Hardest Cards to get hold of

[Caswellbot]

This is all quite speculative but here is how I see the figures in terms of how hard they are to find. Its very tricky because some of these figures wont turn up for a while and then a few will turn up at once. Sometimes what happens is that one gets sold and goes for a strong price and that can bring others out of the woodwork when people obviously try their luck.

1.Trilogo Madine
2.Trilogo Jawa
3. POTF Nikto
4. Trilogo Boba
5. POTF Anakin
6. POTF AT-AT Driver
7. POTF Yak Face
8. Trilogo Hybrid Hammerhead
9. POTF Yoda
10. Droids Boba Fett
11. SW Boba Fett

Prices will differ greatly too. I certainly think that condition does play a part in decisions like these though and certainly effect cost. Some of the rare POTF figures do turn up from time to time maybe on a par sometimes with items like the Tri Logo Hybrid Hammerhead but the nature of POTF carded figures means finding one which isnt damaged is maybe more tricky.

Often with the high POTF carded figures its a bit hit and miss. They seem to either be in really nice condition or the bubble is burst/ badly yellowed etc. There is less "in between" if that makes sense?

 

[sith-smith]

I do think hard to find and rare are not the same thing.

Rare is not an absolute term. People mean all kinds of things when they use it. It's most commonly misused on eBay, where just about everything Star Wars is rare, or mega rare or the rarest, or uber rare!!

For me rare would imply that very few of said piece are known to exist in the world to date! This is a number that can, an often does change of course as new ones turn up. But as to what the number should by which we start calling something rare I don't think has ever been agreed in the collecting world. Is it 20, 10 or 5 for example? In this relative context it is easier to say x is rarer than y because 100+ are known to exist of y but only 40 exist of x. But there isn't a threshold at which we can definitely say something is rare and have complete agreement.

Hard to find is a bit clearer. A piece is literally hard to find. You search eBay, forums, ask around but can't find one for sale and others will be having the same experience when trying to get one. Hard to find is generally affected by numbers available in relation to numbers desired at a given time. 10 may come up for sale in one year, but 30 people were looking. Some will win on eBay, some will notice one for sale on a forum some will sell privately as people have 'waiting lists' on parts of their collection should they sell. As a result, like rarity, hard to find can change. Pieces can be hard to find one year, but have loads available the next. This has an obvious effect on prices especially if there has been a bidding war on eBay.

Palitoy is a good example of the above (sorry but Palitoy is the thing I know best). At one point you'd struggle to sell certain 12/20 backs, even some 41/30's could be hard to sell. Currently they have hit another popularity spike, and even relatively common (again we could have a discussion about what we mean by 'common' compared to 'rare') figures are reaching ridiculous prices and even the most common are becoming hard to find.

But they are not becoming rarer. If anything they are less rare now than they were 10 years ago! Desirability is currently out doing availability and having an impact on prices. The reverse may happen and prices will fall again.

Rare and hard to find are not the same thing. Rare implies few in number, nothing more. Hard to find implies few in number in relation to demand. Rarity does have an impact on a piece being hard to find, but not always. Desirability doesn't have an impact on rarity.

Funnily enough rarity doesn't always have an impact on price. Desirability does!

And then of course there is the matter of quality, which a few have already mentioned.

All those figures listed at the beginning of this thread are pretty desirable for a lot of collectors worldwide. They are certainly in fewer numbers than others in those particular lines (at least that seems to be the case) though there are countless figures that are far rarer.

This therefore make them all quite hard to find and can make them costly. I know which ones I found harder on that list to get. I still have 4, but the ones I sold were easy to sell compared to other figures in their line. This is just my experience and it is not necessarily any better or more accurate than anyone else's. And in this hobby things change, sometimes quite drastically!! It's all part of the fun and why it's good to have a site with experienced collectors who've watched the collecting field change and develop other years!

Essay over

 

[Josh]

Jesus Christ, Gary. :shock: You know we don't like reading around here.
Just kidding. Great post, IMO. 8)

 

[PGowdy]

Yak Faces are rare. :lol:
Oh and VC Jawas.

 

[edd_jedi]

I'm still surprised that everyone considers the tri logo hybrid Hammerhead in the top 10, I can think of several other tri logos that were way harder and/or more expensive to get. The hybrid CCP is an obvious one.

 

[Lee Gregory]

I knew you were dying to write a post regarding rarity or percieved rarity Gary!!!

 

[weasel]

Agreed with 70% of what you wrote Gary, gotta admit I gave up before I read the last 30% but I'll just assume you continued to talk sense and that I agreed with it all as well. :lol:

 

[tiefighterboy]

Gary's statement was along the same lines as mine....but way more detailed.

 

[Joe]

These are some that come up in a thread I made on RS:

Trilogo:

- Trilogo General Madine
- Trilogo 70C Nikto
- Trilogo 70C 8D8
- Trilogo Jawa

Kenner US:

- DT Ben 12 back
- DT Vader 12 back
- POTF Nikto
- 4-LOM 48 Back Offerless
- 47 back zuckuss
- ROTJ 48bk Princess Leia Organa
- SW 21 Stormtrooper
- 20bk Kenner R2-D2
- ESB 31/32 Survival Kit Offer sticker R5-D4 (31 back)
- ESB 31/32 Survival Kit Offer sticker Bespin Guard (32 back)
- ESB 31/32 Survival Kit Offer stickerHoth Stormtrooper (32 back)
- Kenner ESB 47-Back 4-LOM

Kenner US (sticker offers/combinations):

- Kenner 12/32 DS Commander
- Kenner 12/32 Han Solo
- Kenner 12/32 C-3PO
- Kenner 20A Luke Skywalker
- Kenner 20 back Leia: fett offer made in Taiwan with black rectangurlar sticker and offer extension
- Kenner 21 back Sand People
- Kenner 21B Back Jawa
- Kenner 21C Back Jawa


Kenner Canada:

- Canadian vacuformed Han Bespin (Name plate variation)
- Canadian GDE 12 back Chewbacca
- Canadian GDE 12 back Han
- Canadian GDE 12 back Luke
- Canadian GDE 12 back Leia
- Canadian 32 back Vader
- Canadian 32 back SD Commander
- Canadian 32 back Luke X-wing
- Canadian 32 back Leia
- Canadian 32 back Stormtrooper
- Canadian 32 back Jawa
- Canadian 32 back R2-D2
- Canadian 32 back Sand People
- SW Canadian VC Jawa

PBP/POCH:

- PBP 65 back At At Commander
- PBP 65 back Luke Farmboy
- PBP 65 back Luke Jedi
- PBP 65 back Luke XW
- PBP 65 back Boba Fett
- PBP 65 back Tie Pilot
- PBP 65 back Rebel Soldier Dark Brown
- Poch ESB DSD
- Poch ESB Boba Fett
- Poch ESB R5-D4
- Poch ESB 2-1B
- Poch ESB FX-7
- PBP/Poch ESB 41 Back Luke Skywalker
- Poch 31bk R2-D2
- Poch 41bk R2-D2

Toltoys:

- Toltoys 41 back Yoda Survival offer on back / no offer on front
- Toltoys 41 back Lobot survival offer
- Toltoys 41 back Lando with purple and black special offer 4-LOM sticker
- Toltoys 45 back Imperial Commander
- Toltoys 45 back Dengar with not available in Australia sticker
- Toltoys 47 back Bespin guard black
- Toltoys NZ 48 back original R2
- Toltoys NZ 48 back original C-3PO
- Toltoys Nien Nunb on NN offer
- ESB Toltoys Jawa (Vinyl)
- Toltoys ESB 41 Leia Bespin w/ Survival Kit Offer
- SW 20b Toltoys Vader

Harbert:

- Harbert ESB Boba Fett
- ESB Harbert Yoda
- SW 12 back Harbert Luke
- SW 12 back Harbert Han

Glasslite:

- Glassite Vlix
- Glasslite Thall Joben

Meccano:

- Meccano VC Jawa
- ESB Square Card Meccano Boba Fett
- SW Meccano Darth Vader - Regular Card

Palitoy:

- ESB 30 bk Palitoy Boba Fett
- Palitoy 45a Fett
- Palitoy 45B Han Solo Hoth (no logo)
- Palitoy 45a Hammerhead
- Palitoy 45a Han Hoth

Clipper:

- 12bk clipper vader

Lili Ledy:

- Lili Ledy C-3po original with alternate photo
- Lili Ledy Vader 14b (black cardback)

General Mills:

- ESB Darth Vader German General Mills Card
- ESB Boba Fett German General Mills Card




Even though there are a bunch of hard to find figures mentioned above I can easily think of a LOAD others that are equally as rare that haven't been mentioned at all..

Perhaps if anyone here has any more suggestions (especially the Palitoy collectors) we can keep updating the above list?

 

[Grant_C]

The question just got served! :lol:

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

Great Posts Gary and Joe! Very Informative!

Didnt know POTF Yodas were quite as rare will have to save up 4 weasels

 

[Josh]

Great Posts Gary and Joe! Very Informative!

Didnt know POTF Yodas were quite as rare will have to save up 4 weasels

Save up 4 Weasels? :?


Is that an actual saying, or do you just have Weasel on the brain?

 

[itfciain]

I think Liam is keen to get his hands on Weasels yoda !

 

[Josh]

Maybe they save up 4 Weasels in some parts of the country.
Imagine going to the bank :lol: .

"I'd just like to make a deposit"

 

[Caswellbot]

I think I may have mis read or misinterpreted the OP here as I thought Iain was kind of after a running order based on his original list. I would totally agree that there are MANY more much harder to find foreign carded figures out there from lines like Poch, Ledy, PBP, Meccano etc. In fact from the original list I think very few would actually make it into a top ten "Rarity" thread in the grand scheme of things.

Good luck on the hunt Iain, Im sure you will be able to track down some of the ones you originally listed. You may have to be patient but Im sure people on here will help you source them if you wanted.

 

[Joe]

I suppose ultimately it depends on what you are buying, most people aren't searching for Toltoys, POCH or Palitoy cards and are probably just searching for Kenner figures so they won't really ever run into super hard cards, just ones that are higher in price or can take a while to turn up.

I am looking at the list that came up from the thread on RS and like I said, just off the top of my head I can think of a bunch more Clipper/Meccano and even Trilogo (variant) figures that are impossible to find that never got a mention!

"Hardest cards to get hold of" means to me the types of figures that even with money on your side and a wanted thread on 5 different sites you may probably never get a sniff at - hence why I posted that long list of toughies that include some extremely rare figures.

If you can't go out tomorrow and source one (regardless of price) then it really is rare. Things like a VCJ Kenner or a Hybrid Hammerhead or even a Madine are hard to get but I bet with money on your side you could buy all three within an hour of looking for them.

 

[Caswellbot]

Couldn't agree more. I dont think there is a card on the original list that anyone couldnt have bought in the last couple of years. (Obviously if they had the money and desire to buy it) There have been at least 2 or three tri logo madines come up in the past 2 years. If a carded figure was truly "Rare" you might not expect even one to turn up in a 2-3 year window.

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

I think Liam is keen to get his hands on Weasels yoda !

Yep I have gt a lot of saving up 2 to do tho :roll:

 

[Joe]

Couldn't agree more. I dont think there is a card on the original list that anyone couldnt have bought in the last couple of years. (Obviously if they had the money and desire to buy it) There have been at least 2 or three tri logo madines come up in the past 2 years. If a carded figure was truly "Rare" you might not expect even one to turn up in a 2-3 year window.

Yep definitely Chris, I think if you can't source something in a year even with money on your side and that desire to buy then it obviously isn't out there to buy.

I know from looking at Trilogos over the last few years that there are TONNES of extremely hard to find variants that you literally can't find out there, some are confirmed only as cardbacks. The thing with that is that people don't particularly care about them so they go for peanuts (if they turn up) compared to the prices other "popular" rare figures.

So even though the reality is that they are ten times rarer than most figures with high price tags the fact that less people know/care or are searching for them keeps prices down because the pool of potential buyers is significantly lower than something like a Kenner VCJ, which literally every collector and his dog knows about and wants.

I appreciate rare carded variations much more than I do the "rare" popular figures, I tend to find people limelighting AFA 85 VCJ MOC's a bit boring really, seen too many of them in peoples collections over the years and on ebay to really be shocked by seeing yet another one.

 

[Caswellbot]

I can totally understand your opinion Joe. I remember when I was trying to put together the offerless Kenner run that some really run of the mill figures were really hard to find on offerless cardbacks.

Figures like: Black bespin guard on an offerless ESB card for example was really tough to find. This certainly didnt translate into cost terms though because lets face it, he is not the most popular character. I can hand on heart say I saw more POTF yak face turn up in the time I was doing that run than I did Offerless Black Bespin Guards.

The same can be said for Offerless C-3PO removable limbs and a few others. Obviously we all know about 4 Lom.

I think examples like Ed's Jawa with 3 clipper offer stickers is much harder to get hold of than something like a carded VCJ but at a fraction of the price. I guess it comes back to people's knowledge and appreciation of what's out there VS "desirability." The carded VCJ has a wider appeal and is overly publicised. The example Jawa with 3 clipper offers Ed'likes would mainly appeal to a focus colector for example or someinterested in weird foreign variations. This is why I think it is so important to have focus collectors. To turn up items like that and appreciate them for what they are.