Just curious I was looking at a few Gen1 KO's and then started to have second thoughts due to figures cost I understand the shipping cause of china but I mean they are fake right. Can anyway explain this?
I saw some trying to pretend they were reissues but some even stated they were KO's then asked for like 70 and 35.00 for shipping 105.00 for knock off WTF!!!!!!!!!
Disagree.... I dont feel this is true,you can buy Gn.1 figures at a decent price if you look hard enough.
Well, take shockwave for instance. If you can find one on ebay, in the more "affordable" end of the spectrum (somewhere around $150), it's still probably got a cracked hose, or missing a battery cover, or something. Or the guy didnt provide enough pictures to show that it can stand well. Or the arms flop in gun mode. Or he has less-than-great feedback. So really, you can pay around $100 for a pretty decent version of Shockwave that comes with his own box, or you could gamble on an original G1, and they only thing you've really gained is the right to say "it's not a knock-off." Whoopdee do.
True but alot of people, myslef included have spent serious money and time on our collections. If KO`s start flooding the market where does that leave us? The rise of AFA I put down to 2 things. 1) People having bad/untrue descriptions 2) KO`s If people didn`t sell KO/Repro shit then the prices would not have got so out of control. The net opened the market up, but its caused problems too IMO.
I personally don't care about the values of this and that on the market. Not in this hobby for the money. That being said, I've gotten the invisible mirage and 6 cassettes and they are wonderful. The clear mirage is as good, if not better than the original and the cassettes are about spot on as well. Just ordered a blue mirage and wheeljack off kotoys.com for 84$ which included shipping. I Already have those two but wanted new ones since just about any 25 year old toy is going to have wear. I would say if you just want these puppies to put on a shelf or to have for nostalgia sake, they are worth it.
So your saying it is the quality of the KO's that make they worth it. Cause I was looking at KO Optimus Prime and The Dinobots and just was weary of cost .
Ebay is a free market in its purest sense. If people weren't willing to pay $150 for Shockwave, then he couldn't sell for that much. But try convincing all the millions of people on the internet to only enter maximum bid of $70 for him when he comes up for sale. Won't happen. On the plus side, people probably wouldn't keep transformers in as good a condition as they do if it wasn't worthwhile to try to sell. Part of the abundant availability of second-hand transformers is due to the fact that it is lucrative to collect and sell them. KO values are high because purchasers just want to enjoy the figure, or they're not discerning in asking questions about the origin of the product and determining if it's an original, and sellers are unscrupulous about mentioning whether they are selling an original or a KO. AFA to me such is a crock. Hell, why not make the toy even better protected and encase it in a block of steel? You're never going to play with the toy anyway, why even look at it and risk it fading from exposure to light? Hey, the AFA vouches for the toy's value, so who are you to question if there's even a toy in there or not?
I`m not in this for the money either, but I would be lying if I didn`t have in the back of my mind that I could get at least some cash back at some point. Anyways things like Clear Mirage etc are a total different scenario. There is no way they can be passed off as orginal, they are just really cool creations.
simply it's economics: supply-and-demand what are the chances of finding an authentic mint/near-mint G1, and if so what will it cost? KO makers know that also keep in mind the molds that are generally accepted as "damaged beyond repair"/lost/copyright prohibitive. knowing Has-Tak can't/won't reissue these anytime soon (Wheeljack, Shockwave, dinobots) combined with their popularity, the KO makers will set their prices just below that of an original G1 Profit.
