Ugly Leia figure

I just found one of these carded at a close-out sale at a small local store. Is it worth anything?

 

In price guides it adverages between 12 and 15 dollars. But keep in mind, that is if the card and bubble is in really good condition.
I've seen this sell for about 8 at a local store.
But it's good buy at a close out price!

 

cool beans. i paid $4. thanks!

 

Double the money! Good find!

 

Price guide pfft

An orange card Leia goes for about $4.00 on eBay and thats MOC. Thats the problem with price guides IMO. You see the prices they put on a certain figure and they just seem totaly removed from what you are actually going to pay for them. There was a question and answer on a recent GH Q&A that sums up what I think of price guides.

3. Back in the days, before eBay and before the internet was commonplace, I used Wizard and Toyfare magazine as a checklist, and also as a means to try and keep track of what is obscure in the world of SW action figures and toys. Now, with all the selling done on eBay, do you think it's a fair call to assume that eBay itself could be used as a pricing guide for figures?

I chat with a collector, who buys off eBay, and (for example) bought a bunch of POTF2 figures for $2.00 a pop, but he then insists on quoting me the "book price" I don't know what book he means, but It can't be current. He'll insist that they "book" for something higher than what he got them for on eBay, and to me, that does not seem right. I've always seen price guides as something just that; a price GUIDE

I view eBay, as the most current guide and truly reflects the market as to what's hot, and what is not. I've given up trying to convice people; what advice can you give me/us?
--Mike

Price guides are a tricky thing-- as you say, it's just a guide. That's one thing. The other thing is the market doesn't jump around too much, and that if you're a magazine listing prices for hundreds if not thousands of figures, there's going to be some errors. As such, I'm a little bit wary of any printed price guide.

For my money, there's no finer indicator of the market than eBay. Prices can jump a lot more, though, and a few freak bidders can overpay for a few items and make them seem infinitely more valuable than they really are. That, and each country may have a different eBay with different prices-- eBay US and eBay Germany have wildly different prices on some Playmobil items, for example.

When buying with collectors, or stores, or dealers, remember that a lot of people aren't interested in the most perfect price as much as the most perfect deal. I've been to stores that have figures for double or triple what they go for on eBay, and much more than what most price guides list them at, but in some cases this is necessary-- if you're a store, you've got to include extras in the price like health insurance, electricity, rent, and so on. When it comes to private collectors, though, I take my ball and go home if I don't like your price. There's really no point in arguing over a price with anyone if you can do better elsewhere.

When it comes to POTF2 figures-- which are probably almost never worth what you paid for them in the stores-- well, you've got a special case. A lot of people bought these at a point in time where most collectors believed, as many still do, that all their toys are worth money. With so many figures from 1995-1998 that were blown out for $2 or less each, these "investments" were basically trashed, and given the huge quantity of these widely available, you're dealing with figures that are really worthless. If these things were still in Kay-Bee discount bins, $2 is about what they'd go for. As such, ****** the guy who wants to do "book price." Toys are worth what you're willing to pay for them, if the market suddenly decided that AFA Graded Darth Vader figures from 1978 weren't interesting, they'd be selling for $50 or less in a matter of days. The 1997 Special Edition Theater Giveaway Luke Skywalker used to be a $300 figure... and now? Not a chance.

The best advice I can give you is stop trying to convince people-- sadly, people will learn what their toys are worth when they do (or don't) sell. I think it's going to be very difficult to convince people to sell figures for the dollar or two they're actually worth when they paid $5, but the other thing to remember is that eBay is a big garage sale. While some people put stuff up there to make money, others put it up t