Palitoy collecting-what makes a collector?

[Andyclarke]

Good post Lee,

Palitoy toys are special and rightly so, they are our heritage. It was a very special company that gave many of us a lot of joy and Kenners wouldn't have existed here without that beautiful toy company.

It's easy to complain about the prices nowadays but many of us have also benefitted, it is what it is we move with the times. It certainly doesn't seem to lose money!

When I think what has gone through my fingers, I miss those rarities and would be very rich now if I had kept them, but my family took priority and always will. I'm back though and loving it just as much as I ever did. I think I'm doing OK it just takes a little more patience and you have to adapt, persevere and maybe look to build money from other things to fund your collection. No one complains when you stash money in a bank account, well Star Wars is a far better investment than that and in pretty much most things.

I honestly think there hasn't been as many Palitoys available as there is now and fingers crossed prices will come down a bit so we can all benefit.

We miss that 45a Stormtrooper don't we Lee.

Andy

 

[palitoyjunky]

Ha! As usual I am a late comer to this thread but being yet another Palitoy topic I'd better put in my bit :wink:

Funny but growing up I prob rem the Kenner logo more so than the Palitoy one poss because my earliest MOCs may well have been 45b(can't rem for sure) therefore no logo and Kenner obviously carried their logo on and I did have some Kenner import pieces.

When I got back into serious collecting around the mid 90s I didn't discriminate against Palitoy or Kenner but as Gary says Palitoy was a little more expensive and a little tougher to get so I went with Kenner 9/10 times. I put a set of 12&21 backs together and of the set only 3 12 backs were Palitoy; Stormie, DSC and Vader. Ha :!: I rem seeing a Palitoy 12 back Chewie on 'OffWorld's' table at a couple of diff fairs priced at £295 and thinking why am I going to pay that when I got a mint Kenner example for £125 (oh where was that crystal ball):lol:

I guess as time went on and I became more knowledgable and appreciative of the toys I started to respect Palitoy a lot more being our domestic brand, fewer in number than Kenner and I guess I too am guilty of falling in love with that red and blue logo

By 2009 I had one or two nice Palitoy pieces and after acquiring a mint Palitoy 12 back Luke & Sandpeople and a mint 20 back Greedo I decided to go for it :!:
Now my timing wasn't that bad as I managed a full virtually mint set Of 12s & 20s including large head Han by 2010 relatively cheap by today's prices!
Talking numbers; the set of 21 totalled around £15K. In 2013 I was offered 30K for the set :!:

After completing the original set I went onto Empire and again I got most of what I wanted before prices got ludicrous :!: To give an idea, many of u know I recently completed the first 10 on 30 back and the set has cost around 12K. Of that 12K the last 2 MOCs I needed and got earlier this year; FX-7 and IG-88 cost 8K :!: :!: Now I had to sell a substantial part of my collection to get the IG-88 because basically I didn't have a spare 5K :!:

If I started collecting today there is no way I could afford to go for what I have acquired over the past 5-6 years and no I don't have any other expensive vices.

Good friendships with other collectors and a little luck has played a massive part in my Palitoy success NOT just money and I am glad that many times it takes more than just money to get some of these gems

I am currently missing 3 serious MOCs and 2 of them I have happily accepted I may never get :!: With Palitoy and indeed many things, its v important to enjoy what u have :wink:

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

A Palitoy Death Star just sold for $4,500 / £3,000 on facebook.

It was opened but according to seller in complete NRFB condition (he didn't show pics of contents). It isn't graded but is in an acrylic case. If asked I personally would have valued it as £1,500 maximum, but it sold for double that so what do I know! If anyone is planning on bidding on one of those sealed Death Stars at the Vectis auction this could bode some bad news on price...

 

[SublevelStudios]

Did you know if it came with the little catalogue and were the parts still sealed in bags>

 

[maxf]

Apparently only opened when the tape dried up and all still in bags and as new.

I missed it or would have bought it in a heartbeat for £3k. It's interesting for the vectis ones as puts a bit of a line in the sand but also shows there are other in great shape out there. I'm surprised this lasted all weekend at celebration to be honest.

 

[kvavik]

Great posts everyone! Been very interesting reading it.
I think if you want to complete a set in a year, in todays market, yes, you have to be pretty well off. But I don't see too many upper class/rich people going into MOC collecting. What I do see, is that collectors are willing to stretch their budget and find different methods of getting funds. eg selling other items to focus on one run. Most people are also earning more than they did 10 years ago.

It's definitely not easy building a collecting with limited means, but for my part, it's part of what makes it fun (though incredible frustrating at times. I've missed out on opportunities to buy 30k collections for 8k, twice, because I did not have the funds to buy.)

As Gary and others have mentioned. Money does not get you all the way.
Vigilance, friendships and persistence comes a long way, though one might give up the thought of ever completing difficult sets, as 30 back, 45 a-back, harbert or meccano, but that was never really realistic.

 

[Hod10]

Great post. It's not all about the logo though, I'll explain why...

I honestly don't remember the Palitoy logo much. I was bought a fair amount of Palitoy ESB stuff during the year before the release of Return of the Jedi, aged 5. Obviously the cardbacks from my time mainly had no logo at all or the logo I recall mostly was Kenner. My first purchase of any Vintage moc was a Palitoy Bib Fortuna, that chap freaked me out back then, the most creepy entrance of any character in the saga, the lifelike figure replica I wanted badly when I was a kid. I bought it in 2000 and it brought back all the nostalgia, great photo on the front with the timeless SW design and the blacked out Ewoks on the reverse hit the mark. It was British and what I had when I was a kid.

The Palitoy logo is a cracking logo. The films were a real US/UK combo and Palitoy collecting plays a huge part in reflecting that.