When did vintage first start going up in value?

[stormcab]

i.e. When did certain figures start being traded for more than they were on the shelves?

A VCJ is probably the best example to start with. When was the first sale which was greeted with "WTF, £10? It was only £1.99 in Walworths a year ago"

To add to this, what about the first noticeable BIG leap in price happen? i.e. A £1.99 12 back going for £100/200/300

 

[theforceuk]

Not sure about the early days, but their was certainly a spike in 1999 before episode 1. Think that was the first big general rise in the price of vintage Star Wars? :?

 

[stormcab]

Not sure about the early days, but their was certainly a spike in 1999 before episode 1. Think that was the first big general rise in the price of vintage Star Wars? :?

Was certainly well before that, as I collected in the mid 90s, and I paid £100+ for several figures.

 

[elcroz]

I remember my Nan told me that "all your Star Wars will be worth a lot of money in the future", she read it in a Sunday supplement magazine. This would have been around 1989/1990 - so that information has been in the public's mind quite early on.

 

[itfciain]

I don't think you can say that all vintage has gone up in value at the same rate - one of the guys ran a great article on RS about some of the POTF items being the same price as they were in the late 1990s. More recently, VC Jawas and DT Lukes were available for around 200-250GBP regularly around 12-18 months ago yet now command at least double that.

There are obviously some peeks and troughs - in the late 1980s most retailers were struggling to give it way and some of the old dealers used to go from shop to shop hoovering up stock at next to nothing. Prices began to increase in the 1990s as they became collectibles and there was a thriving mail order market - with the evolution of eBay and the new films peeking interest then prices jumped to another level and I would imagine stayed pretty steady for about 7-8 years in general. However, for the past 3-4 years demand has increased - steadily at first as collectors came into the hobby with more disposable income.

I would say that the past 18 months have been crazy for a lot of items - especially those deemed 'rare' - I put a lot of this down to the announcement of the new films and also the increased exposure than Facebook has given the hobby

 

[SublevelStudios]

I don't think you can say that all vintage has gone up in value at the same rate - one of the guys ran a great article on RS about some of the POTF items being the same price as they were in the late 1990s. More recently, VC Jawas and DT Lukes were available for around 200-250GBP regularly around 12-18 months ago yet now command at least double that.

There are obviously some peeks and troughs - in the late 1980s most retailers were struggling to give it way and some of the old dealers used to go from shop to shop hoovering up stock at next to nothing. Prices began to increase in the 1990s as they became collectibles and there was a thriving mail order market - with the evolution of eBay and the new films peeking interest then prices jumped to another level and I would imagine stayed pretty steady for about 7-8 years in general. However, for the past 3-4 years demand has increased - steadily at first as collectors came into the hobby with more disposable income.

I would say that the past 18 months have been crazy for a lot of items - especially those deemed 'rare' - I put a lot of this down to the announcement of the new films and also the increased exposure than Facebook has given the hobby

That's pretty much the best summation.

 

[Mr-shifter]

Further to this, I can remember in the early 2000s, POTF 2 stuff shooting up in value. What a false dawn that was!

Its funny, in the mid/late nineties, there definitely was a premium for original MOC items but you could still buy loose in all sorts of condition for not a lot of money, especially from car boots and charity shops. It seemed to be only the MOCs that were deemed particularly collectable, other than the last 17 and a few other loose exceptions.

 

[edd_jedi]

I was collecting in 1994 and back then was paying £5-£10 for loose figures, and £10-100 for MOCs. Quite a lot of low end loose figures and MOCs are barely worth more than that now, so the increase isn't universal.

 

[theforceuk]

I paid £200 for EV-9D9 and Imperial Dignitary each in 1999 and their probably both worth half that now in the condition their in. Both on POTF cards.

 

[ScruffyLookingNH]

I was collecting in 1994 and back then was paying £5-£10 for loose figures, and £10-100 for MOCs. Quite a lot of low end loose figures and MOCs are barely worth more than that now, so the increase isn't universal.

Very true. When I was buying and selling at university in the mid 90s I was selling loose figures for not a great deal less than the same sell for now. Exceptions would be Yak Face (£50-£60), Blue Snaggletooth (£90-£100), Leia Organa (£10-£12), Luke FB (£10-£12) and R2 pop up, EV-9D9 and Luke Storm (all £40-£50). Other than that, the prices loose figures sell for now aren't much more than collectible shops were asking back then. I sold my complete set of loose figures (no blue snag and only the odd "true" variant) to a shop in Liverpool on 1996 for about £700. And that was to a shop.

Also, some items have only held their value at best: A-Wings and Tatooine Skiffs. I was never a MOC collector back then as they were comparatively very expensive. Comparatively.

Those were the days: run an advert in Loot and you could pick and choose which loose collection you'd go and buy for less than £100 :?

 

[tiefighterboy]

1997.........then 1999...When FB groups beacame popular..........and now.

 

[kieatky]

"Those were the days: run an advert in Loot and you could pick and choose which loose collection you'd go and buy for less than £100 :?[/quote]"

LOOT :shock: :shock: :shock: . It was like a paper version of E-Bay :lol: I forgot about this, wasn't it printed in different colours depending on what day it was published? Do they still sell it?

 

[stratpack]

I mentioned elsewhere on here I naively asked a shop assistant in the late 80's what happened to all the SW stuff they used to sell. About a year earlier i was in the same shop and they had shelves full of discount stuff. That was when the shop assistant said 'are they not collectors item now?' First time I had ever heard that. Even then some folks knew there was still a demand after the toys and movies had finished.

As regards to value going up. As well as being a great tool, the internet has also given us a global market that we're competing in. A trading market that was just confined to collectors stores, conventions, toy mag ads etc is now worldwide. Look at the folks from round the world just on this one forum!
Another byproduct from the internet is that potential collectors are also much more educated. With a few clicks anyone can find out everything - what to buy, what not to buy. More and more people are clued up on whats hot and whats not.

 

[Ian_C]

My childhood collecting ended in approximately 1984. I picked it up again in 1995 and haven't stopped since.

Back in 95/96, there are a few items I can vividly recall paying for. Loose Yak was $175 Canadian (£88). Amanaman was $135 MOC (£68). 21 back Hammerhead was $165 (£83). My Luke Stormtrooper, loose but 100% complete with proper black blaster, was only $80 (£40).

I also paid approximately $135 for my GDE DS Commander in 1997 - which I sold earlier this year for $3200 US (£2070), and subsequently bought back a few months later when it ended up on ebay for $4000 US (£2600). I got my GDE Vader around the same time in 1997 for $250 Canadian (£125), and that is now apparently worth more than my DS Commander.

The point here is things were already substantially higher than retail for a few items in 1995-97 for carded items especially, but those prices are nothing next to today. Hell, my POTF Yak Face, bought for $1700 US (£850) about 7-8 years ago, I was forced to sell this past spring and it went for $5500 US (£2760) ungraded. That's a crazy markup.

Common stuff though? Almost all of it except POTF was available loose and complete for $10 and under in the mid-90's. Now? Aside from the first 12 and subsequent versions of characters like Luke and Leia, you can still find most of the ESB and ROTJ figures loose and complete for $10 and under.

Ian

 

[Dannywhiteley]

12 backs and other early MOCs were already being traded while later ESB and ROTJ/POTF stock was at retail. I suppose its cultural importance mean it's always been collectable tp an extent.

My collecting started again in 1995 and I remember seeing Uzay for the first time around then. I thought it was fake, couldn't believe my eyes that some of this stuff was going for 3 figures.

I remember paying £40 for a loose Yak in Liverpool circa 1995 while i was at Uni. I was also buying friends collections for modest sums. I remember I got a boxed ATAT, DV Tie, loads of loose figures, some other ships/playsets etc for about £50 around the same time.

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

There probably is some pricing data from 1985 - 1995 available through specialist mags.

Like others above I started collecting again around 1995 and even then prices were high (Last 17 were around £30 each, I distinctly remember seeing a Cloud City Playset at over £100 and thinking damn I cant afford that!).

But prices were probably 'artificially' high as there were far fewer places available to buy vintage SW back then (bricks and mortar hobby shops were few and far between in the UK so they could set the prices they wanted).

 

[edd_jedi]

But prices were probably 'artificially' high as there were far fewer places available to buy vintage SW back then (bricks and mortar hobby shops were few and far between in the UK so they could set the prices they wanted).

Actually I'd say the opposite is true - why are loose figures like Yak and VCJ selling for so much now? There are dozens of them on eBay at any one time. No loose production figure is rare, there are literally tens of thousands of each of them. I know people will say it's just supply and demand, but there is no lack of supply! People just seem to accept that Yak is worth 10 times more than Anakin despite being no rarer.

Back in the day some things were genuinely hard to find, I only remember seeing a couple of Yaks in the 90s. So back then he was worth paying a premium for. The Internet has put an end to that for all but the mega rare stuff, so really prices should have come down. I'd like a Yak face but I just refuse to pay the going rate for one, it's not good value for money based on availability.

 

[peekaygee73]

There probably is some pricing data from 1985 - 1995 available through specialist mags.

Like others above I started collecting again around 1995 and even then prices were high (Last 17 were around £30 each, I distinctly remember seeing a Cloud City Playset at over £100 and thinking damn I cant afford that!).

But prices were probably 'artificially' high as there were far fewer places available to buy vintage SW back then (bricks and mortar hobby shops were few and far between in the UK so they could set the prices they wanted).

Very similar to my experiences. I started buying again in 1994 and remember buying Leia Poncho and Han Trench loose with original weapons at a comic mart in Sheffield for around £4 each.

A few months later I was buying Model & Collectors Mart and bought Han Trench and Lando Skiff MOCs from Intergalactic Junk for around £5 or £6. There was also a guy selling off 4 or 5 Trilogo figures cheaply; I got my Trilogo Weequay for £3 and it was mint. Issues of M&CM from that time would offer a fascinating snapshot of what was being sold and for how much.

I remember POTF being expensive in the late 90s and paid around £40 for a Romba from Australia as it seemed the cheapest way to get a POTF MOC.

 

[sith-smith]

I started collecting in 92. Back then car boot sales still had lots of cheap star wars stuff...50p per figure irrespective of what the figure was as most sellers had no idea on rarity...and back then neither did I.

Yak face, complete luke stormtrooper and amanaman all bought for 50p 8)

However I reckon 92 saw the beginning of the first major rise as it was when the first Thrawn trilogy book was released and for a lot of people rekindled their love of star wars. It prompted me to start up collecting. I remember hitting car boot sales in 94 and all figures were several pound and we're no officially 'collectors items' according to car boot sellers.

By then most had dried up at sales as people whe were a bit more clued up had bought most things and we're selling them through collectors magazines, shows and specialist shops.

And of course guides had been produced (such as the sansweet one) and so way more info was put there.

By 99 it was costing £30-50 to complete the loose figures which 7 years previously were only 50p!

 

[Bonsai_Tree_Ent]

Issues of M&CM from that time would offer a fascinating snapshot of what was being sold and for how much.

I do have a magazine from August 1999, called Star Wars Collectibles - it published a price guide... I've made some scans, see below (valuations in $ US Dollars)