Wish I had extra money to spend on all the cool stuff that's being going up on the sell forum. There has been no real break since last year. New releases are relentless.
I noticed that too . . . I know it's not the cool rare shit but shifting RxH is harder than anticipated! . . . and your red Skullwing still sat there is kinda bizzare . . . maybe after the next one gets released interest will get going again!
I'm going with the ol dispensable collection theory. So many just buy and buy without any thought. When they get tired and find the new "it" item they try to sell as fast as possible to recoup. When they don't get what they want they reduce the price very fast in a panic. This is what Ramos hated and was most concerned about. Now this is not for all the sales threads just 90% of them.
Yep I think RIch pretty much nailed it. But to be fair, I think a lot of us have cast wide nets at some point or another and then decided to cut some of the catch loose after deciding on a focus. And sometimes I'll try this or that on and see how it fits. Sometimes it does, but not always. Just part of the hobby. Anyway I prefer contacting people privately to set up trades, offer stuff I know they're after, etc. Either that or I wait until I have a little bundle in the out box, and start a sale thread every couple of months or so. So play nice, ya'll, and remember Lady Karma. A lot of the best action goes in behind the scenes.
I do the same thing. Most of the stuff that I've acquired recently has been from the same group of friends that I know would want the item I'm offering, or have something I might be interested in. Personally, I think it's disturbing how if nobody gets bites on items they immediately drop the price to some insanely low amount. Most of the unpainted rxh stuff I got rid of had to be sold for way less than I paid for it because for some reason, paying retail on the secondary market seems to be some scoffed at idea. Conversely, I have had some lovely scores on yja over the past two months ( a heater for 4000 yen, the daikaiju monster sets for 3500 yen each!) Thankfully, I'm super focused now due to a disturbing budget plan I've put in place for myself and I'm paying for classes(graduation in the summer!) so not too much stuff will be leaving or going in to my collection. If it's any consolation Donnie, I haven't received one email regarding the two bemons I have up for trade right now. Weird is right, but I'll be damned if I give those away.
if i had something to trade for bemons, i totally would, atease! the consequences of focusing and buying quirky things that aren't trendy are trades later or off-loading them if you need to for some reason. tiger mask and dadas just don't move like rxh or some other figure du jour
There are probably alot of people coming to the realization that there is too much to collect out there right now. A few releases a month used to be the norm. Now it's about a dozen or more per month. I imagine more people are figuring out the hard way they can't have everything and are purging their collection of the 'oddball' pieces. Some may be selling everything by a particular company b/c they are completists at heart & have realized the futility of this when 6 new figures from that company are coming out every month. This trend will most likely continue, especially now that production of figures is increasing even more due to wider distribution. (The old supply & demand thing.) The upside is that those who collect for enjoyment (rather than those who treat this as 'investments') can more easily pick up older pieces at a sane prices.
I know I'm tapped right now. Not including the holidays, I've gotten some really good deals and bought lots of stuff lately. I know that if I could sell some of my western stuff, I would be buying more, but I'm also trying to save enough for an xbox 360 and a new compressor/airbrush setup. But at the same time, I'm not one of those people who drops prices waaay down just because it's not selling. If it doesn't sell, I keep it, unless I REALLY want to get rid of it...
I agree with Data. I think that some people buy sell buy sell buy sell. If you look at the sales thread recently some people are up there every week. And then the prices go down because of it. Doesnt happen all the time but seems like a trend.. Also I agree with Andy..I search the wants when I can and prefer to do some of it behind the scenes...i purchased some great items from people that way.
i'm at the point where i'm out of shelf space and alot of stuff goes into a huge box when it comes in. this stuff is too expensive for me to do that, so i have to sell once in awhile and try really hard to focus my collection (thank GOD this stuff doesn't have enormous boxes like western vinyl) that being said... i refuse to post my toys for sale below retail price (well maybe i'd take a little hit due to shipping costs), as i'd rather save it and maybe paint it later, or put it on display rotation
Personally, I'm on a budget. I have to stay focused and pass on the things that mildly interest me, so that when S7 gets in stuff like M1 Hipporitos and Jet Jaguars, I'm not screwed.
Getting focused is the hardest part about this hobby, so much cool shit. It can take a few months, and for some longer, to get a hang of how to handle it. I mean I started going for Balzac and SB stuff when I started, now I own almost none. Not that I dislike it, but next to some other things I didn't like them AS much. Another thing is, is if you don't live in NY or SF or somewhere you can go to the store and SEE these things straight up, it can be tough. A lot of folks don't get the full connection until it's in hand. Or sometimes the reverse, you think pics are amazing, get it and are underwhelmed. Anyway, yeah the I think a combo of holidays, multiple awesome releases from a number of companies and re-focusing all contribute to the recent "sell off."
Sort of crazy this topic has come up. But I think it is other "real life" problems too. For example I desperately need to buy a car.. So I may have to make some very difficult decisions very soon.
I'm giving the CCs a breather myself. It works out for me since I'm getting busier these days with ironically enough, making toys. There are alot of releases and I don't see it going down anytime soon. It will take a deciplined collector to pick and choose carefully to avaoid over spending. I don't have a focused collection. I like to venture out once in a while to purchase a truly great toy from a company I don't usually follow. I'm also not a completist and this compliments my style of collecting. Mark Nagata said in a video something like,, In this business the survivors are the ones who are on top of thier game. One can no longer release "crap on a stick" and expect it to sell. If this is true and I think it is then the collectors come out on top. Natural selection will weed out the companies that don't deliver and hopefully will cut down releases to a manageable number.
Alot of people are hungover from 2007? I thought 2007 was a manageable year for the most part. I was expecting a huge flood of toys yet I was able to pick up most of what I wanted and not feel overwhelmed. I felt that I was able to make solid pickups that I really like and won't part with. I've been picking up some good deals in the BST section, but using judgement and not going crazy. Same goes for the retail market going into 2008. Careful decisions based on what I really like and not following others. Every so often I look at what I have, and try to decide what I could prune and get rid of. Everything looks solid for the most part. I have 5-6 dups that I need to get rid of at some stage, but that's it. I have no ridiculous credit card bills or running up debt so I feel comfortable with where I am.
I've found that I have more of a personal connection to toys that have been Hand Painted by an artist. The other stuff I sometimes get bored of and don't mind selling. Probably because I know I can rebuy most things in the future, except rarer stuff. Well I've reached the point where I don't want to own anything I'm not planning on keeping for a long time. So I've been spending more on custom paint job pieces and less on production releases. The low prices in sales are tempting, but if I'm just going to re-sell or trade it later--what's the point in buying? the opposite of flipping is ditching. ditching older toys to fund new toys is boring.
u can say it's lame to "dump" toys out of necessity, but i think it's hard if u really like this stuff and want to collect it... and it costs $60+ for a hit (that's alot of money to alot of people! - it's also not going down. SB and gargamel mini figs used to be considerably cheaper at retail. and stuff like large galtans are $100+. i'm sure if these toys were $15 a pop, we'd all have alot more) you also can't preach "slow and steady" anymore when sclupts like the Chaos are released fast and rapid and sells out instantly (and most of the time, you have to pay out the ass if you want it later). I'm thinking alot of people want to get each Chaos that comes out... then they want to branch out to other figures because they think the look cool, next thing they know... they're in over their heads. Buy a few chaos and and a couple of other things and you're already out a month's salary (it's not hard to do) Hopefully this S7 distribution network thingy will organize releases better and help collectors make better decisions. I don't think it's people being impatient... they're just being rushed.
I decided several months ago that I don't want to be cool. I want what I want, what will look good with my existing collection, what inspires me or makes me smile. I passed on a couple of beautiful Chaos recently not because there's anything uncool about them, but with budget in mind, because I really wanted the comparatively uncool Bero Bero and Marmit Doguu, and to finish the recent Gargamel x Yamanaya set. Much happier having what I know I want instead of what I'm obligated to want as an RxH collector. The nice part is that it's far less likely that I'll ever resell stuff this way. I don't know, but when I see relatively new names here selling off a bunch of stuff that was only released in the past few months, it really looks like they haven't found their way yet, or overspent and came to regret it. Everyone finds their way given a little trial and error, I think.
