So I just finished a PM session with another member here asking what his thoughts were on a fair price for a specific figure since he had a focus on it.
His reply gave me a range that I was thinking, but he had a little word in it that made me stop and think on things.
Complete.

That word makes me really think about valuation on a given figure.
Any figure can fall into this really - well, if they had an accessory and/or weapon of course.

So, here is my question, what do you value a figure on?

I have two main character foci.
Leis Bespin and Luke Farmboy.
Both pose similar problems when adding the word "Complete".
Luke's lightsaber is tough since the tip constantly breaks.
Leia has a tiny blaster that gets lost and a cape that suffers from rips, tears, fading and pattern loss.
Both figures "complete" and in good shape make the challenge a bit harder at times.

But when I stopped to think about what I consider a fair value for a figure, I realized my numbers were/are off a bit.

This is an example that I am thinking of... I am NOT talking about anything rare nor exotic. Just run of the mill, common variations.

SO.....
A Luke Farmboy in good shape, complete, to me is somewhere between 25-30 dollars US.
However, I would pay up to 20 dollars US for a complete saber all by itself to complete a figure. That leaves the figure all alone at 5-10 dollars. ???!???!??!?

A Leia in Bespin Gown I woud say in good shape, complete, is 25-30 as well.
However, I would pay 15$ for a blaster and $10 (about) for a cape.
Again, that leaves  about 0!!!!-5$ for the figure itself. ???!???!??!?

Hrrrmmmm.....

But I would pay 15-20 dollars or perhaps more for either figure ALONE (if they fit my needs) and if they are in great shape if they come with no accessories nor weapons. What does this mean?

So, am I undervaluing a figure itself when it is complete?
Or do I expect a better deal when figures are sold as complete?
That actually seems backwards to me. If the figure is all original and never left it's original accessories or weapons, shouldn't that actually be valued higher?
Or if someone pieced together a complete figure with all original accessories, shouldn't that command a premium as well?

This just popped in my head over the past few days and I have only really started thinking heavily on it since then.

Are the prices really dictated by 'completeness' or are they truly dictated by the accessories and weapons?
The latter would explain some of the higher prices on complete figures from certain sellers that may already have figured that out.

I have done very well with good deals on complete figures in good to great condition from time to time.
However, I have spent way too much time and money trying to complete figures.

I am curious if you think this is normal or just a trend or am I just realizing the obvious that good deals can be had and my desired price range on a figure is low or my thoughts on accessories and weapon prices are way too high and ebay is the root of all evil?

OK... flame on!

cheers!

Yep, sum of the parts is 'always' greater than the whole. Hence why 'sellers' will often break a vehicle into all it's parts to get more money.
Poor example but a new car would cost 7 times the drive away price if you were to buy all the parts separately (and that doesn't include labour to put it all together)

Complete and with correct accesories is a big contributor to the value of a figure for me.
There is also a comfort knowing that the accesories with the figure are the actual accesories it left the factory with and was not a figure put together by finding and adding the missing parts. When talking CoO variant collecting, the correct accesories to that variant is also a big contributor to value.
There are enough complete with correct accesories figures, in super condition, with great paint, out there for reasonable prices.
But having those individual accesories for sale as parts is also a good thing if you need to up grade a part.

This is something I have always had problems with and why Ebay used to be my selected method of sales. I have always been concerned putting buy it now prices on figures as their valuation can be a difficult process taking all of the aforementioned information into account.

I have noticed that buying a complete figure is often the cheaper alternative than buying just a part or weapon. Having said that, sometimes the postage is the deal maker or breaker on a complete vs just a part. It is starting to look like the actual figure in many cases has little value in comparison to the bits and pieces !

Who is the chief valuation dude in here :scratch: 

AJ ... I always like your values for buying

Complete figures are for some reason cheaper to get hold of than one made up of separate bought parts.

For example on UK ebay if you take the Leia Endor Poncho figure:

Figure £2-3
Poncho £5-6
Belt £5-6
Weapon £6-7
Helmet £4-5

Total Minimum of £22 if your lucky.

Don't think I've ever seen a complete Leia Poncho sell for more than £12-£15.

It may be because the majority of new collectors buy joblots of figures, and then need to buy guns and accessories for them. In turn making competition and demand for parts higher and pushing prices up.

I think personally thats collecting. It doesn't matter complete, incomplete, loose, carded and or variations prices will fluctuate for whatever reason. If lets say a new variant is discovered in the original line that figures worth will rise temporarily. People would be buying that particular figure up trying to find it that would be an awful day when the average price for a bespin gaurd skyrockets :-$(Just as an example). As a collector we'll pay whatever it takes to get the piece we're looking for. Just my thought.

My advice to new collectors is always "buy complete figures or you Will buy them again"

Although there is no shortage of vintage accessories, the amount of loose incomplete figures far out number them. We all know the urge to buy that incomplete figure which you've been searching for is too strong (for most of us).

I been quiet lucky this year having found several rare accessories, including a bag for my lili ledy removable limbs C-3PO, a belt for my top toys yoda and most recently a metallic blue bespin blaster.

Some personnel examples...

Once I was quoted 200 euros for a glasslite chewbacca rifle, ouch!, now if you've been watching ebay recently there has been 3 glasslite droids figures with this rifle which have only fetched 45 euros each, I was even luckier and only paid 11 euros!!

Buying my lili ledy C-3PO & bag seperately netted me this complete figure for only 85 euros, not bad when you could easily pay 300+ for a complete one.

My advise....I wouldn't say stay away from incomplete figures altogether, i'd say treat them as fillers until a complete figure or accessory comes along and expect to dish out that cash on an upgrade.

The search becomes very painful at times as we all know .... took me nearly 3 years to find a Takara R2D2 arm, so you can have a win here and there!

Then there is the repros, you buy a complete figure and realize some accessories are repro. Buying another figure still also leaves one figure incomplete. Or you could buy the accessory that you are looking for, specific variant with a good picture showing it's original, and pay a bit more. Pretty much more in leia bespins case. Many times on complete figure auctions the accessories are not shown that well.