What is your best ever bargain??

Around 2013 I found several VC Gamorrean Guards at a store (normally-priced). I liked the character since I was a kid and the sculpt was very nice, so I bought three for myself. They were quite scarce and I considered myself lucky. I only opened up one. An acquaintance of mine, about my age or perhaps a tad older, got hold of this and he proposed an exchange to me. I gave him ONE of the guards (I kid you not) and he gave me back a Lilí-Ledy Boba Fett (not that big of a surprise, since I live in Mexico). I already had the one from the eighties, but this was very surprising. Some years afterwards my brother stole some of my figures (I was already in my mid-forties) to get some cash, and my Fett back from the day was gone. The one I have now is the one I exchanged with that guy. Bless him.
 
A few years back, I was perusing Ebay and spotted an auction for a nice vintage Millennium Falcon.

The auction photos werent very clear, but on closer inspection, I spotted something that looked familiar in the background.
The sellers description stated that the auction also included the Falcons 'base station'.

I took a punt and placed a bid for the starting price, feeling sure I would be out-bid.

To my amazement, I won and received a lovely condition Falcon and a near complete, loose Palitoy Death Star playset for the £50 starting price.

If only this happened more often.
 
Twin30mm said:
A few years back, I was perusing Ebay and spotted an auction for a nice vintage Millennium Falcon.

The auction photos werent very clear, but on closer inspection, I spotted something that looked familiar in the background.
The sellers description stated that the auction also included the Falcons 'base station'.

I took a punt and placed a bid for the starting price, feeling sure I would be out-bid.

To my amazement, I won and received a lovely condition Falcon and a near complete, loose Palitoy Death Star playset for the £50 starting price.

If only this happened more often.
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Amazing!
 
I’ve had some pretty good ones over the years but one that always springs to mind. About thirteen years ago when I’d only been collecting for a few years and I was putting together my loose set. I was visiting my motherland of Essex and having a bod around Southend one day. Went down to Westcliff where I lived in the 90’s and went in a few charity shops. Ended up in proper junk/2nd hand shop full of all sorts of crap and electrical items etc. Looked around and spied on a shelf amongst a load of tat an absolutely perfect clean white Stormtrooper, just standing there. Grabbed it and said to the old bloke behind the counter - how much? And he goes - 99p mate. I couldn’t get the quid out my pocket fast enough! It is still the main front and centre Stormy in my loose cabinet. The black paint on it is perfect, it’s mint. And it means all the more because it was found in a junk shop in Westcliff 😊
 
Many years ago on a pick up of a Star Wars item off ebay, from Swansea. The older lady said she had found another card back in a drawer and I could have it for £17 , possibly the money I had left on me from work, and paying for the intended item. Good old cash on collection days :LOL:
Funny how I can still remember the bonus card, but not what I originally purchased .
 

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Some of my early MOC purchases in around 1994-5:

2 X Palitoy Logray £7 ea
Dengar, FX-7 & Zuckuss 45b's at £30ea
Palitoy 30-back Lando £50
Palitoy 41-back Han Hoth £40

All minty. Still have them all, apart from one of the Lograys, which I sold a few years ago.
 
If include the "old days" of the late 80's/Early 90's when I started collecting, the bargains were many, here are some examples.
My Blue Snaggletooth came from a collection that I got from a guy that was working at the same comic book store I was. He sold me all of his figures for 50 cents each. This was in 1988 or 1989.
First MOC figures came from Toys R Us on the clearance shelf, .97 each, Weequay, Lobot (on a tattered ESB card), AT-ST Driver (still have this one), Nikto (still have this one), and a few others, think there were seven total. Somewhere around 1988 or so.
Droids Kez Iban and Jord Dusat in a clearance bin at KayBee toys for 50 cents each. No one cared about Ewoks and Droids in the early days. Around 1990.
POTF carded B-Wing Pilots first for $3, then later for $2, and finally found the true source and got them for $1 each, in case lots of 96 pieces. Longer story about these that I will try to tell on here sometime. This was in 1990-1991.
TriLogo Yoda, Darth Vader, and a few others for $3 each from a mail order catalog in 1988.
POTF carded Luke Stormtrooper for $22, Droids Carded R2-D2's for $12 1990 or so.
Lots of MOC figures for $3 to $5 at local toy shows 1988 to 1992.
Huge amounts of bagged figures 50 cents to $1 each. Several stories about these, as well.
The thread topic says "Best Ever bargain", but I don't know which one to pick.
Sadly these days are long gone, but I've managed to keep some of the items in my current collection.
 
Love these stories of bargain bin MOCs in the late 80's/early 90's. Not SW, but there were loads of Series 2 Mutons available in Beaties in the late 90's. I would love to know the story behind that one!
 
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If we're talking 90s as well, so many! The first two MOCs I bought in 1994 were Klaatu and Nikto, both on Trilogo cards, for £7 each. They came from a stall in Wimborne market in Dorset, which amazingly was still there until just last year when the market closed (although vintage dried up over the years, but he still had a few loose figures.)

Then in around 1995 I picked up this Luke X-Wing for £100 from a shop in Poole's old town market, which is where I bought most of my MOCs until it closed in about 1998. This was an absolute fortune to me at the time aged 13, it took me weeks to save up for it and I paid in instalments! Most MOCs I bought around this period were under £30 so this was a "top end" MOC, and at the time Kenner debut cards were the holy grail, Trilogos, Palitoy and Jedi cards etc were considered inferior. This is the only MOC from back then that I still have, which you may also remember I lost for a few years due to a burglary (you can find that story with a search if you haven't read it before.) Also note the massive crease across the card - it wouldn't grade very high now but this was considered a "minter" back then!

luke_xwing1.jpg

Here's a photo of some of my collection circa 2000. As above most of these were cheap as chips, £10-30 each. I remember that Lando and Logray were £10 each, Vader was £30, and you can also see the £7 Nikto in there. Sadly I sold all of these over the years, I rarely sell anything now but back then my collection was very fluid, I was always buying and selling to fund other purchases.

2.jpg
 
Not sure I ever see a bargain these days. A few items I think are a fair price maybe...

Back in 2000 I remember going into the original Forbidden Planet on Oxford St. and picking up two Royal Naboo Ships for £20 each. Total bargain. Back then EP1 figures, POTF2 stuff was all pennies and pounds at best, not any more... A friend of mine grabbed me a Famba when FAO Schwarz closed down in New York - think that was around $40 at the time, must have been around 2004.
 
My best Star Wars bargain was a huge box of figures and spaceships at a boot sale around 1993. The guy had just sold another big box just beforehand. It had a range of figs, weapons, Last 17 (Amanaman, Anakin I think), Ships like B-Wing, the Endor craft etc in there. It cost five pound and I had to borrow some from my dad.

I did pick up an Endor Luke at a jumble sale - And at the time I didn't even know he existed as a figure!

I also remember a HUGE box of SW figs for 50p each at the Bristol Transport Fair - All uncarded old stock I think, so I just loaded up on Storm Troopers, Biker Scouts etc.

I also also also remember buying figs through the post as a teenager from a guy in Melksham - Who i think was the same age as me. I spent around 5 pounds (or less - I'm sure some were 3) each on Luke Stormtrooper, Han Carbonite, r2D2 Lightsabre, Amanaman again, Imperial Dignitary, Barada, Warok, Lumat, and more... I always remember him wanting to buy my arm broken EV-9D9 off of me.... odd how memory works! EDIT: He was defo a trader as he had PRINTED lists of available stuff and had a small ads advert in the Bristol Evening Post!

UKS
 
monkey_roo said:
Not sure I ever see a bargain these days. A few items I think are a fair price maybe...

Back in 2000 I remember going into the original Forbidden Planet on Oxford St. and picking up two Royal Naboo Ships for £20 each. Total bargain. Back then EP1 figures, POTF2 stuff was all pennies and pounds at best, not any more... A friend of mine grabbed me a Famba when FAO Schwarz closed down in New York - think that was around $40 at the time, must have been around 2004.
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I just had to Google what that was 😂
 
I got a sealed senscope r2d2 baggie from ebay years ago for £5 it was described as a cereal toy in bag lol. Some years later I was informed on here it was a Woolworths palitoy overstock 8pack baggie r2d2
 
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I got a blue snaggletooth on ebay uk for £30 in the early 2000s strange as it's a US Sears release you dont see many In the UK
 
I picked up a lovely GG trilogo MOC for £10 from a carboot in 2012 that inturn kicked off my budget MOC run
 
Cazza said:
Love these stories if bargain bin MOCs in the late 80's/early 90's. Not SW, but there were loads of Series 2 Mutons available in Beaties in the late 90's. I would love to know the story behind that one!
Click to expand...
They were also in The Entertainer! I bought an absolute bucket load. I still have two or three left. I was picking up AF MOCs on stalls and at markets into the 21st century.
 

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