How to work out what your figure collection is worth
What you paid and what a piece is worth today are two different numbers. Some statues double once they sell out, many settle below retail, and you only know which is which if you look. Here is how to do it without fooling yourself.
Asking prices are not sale prices
Anyone can list a statue for any amount. What counts is what people actually pay: sold listings on marketplaces, completed sales in collector groups, and results from auction houses for the high end.
Take several recent sales of the same product and look at the middle of the range. One spectacular sale is an anecdote, five similar ones are a price.
Make sure it is the same product
Manufacturers release the same character in several versions, and the difference in value between them can be large. Before you compare, match:
- Manufacturer and product line
- Scale
- Edition: regular, exclusive, deluxe or bonus version
- Region, when the release differs between markets
What moves the price
- Edition size: a few hundred pieces behave very differently from several thousand.
- Condition: sealed, opened and complete, displayed, damaged or repaired.
- Completeness: box, shipper, art print, certificate and every swap-out part.
- Demand for the character and the licence right now, which rises with a new film, series or game.
- A reissue or a better version announced by another studio, which usually lowers it.
- Shipping: large statues cost a lot to send, and buyers discount it from what they offer.
Value is a range
Write down a low, a likely and a high figure. The low one is what you would get selling quickly, the high one is what a patient sale to the right buyer could bring. A single precise number gives a confidence that the market does not have.
What you would actually receive
From the sale price, take off marketplace and payment fees, packing materials and insured shipping. For a large statue those costs are significant, and they are the difference between the value of a collection and the money it would turn into.
Insurance
Home insurance policies often cap what they pay for collections unless the pieces are declared. Ask your insurer how collectibles are covered and what proof they want.
An inventory with photos, purchase receipts and a current value for each piece is what they will ask for after a fire, a flood or a burglary. It is much easier to have it ready than to rebuild it afterwards.
Look again once or twice a year
Values move slowly, then suddenly. Reviewing the collection every six months is enough to notice which pieces have risen, which you would sell, and whether your insurance still covers what you own.