[Tarquinius]

I think another thing to consider (which has been brought up intermittently) is history.

Action figures obviously saw a rise in popularity about 40-50 years ago and depending on what you collected there are certain "eras" for lines (MOTU, GI Joe 3.75, Transformers= 80's, 12 inch GI Joe, Mego=70's etc)

More importantly these figures were not bought to be collected but to be enjoyed.

Collecting is more of a recent phenomenon as kids who had these toys back then are looking to have a second wind so to speak. And then you have people like myself who grew up in a world where toy collecting became more permissive and you had the internet to look this stuff up and talk about it on Toyark- which I think fuels toy collecting for the younger audience.

OVERALL, the bigger point is as several people have pointed out, only really really old figures which as MISB/C and are in really good condition are worth any value. This is because that back in the day these toys were typically ripped open immediately and beaten to hell, so all specimens are usually in poor shape. The expensive ones come from people who found unopened storeroom packages with figures who never saw the shelf and in a few rare incidents (quoting Toy Hunter) people who were disciplined enough as kids to not open them.

Additionally, modern toys don't carry this high collectors appeal because of the awareness surrounding MOSC value vs opened value and also high distribution rates etc.