One of the most extreme collections you will ever see

[Comicopolis]

The young chick in the jean shorts is highly collectible.

 

 

Your eye for a collectible is excellent as ever.

[nocutename]

Wow. I get crazy when a short box cannot fit into my closet. I couldn't imagine being surrounded like that. Did anyone notice the clipboard around the 5 minute mark? I wonder if her whole collection is color coded.

[skypinkblu]

I want to know how long it takes her, or someone else to dust?

[Rook]

Loved GIJoes as a kid, watching the whole film right now. Pretty cool so far, but makes me feel as if I might be overdoing my collecting of one of every Marvel Universe series figs, as it's starting to look like a baby of her collection, just different focus.

[s-man]

I thought this guy was pretty interesting as well. I heard about people have big collections, but DAM!

 

[Chespirito]

The young chick in the jean shorts is highly collectible.

 

 

Your eye for a collectible is excellent as ever.

 

In my early 20s, I had a collection of like 12 or 13 of them in Asia, I also did 10 years in a Phillipino prison for it...

[Anfield Fox]

I thought this guy was pretty interesting as well. I heard about people have big collections, but DAM!

 

 

That guy is a savage! The way he was treating those books

[Jeffro.]

The young chick in the jean shorts is highly collectible.

 

 

Do tell? I suddenly want to watch this now.

 

[EDIT] - Or, after seeing some of the weisenheimer comments, maybe not.

[shrunkenhead]

The young chick in the jean shorts is highly collectible.

 

 

Your eye for a collectible is excellent as ever.

 

In my early 20s, I had a collection of like 12 or 13 of them in Asia, I also did 10 years in a Phillipino prison for it...

 

Um, so not funny.

[comicwiz]

The problem with a collection like this is that you're dropping a ton of money on something you can almost be certain will not be sellable at anywhere close to what you paid. But if you don't mind that, then rock on! Cool stuff.

 

It all comes down to dedication and patience. If it's more of the latter, you could make a decent go reselling. My guess is though that someone as devoted as this collector (and not to mention this is an individual that is highly knowledgeable and has a vast access to both conventional and unconventional channels to be able to string together such a complete and vast collection), she would make a significant return just selling the rarer foreign line variations.

 

Without even having half of her devotion to collecting, I've turned around and sold items for 250 - 300 times what I paid for them in the space of a few months, and I wasn't even trying to sell these items at the top end (i.e. sent them in for grading) as I would have most certainly bumped it up to anywhere from 500 to 800 times my original investment. Doesn't happen all the time, but when you're surrounding yourself with that many items and variations within a specific line, you're bound to hit home run after home run.

[gcstomp]

The GI Joe collector is an amazingly organized completionist, with every variation of every item. I would think she has a better handle on the market, & what are the really rare pieces than anyone. I dont get why she couldnt make a nice profit if she opted to exit market and started slowly piecing out collection thru shows & a website.

[comicwiz]

She wouldn't even need a website with the kind of stuff she has if she entertained selling any of it. There's at least two decent Joe focused message boards that I can think of, and with the breadth of her collection, it's hard to imagine she isn't a member of one or more already. She would be absolutely hammered with PM offers if she even posted a thread "what do you think this is worth" which I'm inclined to think won't happen in her case because as you said, this is a person with a better handle on the market than a price guide. For the rarer stuff, and even a decent reputation on eBay, she might double or triple her returns from selling it through a community of collectors via a forum marketplace. For some of this stuff, the vultures would be circling so fiercly, especially the low census population variations, and potential buyers would still come out ahead buying top-end ungraded and reselling them graded.

[DeliBebek]

I also want to add that there is a major problem with collecting GI Joe figures that make carded collections VERY risky to purchase and maintain. It is the reason that I sucked it up and sold off almost all of my 80's GI Joes.

 

The plastic is brittle. I discussed it once before on these boards. Hasbro used a hard plastic known as ABS plastic to build their figures. The 82-94 Joes were constructed using a O-ring system where a tiny metal hook and a rubber band kept the figure together. They have been known to break very easily. Time has not been kind.

 

Imagine this. You buy a $1000 carded Snake Eyes v 2 With Timber the Wolf and it is graded by AFA. You let it sit undisturbed for ten years. Even if you never touched it, the likelihood exists that when you return to look at it the figure be broken and falling apart in the sealed bubble due to the rubber band snapping inside the figure over time.

 

It has been known to happen even in the best conditions.

 

 

I've mentioned this here before, but this is why I got out of collecting MOC Joes. I had a pretty substantial collection of the first 4 series, including most of the "keys"; one day, while looking through my collection, I noticed that the O-ring on one of my MOC figures had popped. Luckily it was a series 5 Flint that I had only paid $2-300 for, and not one of my 4-figure pieces. I subsequently sold my entire collection.

 

I had about half of a carded Star Wars line assembled before I went back to comics in 2010. Nothing to crazy, I was going after one of every figure, no variants or anything like that. One day I noticed that some of the bubbles had started to yellow. Thinking I was imagining things, I put them back and checked a year later in 2010. They were worse than I remembered. They were then sold immediately. I kept an entire loose set though of all the major variants and a Yak Face. The SW figures were made of a softer plastic and seem to keep up nicely.

Similar to the reason I gave up on keeping my Pez dispensers carded - the glue holding the bubble pack to the card gave out after a couple of years. My kids and I are still eating stale Pez candy since I broke out all the packages.

[comicwiz]

I had about half of a carded Star Wars line assembled before I went back to comics in 2010. Nothing to crazy, I was going after one of every figure, no variants or anything like that. One day I noticed that some of the bubbles had started to yellow. Thinking I was imagining things, I put them back and checked a year later in 2010. They were worse than I remembered. They were then sold immediately. I kept an entire loose set though of all the major variants and a Yak Face. The SW figures were made of a softer plastic and seem to keep up nicely.

 

It had to be ROTJ and POTF lines. Unless of course they weren't stored properly or displayed in lit areas for prolonged periods. I have 12/21 Backs all the way through to 48 Backs, with numerous foreign line examples in between and they are clear as crystal. And the 12 Backs date back to 1977 so they would be the ones most susceptible by age if this were an across the board issue.

 

Unfortunately, the reason why the yellowing blisters target later lines is because they switched sources/materials and the sub-standard quality of the plastic is becoming more and more evident with age. That said, even foreign variations of later lines (ROTJ and POTF) have for some reason stood up better (Palitoy and Canadian examples come to mind). Although it should also be pointed out that smokers, storage temperature, humidity and pollutants in a home environment can accelerate the yellowing on lines that aren't normally susceptible to yellowing blisters.

[Ogami]

Andrew, thanks so much for this thread.

 

I watched most of the video, am bookmarking this thread and you can expect some incoming PM's.

 

Have you heard of Nicholas Brisbane? You should check him out. I love all things collectible, and this woman is a prime example of the .01% of collectors. She is saving G.I.Joe for the ages. The only thing I've seen come close is what the Star Wars guy did (who now works for Lucas) in terms of shepherding/archiving the collection.

 

 

[october]

Without even having half of her devotion to collecting, I've turned around and sold items for 250 - 300 times what I paid for them in the space of a few months, and I wasn't even trying to sell these items at the top end (i.e. sent them in for grading) as I would have most certainly bumped it up to anywhere from 500 to 800 times my original investment. Doesn't happen all the time, but when you're surrounding yourself with that many items and variations within a specific line, your bound to hit home run after home run.

 

 

You could have sold items in the span on months for 500-800x what you paid? You were consistently paying $1 for things worth $500-800?

[Chespirito]

The young chick in the jean shorts is highly collectible.

 

 

Your eye for a collectible is excellent as ever.

 

In my early 20s, I had a collection of like 12 or 13 of them in Asia, I also did 10 years in a Phillipino prison for it...

 

Um, so not funny.

 

Tell me about it!...that placed smelled like BO 24/7!!

[Chespirito]

I dont get why she couldnt make a nice profit if she opted to exit market and started slowly piecing out collection thru shows & a website.

 

I don't understand, why not?

[comicwiz]

Without even having half of her devotion to collecting, I've turned around and sold items for 250 - 300 times what I paid for them in the space of a few months, and I wasn't even trying to sell these items at the top end (i.e. sent them in for grading) as I would have most certainly bumped it up to anywhere from 500 to 800 times my original investment. Doesn't happen all the time, but when you're surrounding yourself with that many items and variations within a specific line, your bound to hit home run after home run.

 

 

You could have sold items in the span on months for 500-800x what you paid? You were consistently paying $1 for things worth $500-800?

 

Did you even read my post?

[october]

Without even having half of her devotion to collecting, I've turned around and sold items for 250 - 300 times what I paid for them in the space of a few months, and I wasn't even trying to sell these items at the top end (i.e. sent them in for grading) as I would have most certainly bumped it up to anywhere from 500 to 800 times my original investment. Doesn't happen all the time, but when you're surrounding yourself with that many items and variations within a specific line, your bound to hit home run after home run.

 

 

You could have sold items in the span on months for 500-800x what you paid? You were consistently paying $1 for things worth $500-800?

 

Did you even read my post?

 

Um, yes. You said you have sold things for 250-300x in the span of months, and could have sold them for 500-800x. What do you think you said?