Swamp Thing Maquette

[Josh-a-tron]

Originally Posted by COI

I like this mentality, except that without a thriving secondary market you don't get new collectors, and without new collectors the business withers and you don't get the statues made that you want. So even if selling isn't a concern (and it isn't for me), you have to care somewhat about the health of the secondary market if you want companies to pump out awesome stuff.

Well that really depends, If you get more people into buying statues and keeping them, instead of selling them on the secondary market, then you have more customers and more people to buy the statues and the market thrives for the companies.

New collectors every year that want to keep their collections instead of selling them would achieve the same thing.

[forps]

The 2 main reasons ALL of our statues (especially the comic related or comic-movie related) are going to appreciate in value, down the road

1) 3d printing. The fact that a guy could easily download a file, go to a shop nearby and print a statue, is going to make TODAYS statues, even more desirable. Why ? I will explain it in a huge post (not today).

2) Hint. HOW many young kids or how many 15 years old boys watched the new Alien movie ? How many of them know Masters of the Universe or how many have seen Predators ( the last movie which was a flop)?

So WHY statues from Alien, Predator trade @ insane prices ? WE, men @ 30-40-50s are buying them. Men with HUGE disposable incomes and nostalgia for the movies of our childhood.

Think of a 10 or 15 years old boy. He is brought up with Marvel or DC movies. Now he has ZERO income to buy a statue. In 10, 15 or 20 years, he is going to work for Google, he will become a successful businessman, with huge disposable income to buy things. Nostalgia will come in and he will buy the things he was brought up with.

Simply speaking, the potential buyers of these statues (Marvel, DC) are going to be MILLIONS, BILLIONS of new guys watching superhero movies. We are in the ERA of superhero movies and the whole pop culture is around them.

Alien and Predator sell like nuts when their audience (WE) was 1/5 of the audience of contemporary superhero movies.

The above along with the total domination of 3d printing in 10 years from now and how this affects today's sculpts (i will explain it one day) is going to lead to CRAZY prices being offered to buy Thanos on Throne or even the FIRST EVER, Wonder Woman PFF (yes one of the worst QCed statues ever).

If a LSF Predator can sell @ 5k with an audience of 1/5 or 1/10 of todays audience for a Marvel movie, imagine what the price of the FIRST Thanos on Throne dating 15-20 years back is going to be.

If we (a rather small portion) are buying Predator/ Alien or even MOTU like maniacs, then this whole generation of children WORLDWIDE being brought up with SUPERHERO movies is going to simply skyrocket prices of contemporary sculpts.

Its like the price of Doom on throne. Any new rich guy coming in this hobby, wants to buy a Doom on throne to have the ultimate "statue" in his possession.

The future employee @ Microsoft, Google etc will easily give HUGE cash to have such a prestigeous piece as Thanos on Throne.

My 0.54, guys!

[SONICobra]

Originally Posted by Zombiez

I have no desire to sell anything i buy and don't care if they lose or gain value so i will most likely be throwing away shipping boxes and possibly the art boxes and my aim is to have no more than 100 statues but it will literally be years before that happens.

i hope you never have to move... LOL holy sh_t what a nightmare that would be, 100 statues with no boxes

i agree with your sentiment on buying to keep, thats how everyone should approach this hobby unless you can afford not too. that said, interests change - stuff becomes available you would rather have. the secondary market is a nice option to unload something you dont love or no longer fits your collection

personally im at the point where before i order something it has to fit a couple requirements:
- i have to know where it will fit in my display (determined by size and theme)
- do i LOVE it, is it a beautiful piece of sculpture? theres a lot of good stuff out there, i cant afford good stuff anymore it has to be incredible

[COI]

Originally Posted by Josh-a-tron

Well that really depends, If you get more people into buying statues and keeping them, instead of selling them on the secondary market, then you have more customers and more people to buy the statues and the market thrives for the companies.

New collectors every year that want to keep their collections instead of selling them would achieve the same thing.

It would, but realistically this won't happen. The buy and keep mentality - actually collecting - is less and less common. The internet has caused all collectible markets to explode, but the trade-off is it's a quantitative not qualitative increase. More people, but more options, more flash-in-the-pan, more fickleness. Add to that the space problem these things impose that I mentioned, and it's not likely we'll ever see the collector-base self-correct in the direction you suggest.

The reality is, intense market activity more than the art is what draws people in. Because the average middle-class person needs intense market activity to justify spending a car payment or even a mortgage payment every month on giant decorations.

[forps]

3d printing = OUR numbered sculpts are going to skyrocket.

In 20 years a guy could easily download a file, print a sculpt and go to a nearby shop to print it. Heck, he could easily HACK the file and not even pay. NOONE will ever know how many copies are going to be made = NO COLLECTIBILITY.

These OLD sculpts (the 1st Wonder Woman PFF, the 1st Joker PFF, the 1st Superman PFF) will skyrocket in price. Even Wonder Woman PFF with a 9500 ES and the atrocious QC is going to fetch RIDICULOUS prices 20 years from now as the 1st PFF of Wonder Woman ever and of course a NUMBERED one.

In a era with easy 3d printing, OLD and numbered sculpts are going to be the ULTIMATE collectibles. You cant see it today, but i bet that this is going to happen.

Our "customers" = the new generation, BILLIONS of boys watching movies and playing with small toys. They will have disposable incomes (as we do) and they are going to HUNT down the FIRST appearances of their beloved characters.

Brace yourselves, guys! Forps is opening a window to look 20 years ahead. Who am i ? Emmett Brown ?

[Zombiez]

Originally Posted by SONICobra

i hope you never have to move... LOL holy sh_t what a nightmare that would be, 100 statues with no boxes

i agree with your sentiment on buying to keep, thats how everyone should approach this hobby unless you can afford not too. that said, interests change - stuff becomes available you would rather have. the secondary market is a nice option to unload something you dont love or no longer fits your collection

personally im at the point where before i order something it has to fit a couple requirements:
- i have to know where it will fit in my display (determined by size and theme)
- do i LOVE it, is it a beautiful piece of sculpture? theres a lot of good stuff out there, i cant afford good stuff anymore it has to be incredible

YOU KNOW what i have never thought about that but i'm pretty sure there is some way to disassemble and move these things safely. I just refuse to store big boxes in my house for no reason maybe i'll flatten the more beautiful art boxes and frame them. but those brown boxes are definitely going in the trash.

[SONICobra]

just did a big move myself, so it was the first thing i thought of. roughly about 25 statues give or take and i couldnt imagine doing it with no boxes even just a handful would be a nightmare

btw, this is getting ordered...

[COI]

Originally Posted by SONICobra

btw, this is getting ordered...

+1

[kingdavidf]

Originally Posted by COI

+1

Ordered AF!!!

[Josh-a-tron]

Originally Posted by COI

It would, but realistically this won't happen. The buy and keep mentality - actually collecting - is less and less common. The internet has caused all collectible markets to explode, but the trade-off is it's a quantitative not qualitative increase. More people, but more options, more flash-in-the-pan, more fickleness. Add to that the space problem these things impose that I mentioned, and it's not likely we'll ever see the collector-base self-correct in the direction you suggest.

The reality is, intense market activity more than the art is what draws people in. Because the average middle-class person needs intense market activity to justify spending a car payment or even a mortgage payment every month on giant decorations.

Guess I was raised right But seriously, I guess it just needs a reboot, like the comic market after 98'.

Originally Posted by SONICobra

just did a big move myself, so it was the first thing i thought of. roughly about 25 statues give or take and i couldnt imagine doing it with no boxes even just a handful would be a nightmare

btw, this is getting ordered...

I won't be ordering, I like Swampy but not enough to spend the dough so I'll just live vicariously through all of you.