I know there's a price check thread, but I thought this could stand alone, and I didn't think it fit in the buy/sell/trade forum. But I have a habit of missing information and asking questions that have already been answered. A search didn't show me a topic with this kind of information, but accept my apologies if I missed something.

So, I've been in the vintage game for about 4 months now, and I've learned a lot in a short period of time. But, I've made a lot of mistakes. Some kind of pricey mistakes. I know one of the single most consistent pieces of advice is to be patient, that things always come back around (Always? I'm looking at DT Darth Vader, whom I can never afford), but that's a challenge for me. My collection blew up pretty quick because I was willing to spend money, maybe foolishly, to get what I wanted. I'm just over 50 figures, including variants, 3 playsets, and 3 vehicles. And how much I've spent? Well into 4 digits. Anyway, even after all this, I still wonder how seasoned veterans determine good prices, and how do you handle selling to maximize your ROI? I've sold a few figures that I picked up extras of for various reasons, never really getting out what I put into them. I use Star Wars Tracker to gauge market values, though I've come to find it is not completely reliable. That's not a criticism. What it attempts to do with automation is really, really challenging.

Anyway, what are the tips, tricks, ins and outs that the "old-timers" here use when shopping for a figure or selling a figure? I mean, value is arbitrary. These figures are worth what people are willing to pay. Period. So, how do you calculate a base price to guide yourself in the murky waters of collecting some of the most sought after vintage toys in the world?

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said patience is a Star Wars Collectr’s biggest virtue. If you’re not patient and you’ve got money to burn you’ll spend more. When I was looking for a mint Bossk to upgrade my collection I paid £14.99 for one and wasn’t happy with it. I picked up a near mint one in the end almost by accident for £3.99 when I was looking for something else.

I don’t know if there’s a thread on here but on the Star Wars Forum there’s an annual thread where the guys set out their goals for the year and only a small percentage of the guys manage to tick them all off. There are some rare items out there and it’s an expensive hobby so it pays to take your time and make sure you’re 100% happy with your acquisitions. I don’t know about the rest of you but there’s something extremely satisfying about picking up something special at a great price.

First to address Jabbawookie; Yes, we have a yearly goal thread. Many of the goals for most of those who have been around for a while are really rare one off type pieces so sometimes many years pass before a goal is achieved once you get to that level.


As far as how to address this question for values. I use ebay ended auctions which allows you to see the range of actual current pricing in the moment. Of course sometimes there is an outlier or two that you have to throw out on both the low and high end.

Patience is a huge factor that will help. The "have to have it now" mentality is costly for the speed.  Believe me, in the mainstream of the regular kenner figures there are enough around that you will eventually run into a decent bargain.  The potf figures are demanding premiums now but still might find some worth the money here ad there.

Another thing is completeness. Buying a figure and weapon separate will often times cost you more than buying the figure complete to start with. Sometimes double if your really not paying attention. I would rather buy a lesser condition complete figure than a high condition figure by itself because often the weapons alone these days bring more money.  

Outside of completeness is bulk buying. Often times if you take the lot you save the seller the hassle of breaking it all down individually and they will give a better deal in that case.  Again you want to know market prices so ebay would be good to look at the individuals and then add them as a whole to see I your really saving.  It used to be you could buy a collection and pull the quality pieces and recoup the money for the lot then shift the rest at lower pricing and make even more profit but now days many know about star wars and the value of older toys so it I harder now than it used to be.

Lastly, and this is another biggie if not the biggest factor I can think of, make connections. Forums used to be the happening place but now facebook is taking more traffic (though forums seem to still be doing ok); whichever platform your on though a real connection with fellow collectors is important.  Even more so when you reach those levels I referred to in the first sentence. One off pieces trade hands behind closed doors and often never see the light of public eye.  The same holds true for rarer pieces also. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several transactions I know of where really rare items moved and shuffled and it was never public or if it was it was very quietly public so it went basically before anyone knew.