Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pete The Greek]

Well I went to the Toronto toy show today (I was bored and didn't go to any of them last year).  The funny thing was I didn't go for JOE stuff but went to hunt down some McFarlane Toronto Maple Leaf figures (now I know where the all the Maple Leafs ones at TRU and Walmart went to in this area... scalperville :x Man was I pissed at the prices for them).  Anyways, I talked to two of the dealers that I have known for while that sell GI JOEs at these shows.  They both told me that GI JOE had already reached it's peak and is on on the decline in terms of interest in terms of vintage stuff.  The last 2 years was a gold mine for them.  But most collectors at the show today (according to the dealers) were only after the "cool" army builders and vehicles according to them.  Funny I went through that phase a couple of years ago.  I guess most people have either had their fill of the regular figures as that is what I really saw today.  I don't think there were any figures in the rare category today.  3 years ago there were.  I think ebay has caused more damage for local toy shows as a seller

So is the vintage nostaglia losing momentum? Or was it a case that the sellers really only had table scraps left?  I guess people have got all the common figures they wanted by now.  Kind of explains the trend I see on ebay where guys like Wild Bill don't sell or move. Storm Shadows and Snake eyes do.  Army builders do.  But I think the peak as been surpassed.  It has happended with Transformers from what I have heard.

[Stealth Viper]

There was a toy show today? Damn, wish I would have known.  :?

As for vintage losing momentum, I think that is due to the new stuff on the shelf. Why go to a dealer and pay $40 for the baroness when you can buy the newest incarnation of her for $9.99 and get a second figure to boot?

The only ones looking for the ARAH stuff now are the collectors like ourselves. The whole "buying it for my kids because its what I used to play with" market is gone because they can buy new gijoes in their local walmart.

[Techno Viper T-17]

I think there could also another reason that contributes to this: burnout. I keep hearing about how older collector feel burnt out. We know that there is a lot of fly-by-night collector right now. They tend to burn themselves out very quickly, but unlike long time collectors, they don't come back after a break. That just leaves army building which seems to be the big thing right now.

[Pete The Greek]

I didn't find out about the show until late yesterday after seeing this

http://www.toy-ads.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ulti ... 8&t=003858

[BHMike]

I went, and thought it was the first good Toronto show in a few years.

I'd have to disagree with the Joe market dying....
While I will admit, the army builders are the main things that sell (always have), I haven't seen any drop in interest in the other items - heck , just look at what I'm sold out of on my site.

With the other dealers (not sure who you mean), it could be a matter of them not being able to get anything 'new' in for awhile (old joe-wise).
I get items in every week..... lately alot of new stuff, but then again, in the last 4 years or so I've gained a huge reputation for dealing in Joes in Southern Ontario.......

Now Transformers on the other hand....... I'd say that was losing interest with collectors..... mainly becuase I don't get much in, so therefore I don't sell much of it......  I would assume other dealers would say there's no interest in Wrestling Toys as well if they didn't have much of it - or didn't deal in it........ yet it's one of my best sellers

G.I. Joe #1
Star Wars #2
Wrestling #3
Supplies #4
Bobbleheads #5
Video Games #6
Superheroes (mixed) #7
DVDs #8
He-Man #9
MIsc. Items #10

That would round out what sells best in here according to my cash register.
;-)
Mike

[Redmao]

indeed army building is a growing thing, I think. As for the search of regular figures being down, I think its still high. Me I'm looking to get all the joes I had as a child. When I'm done I'll probably continue to by completing each year I guess

[Tattoo Shane]

I know that locally Joe is a fairly slow market. I have met very few other GI Joe collectors here in town in relation to the amount of vintage Star Wars guys i know. Contrary to the online world, i think it's getting bigger here.

As far as things go online, i think there's an overall decline in vintage lines. I know the vintage SW market is really weird right now with rare, high end stuff hardly moving while silly prices are being paid for run of the mill stuff. I sure hope the GI Joe market isn't dying tho as i tink there's still a lot to be explored and a lot of info yet to be publsihed on several facets of the line.

I also think that areas like prototype/pre-production collecting hasn't even entered in most Joe collectors minds (as evidenced by the Dojo thread, no offence to anyone here but if that was a SW piece, people would lose their head's for it. ). The foreign market is just starting to come into it's own and i think from there, you'll see some of the more interesting aspects of the hobby start to garner more attention.

[Pete The Greek]

I also think that areas like prototype/pre-production collecting hasn't even entered in most Joe collectors minds (as evidenced by the Dojo thread, no offence to anyone here but if that was a SW piece, people would lose their head's for it. ). The foreign market is just starting to come into it's own and i think from there, you'll see some of the more interesting aspects of the hobby start to garner more attention.

I have bought a hand full of "prototypes" and I am happy with them.  But pre-production figures (i.e. unpainted ones), I won't touch.  They don't do anything for me.  But I like looking at them online from somebody else that has them.

As for foreign stuff, I rather keep the bandwagon light if you know what I mean. I don't need any more johnny come latelys to drive up the prices.  But acmirro (another foreign collecter on various message boards) will probably agree with me statement...there is alot of ignorance towards the foreign GI JOE market.  I have heard all the excuses and some them are pretty lame.  The one that bugs me is that GI JOE is American and anything else made as GI JOE outside the USA is crap.  Explains why Americans don't like hockey.

[Tattoo Shane]

Pete, are the protos you've bought modern or vintage? I'm also curious just what stage they're from if you won't touch pre-prod pieces?

I agree that there's far too much flag waving going on when it comes to foreign Joe collecting, or overall Joe collecting for that matter...it's one of the main reasons why i'm no where near as active in the Joe community as i am the SW one. I prefer the smaller boards where some of the better people in the hobby congregate. Some of the coolest looking and hardest to find figs aren't domestic, it's just a shame they're not respected as such.

[Redmao]

the flag waving is indeed a problem. Its mainly because american wont buy anything if the package is not only in english that we cant have all the waves here. If the package was by or trilingual from the start it might be more widely distributed, I think.

[Pete The Greek]

Pete, are the protos you've bought modern or vintage? I'm also curious just what stage they're from if you won't touch pre-prod pieces?

Nothing old.  I am not sure what category they would fall under but I got those cancelled Walmart figures of ebay.

[Tattoo Shane]

Yeah, i was interested in those as well...it'd be pretty tough to actually classify those ones. I definately think they're as close to production quality as one can get but seeing as how they're (at this point) technically unproduced, it's a sticky spot...i'd still go with calling them a First Shot i guess. There are a few of the Unproduced Droids figures that made it as as close to production as you could get ie. foot holes and dates, machine painted that are still called FSs just becuase they were never made. Interesting stuff indeed...