7 Tips For Buying Action Figures

This short guide explains what you need to know before buying your action figures, where you should look for them, the best places to buy your figures, and how to decide who to trust if you're ordering online.

1) Know Your Subject

Make sure you know which figures were made, when they were made, how many, the rare or "chase" figures, and how much they originally sold for and their going price now.

Most of this information is available on the manufacturer's websites.

The best and quickest way to find out a figures "selling price" is by doing an advance search on eBay for completed auctions.

You will then be able to get a list of all auctions for that item that have finished within your chosen time period, how many bids they had and the price they sold for.

Please note though that there are several other factors to be taken into account here, e.g. the category they were listed in, the item description, quality and the "sales ad" or "copy".

Also eBay is very much a "buyers" market, meaning that the prices achieved for items are generally a lot lower than retail.

2) Popular Doesn't Always = Valuable

Many people are under the false impression that the more popular an action figure is then the more valuable it will be; however this is often NOT the case.

A prime example was the Moore Action Collectibles series 1 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Action figures which had six Buffy figures, three Angels, two Willows and only one Giles per case.

So which sold for the most?

Buffy right?

WRONG!

The Giles and Willow figures became the most sought after and began selling for anything up to $30 each!

And Buffy?

Well she was being "dumped" for a mere dollar!

Why?

Simple because of the old Supply vs Demand rule.

Remember there were 6 TIMES more Buffy figures than Giles.

The moral of this story:

Be Careful with what you're buying and know you're market.

3) What Should I Consider Before I Decide Where To Buy My Action Figures?

There are several different factors that will ultimately influence where you buy from and how much you will pay, so we'll look at these first then where to buy.

New or Secondhand?

Before you jump to decisions and decide on only buying new figures first think about what you are going to do with your action figure.

For example if you are going to customize it (more on customizing later) then you would be wasting your money buying a new figure.

Production Quantities:

Most mass produced figures will be readily available from your local high street stores such as Toys R Us, Wal-Mark, Woolworths, K-mart, EB, Gamestop etc.

Limited production figures on the other hand are generally sold in specialist stores such as Forbidden Planet and local comic book shops.

Quantities

As with most things the more you buy the greater your bargaining power and the better your chances of negotiating a bigger discount.

Rarity:

The rarity of the action figure you are looking for will not only influence where you buy it from but also the price you are likely to have to pay for it.

5) Where to Buy Your Action Figures From

There are many different places you can go to buy your action figures and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

High Street Stores: You're first and best place for buying any mass produced action figures.

Specialist Stores: Good for your "niche" market action figures, short production runs, and exclusives. Generally more expensive but you will usually get better and more individual service.

Car Boot & Garage Sales: Excellent places for finding bargains but generally any action figures found here are likely to be in poor condition, but great for spare parts, accessories or loose figure to use for customizing.

Online Shops/Stores: Excellent value and generally good service and most items can be pre-ordered. However shipping cost can be prohibitive and you need to choose your supplier carefully.

Collectors Fairs and Comic Cons: An excellent place to find any exclusives or action figures missing from your collection and to find out the latest news and gossip.

Magazines and Newspapers: Make sure you check the classified section regularly, you'll be surprised by what you can pick up at bargain prices.

Government Auctions/Local Auctions: These are held regularly to sell off any goods seized by customs, VAT Inspectors or bankruptcy. There are many bargains to be found at local and government auctions as they are generally not advertized and few people know about them

Online Auctions:

Dealing with online stores or auction sites brings its own unique set of problems and dangers and can be a minefield BUT they can also be a very good resources.

6) Who Do You Trust?

The biggest problem with buying your action figures online is finding an honest, reliable, and efficient trader with excellent service and reasonable prices without the extortionate shipping prices.

Below are the steps that I usually take when I'm looking for a new supplier.

Google search the item

Look at the top ten sites listed

Check the prices, don't forget to include shipping and bulk discounts.

Send an e-mail enquiry, if they take more than a day or two to answer then reconsider using them.

Google the site name: check reputation

Short list the top three and make a "trial" order from your top choice.

Follow these simple steps and you should find a trustworthy and reputable dealer to order from without running the risk of loosing your money.

7) A More Few Tips and Hints

The biggest scam on the internet currently is phishing or identity theft. NEVER EVER EVER give out any passwords, id's, bank details etc by email.

Always go to the companies or banks website through your browser, i.e. Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Opera etc.

Google Alert- this is an excellent tool and highly recommended. Let's say you are looking for a Rock WWF(E) wrestling figure. All you need to do is add an alert for The Rock, or The Rock WWF and whenever this is used on a forum or website (or eBay listing) Google will email you with a link to the site or auction concerned!

Register on any relevant forums or newsgroups, these are great sources for finding figures either for trade or sale, often in mint condition.

What Action Figures Are Collectible?

What's Collectible? How do you know which action figures are collectible or will be collectible? Much of it is guess work or gut feeling. Part of it is an educated guess. A big part is knowing your market and target audience. So...

What added guidance and help can I give you? In short this simple guide is to help YOU make the decision based on my 15 years in the business.The simplest, easiest and biggest piece of advice I can give you is to remember:

"Today's toys are tomorrow's collectibles" Let me clarify that statement a little more. What are the kids into NOW? What drives their imagination? What games, cartoons, and comic books do they want? Which toys, games etc. will be the number one on this years Christmas lists?

These are the thing that are likely to be the collectibles of the future, the things that will be selling good money in another 10-20 years.

Why? Simply, because the collectors market is basically driven by nostalgia. Look at today's most valuable and collectible items. They're generally what were popular when we were kids (or at least when I was a kid!).

Good examples of this are they huge market for Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Chucky collectibles. All of these are huge cult movies from the 80's.

Then there are the Star Wars toys and Pokemon collectibles. G.I. Joes, Action Man, He-Man, Masters of the Universe and Thunderbirds.

It's the memories attached to these toys and programs that makes them collectible now, as well as the desire to have what we couldn't have as kids.

So, what do I think will be tomorrow's hot collectibles?

Looking at today's markets I would think that the anime/manga series Naruto and Bleach will become more popular and collectible over the coming years as well as other popular anime series such as Ghost in the Shell.

Also popular video games such as Gears of War, Warcraft, Halo and Guitar Hero have a considerable amount of merchandise available, many of which are highly collectible and are likely to remain popular for many years yet.

Oh... And I nearly forgot about Ben 10. Ben 10 is another TV animation series that seems to have become popular recently and captured kids' imaginations.

And don't forget about normal, everyday items. Many of these are likely to become highly sought after and collectible as well.

A prime example of this phenomenon is the old Robinson jam jar labels. These featured a golliwog and were on EVERY jar produced back in the 70's.Thousands upon thousands were produced every year.

Now they sell for about $500 simply because they were banned. But who saved or collected them? Virtually no-one, because they were so common, an everyday item. Again it's the nostalgia and memories associated with them that drives' the market and demand.

Do you remember any of the toys you had? Do you still have any of them? Where are they now? By our very nature, as kids we want to play with our toys, we aren't interested in keeping them safe and undamaged or even collecting them.

They were there to be played with. They were banged and bashed about, thrown around and mostly destroyed, broken and thrown out over the ensuing years. It's only now that we look back to them with the fondness of memories and a longing for our lost childhood.

So again it's often these things that become collectible and valuable. OK, so what about limited editions, low production runs or chase and variant action figures, cards, stamps, toys or whatever that are produced today?

Again these are generally targeted at today's collectors so are often based on past or vintage subjects, e.g. Star Wars, Thunderbirds, Elvis Presley, Battlestar Galactica etc.

Some will target new toys, games, current trends or popular items such as Gears of War, Halo or even movies such as Hellboy.

These items will often be highly collectible initially due to their current popularity and high demand but will general see a dip in value after a few years and as new trends take their place, but...

If they became a popular part of our culture and, or childhood experiences they will generally gain in value again in the long term.

A very good example of this is the Pokemon cards. In the mid 90's they were HUGE, so big in fact that I would say that every child in the world ever knew or had heard about them. Even kids in the poorest parts of Brazil were trading the cards.

But eventually, something else came along. The kids grew up and its popularity dwindled.

But now after ten years it is regularly back in the top 30 searches each month. Prices of the cards are selling at a brisk rate on the auction sites and the demand for the old stuff is increasing. So, if you have an old Pokemon collection tucked away, maybe its time to dust it down!

This is because the kids who collected and bought it then are now "grown up" and look back at the fun days of collecting them and maybe getting some of them back again.

I know I certainly do. At the time I was BIG on Pokemon. I had them ALL! I even had an Illustrator Pikachu and a Secret Mewto, two of THE rarest cards.

But alas, being a trader I sold them all of, but now...

I often wish I had saved a few.

Another piece of advice is to look for niche markets. A niche market is a specialist market. If you can find a small "niche" that has a loyal following then again these are likely to become highly collectible simple because although there is a lot less demand the supply or amount of product available will also be a lot scarcer and therefore more likely to become collectible or valuable.

In the long term, if you "invest" in the right things, the return in 10-20 years can be huge. Certainly better than the average return on your bank savings.

So, in order to decide what will hold it's value or increase in value you should consider:

What's popular now.
Check the top comics, cartoons, TV programmes, films etc and look for the common themes.
What are popular household items?
What games or toys do your kids and friends want and trash?
What are the popular niche markets?
What has become part of our everyday lives, a part of our culture, our language (an excellent example here would be Google, even the term "to Google" something has become common) ?
Consider the answers to these questions, these are the things that are likely to hold their prices and increase in value over the years.

Who is responsible for protecting children from unsafe toys?

Many parents are outraged by the recent spate of toy recalls. dolls, action figures, ride-on toys, teethers have been recalled too. lead paint, magnets that separate chemicals in plastic that are unsafe ... It seems that every day there is a new recall.

Outside of returning the toys and get a refund, what can parents do a? Who is responsible for the safety of toys? E 'enough to buy toys dealers trust? Or is thereIn addition, parents can do to ensure that their children are not victims of unsafe toys?

Eventually, of course, we as parents are responsible for our children safe. It is unrealistic to believe that all toys for safety can be proven, or that all so-called safe toy for each child in a safe manner.

It 's so important to ensure that toys are age appropriate and children just for the state of our development. And 'our duty as parents make our own decisionsbuy games based on the feel of what is right for our children, not what it says on the box or what someone else thinks is appropriate.

So it seems that children's security staff is a shared responsibility between manufacturers, parents and authorities to protect consumers. Toy manufacturers must produce safe toys so that they retain the confidence of buyers that have the greatest parents. At the same time, parents have to police their childrenToys stay updated on the latest information and check the points safe toys often.

If there is a recall, it is important that parents not allow their children to find and dispose of the toys recalled. You could not understand the children, the severity of lead paint of magnets, the brother of ingestion may be younger . It could be very appropriate toys are recalled and not be ready to discard it or give it to her parents.

Parents should bring all the toys in the house every now and then, just to make sure that toys are not broken or chipped paint or sharp developed to go. It 's easier to keep the toys when the children are encouraged to have a place for everything "rather than just to throw all their toys in a big one. Individual baskets for each type of toy make it easy to quickly go through them.

The bottom line is that we are all responsible> Safety of toys, but the manufacturers bear the brunt, as they benefit from the toys. They control the factories and the workers and that means that they are the first line of defense against unsafe toys. If there is a memory, the parents are to blame, even if they have relocated their production of toys. They have an obligation to do a better job of protecting children.

Career as a Toy Designer

One of the coolest jobs there, he became a designer of consumer goods and there is good pay in it. Think of the people, the Norelco razor or toothbrush or iPod automatically. Very funny stuff no doubt and all those we interviewed love their work and compare car futuristic design for GM, Ford, Ferrari and Jaguar.

The former employees Aerospace, NASA scientists and designers have in fact enjoyed racing his career and has become a designerother species after retirement. What do all these people really deciding what kind of career do their second claim to fame? Believe it or not choose a toy. Why you ask? Now they have put their creativity in him, no hard core project managers present their concepts and designs.

And you know what days it seems to work just as you would see all the cool new toys on the shelves this? I mean, come on, Remember when you were cool baby toys? Of course not. The average Wal-Mart store has many cool toys so you feel like a child just walk and look at what the islands that none of us had at that time. No wonder that a career as a designer of toys is one of the greatest careers in the design? Consider this in 2006.

The Most Wanted Ben 10 Toys This Christmas

Hey there, Ben 10 fans! There are some fantastic Ben 10 toys and accessories of control, for Christmas this year, the morning is the safest, Christmas is a big hit with all young people, the fans can be found under the tree. The fact is, it's never easy to understand what it is that children are under, to help you have the best Christmas yet, I have a view of the most sought Ben 10 toys and games at this time.

This officially licensed toys are ideal forBen 10 fans young people every year, and are available online at low prices in order to avoid the crowds and keep your budget and Christmas.

Some of the most popular and best-selling Ben 10 toys now include things like Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix which has lights and sounds directly from the show. This toy replica of the famous Ben 10 Omnitrix can bind to a certain number of children to unlock more sounds for each character. L 'Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix is full of characters to start with this, and now shows one of the most popular games on the market right.

There is also Ben 10 Ben 10 Alien Force action figures and vehicles to choose from. One of the most popular cars in the field right now is the Ben 10 Kevin Action Cruiser replica car that is great for the realization of the figures, and comes with an action given KevinFigure operational. Then there are other things like the play of Ben 10 Alien Force Alien Creation Challenge the possibility of additional maps from the internet for more games and also to check the Ben 10 costume child, use it! And Ben 10 Alien Creation Chamber? This is another great idea for a Christmas of Ben 10, and comes packed with four numbers to serve with him!

Thanks to the animated series Ben 10, and live-action video games, there is aStrong demand for games and Ben 10 toys for Christmas. These are just some examples, and it's easy to find more online Ben 10 toys and games. And 'certainly something for every budget and every need for a Christmas gift.

Toys are important for the development of the child?

We talk about the importance of toys for child development. Before the first year, children begin to discover how they feel their four most significant senses, smell, touch, and the use of sight. Children at this stage can associate sound and smell. For example, if a child hears the voice of his mother, he will be able to meet the sound of the voice t the face of his mother. It 's the same thing for the smell. You can recognize smell and associate it with certainPeople. Toys, produce the sound and music when the child was doing something action are very useful in this phase. Some examples of this are the classic toy a lot of noise, Rubber Duckie and musical toys. To develop the sense of smell of a baby, all you have to do to let him / her smell something and show him the source of the odor .

At this stage, children can make their hands a bit ', develop their sense of touch. The same applies to theVision. For the development of the child's touch, they might be some toys like teddy bears and other toys with different textures. For their sense of sight, you can give them color image with audio books and other toys for child development that are light and unique.

For children who are aged 1-2 years, are improving their social skills and independence from their parents. About this time, things like the construction and manipulation of children.You can give them Lego bricks, and simple toys that can be operated. When children reach 18 months, they can enjoy their freedom, because now I am alone and can walk and run sometimes. Give them toys to d, which is more active when playing with them as balls, work stations, toys, the sound from television or the creation of language and character toys that usually see in noise. You can also start reading stories or sing nursery rhymesIs your child at this stage as they learn to talk. It is also recommended that parents discuss their children very often.

From 2 years and above, who can now count and talk more clearly. They also improved their motor skills like running and climbing and become even stronger. Parents can be toys that can drop or throw, and toys that move and talk about robots, such as toy cars, and walking and talking dolls. Car for that you can 'go or push are also highly recommended.

In addition, children at the age of three are very active. Parents must play as bicycles, balloons, you can hunt to catch and throw, and climbing structures and backyard swings. The creativity and imagination of a child also develops at this stage that parents should offer their homes appropriate toys for the development of the child, as a set of dolls with dresses, trains and cars, dolls and> Action figures. They tend to copy or imitate adults' activities, so it's good for the parents the tools to give their children toys that adults similar instruments, such as cooking utensils, iron and ironing board, carpentry tools, lawn mowers, or mechanic.