For a long while now, this Ignis figure by Alter was on the chopping block. I knew that it would eventually come where I would have to part with some of my figures to make room for others, but I didn’t know that it would be this hard…
I still remember the day that I saw the unpainted prototype from a Wonderfest photo. This was back before figure.fm was as large as it is now. I had taken my photoshop skills and “painted” the prototype figure. (feel free to check out my legacy figure.fm postings). The color scheme was based on the Max Factory colors, hence why it does look entirely different from the end result.
And after all that, here I am, selling her. I guess one of the reasons is because she isn’t nearly as impressive as Max Factory’s version, I think. She’s got a great pose, but she doesn’t demand as much presence. I was going to do a photoshop of her, but figured I’d do that later in the future.
It was during this photoshoot that I really started to appreciate the finer details she has, and started to regret listing her on craigslist. She’s already sold now though. Today, I’ll be bringing her to her new owner.
The thing is, I’m selling her for quite cheap. If I ever decided to re-buy her, it would be a huge chunk of change. The only place you can buy her from is ebay, it seems. And the price for her well exceeds the $100 mark (after shipping). Letting her go at $45 seems pretty cheap.
I don’t mean to pimp her out like some cheap whore, but to be honest, I wouldn’t pay those ebay prices for her, even though I feel she could be worth it. I think that if I want to move these figures out, I have to sell at a price that people would be willing to buy. I think $45 is a “reasonable price for a figure.”. Heck, I’d buy her at $45.
Then again, looking at the shot above, I might be willing to pay even more for her, but that’s my personal taste, since I already did buy her for even more than that to begin with.
But what’s done is done. I suppose I should use this as a lesson and price my figures higher, at a price I’d be more willing to part with. So far, the nibbles have been pretty low, so I fear pricing it higher simply won’t sell.
What do you all think? My seller’s remorse is getting to me. Do you think people would have been willing to pay more for her? Do you think selling her was a mistake?
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reselling figures is not that easy, I can understand that.
She’s a nice figure, but it’s ok that you decided to sell her.
I also have two figures where I somehow lost my interest in.
maybe someone would have paid more for her, but keep in mind that you probably made another person happy by selling her for this price =)
Heh, it most certainly hurts. It’s almost like saying goodbye to a girlfriend or something.
I think I would have been more willing to part with her if the price was higher, but then that sort of comes down to money, and not personal attachment anymore. I wonder… would I really have been more inclined to sell her at a higher price? Maybe not? I dunno. She definitely was on the chopping block for a while now though. ^^;
I do wonder whether or not the person that bought her is truly happy to have gotten her at a good price, or if he’s just thinking “sucker! ha ha!” Oh well. Can’t really think about that…
Sometimes when I buy figures from other people on Craigslist I wonder what circumstances drove them to sell their figures…Like, are they getting out of the figure collection ‘game’? Heck, even the anime in general? Did a girlfriend/wife prompt them into action to steer their lives towards different interests (that are apparently more “appropriate” by girlfriend’s standards)? Are they moving away so they have to downsize? Do they NEED to sell, or do they WANT to sell?
It’s just interesting to me, the reasons why one might sell off a figure…I guess you could say I am interested in people’s stories.
You know, I wonder that too! 😀
Sometimes, they say on the posting. Sometimes, you just have to ask.
I don’t think your buyer was a person with such a bad character =D
this summer I got the AL Azif figure from Alter for 29€
And I was happy for getting her but at the same time I felt a bit sorry for the guy who sold her to me 🙁
😀 I think I’d like to think that too. You’re a nice person. ^_^
I suppose if you felt guilty enough, you’d be like “hey, I feel bad. Are you okay with this price?”
I can totally see you doing that. 😀
Ah, the It-Girl of … what year was it? I forget. It feels like a long time ago but I guess it wasn’t actually that far back. Funny how it seems like I’ve been collecting figures most of my life but it’s only really been a few years. Anyway, I wanted the MF version of Ignis and I like the Alter version almost as much but me being me, I went with the Orchid Seed version, which had a castoff-able top. That was important to me but in retrospect, it seems almost quaint, and it’s one of three figures that I own that I don’t actually display because she’s leaning very badly and she doesn’t look nearly as good as MF’s and Alter’s versions.
That old figure.fm is old school, I remember how the posts used to be structured more like 4chan than they are now. I liked it a lot better back then than I do now.
She had a good run, that’s for sure. It kinda was a long time ago. And yeah I figured you’d have gotten the OS version. I was tempted to as well, not for the cast-off, but because I did kinda like the pose. But when I saw the quality of the figure in a shop, I was totally thumbs-down on it.
If you want to fix the leaning issue, check out my blog post on figure care.
I know what you mean with the figure.fm. I really liked it back then too. I think it’s more than just the way the legacy figure.fm was structured, but it was also a different community back then. I do miss those “golden years”.
I’ve thought about selling some of my figures too due to lack of room, but haven’t gotten to that point yet. I think you should start the bar a little higher and just say that the price is negotiable. If anyone really wants the figure, they’ll come to you with how much they’re willing to pay for it.
I did not know there was a “legacy” figure.fm… Heck, figure.fm didn’t even exist when I stopped visiting Danny’s site.
I think you’re right. I’ve reset my prices on craigslist. No bites so far, but oh well. At least I’ll be happier to sell my figures at that price. ^_^
Woah, you stopped visiting dc a long while ago then. I had no idea you were one of the original readers. I was there before figure.fm too, but didn’t really pay much attention to the commenters. ^^;
I found DC around 2006, but didn’t become a regular visitor there until 2007.
I can’t remember what year I started, but I think DC was on version 3 at the time.
It’s interesting to see how simply taking photos of his figures by the window would lead to him becoming so successful. (it’s more than that, I know).
So you stopped visiting? When was this, and why?
I guess it was around late 2008 or early 2009. I originally joined because it felt like a tight-knit community of people that just enjoyed anime and figures. When I left, the place felt like a crowded marketplace with everyone trying to show off their goods. There were no more conversations and it was harder to meet people.
Danny’s posts had also changed significantly by that time. Rather than writing actual blog posts, a lot of the time he would just upload a bunch of pictures and type in a couple lines of text. The way I see it, if he’s not going to bother writing anything, then I’m not going to bother looking at his posts.
This is very true. I started noticing that too. All of these loot posts and get posts really drowned the good quality posts. I think this happens when a community gets too large and becomes too mainstream.
It does remind me of what OEG said about the community in general. It’s a shame they used such a troll approach.
You’re right about Danny’s posts nowadays too. They seem more like a flickr account than real dialogue. I met up with him and hearing him talk is so different because his talks are intelligent with depth. Sad to see that doesn’t appear in his posts anymore. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with all of the other things he’s doing though. In a way, he’s sort of “moved on” just like some of the other bloggers who’ve left the scene.
I totally agree! Set the price high, but make it known that you are up for negotiation. This leaves room for the price to fluctuate between seller and buyer.
I prefer to price things a bit on the higher side, in fact I usually refer to eBay as a base market price if the item is long out of production.
The way I see it is that if you sold something for much less than its worth, you’ll most likely feel regret about selling it for so little, unless its something you desperately wanted to get rid of (like an item that an ex gave you…). In which case you probably wouldn’t care how much you got for it. In your case though, you didn’t exactly WANT to get rid of Ignis, you only got rid of her because your space restrictions necessitates weeding out your collection.
Another way of seeing it is you want someone to take home this figure and actually appreciate her and take care of her, the way you did. If you’re pricing low just to get quick sales, then you are likely to run into collectors who don’t really care, and just see a good deal. Whereas if you price the figure at her going market price, you’re more likely to attract a serious collector who will actually appreciate her, even if that does take awhile.
It totally makes sense. I’ve since priced mine higher, I feel better, but have gotten no offers at all. I think maybe I should list on ebay again…
Why get rid of anything? Why not just rotate your collection? Put some of your figures away for a while when new ones come into your collection; later, do some redecorating and bring the old ones back out while putting others away.
I got this idea from my brother, who does it with his gem and mineral collection.
I do rotate my collection. But I’ve got no room for the boxes in storage now, it’s gotten that bad.
Yes, boxes are a big problem. I used to keep mine, but eventually decided to just get rid of them all; they take up too much room.
if I didn’t have to store my figures, that wouldn’t be a problem. Also I tend to sell figures I no longer want anymore, so it helps when there’s a box.
Yes, getting rid of the boxes is pretty much an acknowledgment that I never plan to sell them. I may regret it 10 years down the road . . .
I think that it’s great that you can commit to your figures like that! You won’t regret it 10 years down the road because by that time, nobody else will want to purchase the figure anyway, so it probably won’t matter. Good on you! 😀
Actually, you also forget that after a while the value of some figure will go up due to rarity. Also, maybe it’s time to get bigger boxes to store larger number of undisplayed figures? It would probably give you a little bit more space, especially if you still have their boxes.
I keep all of my figure boxes. It makes them safer to store, and retain their value if I decide to sell them.
I notice that only certain figures go up on value, not all. It really depends on how popular the figure is and how rare it becomes.
I meant something like cardboard boxes to give you self a tiny bit more space in storage. Boxes inside a box!
Thanks!
It’s been just a few years since I discovered the world of anime figures. Prior to that, I had a collection of American style action figures: McFarlane’s Spawn figures, for instance. But the anime figures are generally superior to the American toys, being more creative and better made. As a result, the old collection has been gradually dwindling in size, and the old figures gifted to friends or to Good Will. So I wonder if one day the same might happen to my newer figures.
Hmmm… so you typically don’t resell your figures and just give them away? Wow, that’s really generous of you. Mind you, that’s something I plan to do with a few of my figures already because I know some friends who would LOVE to own them. But this sort of pattern doesn’t bide well with me since I have limited funds… I suppose that will make me think more carefully about my future purchases…
Well, American action figures are quite a bit cheaper than anime figures–usually under $20–and they usually come in blister packs, so they can’t be displayed without ripping open the package. As a result, they’re really not worth very much. I haven’t given away any anime figures . . . not yet anyway, and I don’t have any plans to do so in the near future.
You make a good point. It’s probably a lot more difficult to give away an expensive anime figure than blister-pack action figures. I’m about to give away two of my precious figures as xmas presents because I KNOW they’ll love them.