Last week there were two listings. The first one did not sell, which wasn’t a surprise. They even tried to lower their opening bid to $69.99, but that won’t help.
The second listing sold for it’s opening bid price; about $15. There was only one bidder. My gut says a prospector bought it, but I could just be hungry.
The last few AW’s have been focused on Class A figures. I wish they weren’t. However, the Class A listings are, currently, the most discussion-worthy M.U.S.C.L.E. listings on eBay. I feel like ignoring them would be…dishonest.
The greatest problem the M.U.S.C.L.E. hobby faced in its infancy was lack of accurate M.U.S.C.L.E. information. That imbalance of information allowed informed collectors to take advantage of uninformed collectors. For better or worse, available information leveled the playing field. Dishonest, immoral M.U.S.C.L.E. collectors were forced to find new scams – and they did.
I wish Auction Watch allowed me to highlight fun, purchase-worthy listings each week. Those listings rarely exist. And if they do exist, they often end up in the Epilogue because, at most, there’s about one sentence worth of commentary.
That is why Class A listings are featured so often. I feel like it is important to recognize them and track them. It adds data to the discussion. For better or worse, collectors can decide how to use the data.
The first listing, M.U.S.C.L.E. MITO #60 Purple Vintage Y/S.N.T. CLASS A RARE!!, is an excellent example of how to misuse the data.
Sellers want the label ‘Class A’ to automatically equal a higher price. That’s not how the guide works. I’ve said it dozens of times. It is in the guide:
This guide is designed to consolidate all of the available M.U.S.C.L.E. information into one easy-to-use guide for collectors. Remember, these rankings do not imply any financial value. There’s a fine quote from a noted art collector named Charles Saatchi:
Nobody can give you advice after you’ve been collecting for a while. If you don’t enjoy making your own decisions, you’re never going to be much of a collector anyway.
The guide is just a basic road map. Do you know why the Purple #60 earned it’s Class A rating? It came down to popularity. On Soupie’s CIA the figure was listed as Uncommon.
There have been discussions about changing Classes. This single figure might reopen that discussion. I wrote that guide over 11 years ago. I don’t think this should be a Class A or a Class B. I think this figure should be Class C.
If this Purple #60 is showing up with a $450 BIN, then it might be time for change.
The next four auctions are from 1-tallponderosa-1. Once again this seller has listed Class A figures with sane, honest listings. He has started all of them with a $4.99 opening bid. The shipping is fair. The pictures are clear. And the auction description is straightforward.
If you actually want to sell a Class A figure, then this is the way to do it.
When I saw these four figures I expected them to sell for hundreds of dollars. I vaguely remembered them as harder-to-find Class A figures. Data suggests they will sell for much less. Recently we saw #110 and #112 sell for, respectively, $6.38 and $26. The last documented Purple #199 sold for $49.99. It’s worth noting their was one bidder.
The Red #85 figure is the wild card. I can’t find a documented sale on this website.
#1 by Scott on March 12, 2020 - 6:47 pm
I have since seen the error of my ways. The purple Mito is my eBay listing. I had trouble finding any that had sold to base my price on….so I took a stab in the dark….man’s gotta have a dream right? I have since lowered the price to $75 still wondering if that figure is too high as well. I also was reading a post where someone had used the term scalping and wondered if that also applied to the purple claw recently fetching $666 dollars on eBay. Scott
#2 by Chad Perry on March 13, 2020 - 11:07 am
Still dreaming.