I know a lot of vintage toys and action figures can sometimes become worth a lot of money. I collected a lot of the star wars action figures and never removed them from the boxes when the special edition and Episode I came out. Is there any reason to think these newer star wars figures will ever be worth anything, I kind of doubt it. For one thing I’m betting a lot of people did the same exact thing hoping they would go up in value, compared to vintage figures which I would think maybe less people were doing at the time. So should I give up thinking about ever selling these figures in the future and making a nice profit?
If the world’s supply of those things diminishes over the next, say, twenty to fifty years, then yes, the value ought to go up. If everybody who has them now keeps them (and keeps them in decent condition) the value ought to remain the same or actually decline (especially once inflation is factored in).
From experience I can say that those things that I have kept from earlier years follow the pattern I’m trying to describe. If everybody else kept them, they’re next to worthless beyond whatever intrinsic value they had when I acquired them, and in some cases they’re worth even less than I paid for them (or that whoever gave them to me paid).
The few things I have that have any real resale value are those things that are one of a kind or that everybody else may have trashed long ago.
Prime example: I’m holding on to the Commodore 64 I had in the early 80’s, hoping that someday it will be worth more than the $150-600 they went for back then (mine is of the cheaper group). I even have the peripherals and software and books and magazines and all that stuff to be able to set a new user up with a 1984 version of “home computing.” I suspect anybody who isn’t some kind of nut for things archaic would prefer a computer with more than 64K of memory and 40-character text on the monitor.
Yup. The original Star Wars action figures are worth money because no-one thought they ever would be, so few people stocked up on them and kept them in mint condition and never took them out of their packs. I have a bunch of them, but they’re worth very little because I played with my toys, like a sucker.
Nostalgia sells. You want something that might be valuable someday, figure out what toys and games kids are obsessively into these days and buy and preserve some in perfect condition. Wait 25 years, then sell to those same kids (all grown up and pining for their lost youth).
I don’t know of anyone who is or will be nostalgic for Episode I.
Not meant as a hijack, but just to extend my earlier comments:
Among the real and intentional “toy soldiers” I had as a kid (up to age 10 or so) there were a reasonable number of little plastic babies with moveable arms and legs. They were preferable for their mobility and we would tie little capes on them and make them into whatever superhero we wanted them to be. My brother and I must have had a dozen or so of them to supplement the cowboys, Indians, GI type soldiers, and maybe even some “exotics” like Beefeaters and what have you.
After I was grown with kids of my own I spotted some of those same babies at a flea market or a yard sale and they were going for less than a dollar each. Those we had as kids were maybe a quarter or less. So for whatever reason, even though they may not have been hugely popular for the purposes we put them to, and even though the majority of them belonging to other kids may have been eaten by pets, flushed down the drain or lost under furniture, their resale value hadn’t changed much in the 15-20 years since I was little.
Just a counter-example to your basic question.
Seeing something for a dollar at a yard sale isn’t an indicator of market value.
If a professional toy/ephemera collector was selling it for a dollar, that’s closer to a useful data point.
Quite so. In fact, I just heard a sad story this week where the adult children of an old friend sold her 48-star US flag at a garage sale for less than $5. I’m not sure of its condition, but the old friend had had the flag all her life. It had been her father’s since WWI days and obviously predated Alaska and Hawaii’s statehood in the late 50’s.
Chalk this malfeasance up to ignorant (or mean-spirited) children, not as an indicator of that flag’s worth.
“Well, it can’t be worth anything! It’s missing stars!”
Moved to IMHO.
samclem GQ moderator
Are you kidding?? Jar Jar RULES!
OK, meesa can’t say that with a straight face, either.