Does the word "rare" get thrown around too loosely with vintage Star Wars figures?

When looking at the various types of variants which ones are really the rarest of the rare?

Everyone says Blue Snaggletooth is rare, yet you can't look through a for sale thread without triping over dozens of them.

If we're looking at true Kenner variants, how would you rank them according to rarity?

Loose figures like... DT sabers, VC Jawa, Blue Snaggletooth, Red Bar R5-D4, etc etc.

Depends what you call "Kenner variants" Some foreign ones (Takara, Ledy, PBP etc. ) are not available to purchase every month.

Those are the ones I'm trying to exclude from this list.... Uzay, Meccano, Tol-Toys, Ledy, Takara, etc...

... and no unproduced items either. Don't need to add first shots and hard copies to the list.

kenner variants aren't really what id call rare in almost any case maybe with the exception of a few...
1. orange hair luke farmboy
and the dt vader and ben

I don't really know what your getting at using kenner as an example .. we all know some of the rarest figures are foreign .. off the top of my head I can name tons but is that what your looking for ??

Was using Kenner as a way to try to draw a distinction from the foreign ones.

For example I don't think anyone calls the Jawa with the Removable hood a Kenner Jawa... it's a Ledy. And even though he's from the Droids line, Vlix is a Glassite figure because the molds were never used by Kenner.

I'm talking Kenner label, produced and sold in stores, actually had a chance to purchase (even if that window was small).

So yes... Luke DT saber would be on the list. But as far as rarity... hes not as rare as the Vader and Kenobi DT Sabers.

Hmmm, so I'll keep away from all the Euro stuff...

Barada (84 coo)
R2-D2 (solid dome 78 coo)
Luke Farmboy (Orange Hair)
C-3PO (removable limbs/scarred coo like LL)
Ben Kenobi (DT saber)
Darth Vader (DT saber)

walkie wrote:

Hmmm, so I'll keep away from all the Euro stuff...

Barada (84 coo)
R2-D2 (solid dome 78 coo)
Luke Farmboy (Orange Hair)
C-3PO (removable limbs/scarred coo like LL)
Ben Kenobi (DT saber)
Darth Vader (DT saber)

Thanks!

While I'm not even familiar with some of those variants even existing (Barada variant) ... that's the type of answer I was looking for.

Time to look them up.

I'd add into the mix a "red bar" R5-D4 and maybe a "hollow-cheeks" tusken raider.

No doubt those 2 as well.

I'd argue that Hollow cheeks is probably less rare than the others mentioned.

Red Bar R5-D4s never seem to pop up anywhere.

I brought this up bc I had seen a few "Top 10" type lists of the "rarest" Star Wars figures. But those weren't made by credible sources.

So if we were to make a list...

How would you rank them???


1. Vader DT saber
2. Kenobi DT Saber
3. Vinyl Cape Jawa
4. Luke DT saber
????

Where would the rest fall?
- Blue Snag
- Red Bar R5-D4
- Hollow cheeks Tusken raider
- Barada (84 coo)
- R2-D2 (solid dome 78 coo)
- Luke Farmboy (Orange Hair)
- C-3PO (removable limbs/scarred coo like LL)

Any others to add?

VCJ...rare? Not really as they can be purchased any day of the week imo.

walkie wrote:

VCJ...rare? Not really as they can be purchased any day of the week imo.

See, that's the kind of feed back that I'm looking for.

While they for sure aren't as common as the clothed type... they definitely don't seem to be as rare as other variants listed... as you mentioned they are fairly easy to find for sale.

I know what I had my VCJ isted on ebay over the last month it was just one of many available for purchase.

I think it's safe to say that market value doesn't necessarily correlate with rarity.

In my opinion there are a few factors that mix together about "rarity" and associated pricing to give the reality of the situation:

1) Genuine rarity -- there are only a few hundred (or thousand etc) of something in the world
2) Perceived rarity -- people think something is rare but it actually isn't
3) Popularity -- makes something expensive because everyone wants it but may not be that rare at all
4) Buying opportunities -- how often do you get a chance to buy it

So some examples to put all that together:

Yak Face: there is no way this figure is rare, but it's consistently one on the most expensive figures out there, and people pay it. It's perceived as rare because it was never released in stores in the US. Rest of the world had mountains of them. So it's popular, perceived as rare but there are many buying opportunities every week. It's the most confused situation out there. The market should crash on Yak Face figures but it never does.

Tri-logo MOC Bobafett. Perceived as rare because there are so few buying opportunities out there. But by all accounts, there are many locked away in collections right now. So in 2016 this is rare cause there are few buying opportunities, but 20 years ago probably not so much. And may not be rare in the future if all owners suddenly offered them for sale at once.

DT Ben/Vader are true rare items in my opinion. Rarely come up for public sale - no buying opportunies. They were discontinued very early so a true production limited run - genuinely rare. They are also very popular so very expensive when they do come up.

Some COO variants are probably genuinely rare ('84 Barada) but they just aren't popular. Few buying opportunities, but when they do come up they are relatively un-contested (most people don't care). It's the opposite extreme to DT figures.