Theoretical pricing task
 

Firstly, hell no! I'm not selling my figs!

Secondly, hello!
As avid collectors and fans of the MU line could you please do me a quick thought experiment.
Imagine you lose your collection in a disastrous fire/break-up.
Now imagine you want to rebuilld and spot a lot of 149 figures on ebay.
The lot includes a boxed regular galactus, a ML Watcher and a few scarce figures like regular Vision, X-force Warpath and Death Mask Archangel.
The lot has a few Iron Man/Cap/Thor movie figures, a couple of custom figures amongst the secret wars sets etc.
What 'buy it now' price would you conservatively put on a set like this?

Just for funsies, numbers off the top of your head sort-of-thing!

It's close to $1000 on average prices, but lots of factors matter. 149 figures at 4 a piece is already 600. But you add in a 40 (low end) galactus and the price of a death arch, warpath, vision, and 2 packs and you could safely pay 750 I'd think.. But it completely depends on the quality overall of said lot. The figures included, carded or not, condition, accessories, etc. all play the biggest part. So it's really more so what do YOU want to spend?

I'll put my lot of a 149 figures on buy it now for $450 but that's Jus me cuz it sounds like u got some pretty hard to find stuff n that makes it worth it

The $450 price is if there all loose figures

With the exception of Galactus they're all loose, good condition, full compliment of stands, accessories, unopened Fury files where applicable.
The $450-$500 (about £300) is a good place to start I think, if you factor in each figure has a block value of about $3-4.
Although it sounds like you'd be crazy to not sell some of the harder to find stuff individually. That's were the real profiteering/scalping comes into it.
That's a great comparative find omega, i'd imagine there are a fair few lots like that in the hands of people who would never sell up. Interesting (and a little sad) to see someone willing to get rid of it all.

Why would you say 149 and 150?

That's the lot I also found on ebay as comparative. It's a tad high, but a good reference.

Depends on if they're boxed or not. If you've bought the entire MU collection, not including the side lines but including all exclusives, variants and comic packs, for retail prices, you've spent quite a pretty penny. I'd say it'd have cost at least $1700. For the SDCC Galactus, SDCC Sentinel and the Nick Fury and Archangel Digital Exclusives alone, it would be $250! Factor in all the sides and who knows.

jesus fucking christ that s alot

I sold a 131 loose Marvel Universe figures on ebay in June and got upwards of $600, but I had conventions exclusives and a few more rarer figures. I only expected about $450 and would have considered that to be a fair price.

Where are you finding Fury, X-Force Arch, SDCC Galactus AND Sentinel for $250!? I will pay ANYONE $250 right now for those 4! :P

I think they were saying that's how much they would have cost at retail (i.e. when they first came out).

Fury and X-Force Archangel were $70 each ($65 for the Digital Subscription and $5 for shipping and handling) and the SDCC Galactus and Sentinel were $60 each at SDCC and (very briefly) on HTS.com

Based on the current buyer price, my Marvel Universe collection alone (This is NOT including Iron Man, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Thor, Spider-Man or Captain America toylines) is worth $2229. Whether or not I could net that is a tough call but if someone didn't have any of the collection wanted a really nice collection including most of the rares, plenty of army builders, all SDCC exclusives, it would be a great purchase for them to save time, money and effort. Considering what I would sell it for, I must've spent close to $6000 or more. Ouch. Hmmm doubt that answered your question though. LOL.

That totals $260! I've been lied to!!

In the past year I have sold my entire collections of the new gi joe figures and vehicles, as well as my entire JLU animated figures each set had at least 150 figures and I got $750 (buy it now) for each within 20 minutes.

I try and price anything I sell, on any auction site, at a price that if someone walked up to me on the street and offered me I'd take it. That being said you also have to assume about 90% of the large lot buyers on those sites are resellers looking to make a buck :(

I would say it depends on factors, 1 is why are u selling the figures, if it's purely based on needing money, then timeframe has to factor in, if you need it now and fast then a bulk lot at a low starting price is the way to go, but if your not in a rush then you're better off selling the figures individually, as you reach a larger audience of people who many want the figure to customize, army build or fill a slot in their collection. Sadly it's the same mentality as drugs, the bigger the quality the less you make but faster turn over rate, the smaller the quantities the more effort envolved, more time, but more money. Shipping is a big factor, multiple figures, adds to shipping size,weight and overall costs, you may have $1000 worth of toys but if it costs $1000 to ship them then your dead in the water. You could offer free shipping if the price gets of x amount or half off if the price gets of x amount. Time and patience is key though, selling individual figures would make the most $$ but will take the longest, also you run the risk of selling off all your rare items and being stuck with the common ones. A group auction turns some people off because the hardcore collectors already have like a 1/3 or half of the same figures your selling, so we as collectors have to justify if paying that price is worth it to get the items we're missing and what's left if we could trade/sell or use for army building. Then you get the scalper who looks at the auction breaks the total cost down to a /figure amount and factors in the going rates of the rare and variant figures, adds tax and shipping costs, then their return rate of say 25-50% to factor, if they can't make it then they won't bid. The best customer would be someone who wants to get the ultimate xmas gift for their kid, or someone who loves the figures has the $$ but doesn't want to start from scratch 1 at a time, and would rather get a huge collection for a good price. There's a lot of factors both good and bad, if your goal/objective at some point is to resell the very toys you bought, you need to consider 2 things, 1 is if you want max profit or break even, the figures need to remain MOC. 2 if you want to customize, open, play with pose and display your figures, expect some financial loss. I myself know what I'm willing to pay for a figure retail, at a comic shop or online, I set a limit and don't go over it. If my financial status changes and I win the lotto I'd buy every figure I want at even scalper prices and wouldn't give a shit, but I'm not so I don't. Personally I try to find loose figures and lot auctions on ebay to cut down in cost and hunting, plus you find items that are a fraction of the price. Ex Hellboy, I love the movies and the comics and the toys but never got any of the figures, never came my way other then the giant 18'' version which someone bought before me. I seen an auction a few weeks back that had 9 figures a replica hand of doom and a comic for like $30 + 15 shipping.. which is nothing considering the lot has Kronen which alone is $90 MOC or $20-40 loose, factor in minimum 10-30 for the rest/figure and another $30 for the hand of doom replica and you have like 2-300 retail/collector value for a litle over 10% of cost.. I love and hate ebay all at the same time.. I just got a MI venom and beast shipped cost me $40.. hating and loving the purchase.

Interesting stuff, especially the real world examples of seeling lots.
The speed at which some people will jump on valuable lots on ebay is pretty amazing. Like it's been said, this is simply savvy investment. If you're willing to make the effort you could turn over loose MU toys for a sizeable profit. I've just seen a loose, no accessories X-Force Archangel sell for $68!
What's kind of amazing is that ebay only encourages a loss in value, at least when comparing stuff to retail prices. If you collect new toys and then sell them down the line turning an actual profit seems very unlikely...unless you happen to have bought up a handful of Flame-On Johnny Storm's, Regular Visions etc on the off chance that they become valuable.
I'm also a big Hellboy fan but was lucky enough to have bought the original movie line and comic series figures when they first came out. I could easily sell my Kroenen and Sammael figures now for a healthy price on ebay because the demand is high.
And that makes me think of the drug analogy. Prices are dictated by demand but i've noticed that ebay is a pretty dishonest place for pricing high demand figures.
I admire those people that sell their stuff in one big go, that's a sure fire way to make money there and then...but I know that it's always at a loss compared to what they paid originally.

Yeah, but you have to pay extra if you want them in focus.