Kind of a grim week for M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions, but I did stumble across a few things I wanted to mention.
The first auction, 166 Vintage Mattel M.U.S.C.L.E. Kinnikuman Muscle Action Figures with Ring, is further supports the idea that M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors will always find the good stuff. In this case, it certainly helps that a Satan Cross if featured prominently in the main auction picture.
But this is such a strong lot overall. It has 166 figures (including the Satan Cross) plus a ring that looks to be in very good condition. If collectors take a look at the entire lot, then they realize the initially off-putting $125 opening bid isn’t as bad upon further review.
Assume that the ring is fairly priced at $20 and that Satan Cross has a sale price of about $40, then the $0.39 per figure isn’t too bad. Plus free shipping!
This is far from a bargain dream lot, but it is a very solid lot. And given the current state of M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions these types of solid lots are going to draw far more attention for collectors. These auctions truly standout among the garbage clogging up eBay.
The second auction, M.U.S.C.L.E. Lot Muscle men 20 figures NOT A BIT RARE, also cut through the garbage. It used its auction title to do it.
The lot is a pretty standard: 20 Flesh figures. The figures have been identified, it has a serviceable picture, fair shipping, and a $0.99 opening bid. Aside from the attractive opening bid, there isn’t much to get excited about – except for the title. (And, frankly, I liked his other auction titles too.)
I would not argue that a funny title is going to sell your figures. I would argue that showing a humorous understanding of the hobby, with a great opening bid, will attract more bidders. And the more bidders that are brought into the mix the greater the opportunity for those bidders to be sucked into the gaming nature of eBay. And that does help to raise your final price.
The last thing I want to mention may already be obvious to some people. It wasn’t obvious to me.
I’ve done a lot of complaining about the current state of eBay and the M.U.S.C.L.E. hobby. I believe eBay is clogged with laughably absurd auctions with utterly outlandish prices. Then it dawned on me that many of these problematic auctions are not auctions. The vast majority of these scourge are set-up as BIN’s.
When I limited my search to only auctions it washed away many of the worst offenders. I do have to admit that my search results went from 3,120 to 234, but it was worth it.
I’ll still search all the auctions, even with the terrible BIN’s, from time to time. But for my purposes moving forward, the auction-only makes life much easier.
If you already knew that, then why didn’t you say so?
If you didn’t, then I hope it is helpful.
