Keep in the box or not?

I've got heaps of Star Wars figures and collectables and a couple of limited edition statues, but haven't really been collecting any kinds of figures as of yet, besides Galactic Heroes which I have most of, so I'm gonna start collecting different series of Star Wars figures. I'm thinking of starting to collect older and newer series, like Power of the Force, Power of the Jedi, Attack of the Clones etc. for the older figures and the newer Kenner vintage collection and The Clone Wars for the newer figures. But one thing I want your guys opinions on before I start collecting is should I keep these figures in the box? If so, which collections? Just the older series and open the newer series? What do you guys think?

 

Pretty much up to you. If you want to pick some of these up on the cheap you could go for loose figures (try eBay or Brian's Toys).. Just make sure they are complete with their accessories. My collection is a mix of loose and packaged. In some cases I have two of the same figure - one boxed and one on display. Most of my more expensive stuff (mini-busts, etc) are on display. I have a few in their packaging but that's more due to lack of space than anything.

 

My mini-busts and other display items are displayed out of their packaging, because I figure... what good is a display item if you don't display it? Almost all of my action figures are out of their packaging as well. They're not on display, though, and I keep them in a box. I use my action figures for stop-motion, so they're showing a bit of wear and tear and I usually buy loose figures, if I can.

It's really up to you how you want to display your collection. If you have the wall space and plenty of hangers, by all means, cover your walls with packaged toys. If space is at a premium, best keep them in storage. For display items, if you have the shelf space, display them. Rotate the display every now and then, if you have more items than you can display at once. If you can string up an X-wing from the ceiling... that would be super awesome.

 

All the old originals are loose and open. I have a few newer figures opened and on display that way so I can play with them if I want, but those are doubles. I have my favs and the signed figures protected and up on the wall displayed.

I say think about what you want to do with them long term. Is it something you can picture yourself selling in several years down the road? Then display them, but keep in the packaging. If it's something you can't ever see yourself selling, then take it out and enjoy it the way you want to.

I always open Legos and play with them. I opened all of the fighter pods. The rest is mostly unopened, even the special never-gonna-sell-it stuff. It's just the old collector in me. I have always bought one to open and one to keep if it was something I knew I wanted to open. I even did it with my Marvel SW comic books.

Totally personal preference unless you seriously think you will have a need or desire to sell them. Then you have to think if you should really be plunking down the resources in the first place if you don't get to enjoy them. What can I say? I have dreams of opening everything and setting up my own SW universe and then the nightmares of never being able to reverse that action. Of course, with all of my stuff it would take the internal square footage of a Star Destroyer, so I just rotate the stuff on display every now and then. A girl can dream though.

 

I have only one unopened figure currently, and it's my rocket-firing Boba Fett. I don't even have it on display. I have it in its shipping box and stored with an issue of FF #1 (rare foldout variant cover), away from sun and light in general. The only reason I keep that figure stored away is because after it arrived in the mail, I hit up eBay to see how much people were selling theirs. I saw averages of $25-50, to $125 and decided that Fett stays stored away.

Otherwise, for relatively common figures, I buy loose when I can, and free them from their packaging if I can't buy loose. They're toys, they're meant to be played with.

 

Jordan, my question to you is: After hearing what we've said so far, what do you think?

 

On Saturday I went and got 9 older figures from the POTF, POTJ and the blue carded saga series, I've decided to keep them in the box, but I am also collecting newer figures as well from the vintage collection and The Clone Wars series which I will open, which means I will be able to enjoy opening figures and looking at them, but also have older items still in the box to keep as a nice collection.

That's the same with me, I've got my Han Solo riding on a Tauntaun and Zuckuss statues on display currently, and I'll have a Clone Wars Kit Fisto Maquette to display soon

Same here, exactly, no point keeping displayable items not on display.
And that's a great idea about having the display shelf space and putting different items up there sometimes, at the moment I don't have much room for display, but i should have more room for some display shelf space like this later this year, I'll probably put my boxed figures and other cool items I have on them

I don't ever see myself selling them, but I think it'd be a great collection to have my older figures still in the box, then in the future I'd have a pretty cool collection of old boxed Star Wars figures, but then I'd also have my opened ones that aren't so old, but would still be a great collection. So yeah, buy buying new figures and opening them I can enjoy as well as having a nice boxed collection.
And haha, the internal square foot of a Star Destroyer!? You must have a lot! I think I'm gonna do the rotate on display thing since that seems like the best way to make the best use out of my collections, and with my collections getting bigger and bigger I think it'll look pretty cool having different things on display all the time

 

Sounds like you have made some solid decisions. Good Luck with your collection. Sounds like fun.

Yeah, I have been collecting for many many years. I sold a good portion off several years ago and I still have tons. It builds up over the years.

My best advice is learn to be picky and narrow your collecting as much as you reasonably can. It will save you $ and give you an admirable collection that you will be truly able to enjoy. Even though I learned that early on, I still have a HUGE amount of stuff. Nice stuff. Cool stuff. Fun stuff. But it is a LOT of stuff. I continue to add, but that means decisions on what has to go to make room as well.

They keep making cool stuff every year. It's far too easy to accumulate it over the years.

 

I agree with the narrowing down your collection focus. Mine, currently, is Zuckuss and 4-LOM-centric. It gives me plenty of hunting opportunities for hard-to-find items, and it saves me money, as the collection isn't ginormous. Though, there are a few items on my "want" list that are still a wee bit beyond my price range.

 

That's so true! Every year they keep coming out with awesome new SW stuff. And yeah being picky, I'm not too bad with that at the moment, because I'm just collecting all of the characters that I like, but still, that's gonna end up being a lot of stuff, lol.

 

That's actually a pretty good idea collecting certain characters, I sorta do this, but at the same time I collect others as well, lol. I mostly like to collect the Bounty Hunter's from TESB, I have like 3 sets of the Bounty Hunters and other stuff too, my favourites being my set of Bounty Hunter bust-ups and my Zuckuss bust.

 

While I love my Zuckuss mini-bust, my 12" loose figure is also up there in my favorites, mainly because of the stop-motion possibilities.

 

My collection is mostly Fett-related but I do have other figures that I've liked.

 

I have quite a lot of Boba Fett figures, and I'm still looking for a couple more of him in the series that I'm collecting

 

I think my favorite of the small figures is still the '300th' Fett figure with cloth cape. I've got quite a few of them, loose, in the error packaging, and in the corrected packaging. (Entertainer - toy store here - had an online sale on them).

 

At some point early on I was forced to narrow it down to a Han, Chewie, Leia, R2 & the Falcon. The I had to keep narrowing. Even so, I still have some things I get just cause they are cool. Like Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters have a shelf space. I mean, I love Han - he is my 'buki,' but he would be less cool without kick@$$ bounty hunters after him.

 

You should pose Han running from the bounty hunters. XD

 

Heh heh, already there, my friend! Of course, I have to have Han aiming his blaster back at them as he runs.

Toys are fun!

 

I'm a deboxer. There are some things that I keep in package because I like how they look in the boxes and they look great on display as items that I can sit other loose goodies on top of them. Overall though I have about 90% of my collection is out of package. I buy my stuff to enjoy it, not as investment pieces.

A relatively good rule of thumb is look at how rare the item is, if it's not super rare, it probably won't be worth a lot in the future, you might as well open it. If the box doesn't allow you to actually see the item or barely see it, then it's meant to come out and play If it's something that's super rare you probably want to keep it in package and then see if maybe you can come across another in the future to debox (be on the lookout for either another one that's already been deboxed or has a crushed box to bring its price down.) Items that have smashed boxes - the boxes at that point aren't worth much so debox them, in fact you probably are saving the item inside at that point. About the only boxes that would be worth anything are from vintage items and even those if the boxes are too trashed, trashed boxes won't add much to the value of the item.

 

Like I said in another post, I buy figures with the intention of deboxing them but just can't quite bring myself to it (I don't know why I kid myself) I know people say that mist of TVC figures aren't rare so rip into them but all that keeps running through my mind is how do I know what's going to be rare and sort after in the future?? I will kick myself if my deboxed and beat up TVC ESB Leia figure becomes the must have item of 2025 and the price sky rockets hahaha.

Oh the joys and tribulations of figure collecting

 

That's where buying two of everything would come into play; have one to play with, have another to keep. I don't do that, as I have no plans on selling my stuff at premium prices, but I have a few items I keep stored away. Every now and then, I hit up eBay to check the price of my rocket-firing Fett. I've decided that if the price dips to $25 or lower and stays that way for a while, Fett is being freed from his package, as there wouldn't be a point in holding onto him, and dammit... I want to play with him!

 

Personally I don't keep figures in boxes, I prefer exposing them in scenes so none of my figures/statues/ships stay in the boxes they are all out of it.

 

I have a mix of boxed and not boxed. It depends on the figure. Kotos and Unleashed are meant to be displayed, as are the Attackus statues (I have Boba and Jango). Most of the minibusts I have are on display but a few are boxed due to lack of display room.

 

Hmm well all my Galatic Heroes and Cone Wars figures are out the box. I have some Revenge of the Sith figures and 1977 Kenner figures but they where from my local Thrift Shop so they are not in their boxes and some of the ROTS figures have some bits missing from them. I got some Kenner Vintage figures of Sandstorm Leia and Colonel Cracken last month and haven't taken them out of the box yet. Should I?

 

My opinion of it has kind of changed over the years. About ten years ago, I would have said keep them in the box, they will be worth something, but my partner's elderly mother became ill a few years ago and she collected antiques, mostly pottery, but some furniture and other things as well, and her husband who was a bomber pilot in the second world war collected loads and loads of aircraft and military stuff. It is wonderful when something means something to a person, but a lot of this stuff was collected just to sell in the future....and the collecting obsession didn't just stop with antiques and military stuff, it extended to common household items, modern but expensive pottery that was never, ever used, postcards, marketing material for a sweets manufacturer which my partner's father worked for, birthday cards, Laura Ashley furnishings, and probably loads of other things that I've forgotten. When my partner's dad passed away a few years ago and his mum had to go into a nursing home, it was a nightmare trying to sort all this stuff out. I dread to think how much stuff we had to throw away and I wouldn't want something I loved to become a burden on family just because "I thought it would be worth money in the future." And also, when we sold some of the items, which we did, we found that we only got what you would have paid for it when it was new, or when my partner's mum first acquired it, and a lot of the time, not even that. I do doubt sometimes if action figures really would shoot up in value or if they would loose it, and how much something is worth is still very much dependent on what people can afford to pay when they buy it and it is also dependent very much on the circumstances of the economy, etc at the time when you try to sell it. My advice, forget the future value of your collection, collect figures, Lego, etc, just because you like them.