Category: Collectibles

I promised myself not to get any Star Wars collectibles considering how invested I already am in Lord of the Rings, but I got a great deal on Jabba the Hutt and the Salacious B. Crumb creature pack on eBay. At first I considered flipping them for some money but I wouldn’t get that much, and considering the Kenner version of these were my favorite toys when I was a kid, I would end up regretting selling them. Jabba is about as big as a cat.

Unfortunately, it can’t end there. I need to get his throne. Getting that for a cheap price is difficult, but it’ll happen eventually.

I posted a review on Amazon.

Quick question. How much would you be willing to pay for this ToyBiz figure?

Over the past 10 month or so, my customers have been paying me an average of $45. This, for an item that once sold for $5.99 at KB Toys.

Since I firmly believe that toys are for kids to play with, and not for adult collectors to drool over, I hope each one of these goes to a child. But I seriously doubt it, considering the price people are paying. So why don’t I lower the price, you ask? Well, I’m already undercutting everyone else. That’s right. Most others are selling this for more than I am. That’s why I’ve sold so many. And this isn’t even the rare version – there’s another out there selling for much more with a fiery sword. Regardless, I declare myself: King of the Witch-King of Angmar figure.

All this for a character who got killed by a woman dressed as a man on a battlefield in Lord of the Rings.

I’m a huge fan of Sideshow Collectibles, which makes relatively affordable, high-quality statues of pop-culture figures, but its most recent addition baffles me. It’s a German paratrooper from World War II’s Battle of Crete.

Seriously, a statue of a Nazi? I understand adding evil fictional characters, such as Darth Vader, to your statue collection. Or even real killers that became famous due to folklore, such as Vlad the Impaler or Billy the Kid. But a Nazi? Seriously, too soon.

Sideshow, why would you do this? I still like you too much to abandon you, but I really want an explanation as to why you think it’s appropriate to make a statue of a Nazi. I’d rather throw out $325.

Here’s what you have to say about this:

The Battle of Crete: German Paratrooper Premium Format figure is a stunning 1:4 scale museum quality piece, celebrating the determination and spirit of the soldiers of the Second World War.

…the Battle of Crete: German Paratrooper Premium Format Figure is an outstanding addition to any display, a true tribute to the heroes of World War II.

Celebrating the determination and spirit of the soldiers? A true tribute to heroes?

Am I missing something here? Is this serious?

Over the years I took tons of advice on investing my money, only to watch the stock market play games with it over the past ten years. It was supposed to be a sure thing – invest for the long term and make money. But after what’s happened in the past decade, who’s to say it will do any better in the next 30?
Last June, I was searching Craigslist and met a guy who inherited a storage bin full of Lord of the Rings items. He knew what they were worth, and I knew what they were worth, but he obviously didn’t want to do the legwork. So I bough the items, loaded up my car – twice – and started selling them on Amazon and Ebay. Less than two months later I had already made my money back, and everything after that was profit. I’ve already tripled my money on the initial investment, and I’ve continued to search Craigslist, Ebay and Amazon for rock-bottom deals that I can turn around for a profit. And it’s worked.
To think that if I had just concentrated more on collectibles instead of stocks of companies that I have no idea about, I would’ve fared much better over the past ten years.
You can check out my Amazon.com store here.