Some Observations on an Auction

Last night I misbehaved and allowed myself to participate in an auction the Gnarly Toybox (You should check out this shop as the guy who owns is really cool) was doing via Facebook. In his first set of items he had a vintage Darth Vader costume from Ben Cooper Inc.



I had been wanting to add one of these to my collection for some time, as I remember from my youth as well as it being Star Wars and decided to spoil myself. I won the auction and got a good deal in the end. The picture above are not the one I won, the box is in a lot better shape.

After I won I kept watching to see what else they had and how much everything was going for.

The vintage Star Wars figures did real well and went for about the prices you'd expect. They were obviously still in demand. Most of them I already have, so I was not too interested, even the ones I didn't have are not that hard to find. There was nothing hard to come by for vintage figures.

He also put out some of the 90's Power of the Force figures. Last I knew these figures had been so over produced that no one was interested in them. They were going for next to nothing just a few years ago, so I was expecting little interest in them. I was wrong. Even figures in beat up packaging were going for decent prices. It would seem that there has been a swing in the market for the 90s figures. I do wonder if this is true across other corners of collecting, as the 90s were an era of over production on collectibles that messed up the market. It would be nice to know that collecting is recovering from it all. I had all of those figures, very often in better condition packaging.

What I do know is the one piece I won, the Vader Costume, was the rarest Star Wars piece he put in the auction. And while there was a little bit of bidding on it, it did not get the attention or the bidding wars that some of the other, more common pieces got. 

Once more we can see that rarity in and of itself is not what determines value or demand. The Kenner figures of old are still desirable and now the 90s figures seem to have a demand. The reason for this is fairly obvious, as those are the most known Star Wars collectibles and so are the pieces people think of when they think of collecting Star Wars. Too often with collecting it is the more popular pieces that get the attention and the demand, not the rarer ones.

I've talked before about how I like having unique pieces in my collections, ones that have some interesting story behind them or are oddball pieces that most people would not have in their collections. These often means I do not have the most valuable, in demand pieces. As I do not collect for value, this is not a big deal for me.

I got a piece I wanted for my collection and I am guessing the other auction winners got pieces they wanted and that is what it really is all about in the end. Whatever the reason for people collecting, I just hope they are happy with how their collection grows.

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