The website went on a very temporary hiatus and I would be remiss if I didn’t start with the results of evelogic’s Class A listings from the last Epilogue:
- Purple #40 – Sold for $100
- Purple #56 – Sold for $88
- Dark Blue #75 – Sold for $24.50
- Red #108 – Sold for $45.44
- Red #113 – Sold for $41
- Red #139 – Sold for $517.67
- Light Blue #157 – Sold for $61.06
- Green #164 – Sold for $146.50
- Salmon #165 – Sold for $24.50
- Salmon #179 – Sold for $25.24
- Green #183 – Sold for $536.26
These results were interesting to me for three reasons. The first thing that interested me was the sale price of the Salmon #179. I wondered if anyone would care because it went unsold for $10 in a small lot. And when it has sold it was for a few dollars and even $0.99. I am absolutely shocked it sold anywhere north of $5. Shocked. Arguably, it is the most shocking sale price.
The second interesting aspect of those Class A figures was the Red #139 and Green #183. If you had asked me to place a bet on which figure would sell for more money, then I would have bet EVERYTHING on Red #139. I fully expected Red #139 to sell closer to $1,000, but that was dumb. Recent sales have been right in the $500-range. I guess I had this Red #125 at the forefront of my mind. Plus, I figured about $300 was the top “outrageous” price for the Green #183. Interesting.
Finally, I was most excited to see a very positive overall trend with these Class A figures. Aside from the few outliers (as a result of Master Set Fools and the MRT – which is normal) the figures followed the basic trend we’ve seen for almost 20 years:
The UofM M.U.S.C.L.E. Price Guide :
The Class system was developed in 2009 as a tool to help collectors understand collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. Class A should not be thought of as a simple synonym for expensive. Most simply, Class A figures are more difficult to find Color M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.
The price of Class A figures is most often driven by Master Set collectors’ needs (and ultimately the MRT). Most Class A figures are worth $20 or less. The most attractive and most popular Class A figures may be able to command a maximum price around $100 – but that is a small number of the Class A figures.
The sale prices of these figures made me happy. Class A figures should never been assigned an absolute value. Only a fool would suggest it and only a novice would believe it. Instead, Class A figures loosely fall into variable price zones. That’s what these did. I think these Class A figures selling without any histrionics, and kind of where we’d generally expect, is an wonderful sign for our community. Good job everybody.
I’m going to carry that happiness directly into $0.99 activity on eBay – which, as I said in AW #328, seems to be trending towards normalization. At least with actual M.U.S.C.L.E. fans.
– viver_28 keeps turning out the $0.99 hits.
– Maybe this is at $46 (as of writing) because it started at $0.01. Thank you addancer.
– This will have sold, but thanks to weidlein123.
– Thanks to mapaul78 for starting four lots starting at $1.
– Jon has a $0.99 Flesh lot that is doing surprisingly well.
Wow. Besides the above listings, and the four AOTWs, there isn’t another M.U.S.C.L.E. listing on eBay worth mentioning. What’s left to say about stupid, greedy sellers that aren’t bad enough to become AOTW nominees? Nothing and I like it.
There really is a razor-thin line between perseverance and insanity. I look at the six listings below and I see insanity. These sellers are repeating that same, ill-advised behavior and expecting a different result. But could your argue they are show perseverance?
Yes. Against unbelievable odds and logic, they believe these items are going to sell as is. 151 weeks of failure? Not a problem; keep going.
Maybe the thin line separating perseverance and insanity is effort? If you endlessly talked about wanting to be an astronaut, but didn’t actually do anything to achieve your goal, then you are insane. If you endlessly talked about wanting to be an astronaut, and did everything conceivable to achieve your goal, then you are persistent. In both cases you may not become an astronaut, but the only difference is effort. I don’t know.
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We’re entering the period where there are two many AOTW winners. We’ve got the Battle of the Champions Winner, plus we’re starting to collect four new winners – culminating with the ULTIMATE AOTW Battle of the Champions. And then we can finally have those four face-off.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s pay our respects to the sellers that said, “Hold my beer.”
The AOTW #1 is definitely no cap (my boys would grown and roll their eyes at this exact moment). It is also missing one of the caps to one of the containers. Did that deter our seller in any way? Absolutely not…unless, she planned on originally charging more than $209.95 for 81 figures and an incomplete, loose belt.
The AOTW #2 gives you a lot of choices. You don’t have to hate just one thing about the listing. Here were the things I hated: (1) $219.93 BIN for 89 Flesh figures; and (2) the use of the phrase, “Rare Few Duplicates.” I guess it was two main things, but I really hated the “Rare Few Duplicates.” Why put that in an auction title? I won’t do another “use of the word rare” rant, but what is the upside of “Few Duplicates?” Maybe this seller is trying to be inclusive and knows that blind M.U.S.C.L.E. buyers use assistive technology? Of course, if there is a blind M.U.S.C.L.E. collector I have to meet him. They would 100% get the Darrin Vindiola treatment.
The AOTW #3 looked at 54 M.U.S.C.L.E. figures and decided, “Well, $4.17 per-figure makes sense to me. What does that work out to? $4.17 times 54 figures equals…$225. I’ll start the bidding there because these can only go up.” That sounds accurate, right?
Last, and certainly not least, is the AOTW #4. It is an incredibly average ring (without the figures or packaging) with an extraordinary price tag – a $299.99 BIN. This week I talked about fear and greed with sellers, but this listings reminds us that sometimes pure, unadulterated stupidity is the simplest explanation.
Cast your vote (below) and crown the next AOTW Winner. Here are the four combatants:
Remember to cast your vote and crown this week’s AOTW Winner:
There used to be a long write-up about the first and second ULTIMATE AOTW Battle of the Champions Winners. The 3rd winner has a tiny backstory, which made me think we don’t need the full saga anymore.
