I've believed the VCJ could exist as many things seem possible in this hobby so now we have concrete confirmation it doesn't really come as a surprise to me. However as I predicted this would not end the debate/argument over this. But the need to have personal attacks on other collectors is taking things a little too far. These are toys at the end of the day. Too many people have forgotten this as this hobby has become rife with greed and fakes
Following on from what others have said about people turning this piece down I was offered this piece 3 times and obviously I passed on it 3 times.
Am I angry with myself?
Well, no. I turned it down each time for justifiable reasons. First time was offered to me by one of the questionable people already mentioned. The offer made me wary of both fakes and greed so I was not prepared to take the risk with such a large sum of money they wanted. While I'm happy to pay large sums of money for my collection I'm not prepared to pay it when the price is clearly out of greed.
The second time I was still wary of it being original.
3rd I had seen it and could not see any reason for it to be resealed/fake. It looked as authentic as any of the 350+ Palitoy cards in my collection. However by this time I was still dealing with the fallout from the attack and as I was forced to move all my money had gone elsewhere and I could not afford to buy it with that slight risk that it wasn't legit (which there still was as my observation/opinion is not really that authoritative)
Maybe in the future, others will show up. The large Head Han is a good example of this. Up until around 2004 only 2 were confirmed as existing now there must be at least 6. Already we have a possible second VC Jawa
So perhaps in the future when one comes up for sale again I will be in a much better position to put the money up. I'd love one in my collection as I always wondered about the VC jawa having seen it on the death star box.
But the main thing for me is that it has gone to the right person and sits proudly in the right collection. It could so easily have gone to a greedy, unscrupulous person, yet we now can look at a fantastic collection that has taken a lot of work to achieve and in the case of the VCJ a lot of courage! And we can add something new to the star wars collecting history, which is always good.
And that is far better than just adding insult and abuse, especially when it is only toys!
So on that point, no, I'm not furious with myself. There are enough problems with this hobby at times such as the fakes/greeds and arrogance already mentioned. I do not intend to add resentment to it. I started collecting because I loved the films and loved my childhood playing with the toys. I do not collect to have the best collection, recognition or superiority over other collectors or to gain large sums of money at other's expense. They are the worst reasons to collect.
It's sad at times people seem to forget that!
