CAHokie Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I think it would look cool in this specific instance. The side of the brown base on MJ is a fairly large area that is just plain brown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes40 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Just out of curiosity, are there any 'investor' interest with statues? If so, is there a guide somewhere for this sub-market of the comic collecting community? Not really. Great pieces sell-out, become less and less available, and eventually start commanding a premium. That said, I think "investing" in these things would be a logistical nightmare. To make a significant amount of money at it, you'd need a lot of space for storage (which obviously costs money too), and you'd have to factor stuff in like breakages, shipping, insurance, etc... Also, the best time to buy would be pre-ordering (especially with Sideshow exclusives) and there's a lot of risk with pre-ordering, including significant delays and the product not meeting expectations or having a significant problem. Not to mention that there are usually restrictions on the best stuff (usually one per customer) so speculating on multiples of the same piece would be very time and cash intensive. Overall, there are much easier ways to make a buck. But if you collect what you like, and get in on the right pieces at the right time, you'll eventually end up with a collection that's worth more than you paid, and probably significantly so. 1-Some more sought-after statues and busts go up a bit, but I think many can be had for much less than regular price, just due to the fact that I think a lot of people tend to get rid of at least some of their statues after a while (money, space, etc.). 2-Initial price vs profit on them isn't nearly as much as say a valuable comic (plus a lot bigger buy-in per item vs a comic or even a toy). I can't think of many that would double in price ever, just due to the fact that they're expensive enough as it is. A lot of them, like someone else mentioned, for the rarer/highly desired ones, they tend to go up in price, then plateau for a long, long time. Pretty much they stay at that price for good. 3- Like COI said, it's just more of a hassle than anything to deal with these en-mass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarveySwick Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Get a metallic silver sharpie and get Campbell to sign it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COI Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Coi (or anyone else), how do you feel about getting your statues signed? I was thinking about getting the MJ one signed on the side of the brown base by J. Scott Campbell and Stan Lee. I would never sell it so I am not concerned about value just curious if it is considered a no no. Nah, it's fine. Besides, if you're not gonna sell, who cares right? The thing I like about statues is that people are still buying them primarily because they like looking at them, and all this silly investment-minded junk permeating comics is not nearly as prominent. Believe me, when you look at my room full of giant, heavy boxes, you know that the only explanation for that kind of madness is actual enthusiasm for the pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COI Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Just out of curiosity, are there any 'investor' interest with statues? If so, is there a guide somewhere for this sub-market of the comic collecting community? Not really. Great pieces sell-out, become less and less available, and eventually start commanding a premium. That said, I think "investing" in these things would be a logistical nightmare. To make a significant amount of money at it, you'd need a lot of space for storage (which obviously costs money too), and you'd have to factor stuff in like breakages, shipping, insurance, etc... Also, the best time to buy would be pre-ordering (especially with Sideshow exclusives) and there's a lot of risk with pre-ordering, including significant delays and the product not meeting expectations or having a significant problem. Not to mention that there are usually restrictions on the best stuff (usually one per customer) so speculating on multiples of the same piece would be very time and cash intensive. Overall, there are much easier ways to make a buck. But if you collect what you like, and get in on the right pieces at the right time, you'll eventually end up with a collection that's worth more than you paid, and probably significantly so. 1-Some more sought-after statues and busts go up a bit, but I think many can be had for much less than regular price, just due to the fact that I think a lot of people tend to get rid of at least some of their statues after a while (money, space, etc.). 2-Initial price vs profit on them isn't nearly as much as say a valuable comic (plus a lot bigger buy-in per item vs a comic or even a toy). I can't think of many that would double in price ever, just due to the fact that they're expensive enough as it is. A lot of them, like someone else mentioned, for the rarer/highly desired ones, they tend to go up in price, then plateau for a long, long time. Pretty much they stay at that price for good. 3- Like COI said, it's just more of a hassle than anything to deal with these en-mass. Points 1 and 2 are salient and interconnected. There are a couple of pieces available for pre-order right now from Sideshow that I would be my house will eventually double and maybe even triple in price. But as you said, how many are you gonna buy? You can only pre-order one, unless you get friends and family to make dummy accounts, and even then you'll have to shell out a lot of money to get them and store them for a relatively significant amount of time. Then, when it's time to sell, you'll have to put the pieces out for a decent amount of time if you want to get maximum FMV. Yeah, not worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COI Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 One last thing I'll point out is that, with the improvements of technology, and the nature of the business being that you're revisiting the same properties and thus have to keep topping yourself to get people to buy, older pieces do not equal better pieces. There may be a Captain America or Hulk or Spidey out now that's all the rage, commanding a premium, but if a future release comes along and blows it out of the water, demand will diminish. Even worse, one crazy buyer or seller on Ebay can create or destroy the FMV for a piece. This is such a niche hobby, and these things are made in such relatively small numbers, that prices are prone to wild fluctuations. I could go on Ebay right now and make a couple of purchases that will throw prices out of whack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarveySwick Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 So... bottom line, even more so than in comics... Buy what you like! (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hado Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 So... bottom line, even more so than in comics... Buy what you like! (thumbs u yup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rynaldosense Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Agreed !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COI Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 So... bottom line, even more so than in comics... Buy what you like! (thumbs u I don't see the fun in it otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthaiHERO Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Also some pieces with a low edition size have a higher likelihood of increasing in value. However premium characters usually command a higher number nowadays I.e. batman pf ex has an edition size of 2000. A lot of sideshow's older statues had lower ES, better exclusives, and/or better variants. On a side note a lot of their older statues were recasted and a ton of knockoffs plague ebay due to demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE_BEYONDER Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Also some pieces with a low edition size have a higher likelihood of increasing in value. However premium characters usually command a higher number nowadays I.e. batman pf ex has an edition size of 2000. A lot of sideshow's older statues had lower ES, better exclusives, and/or better variants. On a side note a lot of their older statues were recasted and a ton of knockoffs plague ebay due to demand. I imagine as the statute market continues to grow.....the risk of knockoffs increases. How long before statutes start getting graded? Or has that already happened? Authentication & a built-in display case for your precious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewWorldOrder Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I think this guy wins....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarveySwick Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I think this guy wins....... They're really cool but I feel like I was watching a recording of a serial killer videotaping his captives. Guy seemed to be all over the place and frantic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdoginohio Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Quick question. Been looking at statues online. Most of the time, the size in a fraction. It's kinda frustrating to gauge the actual height of the piece. Is there a conversion chart for this or does it depend on the characters original size? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes40 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Just out of curiosity, are there any 'investor' interest with statues? If so, is there a guide somewhere for this sub-market of the comic collecting community? Not really. Great pieces sell-out, become less and less available, and eventually start commanding a premium. That said, I think "investing" in these things would be a logistical nightmare. To make a significant amount of money at it, you'd need a lot of space for storage (which obviously costs money too), and you'd have to factor stuff in like breakages, shipping, insurance, etc... Also, the best time to buy would be pre-ordering (especially with Sideshow exclusives) and there's a lot of risk with pre-ordering, including significant delays and the product not meeting expectations or having a significant problem. Not to mention that there are usually restrictions on the best stuff (usually one per customer) so speculating on multiples of the same piece would be very time and cash intensive. Overall, there are much easier ways to make a buck. But if you collect what you like, and get in on the right pieces at the right time, you'll eventually end up with a collection that's worth more than you paid, and probably significantly so. 1-Some more sought-after statues and busts go up a bit, but I think many can be had for much less than regular price, just due to the fact that I think a lot of people tend to get rid of at least some of their statues after a while (money, space, etc.). 2-Initial price vs profit on them isn't nearly as much as say a valuable comic (plus a lot bigger buy-in per item vs a comic or even a toy). I can't think of many that would double in price ever, just due to the fact that they're expensive enough as it is. A lot of them, like someone else mentioned, for the rarer/highly desired ones, they tend to go up in price, then plateau for a long, long time. Pretty much they stay at that price for good. 3- Like COI said, it's just more of a hassle than anything to deal with these en-mass. Points 1 and 2 are salient and interconnected. There are a couple of pieces available for pre-order right now from Sideshow that I would be my house will eventually double and maybe even triple in price. But as you said, how many are you gonna buy? You can only pre-order one, unless you get friends and family to make dummy accounts, and even then you'll have to shell out a lot of money to get them and store them for a relatively significant amount of time. Then, when it's time to sell, you'll have to put the pieces out for a decent amount of time if you want to get maximum FMV. Yeah, not worth it. Do the Sideshows go up that much? (i.e. $500 statue worth $1,000- $1,500) It's more practical for an actual store to do this, I guess. Buy like 4 or 5 of something, sell a couple initially, and hold the others for a while. But again, they still couldn't do that for tones of statues, maybe a piece here or there. And then you get into popular characters vs the "oddball" characters (which I usually love). Have to decide which is the wiser investment. Most people are much more likely to buy a Hulk than an Apocalypse, but then the oddballs are going to be rarer, less statues around of them, etc., so might be more valuable, but harder to sell possibly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes40 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 One last thing I'll point out is that, with the improvements of technology, and the nature of the business being that you're revisiting the same properties and thus have to keep topping yourself to get people to buy, older pieces do not equal better pieces. There may be a Captain America or Hulk or Spidey out now that's all the rage, commanding a premium, but if a future release comes along and blows it out of the water, demand will diminish. Even worse, one crazy buyer or seller on Ebay can create or destroy the FMV for a piece. This is such a niche hobby, and these things are made in such relatively small numbers, that prices are prone to wild fluctuations. I could go on Ebay right now and make a couple of purchases that will throw prices out of whack. Very true with the age thing. There will be awesome older ones, which can get hard to find, but generally the newer ones get better and better in terms of look, design, concept, etc. With regards to eBay, I find also that supply at any given time can be wonky. Sometimes you may see 30 of the same Thanos statue, and others times, there may only be 2 available, leading people to believe there's not many out there ( or tones available, in the other case). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukes40 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 So... bottom line, even more so than in comics... Buy what you like! (thumbs u The thing is, too, with them, unless you REALLY like one particular character, once you have a Wolverine statue, or a few of them, that's kind of the limit for THAT character that you'll buy. So, the market for each character has a limit as well, and the availability of certain characters is large also, so those things play in to prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F For Fake Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Just out of curiosity, are there any 'investor' interest with statues? If so, is there a guide somewhere for this sub-market of the comic collecting community? Not really. Great pieces sell-out, become less and less available, and eventually start commanding a premium. That said, I think "investing" in these things would be a logistical nightmare. To make a significant amount of money at it, you'd need a lot of space for storage (which obviously costs money too), and you'd have to factor stuff in like breakages, shipping, insurance, etc... Also, the best time to buy would be pre-ordering (especially with Sideshow exclusives) and there's a lot of risk with pre-ordering, including significant delays and the product not meeting expectations or having a significant problem. Not to mention that there are usually restrictions on the best stuff (usually one per customer) so speculating on multiples of the same piece would be very time and cash intensive. Overall, there are much easier ways to make a buck. But if you collect what you like, and get in on the right pieces at the right time, you'll eventually end up with a collection that's worth more than you paid, and probably significantly so. 1-Some more sought-after statues and busts go up a bit, but I think many can be had for much less than regular price, just due to the fact that I think a lot of people tend to get rid of at least some of their statues after a while (money, space, etc.). 2-Initial price vs profit on them isn't nearly as much as say a valuable comic (plus a lot bigger buy-in per item vs a comic or even a toy). I can't think of many that would double in price ever, just due to the fact that they're expensive enough as it is. A lot of them, like someone else mentioned, for the rarer/highly desired ones, they tend to go up in price, then plateau for a long, long time. Pretty much they stay at that price for good. 3- Like COI said, it's just more of a hassle than anything to deal with these en-mass. Points 1 and 2 are salient and interconnected. There are a couple of pieces available for pre-order right now from Sideshow that I would be my house will eventually double and maybe even triple in price. But as you said, how many are you gonna buy? You can only pre-order one, unless you get friends and family to make dummy accounts, and even then you'll have to shell out a lot of money to get them and store them for a relatively significant amount of time. Then, when it's time to sell, you'll have to put the pieces out for a decent amount of time if you want to get maximum FMV. Yeah, not worth it. Do the Sideshows go up that much? (i.e. $500 statue worth $1,000- $1,500) It's more practical for an actual store to do this, I guess. Buy like 4 or 5 of something, sell a couple initially, and hold the others for a while. But again, they still couldn't do that for tones of statues, maybe a piece here or there. And then you get into popular characters vs the "oddball" characters (which I usually love). Have to decide which is the wiser investment. Most people are much more likely to buy a Hulk than an Apocalypse, but then the oddballs are going to be rarer, less statues around of them, etc., so might be more valuable, but harder to sell possibly. I don't buy my SST stuff as an investment per se, but I do make a point of picking up the pieces I REALLY care about via pre-order, particularly on Exclusive editions, because they do have a tendency to sell out and have significant price jumps on the secondary market. Bu, as has been pointed out, it's too much of a hassle in regards to storage space, potential issues with the pieces (two of the last three pieces I got from SS had paint or breakage issues, and that's just the tip of the iceberg) for me to collect SST solely for investment purposes. So, I buy what I like, making sure to get the pieces before they sell out (I bookmark the pages for the pieces I like, and if I notice the "quantity alert", that may push me to finally lock in my pre-order). If the prices really start exploding, I will sometimes sell if, and this is the BIG if with selling statues, if I think I can get the thing to the buyer in one piece with relative ease. A lot of these things are a nightmare in regard to potential breakage, and I'd rather not have to go through the hassle of doing an insurance claim, returns, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthaiHERO Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) Quick question. Been looking at statues online. Most of the time, the size in a fraction. It's kinda frustrating to gauge the actual height of the piece. Is there a conversion chart for this or does it depend on the characters original size? It all depends on the character ie a 1/4 predator is much larger than a 1/4 spiderman. Most 1/6 figures range around 12 inches. Sideshow's premium formats are usually 1/4 scale with mixed media. Sideshow's comiquettes are usually 1/5 scale with a few in the 1/4 size ie the original spiderman comiquette. Aside from their life size pieces there is also the legendary scale figures that are suppose to be 1/2 scale but they've gotten some lately about their scaling because the wolf 1/2 predator ended up being smaller than obiwan and wolverine. Edited January 21, 2014 by AnthaiHERO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
