Pete writes:
Happy April
Space Freaks!
SHOW FLOOR
When it comes to the overall show floor, it was insane. The hall was packed with dealers and buyers from beginning to end. The amount of vintage on display and for sale was impressive. I personally had never seen so much vintage in one location and from what I was told neither had several veterans of the hobby. In general there were probably 10 main vintage dealers -- Toy and Comic Heaven, The Toy Cave, Emperors Toys, Jeff’s Collectible Empire, Order 66 Toys, and the Toy Chamber just to name a few. In addition, you had roughly another 15-20 dealers that were dabbling in vintage with anywhere from 10-50 pieces on display. Loose, packaged, graded... you name and it you could find it there.
When it comes to the overall show floor, it was insane. The hall was packed with dealers and buyers from beginning to end. The amount of vintage on display and for sale was impressive. I personally had never seen so much vintage in one location and from what I was told neither had several veterans of the hobby. In general there were probably 10 main vintage dealers -- Toy and Comic Heaven, The Toy Cave, Emperors Toys, Jeff’s Collectible Empire, Order 66 Toys, and the Toy Chamber just to name a few. In addition, you had roughly another 15-20 dealers that were dabbling in vintage with anywhere from 10-50 pieces on display. Loose, packaged, graded... you name and it you could find it there.
As I told many, I feel like I did two years of collecting in
four days of this show. It was an
incredible experience and very fun to partake in. There was something for everybody on the show
floor, and a mad rush for several of the more sought after items.
One thing that was fairly annoying was hearing about how
much was sold off on Wednesday as the dealers set up shop. A lot of really rare pieces traded hands from
one dealer to another for their personal collections. Regardless of this occurring at most shows
it still bugs the hell out of me, maybe next time me and a few people will go
in on an “exhibit” to get a head start as well, who knows.
When it comes down to pricing, it was a real mix up. There was a
balance of great deals and steals mixed with some higher than normal
prices. Overall I would say prices for
more common pieces were on par with eBay. Below are some examples that were
fairly consistent dealer to dealer:
·
Blue Snaggletooth - $250-300
·
Yak Face - $400-$450
·
DT Luke Skywalker - $650-750
All of these were par for the course given where the market
has been over the last 6 months. The
inverse of this, however, were the rarer pieces that were on display. One would think that dealers in a lot of
cases were just showboating things from their personal collections, and as I
found out that was exactly the case with two specific dealers. The prices on some rare and even one of a
kind items were incredibly high even given where the market is today. Nonetheless, I wanted to highlight five
specific things that were noteworthy from my perspective as some of these may
not be seen again for quite a while.
- Bib Fortuna non-production sample (white coat) on ESB Walrusman Cardback - $25,000
- Han Solo Trenchcoat non-production sample (no camouflauge on coat) on ROTJ Emperor's Royal Guard Cardback - $25,000
- POTF MOC Salesman samples (Bossk, Leia Original, Lando and FX-7) - $15,000 each
- Vlix (Three on display at Show with only one left on Sunday) - AFA80 - $10,000
- Unproduced Ewoks 2nd Series Figures (loose) - Average of $6K with Chituhr and Morag going for closer to $8K.
All of which were up there in terms of where things have
been over the past two years. But given
that we’re living in a bit of a lunatic fringe situation, people may have been
willing to pay some of these prices. By
the end of the show the only pieces that seemed to move were a lower grade Vlix,
which I believe was $8K and several of the Unproduced Ewoks. Thus, there were some deep pockets at the
show and plenty to choose from when it came to rare pieces.
In between these two extremes, the most overpriced
segment of the show was actually the mid-tier items. Now there were some great deals -- I saw a few
MOC items that were priced well below their averages on eBay -- however, that
wasn't the norm. Some examples include
a guy with a stack of Revenge Proofs that started around the $750 mark for
background characters, and went up to $1K for Han Bespin, $750 for Chewy and a
few others that just blew my mind.
12 and
21 Backs were plentiful but almost all were priced extremely high for the market
today. The other segment that seemed as
plentiful and overpriced were 12” MISB figures, with most having price tags of
$1K and up with price tags of $2500 and up for Boba Fett and IG-88. Thus, if you were looking to fill in your MOC
collection or pick up a Revenge proof you had a lot to choose from, but were
going to pay through the nose for what you found.
ROOM SALES
One of the best parts of any Celebration are the room sales, and this year didn't disappoint anyone. Taking place between 11PM and 2AM on the 2nd floor of the Hilton Anaheim, it would be hard to say that this year didn’t offer some of the greatest finds (outside of the Stephen Denny proof sale) in the history of the event. If you’ve never seen rooms sales take place it’s truly a feast for your eyes. Droves of collectors move from table to table to see what booty other collectors brought to sell or trade.
One of the best parts of any Celebration are the room sales, and this year didn't disappoint anyone. Taking place between 11PM and 2AM on the 2nd floor of the Hilton Anaheim, it would be hard to say that this year didn’t offer some of the greatest finds (outside of the Stephen Denny proof sale) in the history of the event. If you’ve never seen rooms sales take place it’s truly a feast for your eyes. Droves of collectors move from table to table to see what booty other collectors brought to sell or trade.
This year there were several highlights of the event, but
here’s a brief synopsis of a few things that I was able to eye up:
- Loose figures, were plentiful and
reasonable priced collectors like Sean and Ryan Lemkuhl had great stashes of
POTF figures mixed with other great examples of main release figures. James Gallo was peddling a DT Luke
Skywalker. Lastly, a drove of people (I believe from Argentina) had a table full
of loose Lili Ledy figures. It was a
great opportunity to finish off a loose run or just fill in a small void.
- With MOC figures there was plenty
to choose from, however my personal favorite was Robert Daugherty. As Robert looked to “thin out” his MOC
collection, he ended up bringing over 100 MOCs just for this particular
event. It was great to see so many
people piling through the boxes and boxes of inventory he brought.
- With rarer items there was a lot to choose from. My favorite Swede Mattias Rendahl had several Bespin Security Guard proofs for sale, with a few exchanging hands that night. Derek Ho and his friend Greg set up shop together for what was the largest gathering of proofs at the event. Staying on the 2D front there was an individual who brought in a large TIE Interceptor proof (or it may have been a Cromalin), along with several ROTJ Cromalins including Yoda. In terms of unique items we also saw a Japanese Tsukuda ROTJ Greedo with his coin glued to the card. Lastly, there was a Tusken Raider 12 inch Lili Ledy (incomplete but impressive nonetheless).
One should also note that at these events people bring
things that are never set out on the tables. Deals are done before hand via the
forums or through connections, and delivery takes place here. One of my friends from the 'Chive Cast Skye
Paine took home a few rare MOC Chewies that I never saw put out, and a few
Cromalins exchanged hands without ever hitting a table. Thus, it’s always a great idea to network
before the event especially if you’re looking for something super rare.
All in all a great event and one to remember.
CONVENTION GIVEAWAYS AND EXCLUSIVES
As with every Star Wars Celebration, there were several exclusives and great giveaways from the Collecting Track. On the exclusives front, we had one new item that really resonated with vintage collectors: the Gentle Giant 12” version of the Droids C-3PO. The item was in short supply with only 50 released each day of the convention. Coming fully carded with a heavy version of the coin, this piece was quite inspiring and was seen more commonly in other exhibitors booths vs. at the Gentle Giant booth. The first two days the item was sold out within the first few minutes of the show. For
the last two days of
the convention, Gentle Giant had the idea to do a lottery. This lead to people having a
fighting chance over the exhibitors and it seemed to work fairly well. Nevertheless the figure is now up on eBay and
listed for $250 and up with a price tag of $108 (tax included) at the show
itself. With a Comic Con exclusive of
the Droids R2-D2 with Lightsaber coming up in a few months, the pair will
definitely be some of the most sought after pieces in the GG 12” line.
As with every Star Wars Celebration, there were several exclusives and great giveaways from the Collecting Track. On the exclusives front, we had one new item that really resonated with vintage collectors: the Gentle Giant 12” version of the Droids C-3PO. The item was in short supply with only 50 released each day of the convention. Coming fully carded with a heavy version of the coin, this piece was quite inspiring and was seen more commonly in other exhibitors booths vs. at the Gentle Giant booth. The first two days the item was sold out within the first few minutes of the show. For
In addition to the exclusives, one thing everyone was talking
about during the event were the Star Tots. 20 mini figures were made for the event with cases for the figures being
sold for $20 as well. The demand was so
heavy that literally every collecting panel was full during the weekend. People were trading and selling these coming
out of the rooms, and they hit eBay immediately upon being handed out as well. Today we can already see full sets going
for over $400 and individual figures like Yoda and Boba Fett
selling for nearly $100 apiece. A great
giveaway that ended with a hand out of the left overs on Sunday night, these
were instant classics and are up there with some of the best exclusives we've
seen out of any Star Wars Celebration.
That wraps up our coverage of Celebration 7 (Anaheim). If
you didn't make it I truly hope you can make it out to one in the future. With Celebration Europe set for next year
there’s another opportunity for Vintage Collectors to socialize, network and
have a great time celebrating one of the best aspects of our hobby: the
friendships and memories of events like this.
Wampa Wampa,
FB24
