Hi Guys

Over the last year have been thinking about if the collecting is on retreat . A lot of people are selling up their collections .
And a lot of the stuff never gets sold . It is mostly on RS i have been seeing this .

I have and idea about that the prices have been to high for a long time and like in the rest of the world people have stopped up at thought about tings . Like is this way to pricey etc.

What do you guys think ?

Best Soren

The economy and job situation isn't helping any. And consumer confidence is low right now. When you're not sure if you'll have a job next month, it's hard to throw down cash on a toy.

Hi Soren,

Agree with what Andy is saying really.
Added to that I think summer holidays and the start of the school year is a slow time for sales too.
But last year from around October right up to Christmas time, just on TIG alone, there was an incredible amount of stuff bought!
Be interesting to see if that can be repeated for the remainder of this year.

Totally agree with Andy and Paul on this. Its the state of the economy thats got most in a buying slump right now. It has for me anyway. Im still picking up a piece here and there when I got the extra to spend after bills. But as far as dropping like I use to, I dont see it happening any time soon unless I find something to bring some real cash flowing in. Its just with the economy the way it is, most are putting other prioritys first then the collection afterwards.

I totally agree as with you for the bad economical situation we are living now guys!

But I think there is another very important issue: the re-production of vintage stuff by the toy company has also broken the vintage market. Previously you could save a certain amount of money that you know you would spent on vintage only. Now it is quite more difficult: there are too many new exciting stuff being produced ! A few examples: Star Wars Lego, 1/6 Sideshow Collectibles and 3 3/4 Star Wars action figures, Resin figures, Kits, "Special Editions", and sometimes exact copies of our vintage toys...etc...

I am not complaining! I just LOVE those new toys but since money is not elastic, the money you previously used before for buying vintage is being used for these new toys as well and this also
put vintage on retreat. Well this at least what I presonnally notioced for myself.

Hope you understand what I meant.

Best

Alex

Great to to get some feedback from you guys .

I must agre with you guys that the economical situation is very much part of it .

And Alex you might be right . Kids that don't grew up with this stuff might want more cool stuff . Some of the new stuff are very cool . But i stick to vintage :-)

It will continue to go both ways..
What I am saying all collectable toys have a peak and then begin to decline for the simple fact that no one can take them with em..
Yes ST is a Huge franchise that takes a 25 year time span- but-
if I compare SW to Vintage Gi Joes, 1966-1975 era the Prices are now very low. bottomed for early and up a little higher for the Adventure team era.
Take a look at Tonka trucks 50-'s 60's prices bottomed out where just 15-20 years ago they were top $$ items.
Yes the economy is obviously a factor. but the future looks to trend downwards. or at least remain static without high increases.

this will happen to SW as most collectors have all they want- and are aging into the retirement- or cleaning the nest period of life.

so expect some rare items to increase- but overall SW to continue to decline in value- unless the
newer E1 E2 E3 Generation comes in to collect- I doubt, they will to much anyways.. the new figures and figure lines are too cool and readily available.
Also none of these Carded bubbles were ever designed to last for 50-60 years- and I Can guarantee you
many will begin to just crack off I quit collecting MOC quite a few yeas ago fearing they will be worthless in the future.

I have been buying and selling toys for over 25 years. here in Mpls. and this is my experience.

Well I only see the prices is going up and up so I don't think they are on any retreat.

i dont think vintage collecting will go away..people will always sell their stuff because they need money or other reasons.

for me the new vintage collection got me back into collecting...i dabbed a bit in the potf2 when it came out because these were the only star wars toys coming out.

i always wanted to have the vintage stuff but never seem to be able to get into it. But recently i decided to turn my old comics into star wars toys, so i am selling my comics on eBay and turning them into the vintage toys or other star wars stuff i always wanted but could not get when i was a young boy.

I am also collecting the new vintage stuff from Kenner but i am somewhat upset about this because the waves are super slow to get to us and it makes it hard to collect them but while i wait, i fell knee deep into the classic vintage stuff and i am loving it a lot. selling my stuff on eBay is the only way to help me buy my star wars stuff because otherwise i could not do it taking money from my regular pay, i agree with people that times are hard too so that does not help.

cheers!

I think the bad economy and lack of jobs right now with factories and plants closing all over the world (for example - Nokia just closed a factory/plant close to us in Romania meaning over three thousand people will lose their jobs) is definitely playing a part in peoples spending habits. I don't think Star Wars and the interest in Vintage collectables is dying at all, I just think people are being cautious with what they are spending.

Those that have no money worries are continuing to spend as people sell off in order to fund "life" and are in fact probably, there was a recent Palitoy store display that sold for a fair few thousand pounds in the UK, people are buying like mad on the forums and ebay IF they can afford to. The good thing about these "dark times" is that we all see a lot of high quality and rare items arriving on the market as people sell up and refocus.