Just looking for your opinions....

[rodman75]

Hey fellow collector enthusiasts,

I recently had attempted to sell my Popy Grendizer on E-Bay. I don't want to sell it but I've been a bit reckless buying Jumbos lately and figured that selling my Grendy would at least help me recoup some cash and would be less difficult to locate another one once my finances got better (versus trying to find another Leopaldon or BFJ).

Surprisingly, it only reached $1425. Yes, I admit that is a lot of money, no doubt. However, if you look at E-Bay's completed listings, you'll find a beat up Grendy in considerably worse condition ( & no box at all) that sold for over $1200.

I know that the jumbo market, like any market, is cyclical. Is this just a case of Popy Grendizer being less in demand? If my memory serves me correct, last year Popy Grendizers were white hot! Now they seemed to have cooled down. Or, could this be a case of a flaw in my ad, the description, or do I just have unrealistic expectations?

In the end, my reserve wasn't met. I will have to sell off some of my other chogokins to make up for my recklessness. The happy ending to this story is that I still have a super conditioned Popy Grendizer that will display proudly amongst my other JM's.

Thanks in advance for your honest opinions and responses,

Rodman75

[luclin999]

Grendy is a desirable figure and one that many people still want however here are a few of my observations..

~ As you already pointed out, it is one of the easier Popy figures to acquire. Not as easy as Getta Dragon or Raideen of course but far easier than Dangard, Combattra, Leopaldon, etc. and on top of that, there is a fairly respectable Mattel version of the same figure available for far, far less money which can substitute for the Popy version to people with less rigid requirements for their "Shogun Collection".

~ The one for $1200 you referenced did not in fact sell for the full $1200 but I believe (based upon my communication with the seller) for a lower, negotiated "Buy it now" price which is not always accurately reflected in the completed listing information on Ebay.

~ Your box is a reproduction. A good reproduction but a reproduction nevertheless and as such the inclusion of it with the figure will not push the price of the two pieces up into the realm where you would see a MIB Grendizer with original box might go. Ultimately the Repro box will only add a couple hundred dollars at best to the final total, and at worst may actually be a turn off to ~some~ higher end collectors who only desire original items in their collections and who may be unwilling to pay extra $$$ for the "unwanted" repro box.

~ You only listed the piece once for only one week. High end items tend to require finding the right buyer(s) to bid on them and people with pockets deep enough to spend thousands on vintage toys are not falling out of trees in today's economy. If you really want to get a higher price for the toy then you may have to accept the fact that it may take both additional time as well as a fair amount of marketing on your part (in advertising your auction on various related boards and web sites) to be able to attract the people with the money to buy the toy.

~ One other thing to keep in mind. In Ed's recent auction by Morphy ( Which was very heavily advertised by an email campaign, on this site and on several other forums related to Japanese and vintage robots as well.) his Popy Grendizer with an original (good condition) box only sold for $1140.00. Even accounting for the 20% premium added by the auction house that makes the final sale price of the toy out to $1368 which is lower than what yours was bid up to on Ebay.

[bourno]

The second line of your description was quite the boasting. It very well may been the best on ebay as I don't have anything to dispute it.

I am not sure if the reproduction box really did much to increase the overall value of them together.

Not sure what you paid for it, or what your expectations are for a price. I don't watch very many MIB stuff, so not sure what a good price would be for yours.

As mentioned, was only the first time up and think you are going to have to catch the right person to get more as when you got guys like me, looking for a decent bargain for a decent looking jumbo and not going after high grade ones.

Best with getting more if you intend to try and sell it again.

Wes

[luclin999]

Oct 5, 2012 13:02:33 GMT -5 - said:

Ed actually bought that Grendy Jumbo for 28K from eBay early this year.

So, it's really matter of when.

There had been just too many Jumbo Grendizers at eBay in recent months.

I am hoping that you meant 2.8k.

[1oldrobot]

someone got one 3 weeks ago for 480 bucks. i could have won it, but i was having a "no more money on jumbos" day. i think there are lots of people, like me, that just wont pay thousands for a toy robot. im pretty sure i can get a grendizer in japan for around 500 bucks. i dont care about the box at all. i think id rather not have it for pricing sake.

[rodman75]

Hi Kaus,

$2800 for a boxed Popy Grendy is a good price. Mine doesn't have the original box which decreases the value. On the other hand, my Grendizer is in much better condition than Ed's (no offense meant) so I think that makes up for the difference in price. I think a fair price for mine is $2500 but I understand collectors like 1oldrobot not wanting to spend big bucks on Jumbos. The buyer for mine would be someone similar to myself in that they want as close to mint as possible, don't have the talent or time to restore and are willing to pay for such. Collectors wants and wishes are as varied and different as each Jumbo!

[luclin999]

I tend to agree that the prices can fluctuate rather wildly as they are based to some degree on both the number of people who happen to be looking for the figure in question at the time of the auction and the relative desire of those people for the toy.

You might hit on a week (or two or three) where only a relatively few jumbo collectors are actively shopping for new acquisitions (Which is why I recommend patience in a previous post) or you might have a collector stumble upon your auction who is willing to offer up a premium price just to remove that figure from his "grail list".

Another selling format you could consider is to place the figure up for a 30 day "Buy it now" sale with the buy it now price being at the top end of what you might expect to get while also including the "make an offer" option which would allow you to (limitedly) negotiate with potential buyers who's offers are at least in the ballpark for what you might consider selling the figure for.

[H. B. Coffin]

Now I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be in the field of Jumbos, but I'm surprised how much people are willing to pay for a reproduction box... and to top it off, the reserve price wasn't even met!

Is this normal? Is there anyone in the business of producing reproduction boxes that has a clue?

[mikedeco]

Normally a repro box should be between 50$ and 100$ something like that, depending on the size and sometimes also depending on how rare is the original box. But basicaly they cost the same price to produce. I know that the few I've build myself, for a high quality print in large format, the print shop charged 50 euro for the print only, after that, there's the cost of the paper and cardboard for the bottom part and of course a bit of time to put it together.

But in no case a repro box should justify a jumbo to sell for a super high price, max an extra 100$ because that's what you will probably pay for it.