On Inducing Collectibility

As a comics collector, one of the things that really peeved me was the practice of some comics to ship variants in different ratios to the regular edition of a comic book. The most common variant is the variant cover, but sometimes they would do variant black-and-white cover and interior books. Naturally, because the stores would have a hard time acquiring these things because they would have to order more, they end up charging more, and as a result I have never been able to afford a single variant since Marvel reintroduced the 1:x ratio of variants.

Now that I am venturing into the world of collectible toy cars, I've noticed something rather irritating, at least in the local collectible store scene. It's one thing for a toy to come out in toy stores, sell out, and then reappear in collectible stores at a premium because they're so damned popular. What appears to happen here, though, is that before a 'hot' toy ever even hits the shelves of Toy Kingdom or even the new Toys 'R' Us, they've been snapped up by collectible stores and marked up quite ridiculously.

The single best (worst?) example of this practice is the 1:64 Ferrari F430 by Hot Wheels, which came out in September this year. As early as May I found myself watching out for it. When Toys 'R' Us opened I spotted their Hot Wheels poster which advertised their upcoming products, and the F430 figured quite prominently.

That toy never hit the shelves, but apparently went straight to the collectible stores. Whether this is because the collectible stores intercepted these products at the Harbor, or went to the toy stores and bought them all out on the first day they came out, I really don't know, but I hated having to pay almost three times the price of a normal Hot Wheels car for a replica that isn't even that well done. I much prefer my Mercedes SLR Mclaren by Maisto and my Ford GT by Dub City, both in 1:64, both done with spectacular attention to detail (though their doors still won't open, something which is apparently a thing of the past in small cars, sadly).

I recently found out that the going rate for a normal 1BaddRide car, which is apparently a brand new product in the Philippines, is P199.75, the same rate that Dub City 1:64s go for, and that the two cars I bought that started my whole collector frenzy were marked up by P100 each. The store where I bought them had that luxury, considering that the damned things weren't available anywhere else. The collectible store strikes again.

I don't know if this an arrangement between the toy distributor and the collectible stores or the toy stores, but I wish they wouldn't do it either way. If a toy is likely to be "hot" then let it sell out, like the "Cars" toys did earlier this year and then jack up its price on the back market, like a lot of internet peddlers are.

I do know that some really nice items have turned up on the toy store shelves to get sold out in a twinkling, like the SLR McLaren 1:64, as well as the Ford GT 1:64, both of which I acquired at the going rate, and neither of which I have seen since (especially the Ford GT). If these items turn up in collectible stores sometime in the future at marked up prices, then I'll at least know that regular joes at least had a fighting chance to buy them.

Given that this practice of the collectibles people isn't exactly illegal, there isn't actually any stopping it, but what I am hoping is that rich collector types take their business elsewhere, getting their toys from Hong Kong or online or something. It's time collectors did something to really screw these bastards selling their P300 F430s, who, rather than wait for items to sell out and truly become rare collectibles, are trying to buy them out outright and induce a sense of "collectibility."

Well here's the thing: just about every collectible store, even that anime/manga store which sells collectibles on the side, has these P300/P250 Ferraris, so really, they aren't rare at all. AND they go for less than a dollar online, without shipping costs. However, if, as collectors are wont to do, they buy SEVERAL Hot Wheels/collectible cars online for a dollar or so each and pay shipping, they'll effectively still save money! Just a thought, really.