These can't get here soon enough! I'm sick of eBay sellers thinking they've struck gold with originals. Consistently relisting unsold auctions at ridiculous prices. I just offered a seller $25 a piece for two, and they turned me down. They relisted their two $69.99 auctions which didn't sell at, you guessed it, $69.99. I tried explaining demand for originals is going to go down due to mordles being rereleased this summer and readily available to collectors, but they didn't believe me. Their loss. They're not going to get $70 for a mordle.
It's tough for sellers to drop prices, as they may have paid way more for the figures than they should have.
Not every seller is an omega scum. I've met every type of person during my years of collecting, and they all have their reasons for collecting and selling.
Once upon a time, RBT with Mordles were going for a hundred bucks loose. I couldn't believe it either. Then again, I paid near $200 for the first Shriekbeak boxed mint, and close to that for Bloodstone. Literally though, NO ONE before us had ever seen the figures out of the package except maybe STA. We had no idea what the other Mordles looked like...it was a very different time, 2002. 
I truly hope you are right about potential downward pressure on the eBay prices for vintage Mordles by the upcoming repro line. I too watch the eBay listings closely and find that the high end RBTs auctions (anything including a Mordle) sometimes gets relisted but eventually disappear. That's with BIN and there is no indication if those sold or simply expired. I agree, Mordles auctions over $200 will usually rot with the seller. But unfortunately, $50~60 will move them along. I still think it is just a few setting an artificially high bar and sellers have noticed and are responding to those ridiculously high prices. They say the market will dictate itself. So if you are correct, Fuzz, maybe Mordles prices will shift toward reasonability with now consistently ridiculous ebay prices and the new repro line causing collectors to say "Screw the ebay game, I'm going to amass a Mordles army for the same price as a single vintage figure". Not to be too presumptuous though. Doctor Kent has yet to reveal his prices. 
Ironmask, what is FAO? Not familiar with that one...
Mordles are legitimately pretty rare. RBT overall is quite an uncommon line.
There are a handful of lines from the 80s which are 1000% tougher to get than the toughest US-released Transformer - just that the fanbases for those lines are sometimes five or six people.
Prices are going to be revealed in the next thirty days. The last pieces of the puzzle are coming together now....
Really though, this false sense of inflation applies to every toy-line and I doubt we will ever see it drop. (Except with this new Mordles). It sold once for that so people want to get that price consistently, or near that price. Ebay sellers aren't the only ones at fault, even on this board I've consistently seen people make claims about the "worth" of their pieces or collections. Especially in regards to obscure stuff like the Mordles.
Exactly.
All day long, you would talk to fellow collectors and they would say, "Fort Max is super rare and worth a grand!" Well, maybe not after the repro, heh heh.
But you can almost always find that one guy who found it at the flea market for $25, MIB and complete, because to some people toys are pretty worthless.
I know the price on a MIB Bloodstone has come down. I paid for being the first person to have one - a price that the figure could never be worth again, and won't be.
Not necessarily. I have no delusions of getting a RBT rock/bug with a mordle for $4.99 ever again. I understand things go up in value, especially if they're obscure like RBT, as you said. But a toy line like RBT also has a very limited fanbase. There's not really a whole lot of folks looking for these things. eBay sellers should be grateful they can even sell their old RBT toys for more than a few bucks.
What I don't like is being gouged. Over the past year, with a little bit of patience, I've been able to complete almost the entire RBT toyline except for two mordles, for around $300. Yet, right now there are sellers on eBay auctioning lots with just a few rocks/bugs, some even broken, for over $400 just because they have a few mordles.
Lines like RBT, Robo Force, Manglors, MUSCLES, Food Fighters, etc - no one is really sure WHAT the fanbase is for these things.
I had ten years of eBay stats saved on RBT (most of which was lost in a computer issue) so I could tell you the ups and downs of it.
How can Food Fighters be a line where carded figures are selling for $30+ each? SOMEONE is buying them. Someone is paying that much money for Robo Force figures.
A forum is only a sliver of the collector base. Most people don't have the need or want to participate in the "social media" aspects of these things.
Auctions many times don't make sense either. I can watch some specific Transformers items and they will consistently, if started at $1, go for $400-$600. If started at $400, no sale. Why? Do people just love bidding that much? Where does the person who would have paid $400 for one disappear to when the next one goes up for sale? Are they only in it for the auction aspect?
Details on Club Mordle very soon.
John K.
DoctorKent - the once and future master of ROCKS AND BUGS AND THINGS! now known as MORDLES.
Returning to your toy stories - 2013.
www.toyfinity.com
