thank you Brobles, i dont good in english. both writing or speak. sorry for all the misunderstanding. but i just want to be a SB member. not just ask for toy, and i wl try to learn faster.
All I know is you have to either be hardcore, or not know what you have on your hands, to put a Kamikaze pilot up as your storefront image...
Yes, it seems so retarded from a logical standpoint, but that just isn't the way it works. Here's what I think... all it takes is a couple of assholes to set the aftermarket price by unloading a ridiculous amount of money in making a single purchase, and enough of us to see it happen. Flippers also keep an eye out for these things-if they see it happen once, I bet they assume instantly that they can make it happen again, so they'll make a listing and they'll sit it out for months (if it takes that long to make a sale) under the assumption that someone has to bite sooner or later. Other flippers will see that no one is biting, so they'll make what appears to be a "bargain" in comparison, even though the price is just as ridiculous, just a little less so. Buyers take it as a cue to make a deal at what appears to be an opportunity to score at a more reasonable price in comparison to the outrageous asking price of others. This is just one assumption of what might be running through the minds of the buyers/sellers who participate in such sales. Right now, you could take the hottest figure on the market (I'm sure you have a good idea what that may or may not be), put it up for sale at $800.00 on eBay, BIN, any colorway, any variation, and I guarantee it would sell in less than 24 hours (and that's being conservative), because people have been led to believe that $800.00 is a bargain in comparison to the ridiculous prices they've sold for in the past. They say something is only worth as much as "you" are willing to pay for it, but the way buyers respond to the market, it seems they believe a toy is worth as much as the highest price paid to date, and that everything else is a bargain to be made. Touching on your comment that people assume that every new release should fetch for the same price, there's plenty of colorways of highly sought after figures where I think to myself, "that's just not working for me." Sometimes it seems people become so desperate to own ANY release of a particular sculpt, they'll settle for colorways they don't really appreciate. Once the hype dies down a bit (i.e. the original Bemon), then people start to get picky and think logically about the purchase they're looking to make.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the practice of keeping release numbers under wraps was, believe it or not, an attempt to keep people from buying toys based on rarity-if release numbers were always made public, many would strive to track down limited releases strictly for the sake of the hunt.
If you look at the aftermarket prices on Boss Carrions, you can see exactly that happening, in about a weeks time it climed higher, and higher in "Value". It finally apexed at 450, and the one that sold for 450 was from SDCC 2011. I can almost guarantee that the next one will reach 500. It really sucks when your a "normal" collector, that isn't rolling in piles of money, but you also happen to want a toy that's hot in the moment. Personally I can't wait till Bemons and Nags lose steam, so I can finally see what everyone's fighting about. Also HBC your right about numbers as well, but it's also a way to keep people interested in toys... It plays on the people who have to buy something, because they may not be able to get one otherwise... If you see the numbers faltering, because people think they have time to buy toys, drop a release with only 5, have it run out in 10 minutes, and people will be sure to try and grab the next one... It's an artificial way of making a toy look "hot".
I wouldnt mind seeing this happen. So much hype keeps so many cool figures out of the hands of so many collectors. It's always a fight for who can pay the most money
The only thing that really worries me about some of these toys is, you never know when something is going to be the next Marusan Godzilla 1966 (unobtainable).
Haha, I think that's the thought that keeps some people paying so much money. "Maybe... just maybe, this might be my only chance to grab (enter hot toy here) before it goes up in value. It might be $1,000.00 today, but tomorrow, it might fetch for $2,000.00! I better act fast!" I can admit to being guilty of having such a thought process in regards to some of the purchases I've made in the past. Instead of patiently waiting for a solid deal on a figure, I've impatiently thrown my money at the first chance I had to make a purchase. Good deals are made left and right here on the board (and elsewhere) if you're just patient, and you never know, there's always a chance that one day you might win one of those "big game" lotteries. I've learned it really pays to wait it out. From my own experience, the regret that comes along with jumping the gun isn't worth the temporary satisfaction of making a big score.
Yes. Rather than jump on someone for asking a question and not knowing what they really want, yes. It's called reading comprehension and lets face it, some people knew that he was asking. So instead of attacking someone right off the bat, why don't you (a general you and a direct you) ask what they really want to know instead of taking things at face value. As far as things being easily obtainable via search, some threads get automatically deleted so they won't come up on a search, and even some long time board members have double posted. So, I see your and raise you
Just a couple of points to keep in mind here. The Gogas(and all Anraku figures) were reasonably priced before the insanity in the aftermarket hit. The Goga being discussed for $200 in that thread is a blank and that was 2007. Anraku (or the person who sells his stuff for him) has steadily increased the retail prices as aftermarket prices have risen. The higher retail prices were an attempt to a) get more money into the creator's hands and b) to take the steam out of the aftermarket. The idea there being that if the buyer has to pay more for the figure they can't mark it up for a huge profit and professional flippers would be less interested. Unfortunately, they underestimated the insanity of the secondary market. Even with the higher retail price, there seems to be no problem doubling the original price in the secondary market. The crazy prices in the secondary market are indeed crazy but that doesn't mean that the retail price wasn't way more than what you have assumed. Even at retail, many Anraku toys make that Nag Zombie seem cheap.
To be honest there's a great deal of pleasure in learning to be more focused, especially when you can choose based on what you believe is the best for you and not on the anxiety to have what is generally considered to be the hottest toy of the moment.
the point is, there is a gorilla-ju thread and a 2-headed bemon thread. the gorilla thread has the retail prices clearly listed for nearly every release, not that hard to find. but whatever, lets just clutter the board with redundancy... nothing new
There are quite a lot of mis-infomation here & there. I think retail prices are no secret. The retail prices of the two figures in the original post are easy to find out as they are recent, so the original post is indeed not doing much homework. The subsequent discussions are quite interesting. The 1st mud green 2head was 12000yen, later most 2heads when sold at cka are 15000yen. as far as i know bounty is the only physical store with bemon at retail now. but it is almost to score at retail as the few they have never make it past insiders. in this hobby, 30 is not too small a run so how can they be all so expensive? the answer is not all are edition of 30 even if they are labelled x/30. i can almost guarantee that mandarake never sold any 2head at retail. the prices listed a few post up are not selling prices from mandarake. those are buying prices. that is if you have a red/orange 2head, you can walk into that mandarake branch and walk out with 120k-yen. these buy in prices vary all the time, according to yja. gorilla-ju was 9000yen until he started selling himself via lottery. AA is more interesting. he stopped japan sales for a long long time now, so there is no japanese retil prices for reference. but the 1st orange goga was all but 7000yen at PS1 many moons ago. vader dako? aurora goga? i think better not know. nobody mentioned nag3, but just to round off the current high value j-vinyl foursome, the nags were 9000yen for the first few releases which were sold at cosmos cafe.
I didn't doubt for a second the retail prices had risen since 2007, as we've seen that take effect in many of the toys we collect. As to the level of the increase, I could only make assumptions, but I'm surprised to hear that Anraku Ansaku has asked for significantly more than $350.00 at retail for anything he's produced. As most have discussed elsewhere, Shigeru seems to put a lot of work into each release, and in the case of the zombie, the second highest asking price at retail for a piece by NagNagNag (if I'm not mistaken), the price seems quite justifiable. I love Anraku Ansaku's work, so no disrespect, but you can't deny the comparison in quality from your best release to that by NagNagNag. By quality, I mean the time and effort that goes into painting each model, not the aesthetic quality. I hope Shigeru doesn't continue to increase his retail price on standard releases, as it hasn't worked for Bemon or AA in taking steam out of the aftermarket. I understand the concept of putting more money into the creator's hands, but in the end it just makes you look greedy in comparison to all the other hard working artists out there who don't follow suit under the same circumstances. I'll admit though, I'm biased in my opinion. I can only see things from the perspective of the collector at this point. I can't say for certain if I'd do the same if I were in their shoes. BTW, thanks for the information Joe! The issue behind the false release numbers seems like an interesting topic.
What do you think was so time consuming on the Nag Zombie? Dotting on the maggots? Making the clothes? Layering the paint applications? Fair enough. What about Anraku releases that also involve cloth accessories? Layered paint apps? Intricate hand cut masking? Vinyl dying? Clearcoat and glitter apps? Hand painted guts? I don't think you can say who has put more effort into a release. I think it really just comes down to if the buyer feels an item is worth the asking price, not an arbitrary standard of "quality". If someone had no interest in the Nag Zombie or any Anraku figures, they would both seem grossly overpriced, regardless of how much time the maker put into them. Just ask my wife.
YES! I've educated my wife and she now understands the amount of work/time that goes into some of these toys. She just doesn't understand why I need so many!
My wife seems to be supportive in every way imaginable, so I guess I'm lucky (?). Although sometimes it's hard to have restraint, when she's in the background telling me she really wants something that I like as well... 2 people that love something, that happens to be expensive, is damning to the pocketbook... God help us if more companies start producing Miniature silver Jewelry based on toys...
