97% complete MOSC 25th Anniversary Set

[Ren]

Gentlemen,

 

My company might be relocating me in the next year to Hawaii, and looking around I decided that the 25th stuff is taking up way to much space. I prefer the original 82-94 Joes I grew up with in the first place(First Joe ever? Breaker, from a drugstore back in late '82). I enjoyed hunting for the 25th stuff , they looked great side by side on an entire wall, but I'm considering selling them and buying a nice trophy playset in return, I can think of two problems selling them as a complete set.. First, shipping would be astronomical, size of kitchen stove, not even counting the vehicles. Second, most hardcore collectors already have the 25th figures they need, why buy an entire collection? Selling them individually would be a loss as well, army builders might do alright, but sickly green Zartan? Anyways, just wondering what your thoughts are. Some crown jewels include Yellow Stalker, couple PDD's, convention CC, all the 25th Target Exclusives, last DVD set (loose), plus almost a double set of 25th figs loose, complete, Notables missing are the last series Blowtorch and Firefly, Rowdy Roddy, Sgt. Slaughter and a few of the really lame comic packs (I'm looking at you Deep-Six)

 

Would it be worth setting up a booth at the convention? ...... (Think I could recoup the expense, and survive not buying out another vendor and having a long walk home?)

Maybe take them to the convention and walk out with a decent trade?

 

Considering selling all my DCUC stuff off too, but I know the majority of 'em will be pennies on the dollar.

[jjlecaros]

moc or loose?

[Flounnderr]

Gentlemen,

 

First, shipping would be astronomical, size of kitchen stove, not even counting the vehicles. Second, most hardcore collectors already have the 25th figures they need, why buy an entire collection? Selling them individually would be a loss as well,

 

 

Considering selling all my DCUC stuff off too, but I know the majority of 'em will be pennies on the dollar.

 

So not to ruin the golden goose of selling but, just so you know... selling individually will get you the highest return and possibly make you profit. While the sucky figure may sell for less than you bought, the htf figures will more than make up for your loss. Vehicles are always in high demand and most will sell minimum 10.00 (smaller ones maybe 5). Shipping will not be a factor because the buyer will cover it, and it won't be that much individually.

 

The only downside is that it will take time to move everything, and time to package everything.

regards

the champ

[Goldbug]

Sell them individually.

Sell the leftovers in a set.

[Crimson Twins]

Bring them with you to Hawaii, and sell them to me. At least the leftover stuff. I'd handle picking them up. =)

 

But seriously. You'll find once you get to Hawaii, that finding Joes is a bit of a chore, and your collection would actually sell pretty well there on the second hand market. A place called Jellies is big on Joes. They'd love a chance to mark up prices on whatever they get from you.

 

And like I said, the stuff you can't get rid of, I'd love to have a chance to pick through. Some stuff just never made it to Hawaii, or the quantities were so limited that I missed them. Even easy to find stuff like the Matt Tracker, EEL, and Zartan that made the rounds to all the dollar general type store. Well, there's no stores like that in Hawaii, so it never made it there. Sad face for me.

[Dake]

I was just going to suggest ^this^.

 

If your company is relocating you, I assume they are paying moving costs? Let them foot the bill to ship everything and then you can sell off stuff over there that they have a hard time getting. The added bonus being it would be a great way to get connected into the local collecting community pretty quickly.

 

In the end, selling individually will get you the most for your collection - it just takes more time to do.

[JoeRhyno]

I just did a huge toy show and me and my friend we selling the last of our 25th joes and we had $4 each on them and only sold a couple and one guy ended up buying the rest of them for about $3.50 a figure... I wouldn't count on getting a table at a convention, unless you have more to sell cause you'd have to sell everything to really make anything, plus convention tables are pretty pricey, heck the lil' booths we had at our show were $60 a table... last I checked, one con table was $1200... um, no thanks.

 

 

 

I agree with what was said, you'll be better off selling them individually at first, then maybe to get rid of some of the stragglers, sell them in lots. Try message boards first, so you don't have to deal with ebay fees

[Devilbat]

Ren...I sold my first two (!) 25th Anniversary collections, and I regretted it terribly. Thankfully I got a third chance when Hasbro decided to re-release many of the older figures, along with the more recent waves, on those plain-jane white-border cardbacks. Now I wasn't able to recover every single figure I had, but I now have a pretty nice albeit incomplete G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary collection.

 

If this is an unfortunate, absolutely have-to case, then yeah, I'd sell them individually to maximize my profit, like others have said. But you've stated your company might relocate you, so it's not a definite thing, if that's the reason your selling. If this is just a feeling you have, like you're tired of looking at them or you just want to sell them to buy something else, like I have so many times in the past, then wait a while and sleep on it a few days. If you're like me, there'll come a day when you realize why you bought them in the first place, and you'll regret your decision to sell them and want them back. But in some cases, like those exclusives, it will be too late to get them for a reasonable price, and you'll end up spending two and three, maybe even four times what you originally spent to get them back.

 

I'm just going on what I experienced. For me, in the beginning, the 25th Anniversary was terribly exciting. It was a new chance to own at least a copy of some figures I grew up with, and for me, part of the fun was collecting them in the new, retro-styled packaging. I ordered cases and found them in stores, ensuring I had figures on absolute mint cardbacks. Then I sold them. I regretted it some time later and bought a few more cases. Then I sold that collection. And like you Ren I had convinced myself that these were not the Joes I grew up with, so I could live without them. Now my employer was not relocating me; my dilemma was I decided that I couldn't afford other things I wanted unless I sold some stuff I already had. But I have learned, the really hard way, that I had bought these things for a reason, that they at least represented the toys and memories I had as a kid, and that they were reminders of all the times I read the comics, watched the cartoon, or played with my originals in my bedroom floor. It didn't matter that they were not originals; they were great reminders of a fun time in my life. In fact some of these newer figures were even better than their original counterparts (I'm looking at you, Snow Job and Torpedo...). Heck, Hasbro even threw me a few curve balls by releasing cool "should-have-been" figures like Arctic Snake Eyes, not to mention the surreal Matt Trakker that would have blown my twelve-year-old mind. (lol)

 

I'm tellin' ya Ren...unless you need to feed your family or pay for an operation or something really important, don't sell your figures. You'll only end up regretting it later, like I did. You don't acquire a collection that big on a whim. There's probably some deep-rooted feelings of love and nostalgia if you went through the trouble to get all the ones you did. If you're needing to buy something else you want, just save your money. If you wait and save your money, whatever it is you want will still be out there to be had, and you'll still have your Joes. But that's assuming of me; that may not be the case with you. I just know that in my experience there would be times that I thought I needed to downsize and simplify my collection(s), or I thought I needed to rob Peter to pay Paul so to speak to buy something I wanted, and usually it's a feeling that will pass after a few days, or even hours, if I really thought it through.

 

In the end, for me I decided that the 25th Anniversary Collection was a limited opportunity to ensure I got some cool retro Joes in mint, classic packaging, and that chance may never come around again. And if I was the G.I. Joe fan I'd always considered myself to be, I'd be kicking myself for the rest of my life if I missed that opportunity. Maybe Hasbro will do 30th, 40th, or even 50th Anniversary figures. Heck...they might even do original vintage sculpts again someday. But maybe they won't.

 

Bottom line, don't sell your figures unless you absolutely have to. If it's just a feeling that you need a change, then that will pass. Just box them up and focus on something else for awhile. That way, if those old feelings come back and you want to pull them back out and reminisce, they'll always be there when you want them. That's what I do, and I'm a much happier collector. And I'm like you in that I don't have a lot of room to display everything I'd like to. I have everything boxed up and I just pull it out every now and then. I might even display a few key pieces from time to time and then put them back away when I "get tired" of them. But you do what you feel is right of course, to paraphrase the wise and venerable Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[Ren]

Good points, thanks for the input everybody. Devilbat, I remember your trials and tribulations regarding selling figures. But I would reinvest the cash in my collection, and concentrate the profit into a real nice, albeit smaller showpiece. Joe, 12oo bucks a table? Sheesh, pass big time. Dake and Crimson Twins, a lot of mainland collectors would balk at Hawaiian shipping cost. Crimson, If I move I'm calling you up real quick, would be nice to see a friendly face. Goldbug and Flounnder, as painful and tedious as it is, your advice makes perfect sense. That's the route I'm gonna go. jjlecarlos, MOC, mostly.

[Crimson Twins]

Well, the shipping costs aren't too crazy if you sell them in smaller lots. Trying to sell the entire lot would be a huge shipping cost regardless of where you were shipping from.

 

Looking forward to seeing another TNI collector in the Aloha state. I won't be back there until the early part of next year, but I'll look you up when I get home if you did end up moving to Hawaii.

[DarthJoe]

Sell them individually.

Sell the leftovers in a set.

 

This is the route I'd take.