How collecting changed and where to go to buy now ?

Leemcl

Jedi Master
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
647
The last year or so, following that sh*t awful Last Jedi, I lost a lot of interest in my vintage collecting. I'd get the odd thing but nothing like I used to. Just felt blah towards eBay and it's "joys" and flat with Star Wars. I boxed my loose collection up and it's still in store ! I sold all my card backs and most of my MoCs. That's how much I lost my joy.

However, recently, after my brother gifted me his childhood Han Small Head. i have begun to look at having some fun completing some loose figures my daughter used to have, but no longer cares for. Essentially,putting those figures back together with their weapons. Even Lobot deserves a Bespin blaster is my view.

Easy one would think ? Not so I am finding.

For example I also wanted a staff / pike for an Emperors Royal Guard. This has never been easy to find, but now it's near on impossible now. There is one for €19.99 from Germany via eBay and that's it, world wide !

Another example, a grey bespin blaster for Squid Head - nada ! It's Squid Head ! And it's a grey Bespin. It used to be easy to get ( I think) good luck now.

Looking @ eBay the last few weeks has me observing that rise of Repro is quite shocking. It's everywhere and it's more underhand than ever. So many sellers using the get out "I don't know if they are vintage or repro..." along with a with a **** picture to add confusion. The "traditional" sellers, even they seem low on stock of vintage weapons and trusted sellers are starting to add repro to their figures. It's sad.

And hunting here on the forum - a traditional safe place - is worrying. I am finding the "for sale" thread nowhere near as active as it used to be.

It feels like years since Ian listed any of those US MoC's I used to love ( such good times logging on and seeing another drop from him ) you don't see any of Punk Pats factory stock here anymore. And Put a "most wanted" up and the silence is palpable, even with a basic request - it was never brilliant but now, it's worrying - I wanted a loose Fett. A Fett ! And nope......

So what's happened ? Where did everyone go to sell and buy and why what changed your approach ? And where do people best buy from these days that has any value and trust ? Did Facebook really take our hobby along with our Data ?
 

Pomse2001

Grand Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
16,104
Location
Denmark
Leemcl said:
The last year or so, following that sh*t awful Last Jedi, I lost a lot of interest in my vintage collecting. I'd get the odd thing but nothing like I used to. Just felt blah towards eBay and it's "joys" and flat with Star Wars. I boxed my loose collection up and it's still in store ! I sold all my card backs and most of my MoCs. That's how much I lost my joy.

However, recently, after my brother gifted me his childhood Han Small Head. i have begun to look at having some fun completing some loose figures my daughter used to have, but no longer cares for. Essentially,putting those figures back together with their weapons. Even Lobot deserves a Bespin blaster is my view.

Easy one would think ? Not so I am finding.

For example I also wanted a staff / pike for an Emperors Royal Guard. This has never been easy to find, but now it's near on impossible now. There is one for €19.99 from Germany via eBay and that's it, world wide !

Another example, a grey bespin blaster for Squid Head - nada ! It's Squid Head ! And it's a grey Bespin. It used to be easy to get ( I think) good luck now.

Looking @ eBay the last few weeks has me observing that rise of Repro is quite shocking. It's everywhere and it's more underhand than ever. So many sellers using the get out "I don't know if they are vintage or repro..." along with a with a **** picture to add confusion. The "traditional" sellers, even they seem low on stock of vintage weapons and trusted sellers are starting to add repro to their figures. It's sad.

And hunting here on the forum - a traditional safe place - is worrying. I am finding the "for sale" thread nowhere near as active as it used to be.

It feels like years since Ian listed any of those US MoC's I used to love ( such good times logging on and seeing another drop from him ) you don't see any of Punk Pats factory stock here anymore. And Put a "most wanted" up and the silence is palpable, even with a basic request - it was never brilliant but now, it's worrying - I wanted a loose Fett. A Fett ! And nope......

So what's happened ? Where did everyone go to sell and buy and why what changed your approach ? And where do people best buy from these days that has any value and trust ? Did Facebook really take our hobby along with our Data ?

It is the Dark times for star wars collecting :(

About Ian, I talked with him last year and he told me had no time at the moment to sell star wars at the forum but he is at Echo FB page, but I am not at facebook.

scary about the Emperors Royal Guard pike that there is only one at ebay in europe :shock:

About the grey bespin blaster, I think it would be cheaper today to buy a complete figure with a grey bespin blaster. Maybe also with the pike :wink:

I think there is still some good sales on the forum, but it is not like it was 3 years ago.

At ebay the auctions with a low start bid is also almost gone, most of the auctions on ebay today is high starting bids or buy it now :(

I do not know if everyone is at facebook today, but some fellow collectors tell me it is at facebook everything is happening, but I have no time for facebook so I am not at facebook.

Yes it is bad times, a few years ago I won most of the auctions I was bidding on today I lose most of the auction I am bidding on :(

I also hear prices is crazy at facebook and you can buy the items cheaper at the forum or ebay than on facebook.

Normally I was also lucky to pick up a childhood lot every month, but today when I find one others offer a lot more money than I will pay for them. I loved to buy childhood lots, come home with them and see if I get surprised with some cool new variants in the lot that I could add to my collection.
 

Mini99

Sith Lord
Supporter
Joined
Sep 1, 2016
Messages
4,756
Haveing been back in the hobby for 3 years it's hard for me to comment on the times before that, as when I collected in the 80s and 90s things were very different!
I was not on FB before I started collecting again, but have found it almost a necessity, a lot is bought and sold there, and some bargains can be found!
I have no presence on FB other than the Star Wars groups that I want to belong to, most memebrs on here are also on there as well, you just have to pick the groups that you belong to carefully.
But with regards to weapons you are much better off buying a complete figure than trying to find weapons individualy, they do have weapons sales quite regularly on FB and are reasonably priced, mostly.
EBay still has its place but I think that FB is making big dents in their sales listings, I assume because eBay take 10% where FB doesn't, well at least not yet!!!
In this day and age you have to watch everywhere.
I'll keep an eye out for the items that you have mentioned above.
 

Ruby2511

Sith Lord
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
2,379
TheJabbaWookie said:
I still think the best place is eBay. You just have to ask lots of questions and have a lot of patientce if you want to pick up a bargain

Agree with you on that, I still find bargains on Ebay, plus I read the seller's feedback to see what they have been flogging and email questions, if I'm not sure I will just walk away.
 

TK-7785

Jedi Master
Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
942
I hear what you're saying, Lee. Like you I was disheartened to say the least by TLJ and although I can say it did have an affect on my feelings towards current Star Wars films I didn't let it affect my love and passion for everything '77 to '85. To my eye these are quite different eras and there's very little I think that could be done to swage my love of the original vintage era save for example Rian Johnson's new trilogy being a re-boot of the OT. :wink:

Like many I started collecting modern in the late 90s when it started to take off again with the Special Editions etc, and I think the main reason I eventually burnt out and stopped collecting altogether in the early 2000s was due to myself not really having the love for the new stuff like I did and still do for the Original Trilogy. The Disney era of Star Wars has been a real mixed bag for me. One real gem (Rogue One) two enjoyable but not "perfect" releases, in TFA and SOLO, and then there's TLJ. :roll: I have TFA to thank for re-awakening my love of vintage again (slightly ironic) but I don't really soak up new Star Wars like I do the vintage, and like I did back in the prequel era, because I find it sort of muddies the waters for me, spreads my interest (and wallet) too thin and I wouldn't want to burn out again due to over saturation.

It's quite tricky to nail down what the state of the hobby is these days. It feels somewhat fragmented to me, a little like the fan base as a whole. You can look at the different platforms by which we all interact, socialise, buy and sell as a parallel to that. We have more ways to do all of those today than we ever had before. That coupled with the skyrocketing of popularity in vintage can and I think has had some adverse affects. The rise of repro is an indicator as we're looking at collectables with a finite supply and massive increase in demand. I still feel there's plenty to go round of the vast majority of loose vintage figures and accessories but I wonder if we're at a place where a lot is being hoarded. Maybe driven out of fear for letting known original stuff go as the repro gets better and better, maybe for financial reason, who knows.

Although prices in general seem to have levelled in correlation with the boom and influx of new collectors and those getting back into the hobby slowing down, I do wonder if there is a proportion of collectors, and maybe investors, that are hanging onto what they've got right now. I'd wager there's been more buying over the last couple of years than selling, hence the supply starting to dry up. Post TFA we saw the demand for loose go way high, then slow, then MOC go high and now slow as people start with loose and then progress. Save for the more niche area of prototypes, foreign variants and true rarities there's very little elsewhere to go in collecting the vintage line.

Personally speaking I don't sell nearly as many complete loose and loose accessories as I used to (I would mostly buy at auctions). The reason for that is twofold; lots with a decent proportion of original accessories don't seem to come up for sale as often as they used to (yes, I'm noticing more and more repro in auction lots), and when they do they go for daft money now. Even a year or two back there would be a decent frequency of childhood and older collections coming up for sale. Now most vintage lots comprise of common beaters with little to no accessories, yet still go for silly money. I wonder if this is a result of dealers still buying with a mindset that the demand is of that from 2-3 years ago but the reality is they don't really shift like they did back then.

Like Nick I only made a Facebook account within the last couple of years solely to be able to dip into the groups on there as I was hearing that that's where all the best stuff is being bought and sold. And yes, there is good stuff on there. There's also a lot of common stuff. Prices range from very fair to quite high, just like on ebay. The only real difference I can see between ebay and FB, for buying and selling, is that the groups are better policed, as far as repros and dodgy dealers, as they are run by fellow collectors by and large. Again, just like the forum. But most people are lazy and FB is a much quicker and easier to interact with than a forum.

I still find myself using all avenues to buy; on here, ebay, FB groups, auctions and shows and events. There isn't one place better than anywhere else to find vintage at reasonable prices. i just think we're at a point where there is less stuff being found and brought to market and more and more stuff stuck in collections. I think this will ultimately even out a bit more in the coming years. Especially if Ep9 is a **** as TLJ! :lol: :wink:

Chris
 

Leemcl

Jedi Master
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
647
TK-7785 said:
I hear what you're saying, Lee. Like you I was disheartened to say the least by TLJ and although I can say it did have an affect on my feelings towards current Star Wars films I didn't let it affect my love and passion for everything '77 to '85. To my eye these are quite different eras and there's very little I think that could be done to swage my love of the original vintage era save for example Rian Johnson's new trilogy being a re-boot of the OT. :wink:

Like many I started collecting modern in the late 90s when it started to take off again with the Special Editions etc, and I think the main reason I eventually burnt out and stopped collecting altogether in the early 2000s was due to myself not really having the love for the new stuff like I did and still do for the Original Trilogy. The Disney era of Star Wars has been a real mixed bag for me. One real gem (Rogue One) two enjoyable but not "perfect" releases, in TFA and SOLO, and then there's TLJ. :roll: I have TFA to thank for re-awakening my love of vintage again (slightly ironic) but I don't really soak up new Star Wars like I do the vintage, and like I did back in the prequel era, because I find it sort of muddies the waters for me, spreads my interest (and wallet) too thin and I wouldn't want to burn out again due to over saturation.

It's quite tricky to nail down what the state of the hobby is these days. It feels somewhat fragmented to me, a little like the fan base as a whole. You can look at the different platforms by which we all interact, socialise, buy and sell as a parallel to that. We have more ways to do all of those today than we ever had before. That coupled with the skyrocketing of popularity in vintage can and I think has had some adverse affects. The rise of repro is an indicator as we're looking at collectables with a finite supply and massive increase in demand. I still feel there's plenty to go round of the vast majority of loose vintage figures and accessories but I wonder if we're at a place where a lot is being hoarded. Maybe driven out of fear for letting known original stuff go as the repro gets better and better, maybe for financial reason, who knows.

Although prices in general seem to have levelled in correlation with the boom and influx of new collectors and those getting back into the hobby slowing down, I do wonder if there is a proportion of collectors, and maybe investors, that are hanging onto what they've got right now. I'd wager there's been more buying over the last couple of years than selling, hence the supply starting to dry up. Post TFA we saw the demand for loose go way high, then slow, then MOC go high and now slow as people start with loose and then progress. Save for the more niche area of prototypes, foreign variants and true rarities there's very little elsewhere to go in collecting the vintage line.

Personally speaking I don't sell nearly as many complete loose and loose accessories as I used to (I would mostly buy at auctions). The reason for that is twofold; lots with a decent proportion of original accessories don't seem to come up for sale as often as they used to (yes, I'm noticing more and more repro in auction lots), and when they do they go for daft money now. Even a year or two back there would be a decent frequency of childhood and older collections coming up for sale. Now most vintage lots comprise of common beaters with little to no accessories, yet still go for silly money. I wonder if this is a result of dealers still buying with a mindset that the demand is of that from 2-3 years ago but the reality is they don't really shift like they did back then.

Like Nick I only made a Facebook account within the last couple of years solely to be able to dip into the groups on there as I was hearing that that's where all the best stuff is being bought and sold. And yes, there is good stuff on there. There's also a lot of common stuff. Prices range from very fair to quite high, just like on ebay. The only real difference I can see between ebay and FB, for buying and selling, is that the groups are better policed, as far as repros and dodgy dealers, as they are run by fellow collectors by and large. Again, just like the forum. But most people are lazy and FB is a much quicker and easier to interact with than a forum.

I still find myself using all avenues to buy; on here, ebay, FB groups, auctions and shows and events. There isn't one place better than anywhere else to find vintage at reasonable prices. i just think we're at a point where there is less stuff being found and brought to market and more and more stuff stuck in collections. I think this will ultimately even out a bit more in the coming years. Especially if Ep9 is a **** as TLJ! :lol: :wink:

Chris

Thanks Chris. A really nice post to read. Reassuring that I am not alone in my thinking. I'v just sent you a PM as, funny enough, Nick suggested asking if you had a couple of the weapons I am seeking still - based on a post from before.

Good to know there are good people on here always.
 

Michael Sith

Grand Master
Supporter
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
8,768
Location
Up North
Hi Lee

This forum is always the best place to start, you know for sure on here weapons etc are going to be Kosher.

FB seems to be the place re buying and selling, but I personally don't do FB.

I have had some luck on ebay, but you have to really check and double check to avoid the repro stuff.

I think also never be afraid to network on here, everyone on here are in the main from the same mindset, and not all about monetary gain. Collecting vintage is a long term affliction, it gets in the blood!
I would always help out if I had something spare, if it's sat in a drawer and not on display then let it go tomsomeone that needs it, what goes round comes around.
 

punk_pat

Jedi Knight
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Messages
287
I'm still here fella!!

Can totally empathise with you.

It feels like the hobby has gone through a seismic change in the last year. Not massively enamored with it at the moment.

Ed
 

Wreck-It Ralph

Jedi Master
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
893
I don't collect loose so cannot comment on that but MOC (especially rare MOC) is predominantly sold privately. I occasionally see something on Ebay and Facebook but lately I am getting more stuff from Vectis. My biggest purchase since starting collecting again in 2017 has come from the Forum. I would say 80-90% of my collection has been acquired through private deals.
 
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