The
action figure hobby has never really had an industry
standard source for action figure values unlike other
hobbies.That
doesn’t mean there weren’t any publishers out there willing
to offer their assessment on the values of action figures.
There used to be a few action figure magazines that came out
on a monthly basis which featured a price guide on select
figures.
These were sold at your local comic book stores, major
book stores or on the publishers' web site. You could
also subscribe to them and have it mailed directly to you.
Unfortunately one of these magazines ended its
publication.
Wizard Toy Fare which had been around for a few years
covered most of the more popular action figure lines of the
more recent years. They shut down the magazine in late
2010/early 2011.
Their publication never provided the source of their values
on figures; however I observed several sellers at comic book
and toy shows over the past few years using their guide as a
basis for their items’ prices and negotiations with
collectors and buyers.
Reviewing various forums and other action figure web sites I
found this was not just a local occurrence.
Another magazine is Lee’s Toy Review which has
been around since the early 1990s and continues today. The
magazine has a price guide as part of its regular features
and covers slightly more figures than Toy Fare. They list
that the source of their information originates from a
couple of reliable toy sellers and collected feedback from
collectors all over averaging out reported sales.
I do find their prices listed on most figures a bit
interesting as well as some of their investment picks as
they offer a current recommendation on new and sometimes
past figures they believe are worth picking up and hanging
onto for possible resell in the future.
They too have been well received by sellers and collectors
nationally.
They also publish a seasonal magazine/book that is strictly
a price guide and contains even more figures not covered in
their monthly mag. There are advertisements in their
current magazines to order this.
There are a few books that have been published in the last
20 years which provided a price guide on just about every
action figure toy line ever made up to that time.
Tomart which publishes Action Figure Digest published a few
price guide books with prices for packaged figures back in
the 1990s containing nicely illustrated photos next to each
figure product line. These books however were never updated
regularly and became dated.
There have been dedicated theme related action figure price
guide books on Star Wars, GI Joe and Transformers figures
and accessories, but they too were also never kept up to
date.
I will provide you some guidance on both new and older
figures later on this page using some of these publications
in addition to my recommended research methods to help you find the
range of value for any figure.
Although there is information on opened/loose figures
available, most of the information found is geared more
towards packaged figures.
I will say in general that opened/loose figures are in the
50% or less price range of its packaged figure
equivalent in
most cases - depending on condition.
If both figures are in very poor condition, then the
percentages are going to be on the lower side for the loose
figure's value. If both figures are in mint condition,
then the percentages are going to be closer to 50% of the
packaged figure's value.
Collectors and buyers will dictate these guidelines and some
will actually pay more for a opened/loose figure if it's an
item they need to have for their collection.
When reviewing the reference information below for packaged items and
then applying the same research methods with these percentages will
help you arrive at a value for opened/loose items.
Grading
The most
important aspect of evaluating the value of any action
figure is the condition of the item.
Just like any other hobby an item must be graded in order to
properly assess its value.
Simply purchasing one of the above books and magazines is
not enough. If the figure you’re trying to find the value
on is in poor condition, then the prices you see in these
publications will not be applicable. You’ll have to take a
smaller percentage of the prices found in order to help
derive at the price.
An example
would be if a figure you research is $100, but the figure is
in poor condition it’s not unprecedented if the value turns
out to be 5% or less. There’s no real rule here as most
price guides do not provide values for all grades.
Researching and comparing data will help you along.
The following is a summarization of the known grades used
for grading action figures that almost all collectors and
sellers use. These are primarily used for packaged
figures, but there are references in each grade for
opened/loose items.
Grading opened/loose figures are harder to perform since these
have so many more factors to account for like loose (not tight)
limbs, missing arms, missing legs, missing pieces, paint
issues.
The definitions for both are listed in full detail in the
Toy Review magazine and past issues of Toy Fare.
You can also find them described on various web sites.
Here are the grading standards in an overall summary
definition:
C10: Mint Condition:
Figures in this grade have no imperfections. For packaged
figures they have absolutely no tears, creases or other
damages.
For loose items the figure cannot have any no
discoloration, paint loss, dirt or grime. They must have
tight joints and include all original accessories.
C8-9: Near Mint Condition:
Figures in this grade are still very nice with only very
minor issues. For packaged figures they still match that of
C-10 with the exceptions of a minor corner curl and only
minimal dents are acceptable if barely noticeable.
The bubble may have tiny/minor dents.
Loose figures may have a single joint loose or may be
missing one accessory. As in the C10 grade they cannot
have any dirt, discolorations or paint loss.
C6-7: Fine Condition:
For packaged figures there may be some
curling and/or creasing. There might be minor fraying on
the edges and some minor permanent creasing or cracking of
the print and/or fraying of the card at the corners. There
may be minor creases. Small tears are allowed, but less
than 1/8 inch. There may be some yellowing on the bubble,
but only slight. Minor dents are acceptable.
Loose figures may have some minor wear,
discoloration or paint loss. It typically has some of its
accessories missing.
C4-5: Good
Condition:
For packaged figures
permanent curling or creasing of the card including cracked
print or ink is present. The card may have a lost of its
original sheen and brightness. It may be a flat, dull finish
although it will still have color. The card may have small
tears if they are less than 1/2 inch. Some stains,
writing including autographs and some small holes may be present. The edges may have some minor fraying or
separation. The corner may have a curl that is severe.
There may be permanent creasing or cracking of the print
with severe fraying on the corners of the card. Larger tears are
permitted. The bubble may have discoloring or yellowing,
but it should be medium tan and not completely brown. The
bubble should still be primarily attached to the card
although it may have detached sections smaller than 1 inch.
There may be other parts of the card front that have tears to the print/ink.
The bubble may have cracks
less than 1/4 inch and have pronounced bubble damage such as
crushing or large dents without any reformation.
For loose
figures they have excessive wear including clear discoloration, loose
joints and paint loss. The figures can probably be touched
up and repaired.
C2-3:
Poor Condition:
For packaged figures the
card may be almost completely folded over or severely curled
or creased including cracked print and/or ink. The card may
be completely faded to a flat, dull finish with the colors
severely faded or discolored. The card may have stains
such as water stains or dirt with tears or holes more
pronounced. The edges may have pronounced fraying. There
will be corner curls with severe creasing and/or cracking of
print with severe fraying of card corners. Creases on the
card are heavy and are cracking the print or the ink on the
card. The card may almost be completely folded over. There
may be price tag issues and tears. The bubble has
yellowing, but still attached to the card with a couple of
areas of detachment.
For
loose figures they are in very bad shape with loose joints,
breaks and dings.
C1:
Very Poor Condition:
For packaged figures the card may be ripped or curled with
heavy creases and one or more holes. There are stains or
marks on different areas. The edges are heavily frayed,
split or separated. The corners are heavily curled
or torn with permanent creasing and or cracking. The card
may have heavy creases. The bubble is completely
discolored and may be crushed or severely damaged.
For loose figures the
figures will have arms or legs off, major
paint loss and other defects.
Using
the grading definitions above, you can get a start on
grading your figures and given enough practice you will
eventually gain the knowledge and be within range of the
actual final grade.
You shouldn’t be grading C-10 or C-9 on items that are
really C-2 or C-1 if you really look over your items
carefully and re-read the definitions. Always be
conservative in your evaluation. It’s obviously much better
on you if you lower your expectations than to over estimate.
There is an organization founded a back in 2000 called AFA
(Action Figure Authority). They were created especially to
certify the grading of action figures since so many times
unknowing and or knowing sellers would often mis-grade a
figure.
This led to a lot of very unhappy and disappointed
collectors and buyers.
The hobby has grown more and more to accept their certified
graded items as the industry standard. There are similar
organizations in other hobbies that were created to ensure
the integrity of those hobbies. Action figures are no
different.
The AFA has its own grading scale that they assign to each
and every figure they grade. They grade primarily packaged
figures, but will grade opened/loose items as well.
They charge a service fee to grade any figure you send and
submit to them. The service is not cheap, but you will be
happy to know that your figure has been graded by them which
will go a long way in case you decide to sell your items in
the future.
You can read more about their organization and their
services on their web site.
Some collectors who purchase valuable packaged figures only
purchase them if they are certified by the AFA. Some only
purchase opened/loose items that are certified by the AFA as
well.
It will come as a premium to whoever buys certified grading
figures as the cost involved for the grading and the added
credibility behind the given item.
Most serious collectors will pay the additional premium and
sometimes very much so for specific figures in specific
higher grades.
I would
only recommend using their service if you have a packaged
figure from the vintage era (pre early 1980s) and after
referencing some of the publications above and doing your
research as outlined in the next sections that is valued at
or above $150.
It’s not worth it if you are looking at something of less
value.
If you consider purchasing any packaged figure for this
amount outright from a seller, I would recommend only
figures that have been certified.
Why take chances with non-graded figures above that price
regardless of where you buy them from.
New
Figures Guidance and Values
Now that
you have a grasp on grading it should help you when looking
for newer figures and then moving towards ascertaining its
current market value.
As mentioned above unless the item is valued at or above
$150 which almost all new toys are not, then I would not
recommend purchasing any certified graded figures or using
that service to submit your possessions for grading.
Newer figures I always suggest waiting when missing out on
the initial shipments of a newly released toy line.
They will eventually come back into stores. You have
to be patient. Toy makers want to keep selling toys
and they’ll do their best to get that product out to stores
until their sales data shows that no one is buying a
particular toy line and by that time the items go on
clearance and you have the opportunity to pay less than
their original listed price.
An average life span for a toy line is less than a year.
Toys have to make money for a manufacturer and the stores
that carry toys before both have to clear them out for other
products.
The big ones like Star Wars, GI Joe and Transformers have
been re-invented many times and have had to redesign their
packaging and product to keep them fresh and new.
Even their various lines will eventually be on the clearance
aisles.
Paying
double the retail price on any figure when it just came out
into stores is not wise. Most new figures are only going to
be worth the retail price and sometimes even less than that
a year later.
What you
pay for an item and how much they are worth to you is the
same thing. It is you the collector and buyer that will
dictate the price and value of any item
By waiting for these newly released items to return to
stores you save yourself from overpaying for these items and
not over-inflating the market prices.
As time goes by the more prominent and in demand toys will
start to separate out from the rest.
Generally one or two action figures in a given series or
product line will standout amongst the rest initially
because when their toy makers’ development teams and
marketing teams discuss and review in constant meetings the
next toy line to produce, they will always have one or two
in a series that they deem to be the least desirable among
buyers-mainly kids.
Kids account for a majority of a toy’s sales. Collectors
which can include kids make up only a small amount of all
sales. The toy makers know this, but realize that a couple
of characters are needed in order to make up the series or
product line. They know there are collectors who will only
be interested in that line if one of these characters is
produced and hopefully it attracts them to purchase the
other figures.
This is the reason why one or two figures tend to be
limited in availability and there are those opportunistic
buyers who cannot resist in buying these items as
they know they’ll be in demand by the many collectors out
there. These buyers will want to turn around and re-sell
them or use them as trade for other items.
These limited produced figures for the first few months will
typically be listed for sale at 50% to 100% above its
original retail price. That doesn’t mean that they are
worth that, but they are listed at that price.
Some will pay that price simply because they feel they may
not get another opportunity and there are always going to be
impulse/emotional buyers in this world that cannot resist
which can be applied to just about anything else.
The shrewd collector knows that these figures will turn up
and will bypass these prices.
In the long run if a character is really in demand these
prices will hold for years, but in my experience that is
mostly not the case.
I’ve seen too many short packed figures sell for multiples
of retail in the first few months only to see them degrade
in price in a year or two.
I’m sure that some will provide an example where a figure
continues to hold its rocketed pricing, but for every one of
those there are hundreds that do not.
One day new figures will rise in value as they become older
figures, but not as much as you would hope.
Here’s where you can use those periodicals I referenced
above on newer figures to do additional research and
comparison.
If you have an account on Ebay, I would pull up the
confirmed sales on new figures you presently own or you are
considering going after.
It is very easy to see the last 15 days worth of sales data
for any item using the advanced search feature entering in
the name of the figure and completed sales.
This will give you the current market price nationally as
best as available to all collectors and sellers. It will
provide you what others are paying which in turn gives you
the information you’re presently seeking.
Compare what you see online there with the monthly magazine
price guides. There’s going to be a difference. One will
be higher than the other. They’re never usually the same on
all items.
Average them out and you will see where that item falls in.
This is my suggestion when valuing newer figures.
You will also see if a given figure does not sell too.
There are a lot of factors for that as not everyone is able
to be online to buy all of the time and also the price may
not be something that buyers want to pay. Keep this as a
reference should you see a reoccurring trend if a figure
continues to be passed over and over.
Prices will fluctuate on new figures as they are volatile in the
first year and tend to settle into their true price range
afterwards.
Over time normally the more recognizable figures will retain
its worth long term while the lesser known items devalue.
If it is an obscure item that completes a collection, then
those may hold for a while.
The impulse/emotional buyer will always be around to
register that one or two sales a month that gets reported
while the majority of us do not fall for that temptation.
The individual seller who may have their own web site or
owns a store locally can only know what the prices are for
their customer base.
They cannot account for the many items that trade worldwide
24 hours a day / 7 days a week as what you can find on Ebay
unless of course they sell items there too which you are
then already using part of their sales data in your
research.
I know checking newer figures using this method may take some
time, but if you want to ensure that you have the most
current information on these items it’s really the most
accurate way.
Old
Figures Guidance and Values
As I
stressed in the grading section, it is really important to
understand the action figure grading standards.
When assessing older figure values, it is absolutely
imperative to get this down right or you will make errors in
evaluating the true value of older figures.
Read the grading definitions over and over and honesty and
conservatively examine the old figures you have or are
considering to buy. Once you feel that you are in the range
of the true grade, then you can move onto tracking down its
worth.
I recommended earlier that if a figure is at or above $150,
then it’s a must that the figure be certified.
If you feel very confident that you know what the grade is
and it’s not certified ahead of time, then you may feel
comfortable in estimating its worth.
I simply want you to be in cautious and feel that certified
figures of that price range is the best option in almost all cases.
Figures pre-dating the early 1980s are the ones that
tend to hold their value and continue to increase steadily
since those were not kept and collected in the quantities as
present day items.
They are genuinely scarce and have high demand and will
continue to be so especially for the more recognizable
characters and figures.
Pre early 1980s was essentially the end of the golden age
for action figures.
These older figures are not as volatile in terms of price
fluctuations as newer figures since newer items are normally
over-inflated due to speculation by sellers and impulse
buyers.
Collectors
and buyers and sellers get caught up in those early months in the price frenzy of the new items release.
For older figures collectors have been hunting for some of the vintage items
for years like Kenner’s Super Powers from the 1980s,
Mego
World’s Greatest Super Heroes from the 70s, Star Wars from
the 80s, GI Joe from the 60s, Six Million Dollar Man
from the 70s, Transformers from the 80s.
There are many books and trade magazines that have been
produced which attempted to assess the value of action
figures.
I think these publications are a great tool to use when
reviewing the value of older figures and give you guidance
on a price range.
I realize some of these have not been in print for years with the exception of
Toy Review which is a
monthly periodical that may not cover all of the vintage
figures. Their dedicated price guide magazine/book tends to include
prices for quite a bit of the more older figures in addition
to the newer figures.
Armed with your grading knowledge of any figure you may have
or are looking at, you can use the above as part of your
reference material and then visiting Ebay to research the
items specifically and checking the sales history for the
last 15 days.
By comparing the sources together you will be able to get a
very solid range of prices to ascertain the current market
value.
This may take some time for you if you have a lot of older
figures to look up, but is the most accurate way that I have
found.
You will also see if a given figure does not sell too.
There are a lot of factors for that as not everyone is able
to be online to buy all of the time and also the price may
not be something that buyers want to pay. Keep this as a
reference should you see a reoccurring trend if a figure
continues to be passed over and over.
Remember that if you’re looking at certified figures then
you can expect the value to be higher than the non-certified
figures since these are a premium due to the cost involved for
the grading and the added credibility behind the graded item.
A lot of collectors will gladly pay higher for these items
knowing they are purchasing certified figures. This will
not necessarily be reflected in your search for the value,
but it is simply an add on.
Happy Collecting!!!
Johnson's Collectibles
