[behindthemask]

Nice little battle you 2 have going on. IMO ebay can be both a blessing and a curse, it's great for someone like myself living on a small island, 100,000+ppl, not much in terms of retail stores, and I don't have a car so traveling is limited. I haven't used ebay in years since I collected hockey cards, but since I got back into toys I find myself always watching ebay, because you can buy loose figures cheap, fodder lots for accessories and parts, and bulk lots for cheaper then retail loose or moc.

As far as rare, anything produced over time that remains in it's original condition is typically going to appreciate in value, due to the factors of how many were made, the cost of original investment and the scarcity/desire for someone to have it in their collection. Toys now a days, especially MU have their own rareness' factor from the moment they go on preorder, because out of the 5 released 1-2 figures will cost your more to buy then the rest, typically sell out, scalpers pick up on this, go to their local walmarts and buy 10 thor figures because they're "rare" puts them up on ebay for double or tripple the initial investment, which is 2-300 % profit for the seller, a hard hit to swallow to the wallet of the collector, and a hit to heart for the avid hunter who walks in the door 20 mins the scalper leaves with 3 bags full of toys. Leaving pegs empty with a dirty feeling under the MU banner, hah.

I personally don't like the idea of scalping, I can understand buying a lot of the same figure for team building purposes, or buying 2 so you can open 1 and keep MOC. When you buy every figure on a shelf,peg just to jack up in price and make $$, and don't even like or collect toys yourself, that's when it pisses me off. I seen 2 blue Iron monger figures for cheap at my local winners, I still may pick them up, but it would be for customizing or trading only.

Ebay however can be fantastic for ex: someone trying to find a stealth Iron Man marvel legends variant 1st wave.. that cost the seller $20 initially to buy from the store, but he's selling it for $150, because it's no longer sold,made and is the variant edition, ... more "rare" and the price I'll be it steep, is justifyable.

And love it or hate it ebay ain't going anywhere either are scalpers, if there's a toy that you've given up finding in retail stores around you, online stores are sold out, ebay is often times the last resort, but you don't have to rush, put the item in your wanted items and you'll recieve alerts for listings, you can wait to find someone with a certain seller rating, location, price or even buy it now feature. I finally got my paypal acct set up and will be buying some ebay merch soon enough.