When did vintage first start going up in value?

[Lee Bullock]

I started collecting in 1989 and Jim Stevenson and Jason Joiner were already collecting and trading so there was already a collector aftermarket. Early grails were - IG 88 large action figure, Tie Bomber, blue Snaggletooth, SSP Van double set, AM Radio Headset, X Wing Aces target game and POTF Yak Face. The early value inflation in the UK of these were bolstered by their lack of availability at retail and their featuring in publications like Space Adventure Collectables (Tumbusch) and The Official Price Guide to Star Trek and Star Wars Collectibles (Cornwell and Kott).

I saw early on a separation in aftermarket values in last 15 figures both loose and carded with some other pieces taking on a mythical grail quality that ironical with the global economy and the internet are much easier to find these days. Carded could still be found at close-out at retail but these were primarily ROTJ and trilogo - so the value appreciation of MOC was sluggish early on. foreign issues had little appreciation back in the day to as people were more concerned with juast completing sets rather than branded runs, so for instance Harbert 12 backs were a budget alternative to US Kenner!

 

[Fishtalk]

It pretty much mirrors what was happening with Star Wars in the public eye. To most people, Star Wars was 'dead' between 1984 - 1997. For the true fans however, it was the Heir to the Empire book in 1991 that bought Star Wars back, and that's when vintage collecting took off. There were more price hikes and influx of New collectors in 1995, when the POTF2 figures hit shops, again in 1997 when the Special editions landed (when I became interested), then in 1999 the prequels began and finally we have the current insanity.

It's only the last few years (Disney) that prices have gone insane, even after TPM you could buy Palitoy 12 backs for relative peanuts, e.g. Ben Kenobi for £120.

 

[x-pack]

In 90/91 I was trying to get hold of a loose set of figures and anything else that came my way be it by dealer or car boot sale. This was before the Sansweet book so I had no idea things like Blue Snag existed, nor had things like prototypes come into my imagination. Price wise I was picking up last 17 stuff for less than a fiver, although Luke Stormtrooper and Amanaman were still hard to get. I took me a long time to find those and I think they were more like £20-30 by the time finally managed to source them a couple of years later on.

I know in 1991 a loose Yak cost me about £4-5 from a dealer on Preston car boot sale. A VCJ cost me £50 in 1995. That was one of the biggest purchases I made up until joining this forum a few years back.

 

[Lindo]

More to the point does anyone think prices will drop off a cliff any time soon??? or just keep rising?

 

[x-pack]

I would say some things have dropped off, or at least they haven't gone up. A lot of boxed vehicles haven't increased in value at all. In fact I bought things fairly cheaply in the 90's that I thought were really cool and now they are worth about what i paid for them, or maybe less.

It's mainly super rare items, mint (but scarce) figures, mint boxed stuff and some playsets and other vintage lines that have gone up and will probably continue to do so for a good while. As it's a generational thing so eventually the market will fall off as interest wains, or in other words, as we 30 to 40 somethings die.

 

[peekaygee73]

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

Cheers, that was really interesting.

 

[Ian_C]

More to the point does anyone think prices will drop off a cliff any time soon??? or just keep rising?

I pick option 3. They'll just plateau, unable to command higher prices, but too legendary to drop significantly. Maybe a slight drop, but I think we're looking at $1000 figures as a normal average for many from here on out.

Ian

 

[batman]

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when prices started going up compared to the original retail value but keeping in mind that some of the earlier collectors could have had some background in other collectables such as stamps or coins it's not hard to imagine them putting a higher price on anomalies and discontinued items like the Dt figures or the vc jawa, that's just the way collecting goes .
This interesting interview with Steve Denny gives some great insight into star wars prices as far back as the mid eighties http://www.kennercollector.com/2014...terview-with-star-wars-collector-steve-denny/
and you simply can't discuss prices in the nineties without mentioning Chis G's scrapbook http://www.sandcrawler.com/webpages/chrisgscrapbook/

 

[ChrisG]

Things traded above retail prices since the very beginning. Of course the scale was different, but there were aftermarket prices that were above retail. Even in the 70's people were buying Star Wars as an investment and somewhere on YouTube there's an old newscast about it.

And this is probably the earliest price guide - from 1983.

http://www.amazon.com/Official-Price-Guide-Collectibles-prices/dp/0876373198

-chris