To open or not open...my dilemma

[BadJeff]

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Easy: I open everything... eventually.

You will drive yourself crazy trying to collect for profit. Collect for the fun of it.

^Bingo.
AFAIC there's a million other ways to make money. The toys are to be enjoyed.

[Janitor]

Originally Posted by Ground Zero

Especially if it's an MISB G1 figure, by all means play with it.

Fixed.

[teruo313]

It really boils down to what you want in a collection.

I've been thinning my collection over the last couple of years so it more or less comes down to:

Classics/Henkei/Universe/Generations/WFC - opened
G1 Reissues - Sealed
G1 originals - opened since I had them as a kid
Newly acquired G1 - MISB/MIB
BW - opened for the most part however I do have a few sealed
Exclusive/rare items - sealed if purchased that way

I do this mainly for presentation sake as I think the way they are displayed looks nice and clean. Plus I tend to get bored of figures very quickly and since I rarely fiddle with them, having them boxed or opened doesn't matter a whole lot.

While I don't buy with the intention of flipping the item, the prospective value of some figures like exclusives or G1's does at times push me to keep them sealed.

[Pascal]

If you open those boxes, you're not a real collector.

[pud333]

Want to make more money? Get extra education, network, work hard, and get a good financial planner to help plan your retirement.

I used to be a MOC collector. I still have some MOC toy, but I am in the process of getting rid of a bunch of my MOC figures. I used to buy one to open, one to keep, but now I see it is pointless. By not buying that extra one to keep in package, it frees up more money for other toys. So the decision is easy for me.

[Janitor]

There's never a right or wrong way, everyone's free to collect & display how they want.

While I have zero intention of every selling my collection, I can't predict the future and (heaven forbid) may have to sell it off one day. I understand how people want the most value our of their toys. But me: I'll open it all, enjoy my toys now, and worry about value when I get to that point.

Originally Posted by BadJeff

^Bingo.
AFAIC there's a million other ways to make money. The toys are to be enjoyed.

I guess you could try to earn money playing Bingo. Not sure how viable it is in the long run.

[Team Jetfire]

Originally Posted by Me.Grimlock.King

No you wont! What will drive you crazy is the time it takes to make any profit. And if your only buying one figure open her up! If you get a high potential boxed figure that may develop into a profit then maybe consider keeping it in box but other wise open it. That's what I do buy 2 or look for potential, other wise I open it.

Originally Posted by Me.Grimlock.King

PS dont let anyone tell you that you cant make a profit either. I do it all the time as a collector.

Cheers!

Ok, let’s say that I buy 2 Drift figures because I think it is the next big thing. If I keep one, my capital for the investment, with tax, amounts to 15.99 * 5% = $16.79.

Now, let’s say that in 4 years Hollywood has decided to make a Fast and the Furious / Transformers crossover move called: Fast and the Furious; Get my Drift.

All of a sudden, fans are clamoring for more of these figures then ever before. You see this as a great opportunity and decide to list it for $20. Your could potentially make a gross profit of $3.21. This of course does not account for the cost to sell it (ebay fees, gas, postage, time) as well as a little thing called inflation.

Let’s say that you decide to sell on ebay and make the guy pay for shipping.

The fees for ebay (according to the site anyways) are .50 to list and 9% of the final sale price. This works out to $2.30. So your net profit is going to be around 91 cents. This also doesn't include any money for gas and the amount your time is worth to ship the bugger.

No the other thing that we need to account for when talking investments is inflation.

Inflation is

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.[1] When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy.[2][3] A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the Consumer Price Index) over time.[4]

The average rate of inflation for Canada is 2%. So essentially the value of 1 dollar drops 2 cents ever year. From an investment perspective, year over year, your investment (RE Drift) needs to increase in value by more than 2% in a year to keep up with the rate of inflation.

So using my above mentioned example of selling the Drift for 20 bucks and receiving a net profit of 91 cents (over 4 years is really just 22 cents per year) that works our to a rate of return of 1%. So your big investment is not even enough to keep up with inflation.

Now I understand that there are some toys that do increase in value due to other influences. Recently the classics Prime / Ultra Magnus and Classics Hotrod have become very hard to find, thus increasing the after market price, but that is never an easy thing to pick up early enough in the game. The fact of the matter is that in order to ensure you had the best chance of having the best figure for investment is to buy two of everything, but that also eats up your potential profit as for every 1 Hot Rod, there are 5 Tuner Mudfalps.

Unless you have insight as to the Transformers Market in the future, I suggest purchase for fun and invest your money in a 'real' investment.

[teruo313]

Originally Posted by Team Jetfire

Now I understand that there are some toys that do increase in value due to other influences. Recently the classics Prime / Ultra Magnus and Classics Hotrod have become very hard to find, thus increasing the after market price, but that is never an easy thing to pick up early enough in the game. The fact of the matter is that in order to ensure you had the best chance of having the best figure for investment is to buy two of everything, but that also eats up your potential profit as for every 1 Hot Rod, there are 5 Tuner Mudfalps.

Unless you have insight as to the Transformers Market in the future, I suggest purchase for fun and invest your money in a 'real' investment.

Keeping Transformers as an investment is silly unless you either A) make a quick buck by flipping it or B) Buy a rare figure at a very low price and can either immediately flip it or hold it for a year in hopes it goes up even more.

[anotheran]

I have the same issue as the Op. I think i'll open them up eventually... when I forget how much I paid for them

[Ninjatron]

I haven't opened anything I've bought since TFCon 2009. I've got classics, movie 1, Universe, ROTF, and now Generations stuff still imprisoned. I used to be the one to say that everyone should open their toys, and I guess I'll open it all eventually, but I just don't feel like it at the moment.

The boxed toys do look cool here in my office, so it's alright for now.

Sayonara.