Free them or keep them pristine?

[mohawkjones]

In box for me. All POPs are in box and Hikari will be too. Thats like taking a vintage Kenner Star Wars figure out of the package and expecting some to still be worth thousands of dollars. Maybe 20 years from now these too will be worth thousands. Hell, some POPs already are and they are only a few years old.

Here is the difference, and no disrespect meant (this is directed at the topic in general and not you), this comes from someone who owned a comic book/toy store for 8 years and just my observation from that time (and what I told many a customer planning to pay a college tuition with their collections). Nothing is like vintage Kenner Star Wars figures. Their rarity and other pieces from that time period come from the fact that very few "collected" them back in the day. The overwhelming majority opened hem up, tossed the boxes and played with them. Now the sheer volume of product at the time left a few still mint in their boxes but it just a few. That is why they are considered rare and holds value today. Modern toys (since the late 80's really) fall into the tome of the collector. Those would buy 3 of each figure or comic, bag them and stash them away in their basement or attic. There is a more than adequate supply in storage to meet future demand. Access is not longer an issue as well thanks to the internet/eBay. With then added to the equation where anybody in the world can find someone and have it shipped to their doorstep within a few days. No more hunting in a catalog, a local shop or convention where you were at the dealer's mercy.

Beanie Babies are a perfect example of a rise and deep fall fad. They blew up, values sky-rocketed, folks stock piled them and then the fad/values crashed hard. Today most are worth next to nothing. Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the direction of POPS! Funko has the extra benefit of using licensed product so there is an emotional connection that might fuel a longer term value but ultimately minus a few early and exclusive releases the supply will outlive the demand. People are stock piling pops. eBay will make sure we always have an avenue to find them and to unload the stock piles. Fads fade. Collectors of certain brands will stay loyal but ultimately how long can Funko keep churning out pops that people buy blindly? Space and finances will eventually take over. Again see Beanie Babies and the 90's Star Wars explosion.

If you want to invest, go see an investment manager. Collect what you love. Look for connections and experience. Take them out of the box and enjoy them.

Again, just my $.02. Your milage may vary...

No offense taken by that. That was just my opinion as well. Having some of the older Kenner toys myself, I tend to apply that mentality toward nearly all collectibles. EVEN IF the same value doesn't apply to Funko products (being worth hundreds or thousands later on) the same principles hold true. If you have two of the same item, one with a perfect "mint" box and one with a crushed box...which will sell for more? It's ONLY a box, but the value is decreased on the crushed one. Maybe OOB collectors don't give two craps about the box, I don't know. Again, my opinion on things. If I were to see a holographic darth maul POP, one with a pristine box for 900 and one with a crushed box for 700....well, I guess I'll be the fool that pays the extra. And I know I'm not the only one.

I hear ya. Back in my shop days I always felt bad for the random guy who would come in with this idea that he was sitting on a gold mind in his closet. It was always the non-regulars who would come in and ask how much something is worth. Or that they had this holly grail of a collection that wanted to know how much I would give them for it. Then it would turn out to be early 90's comics, old McFarlane Toys figures, etc. I didn't do appraisals, I would just send them to go look at completed listings in eBay. I would get the one even once in a while "I saw a guy selling it for $200 on eBay". I would look with them at completed listings and see one sold for $7. Always felt bad seeing the face of disappointment. That's where I personally became a big advocate of read/collect what you love and just enjoy it. You might find a pop or two that go up but what one spends on stock oiling the rest tends to wash out. Pops are a bit of an exception right now since they are still on their sky-rocket ride up. Be curious to see where values fall in a few years from now when things level out. They have the license pull that Beanies did not to keep some life in them for a longer ride.

To this day the Beanie Babies fad and the frenzy they invoked giggles my mind.

[poppetmaster]

In box for me. All POPs are in box and Hikari will be too. Thats like taking a vintage Kenner Star Wars figure out of the package and expecting some to still be worth thousands of dollars. Maybe 20 years from now these too will be worth thousands. Hell, some POPs already are and they are only a few years old.

Here is the difference, and no disrespect meant (this is directed at the topic in general and not you), this comes from someone who owned a comic book/toy store for 8 years and just my observation from that time (and what I told many a customer planning to pay a college tuition with their collections). Nothing is like vintage Kenner Star Wars figures. Their rarity and other pieces from that time period come from the fact that very few "collected" them back in the day. The overwhelming majority opened hem up, tossed the boxes and played with them. Now the sheer volume of product at the time left a few still mint in their boxes but it just a few. That is why they are considered rare and holds value today. Modern toys (since the late 80's really) fall into the tome of the collector. Those would buy 3 of each figure or comic, bag them and stash them away in their basement or attic. There is a more than adequate supply in storage to meet future demand. Access is not longer an issue as well thanks to the internet/eBay. With then added to the equation where anybody in the world can find someone and have it shipped to their doorstep within a few days. No more hunting in a catalog, a local shop or convention where you were at the dealer's mercy.

Beanie Babies are a perfect example of a rise and deep fall fad. They blew up, values sky-rocketed, folks stock piled them and then the fad/values crashed hard. Today most are worth next to nothing. Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like the direction of POPS! Funko has the extra benefit of using licensed product so there is an emotional connection that might fuel a longer term value but ultimately minus a few early and exclusive releases the supply will outlive the demand. People are stock piling pops. eBay will make sure we always have an avenue to find them and to unload the stock piles. Fads fade. Collectors of certain brands will stay loyal but ultimately how long can Funko keep churning out pops that people buy blindly? Space and finances will eventually take over. Again see Beanie Babies and the 90's Star Wars explosion.

If you want to invest, go see an investment manager. Collect what you love. Look for connections and experience. Take them out of the box and enjoy them.

Again, just my $.02. Your milage may vary...

No offense taken by that. That was just my opinion as well. Having some of the older Kenner toys myself, I tend to apply that mentality toward nearly all collectibles. EVEN IF the same value doesn't apply to Funko products (being worth hundreds or thousands later on) the same principles hold true. If you have two of the same item, one with a perfect "mint" box and one with a crushed box...which will sell for more? It's ONLY a box, but the value is decreased on the crushed one. Maybe OOB collectors don't give two craps about the box, I don't know. Again, my opinion on things. If I were to see a holographic darth maul POP, one with a pristine box for 900 and one with a crushed box for 700....well, I guess I'll be the fool that pays the extra. And I know I'm not the only one.

I hear ya. Back in my shop days I always felt bad for the random guy who would come in with this idea that he was sitting on a gold mind in his closet. It was always the non-regulars who would come in and ask how much something is worth. Or that they had this holly grail of a collection that wanted to know how much I would give them for it. Then it would turn out to be early 90's comics, old McFarlane Toys figures, etc. I didn't do appraisals, I would just send them to go look at completed listings in eBay. I would get the one even once in a while "I saw a guy selling it for $200 on eBay". I would look with them at completed listings and see one sold for $7. Always felt bad seeing the face of disappointment. That's where I personally became a big advocate of read/collect what you love and just enjoy it. You might find a pop or two that go up but what one spends on stock oiling the rest tends to wash out. Pops are a bit of an exception right now since they are still on their sky-rocket ride up. Be curious to see where values fall in a few years from now when things level out. They have the license pull that Beanies did not to keep some life in them for a longer ride.

To this day the Beanie Babies fad and the frenzy they invoked giggles my mind.

You hit that one on the head..."so and so is selling it for $XX". Sure, you could ask $1M for a turd shaped like a Smurf but that doesn't mean it's actually selling for that. POPs and Hikaris are way too new to know if they are going to be worth the bookoo bucks one day. My original post was aimed at the fact that if they are one day, it will be in the original packaging, never removed. But with all of the re-releases and "from the vault" stuff that Funko pulls, it is hard to say what the value will be on something. A good example being the Star Wars POPs that were vaulted that people were buying for hundreds of dollars...now the POP is back on the shelves for $10, leaving a lot of collectors throwing their arms up. Value has depreciated on those originals, but you still have people paying a premium for that original POP just because it has a blue box. Out of the box, you may not even know if it was a re-release or not.

[EZA]

I take my Hikari out of the box and put them in curio cabinets I keep all the cards they came with in top loaders in boxes and I keep the boxes stored in plastic bins in the basement. I open mine up from the bottom and its easy to simply peel the closing sticker off and re-close so if I ever wanted to sell the package would be pristine. I find with the in curio cabinets there is no dust issues.