Best way to avoid buying reproduction weapons and accessories and paying a fair price for originals

[Kris308]

Hello. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to avoid this please?. This was a major reason for me joining the site. Please see my list if interested in what I am looking for. I am trying to do as much research as I can, using The Imperial Gunnery, Variant Villan, JediTempleArchives etc. I have only bought a couple of items from ebay as yet and I get the feeling that this is more risky than buying from someone off this site or buying from a collector shop or a toy and collectors fair.

Also I have found the star wars tracker a great place to get prices for the value of figures according to condition. This at least gives me some chance of not over paying for something but as yet I have not found anywhere that gives an idea of what to pay for weapons and accessories on their own?. The only way I have been able to do this is to compare prices from sellers on ebay. I don't know what is a fair price or is over the top.

Help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Clarkspie&chips]

I'm afraid I'm well out of touch when it comes to prices but the accessories will usually be the lions share of the sale price. My guess would be between 60-70%.
You could check some sold prices of incomplete loose figures and compare it to the complete sale prices.

As far as repro goes your using the best sites but it takes a trained eye to really know the difference. Buying from reputable sellers would be your best bet.

 

[Gadders]

Buying on one or more of the facebook groups is also a good idea as people can be quick to identify reproduction items, and you quickly get an idea who is a reputable seller. You can also request further photos to clarify things for you too.
But using the sites you've mentioned and educating yourself is always the best way to go.

 

[Snaketibe]

I agree that learning as much as you can from Variant Villain, TIG etc. is essential for identifying repros, but also if you can find anyone selling their childhood figures complete with weapons, that too can minimise the risk and is often also the cheapest way of buying. Of course people can lie, but reviewing past and current sales can also be your friend in that regard

However, if you are more concerned with authenticity than price, then buying from a reputable eBay or Facebook seller will remove most of the repro risk.

Hope that helps.

Jeremy

 

[kabuchi7]

I bought most of my loose collection from ebay and I ended up with maybe 2 repro items.

The websites you mentioned were my go to for reference and obviously when i wasn't sure i would post on here to get confirmation.

One other item i invested in was a 'black light' or UV as when you view the figures under these conditions it will show up any paint touch ups they might have had as the affected areas will glow. So when buying I made sure from the seller that the figures hadn't had any paint touch ups.

As i was fairly new to collecting back in 2018 (my last adventure was 2003) these repro items were new to me as I had never heard of this kind of fake before. Pretty shocking tbh! I ended up buying a pack of repro items (don't hate on me) just so I had a reference point to compare what I had bought as originals. It helped me to better understand how theses things, looked, the weight, texture and how they sounded when dropped.

As far as price goes for individual weapons as mentioned above, just having the original item with the figure will go along way to increasing the price overall. Thats why I tried to buy all my loose figures complete as when i had to buy individual items to make a figure complete it cost me a fortune, yoda, luke farmboy and leia (1977) as examples.

Anyway i will have look see if i have any spares you need, good luck in your hunt

 

[Kris308]

Buying on one or more of the facebook groups is also a good idea as people can be quick to identify reproduction items, and you quickly get an idea who is a reputable seller. You can also request further photos to clarify things for you too.
But using the sites you've mentioned and educating yourself is always the best way to go.

Could you recommend one or more safe, trusted facebook groups that are UK based?

 

[Kris308]

I bought most of my loose collection from ebay and I ended up with maybe 2 repro items.

The websites you mentioned were my go to for reference and obviously when i wasn't sure i would post on here to get confirmation.

One other item i invested in was a 'black light' or UV as when you view the figures under these conditions it will show up any paint touch ups they might have had as the affected areas will glow. So when buying I made sure from the seller that the figures hadn't had any paint touch ups.

As i was fairly new to collecting back in 2018 (my last adventure was 2003) these repro items were new to me as I had never heard of this kind of fake before. Pretty shocking tbh! I ended up buying a pack of repro items (don't hate on me) just so I had a reference point to compare what I had bought as originals. It helped me to better understand how theses things, looked, the weight, texture and how they sounded when dropped.

As far as price goes for individual weapons as mentioned above, just having the original item with the figure will go along way to increasing the price overall. Thats why I tried to buy all my loose figures complete as when i had to buy individual items to make a figure complete it cost me a fortune, yoda, luke farmboy and leia (1977) as examples.

Anyway i will have look see if i have any spares you need, good luck in your hunt

That's great advice. Especially your idea of deliberately buying fakes to do a comparison. I have seen the black light device used before which is also good. All of my current figures and accessories are original as I have had them since a kid so I can compare with the ones I already own, but I'm missing a few. The one that is really getting to me is the Imperial Gunner. I have the figure which looks to me totally mint, but have lost his gun. I'm seeing people asking around £170 for it. Can I find mine?.......erm nope!.

 

[Pomse2001]

Hello. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to avoid this please?. This was a major reason for me joining the site. Please see my list if interested in what I am looking for. I am trying to do as much research as I can, using The Imperial Gunnery, Variant Villan, JediTempleArchives etc. I have only bought a couple of items from ebay as yet and I get the feeling that this is more risky than buying from someone off this site or buying from a collector shop or a toy and collectors fair.

Also I have found the star wars tracker a great place to get prices for the value of figures according to condition. This at least gives me some chance of not over paying for something but as yet I have not found anywhere that gives an idea of what to pay for weapons and accessories on their own?. The only way I have been able to do this is to compare prices from sellers on ebay. I don't know what is a fair price or is over the top.

Help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

I am not 100% sure about normal prices on weapons but you can always check the last sales on ebay but I would only check auctions and not buy it now. But you can also always ask us on the forum about what the price are on the weapon you are looking for.

I think it is best to buy lots or a complete figure to save money. Buying loose figures and weapons later are more expensive unless both are lots and you then get complete figures out of it. You can maybe then trade with spare parts with other collectors for what you are missing or sell spare parts to get money for the items you miss in your collection.

I would normally more buy on the forum than ebay since there are much repro on ebay. But if you need help to id weapons then also just ask and share pictures on the forum

 

[supergoose]

Could you recommend one or more safe, trusted facebook groups that are UK based?

Echo Base and Jabba's Court are the 2 main ones I would say. Steady sales stream on both and any repro is usually very quickly identified and called out / pulled down, but be careful and make your own checks as stuff can and will slip through the net especially if pictures aren't great or in a group listing, I'll often do a "claim xxx pending better pics" etc. but there's a lot of trusted regular sellers on there. Ebay gets a lot of flak and rightfully so on a lot of counts but you can still pick up the odd bargain here and there and if you filter through the crap there are some good sellers with honest descriptions, good pics, good communication and good packaging etc. so I would never fully rule out ebay. If you get along with a seller after a few transactions you can always give them a list of what your hunting for as well. I guess just look everywhere lol...... Enjoy the hunt..... for me it's always been one of the best parts of collecting and I've been collecting all kinds of crap for decades

 

[Kris308]

Great advice thank you.