Should Price Guides be Your Guides to Action Figures?No matter what the collectible is, there is a price guide for it. In addition to books on the subject, monthly magazines like Lee's Toy Review and Toyfare publish feature prices guides to action figures in every issue.
While many action figure dealers closely follow price guides, many others determine their own values. How important are price guides to helping you determine your collection's value? Here are a few tips to remember that price guides are simply guides and not appraisals on paper.
1. The Changing Landscape of the MarketOne could argue that once a price guide is published, it immediately is outdated. By the time the book is printed, prices may have changed drastically since the price guide was written. Monthly price guides are better, but only so much space can be dedicated to the price guide in each issue, and so several toy lines are left out.
However, price guides are useful because there is some basis behind the prices. Most price guides use reports from collectible dealers and recent auction activity to determine the prices that are listed. Prices may have gone up or down, but if you look at a particular line and notice really high prices or relatively low prices, you don't have to think too hard about what figures are worth more than others.
2. It's Only Worth How Much?An item is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. Though they're not price guides per se, online auctions provide a good indication of what a particular action figure is worth at the moment. An easy way to see what something is worth is to do a completed auctions search on eBay. If you do an advanced search and click on "Completed Listings Only" just below the dialogue box, you can see what recent auctions for a particular item sold for, or if they sold at all. If the prices seem to fall within a certain range, it's a safe bet that your figure falls within that price range.
3. The Reference SectionPrice guides can serve as the encyclopedias for your collection. Many people can learn a great deal from price guides besides value. Price guides serve as excellent records of the figures that were available in years past. They make it easier to identify figures and their packaging when you are on the hunt. They also provide excellent lists of entire action figure lines. Because they are put together by collectors and not toy companies, they also provide a list of key variations within a line. If a figure was available in several different versions, price guides often explicitly let the reader know how to tell the difference in appearance and recognize the difference in value.
4. Portable PricesAs much as you might learn from the internet and from conversations with other collectors, you cannot constantly have these resources with you when you're buying action figures. If you're new to action figure collecting, it's an excellent idea to have a price guide handy. Have it close by so that if a deal seems too good to be true, you'll be able to check whether it is or not, even if you're not an expert yet. Monthly magazines provide prices to the action figures that usually have the most activity as far as their prices. They're probably the best bet for a quick an easy reference. However, the pictures and more in-depth coverage in books might be more helpful if you are new to collecting or are looking for more unusual toy lines.
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