Hello all,
It has been traditional public knowledge for years now that the status quo for M.U.S.C.L.E. pricing has been $0.50 for Fleshies and $0.75 for color figures when buying lots on Ebay. I've noticed that the prices seem to be getting considerably higher on Ebay over the past two or three months. It seems like most lots of good condition figures are closing at much closer to or above $1 per figure.
I'm a set collector so I buy a lot of lots and end up relotting much of what I can't use and I've noticed that almost every lot that I've sold in the past three months has gone higher than $1 per figure, regardless of whether it is all flesh, all color, or mixed.
I've only been a serious M.U.S.C.L.E. collector for about three and a half years but this is the longest period of sustained high prices on Ebay lots that I've seen to date.
So, my question to some of the longer standing community members is: Is this just something that happens from time to time or has the price to acquire figures actually gone up?
Another thing that I've noticed is that every BIN price on an eBay lot tends to put figures at around $1.5 to $2 each. Four figures for $8, eight figures for $15 etc. Ebay is also chock full of $3-$4 BIN prices for individual figures. I get that these high price BIN auctions tend to not sell quickly and some don't seem to ever sell, but perhaps that has effected the perception of what the prices are in some way.
Also, have noticed a trend where a lot of auctions basically start the figures at close to or at $1 per figure. For instance, a lot of 12 figures with an opening bid of $9.99 and $3 shipping or something.
It also seems like there haven't been as many new M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions going up lately. I don't know if other fans / collectors have noticed that as well but perhaps that could be a reason for the rise in lot prices per figure. That would also make sense: more collectors fighting / bidding on less lots is just basic supply and demand.
The last little nugget I wanted to throw out there is has the collecting community for M.U.S.C.L.E. grown considerably over the past 6 months? I've only been on the boards here for a couple of years so I don't really know how the trends play out like some of the adepts do, but maybe that is part of the equation as well. One little factoid that could be spun to support this idea that the M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting hobby has been picking up steam is that I've noticed pretty uniformly that Flesh lots now seem to command a premium price over color or mixed lots. The first major achievement is M.U.S.C.L.E. collecting has always been a flesh set, so perhaps it is a large number of new collectors all bidding on figures for flesh sets?
Just wanted to share that observation and see what some of the other serious M.U.S.C.L.E. heads have to say about what has been going on with lot prices latley.
Cheers, Brian.