[behindthemask]

Good topic, one that has been debated to death. There are a lot of factors both pros and cons for opening the figure and leaving it moc.

opening: Every toy company for the most part expects the kid/teen/adult to open the figure and get enjoyment out of it, use the accessories, movie the arms,legs,neck, pose them, reinact their favorite scenes, and now a big scene is creating kickass displays and taking pics. To each they're own what they do with the figure, if it goes straight from package to display case or you play with the thing for 10hrs straight and sleep with it, lol. You worked for the $$ what you do with it is your decision, and if you spend $50 for a toy or even $10 you buy it to play with it. Same thing with a video game, you wouldn't pay $60 to buy a game say wow look at the packaging, if I keep it MOC it maybe worth double in 2 years.. no you rip that sucker out and start playing with it non stop. Toys are a way for grown men/women to escape into a 3d version of graphic comic art we all love so much, weither it was the comics, the movies,the cartoons, or possibly just toys that got you into collecting, you in it for the long haul because you love it, so why not own a 3d represnation of it and play with it enjoy it! Most figures if rare enough or buyer wants bad enough can still bring a bunch of $$ even open, example deadpool... ML 2pack or ML series 6 bring big bucks.

MOC:If your lucky enough to find a figure MOC, you have a potential investment piece, you invest the initial cost in buying it and owning it.But then you invest costs in cases to keep it moc, containers,cabinents etc to store/display, then the time and patience in finding the right time to sell. You could sell right before/after a movie comes out ex Thor, when the movie Came out, ebay was flooded with collectors selling the old figures for a good profit, because the want and demand was there. Over time MOC toys will give you the most financial return but is that what you really want? Do you want to wait hold onto things you paid good money for but have no enjoyment out of?

Personally I try not to keep stuff MOC, I kept a few things such as my SDCC thor, 1M2 kmart and target 3packs, but not much.. if I know the figure is going for a good price and I stumble across a bunch at retail, I'd buy extra, ex : Cable.. if I found 4 I'd probably buy 4, keep 1 moc to hang onto, 1 to open and 2 to sell/trade. MOC can be good if you have the money and time to buy rare items, variants, repaints, errors etc and hang onto them long enough till nobody has one MOC.