job lots'. Childhood collections, filled with many items that some might call junk. You know the sort; random pieces of a speeder bike, maybe the leg of a CAP-2, odds and ends from other toy lines thrown in too.

I'd have bags of bits, and when I could put a complete toy together that always felt like a little victory!

However for some toys I did sell individual pieces as parts because I thought the job was too big (such as the Palitoy Death Star with so many components), or the item too obscure (I had a ramp for the Ewok Battle Wagon, and thought I'll never get the rest of one of these to finish it off).

If buying parts allows a toy to be made complete, that's a good thing and it means that toy has been made whole again for the rest of its life. But if someone 'breaks up' a 100% complete toy to sell so that they make a couple of extra quid that is ridiculous and not good for the hobby. I'd also have thought it a false economy, as selling stuff does take time and effort, for just a few quid more is it really worth it?!

Pretty much somes it up for me.

When you're buying so much of this stuff you literally end up with boxes of bits and pieces. You just can't be arsed with all the hassle of trying to complete every shell that comes into your possession. That said I did have a Palitoy Death Star I took from a basic shell to a complete (with figure stands) example in about 6 months and very rewarding it was too.

I'd never buy a vehicle or figure with the intention of stripping and parting it out but when you get a Falcon that's 60% complete with a yellowed shell - the best thing is to sell it for parts - thus enabling someone else to complete theirs.

The buying and selling of parts is an essential part of the hobby and it'll always be the case.

[Richard_H]

I'm still after a Jabba dungeon branding iron (I think anyway) if anyone has one in their bits. Which could be painful I suppose

[Frunkstar]

I'm still after a Jabba dungeon branding iron (I think anyway) if anyone has one in their bits. Which could be painful I suppose

[theforceuk]

I’ve always thought buying spares and using them to complete a ship is a good thing, although clearly not if it invovles braking apart complete ones. I have dabbled in buying some spares in the past and was thinking about buying a rear flap for my childhood Speeder Bike but looked at the prices and decided it wasn’t worth it. Ended up just buying a complete boxed Bi Logo one for a very good price.

It is worrying what people will do for some extra coin, what can be done though?

[Robstyley]

I was on eBay yesterday and saw a lot of parts, a guy was selling bits of a Scout Walker. £5.99 for this, £9.99 for that, it adds up to a lot of money. But I think there’s a big difference between breaking up a perfectly good vehicle for no reason and rebuilding or completing one with parts. If a ship is actually broken then surely it’s a good thing to save all the good un-broken parts. And to further the car analogy it’s common when restoring a car to get a 2nd donor car to take parts/bodywork from to make one good car from the two. I do agree though, breaking them apart just to sell in pieces is not cool.