Price guide for Vintage toys?

[rabidwolf]

Anybody know what the Overstreet equivalent for a toy price guide is?

[Guardian Comics]

There really isn't one

 

You can find one for Star Wars toys, and another for Barbies and another for GI Joes's but none that cover all the toy lines in one nice book.

 

Jim

[Dark Knight]

I have a buddy who made a price guide website strictly for vintage toys. Kinda like a GPA Analysis where each sale is recorded. I am not sure if it is still up (last I talked to him was back on 2010 and haven't talked to him since). You may want to contact him. His name is Pete and his board name is: ComicsAndCode

[mintcollector]

Actually there is one.

 

Toys and Prices is a good guide; as is Hake's. You can get them fairly cheaply through Amazon.com. I use them when I am 'picking.'

 

As for actual yearly price guides, keep in mind that most collecting fields are not as developed as both the coins and currency fields and the comic book collecting fields. Thus, a yearly price guide is not generally produced.

 

If you have direct questions you are welcome to PM me and I will either find the answer or try to direct you to someone who does.

 

Kind Regards,

 

'mint'

[ciorac]

I have quite a few toy price guides in my home library. There are some for just about every genre.

 

Here are some examples:

 

[ciorac]

[ciorac]

[ciorac]

[ciorac]

[ciorac]

[comicwiz]

@mint could you post what your guide values a Kenner Canada MOC (mint on card) 20 Back Boba Fett? Or a loose Lili Ledy Boba Fett? Just curious how it handles less frequently traded/sold items and/or foreign lines.

 

My experience is that guides generally serve one purpose - to help collectors pinpoint a top 10 or 20 list of more valuable figures, and/or to establish a value threshold so as not to overpay when buying.

 

What they do reasonably well is provide a snapshot of the hobbies they cover, but lack the depth and details to explain what makes them tick.

 

The vintage toy hobbies themselves are in a constant state of change and establishing a "standard" or universally accepted data point on valuations is next to impossible.

 

Part of this is due to the fact that they are still going through the growth and maturity spurts, where old guard collectors are becoming more fickle or focusing their interests on picking up pieces that have long evaded them (sometimes completely moving away from their original collecting goals), and new entrants (both specs and purists) are keeping up with the joneses and trends.

 

Just as there is in the comics hobby, you have a set of unpredictable variables that could effect the value of an item significantly.

 

Condition is one of just many things to consider.

 

Unlike comics, any tampering of a carded or boxed figure will mean you won't be able to have it graded based on AFA's refusal policies.

 

A carded or boxed item refused for grading will mean an even more significant value drop than PLOD. AFA refusal reports rarely pinpoint or explain in full detail the reasons for refusal, unlike PLOD's which explain the work performed on the comic.

 

Carded and sealed toys generally carry a significant amount of risk because so many have been tampered with by way of reseals, touch ups, trimming, and the use of price stickers covering up defects or tampering is becoming more and more prevalent.

 

Loose figures are a little safer, but also carry a risk, and the amount of reproduction weapons and accessories floating around is astounding. Being caught selling a vintage item with reproduction weapons or accessories will tarnish your reputation in the same way it would someone caught selling a restored comic as unrestored.

 

The hobbies also have an extensive history of knock-off or fake prototype, pre-production and production toys. However in recent years, there has been a wave of Asian produced reproduction/knock-off action figures which are now floating on the market being sold as vintage.

 

What this amounts to is a steeper learning curve on how to determine authenticity and detect tampering. Grading itself can be a study, and certainly is a topic worthy of introspection or at least its very own discussion thread. In a few words, if you think there is disagreement in the comic hobby over grading, this problem takes on a life of its own in the vintage toy hobbies.

 

Knowing values is certainly an important consideration, but using online sales as a data point could serve just as useful a reference, and perhaps is a more accurate real-time reflection of value than what you will find in a printed guide.

[underthebigw]

Those are some great books. Wish they were still in print.

 

Didn't he used to run some killer auctions in the 90's? If so, I caught the tale end of them. Great stuff.

[Junkdrawer]

eBay is a real good go to source for researching product info and a more realistic value. Most price guides are good for info other than price