Army Building and Focus Collecting Friend or Foe?

A

Andyh1976

Padawan
Joined
May 4, 2018
Messages
31
Location
York
Hi all,

As a relatively new collector (since 2016) I find myself considering this question a lot. I'm an avid follower of the Vintage Rebellion and Chive Cast podcasts and love watching you tube videos of other collectors fantastic collections. But when I see hundreds and hundreds of one figure or MOC being hoovered up and added to these vast collections, I ask myself is this really good for the hobby?
My ultimate aim is to have one example of each figure loose, and hopefully a carded example of any sort for each figure. Are army builders and focus collectors driving up prices? Do people really need hundreds of one figure? I don't want to step on anyone's toes but perhaps it may be worth stopping and thinking, do I need my 200th Akbar or Squidhead, or could I just possibly leave it for someone else to collect?
 
I love army building, focus collecting is a natural progression. As for driving up prices, all popular characters are more expensive. There is plenty enough to go around for everyone! :lol:
 
Kenner made over 300 million figures during the lifetime of the run (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenner_Star_Wars_action_figures). Army builder collectors won't make a serious dent in that total, and focus collectors and variant collectors not at all. None of those groups accounts for a significant percentage of collectors as a whole, nor their figure collections for a significant percentage of that 300 million total. That's like blaming squirrels for the shortage of oak trees because they eat acorns. They do eat them, just a minuscule proportion of the total produced by oak trees each year.

The same might not be able to be said for MOC focus collectors because MOC's have (obviously) always been far, far rarer than loose figures because most kids opened them :). The Boba Fett tax is legendary because he is a very popular character and a relatively disproportionate number of collectors have a Fett MOC focus, and that naturally can only ever drive up prices as always happens in any supply and demand situation. I do not own a genuine Fett MOC, but I'm not (and I'm not suggesting that you are either) going to moan about it, because it's a free world and no laws are being broken and no-one's arm is being twisted into buying this stuff. It's very much a luxury purchase, and if some collectors want to focus on collecting the more popular characters, that's completely understandable and entirely predictable.

What is certainly true is that as the children of the 70's and 80's have grown older and older, more and more of them want to recapture their childhoods through the vintage Star Wars toys they owned as kids (and those toys they never had! :-D), just like their fathers did by collecting Dinky, Corgi and Hornby, etc. The rarer figures (i.e. the ones produced in the lowest numbers like the last 15 / 17 produced, or early figures subject to running changes like the vinyl Jawa and blue Snaggletooth) have always been precisely that; rarer, and consequently more expensive to buy than the average figure. That's always been true, the only thing that's changed is the number of people chasing those figures, which has massively driven up prices.

In the early 90's a loose vinyl Jawa could be bought for £50 (which was a hell of a lot more expensive than your average Star Wars figure cost back then, including Yak Face, a mint example of which might set you back £25 at most). These days of course you'll be lucky to find a vinyl Jawa for under £1,000. That's not due to focus collectors, army builders or variant collectors, but simply regular collectors who deem it to be part of the main figure run, and consequently want one. And since a significant proportion of those collectors are 40-50 something adults with some disposable income, they chase the limited supply of vinyl Jawas, driving prices ever higher and higher. And the same thing happens, albeit to a lesser extent, throughout the entire vintage Star Wars toy line. When I started collecting in the 90's you couldn't sell a Klaatu MOC for even £4, as nobody wanted them. These days the exact same MOC's go for 20 times that.

So I don't (and wouldn't) blame the very small number of army builders and focus collectors, and certainly not the even tinier number of variant collectors, for limiting figure supply, as that would not only be scapegoating, but also failing to understand the true situation, which is simply the sheer popularity of the hobby as a whole which seems to have an ever-increasing number of members chasing a finite supply of items.
 
I agree with jeremy, but I also think people that only is there for the money is driving up prices. When I started to collect in 2001. Then I did not know any who bought star wars just to make a profit. Today most of the time in denmark when I try to buy a childhood lot then I can for sure say that some of this buyers that only buy just to sell all of it again for a profit is also bidding on the lot, so in denmark prices has gone a lot up just like in the uk. I guess that also is happening in the uk and the rest of the world. I remember a few years ago, when I was bidding on a danish childhood lot, we were 2 who bid the price up from £100 to £400 in uk money, the rest did stop bidding at about £100, 6 hours after I lost the auction. I saw the lot was put up for sale again but this time from the new buyer and it was split to 1 item in each auction with buy it now, only for a profit :roll: people like that is destroying the hobby and driving up prices.

But also as jeremy write there is much more collectors today, I only knew about 5-10 danes who was collecting when I started to collect and childhood lots on buy it now was for sale for weeks here in denmark before they were sold and I could get them for a very low price. The last 5 years, lots like that is normally gone after 10 min. here in denmark and the price is ****ing high. I also today know a lot more danish collectors and they keep coming.
 
I have no issue if someone buys 2000 greedos . Up to them , I've completed my loose collection all original weapons excellent condition, only missing blue snag and pop up r2 , and I don't care if I never get them . Bear I'm mind many focus collectors sometimes sell their collections and these items are released again on the market . I don't worry about prices , it is what it is and I'll just take it or leave it . Happy regardless.
 
Survival kit Chris said:
I have no issue if someone buys 2000 greedos . Up to them , I've completed my loose collection all original weapons excellent condition, only missing blue snag and pop up r2 , and I don't care if I never get them . Bear I'm mind many focus collectors sometimes sell their collections and these items are released again on the market . I don't worry about prices , it is what it is and I'll just take it or leave it . Happy regardless.
Click to expand...

Pretty much how I feel!
 
I think people collect the way they want to collect. It's a personal thing and each individuals ideas and goals reflect their taste. I think figure focuses and army building are completely different things. I get focuses, all the different mocs and anything relating to that figure. I don't really get army building, I think people who have 2000 Greedos are as mad as a tree. But that's just me, if it makes someone happy then good luck to them. Unless it's a number of Stormtroopers, that makes more sense to me. As for them causing a shortage, no not really, there's a **** ton of loose figures out there.
 
Robstyley said:
theforceuk said:
2000 Greedo's does sound cool though! :lol:
Click to expand...

Does it really though? I think it's just boring collecting exactly the same thing repeatedly :?
Click to expand...

Yes very true, depends how much you like a certain figure.

Oh and how many issues you have. :lol:
 
ever evolving collecting in my case started on loose run.. then moc... then dabbled in tfp army moved on to die cast now ive discovered merch :roll: i just need to focus lol
 
Many of you might remember an American collector who had a mind blowing greedo focus with virtually every moc greedo, no 2000 greedos though
 
Survival kit Chris said:
Many of you might remember an American collector who had a mind blowing greedo focus with virtually every moc greedo, no 2000 greedos though
Click to expand...

no who is he ? I have a friend that has 200 boba fett figures :D
 
coomber75 said:
ever evolving collecting in my case started on loose run.. then moc... then dabbled in tfp army moved on to die cast now ive discovered merch :roll: i just need to focus lol
Click to expand...

We've all been there mate :D
 
Pomse2001 said:
Survival kit Chris said:
Many of you might remember an American collector who had a mind blowing greedo focus with virtually every moc greedo, no 2000 greedos though
Click to expand...

no who is he ? I have a friend that has 200 boba fett figures :D
Click to expand...

That's a lot of Fetts :shock:
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

Similar threads

db94
When and why did you stop collecting SW
Replies
14
Views
2K
Gogsfett
G
_Lee_
Trilogo or POTF?
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
Gadders
Gadders
_Lee_
Recent purchase - must be one of a kind or stupid rare!
Replies
2
Views
974
Cazza
Cazza
monkey_roo
The pain of collecting
Replies
5
Views
1K
monkey_roo
monkey_roo
AresJ2X
Vintage Kenner Star Wars Collecting research survey
2
Replies
33
Views
5K
AresJ2X
AresJ2X

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom