Episode 43 – Rebel Soldier (Hoth Battle Gear)

39750 – Rebel Soldier (Hoth Battle Gear)

Before I start the summary for the month I just thought I’d take a minute to say thanks to all the regular readers of our blog. This week we passed 10,000 views. We seem to have hit a steady readership with somewhere between 300-400 readers per month. The readership is quite varied across the globe. So thanks again for the support.

Now to this month’s figure. I’ll be interested to hear Skye and Steve talk about this figure. I actually quite like him and given he’s a Hoth figure a natural favorite for me. But while he was a favorite of mine he is also somewhat representative of Imperial fodder. So while his “battle” ability was not something to get too excited (punching commands into his transponder and shooting that laser cannon, or running back to the Hoth base to escape, among those skills) it was the defeat at Hoth that really helped set the movie / trilogy up. The Imperials regained superiority and the “underdog” tag was restored to the fledgling Rebels. Anyway that is my brief movie thought, now over to the sales activity for this vintage figure ….

Back in 2006 I picked up a 31B graded AFA70 for $77, I then upgraded him a few months later with an AFA80 NM for $141. Some 7 years later and we’ve seen a decent increase, though after mining the data for this month it doesn’t seem his value is increasing like some of the other Empire figures.

We had the usual high priced AFA85 item to kick things off with a $410 sale for a beautiful unpunched straight 85 example. Really a beautiful figure and great display piece. There was a 50% drop to an AFA80 (unpunched) as well – though this sold through BIN and really I think the seller left $100 or so on the table. Rounding out the 31B debut card lot was an ungraded, in fairly average condition (not to mention two price stickers). This sold for $125, which wasn’t too bad, but clearly the BIN AFA80 example would have been an ideal buy out of this assortment. The 31 backs have really inflated in recent months, but I’d say the Rebel Soldier was at the lower end of the rises.

There was a big drop off to $43 for the 32 back – but with the card having quite a bad crease it wasn’t too surprising. Though it does show there is still attainable cardbacks out there, and if you cased that figure up and displayed it, it really wouldn’t look too bad at all.

I didn’t have much luck with the 41 backs – though I did find an example of the 41B, which went for $160. A pretty decent price, but given I am currently in the market for a 41B for Luke Bespin and I am struggling to find too many examples, I’m thinking there is a little rarity with these cardbacks, hence the higher price. I did manage to track the 2 ESB 48 backs with the Ackbar offer – the 48A and 48B. I love these two cardbacks and how the difference revolves around the color used on the printing on the header for the cardback. Try explaining that to your Wife when she says “you have this one already” !!! These were ungraded and sold for what I’d consider fairly cheap pricing.

I found a couple of very nice Trilogos that sold, but with one selling for around $240 and the other in the low $100’s there was a fair price differential, for what seems like not too different a set of cardbacks.

Lastly there was a beautiful Revenge proof, graded that sold for $335. Good pricing for a pre-production piece that has been graded.

All in all a decent spectrum of examples and pricing across the sample for the month. As expected his pricing hasn’t got too out of hand for the average collector. The 31B AFA85 is a beautiful example and I’m sure the owner of that was very happy to snag it.

Here’s the detail for the month:

Empire Strikes Back

31B AFA 85 NM+ (C85/B85/F85) $410 – eBay link

31B AFA80 NM (C80/B80/F80) $200 – eBay link

31B AFA80 NM cardback

31B AFA80 label

31B AFA80 NM cardback

31B ungraded $124.99 – eBay link

32B ungraded $43.00 – eBay link

32 Back ungraded – cardback

32 Back ungraded

41B ungraded $160.49 – eBay link

48A ungraded $81.00 – eBay link

48A ungraded – cardback

48A ungraded

48B ungraded $39.00 – eBay link

Foreign

TriLogo ungraded $239.50 – eBay link

Trilogo ungraded $106.30 – eBay link

Prototype

48D Proof AFA85 $335 – eBay link

Mini Rigs

Radar Laser Cannon AFA80NM $104.49 – eBay link

Radar Laser cannon AFA80

Episode 40 – Leia Organa (Bespin gown)

39720 – Leia Organa (Bespin Gown)

Lots and lots of 31 back examples in my data for the period. I even managed to find the same figure which was then resold 6 weeks later. That figure in question achieved a much higher price second time around – which goes to show the vagaries of our so called ‘market’. After the 31 back, things got a little rarer for Leia, couldn’t find any EB with the Survival Kit offer or the Ackbar offer (at this point there is no doubt a Leia focus collector yelling at me about why I can’t enunciate which figures are rare or other wise for Leia).

I thought  the prices were pretty reasonable for this figure. Here’s the summary

31B AFA80 – $350.00 (or $202 if you’d bought it 6 weeks earlier)

31B AFA80 – $244.50

31B ungraded – $152.50

32B ungraded – $125.00

41B – $211.50

41D – $89.89

77A AFA80 – $149.00

And here’s the detail:

31B AFA80 (C80/B85/F85) $350 – eBay auction

Now I also found this same figure that sold 6 weeks earlier in March 2013. It sold at that time for $202.00 – eBay auction

31B AFA80

31B AFA80 cardback

Here’s the images for the same figure – different seller and much lower price

31B AFA80 – cardback

31B AFA80

31B AFA80 – label

31B AFA80 (C80/B80/F85) $244.50 – eBay auction

Seller uses the term “AFA encased”

31B AFA80 cardback

31B ungraded $152.50 – eBay auction

31B ungraded

31B ungraded – cardback

32B AFA85 (C80/B85/F85) ~$429.00 – eBay auction

32B AFA85

32B AFA85 – cardback

32B ungraded $125.00 – eBay auction

32B ungraded – cardback

32B ungraded

32B ungraded

41B AFA80Y (C80/B85/F85) $211.50 – eBay auction

41B AFA80Y

41D ungraded – $89.89 – eBay auction

fairly rough shape – yellow blister / pen marking / veining

41D ungraded

41D ungraded

Return of the Jedi

77A – AFA80 (C80/B85/F80) $149.00 – eBay auction

77A AFA80 – cardback

77A AFA80

Episode 39 – Lando Calrissian

39800 – Lando Calrissian

There was a good assortment this month. I was a little late in publishing this update onto the blog so took the chance to add a little more data on Lando. I actually tried to go without any AFA examples, but had could only find a 31 back that was graded. All other figures were ungraded and looks like a Lando ESB MOC will set you back about $90. Though I was able to add in the 47 back which went for just over $200 as part of the eBay listings posted by “earlyretiree”.

The ROTJ examples were very cheap – though most cards were in fair to rough condition.

Here’s the summary for the month:

31B – $177.50

32B – $102.50

41A – $89.89

41B – $167.50

41D – $86.85

47A – $202.50

48D – $40.99

65B – $49.99

77A – $63.00

79A – $41.00

Seems like a good value figure – for what is a pretty central figure.

Empire Strikes Back cardbacks

31B AFA85Y NM+ (C80/B85/F85) $177.50

31B AFA85

32B ungraded – Clear bubble $102.50 – eBay link

32B ungraded

32B ungraded – cardback

41A ungraded with survival kit offer $89.89 – eBay link

41A ungraded

41A ungraded – cardback

41B ungraded – Clear bubble (overall very nice MOC) $167.50 – eBay link

41B ungraded

41B ungraded – cardback

41D ungraded – Clear bubble $86.85 – eBay link

41D – ungraded

41D ungraded – cardback

47A ungraded – $202.50 – eBay link

47A – ungraded

47A ungraded – cardback

Return of the Jedi cardbacks

48D ungraded $40.99 – eBay link

48D – ungraded

 

48D ungraded – cardback

 

65B ungraded $49.99 – eBay link

65B ungraded

65B ungraded – cardback

77A ungraded $63.00 – eBay link

77A ungraded

77A ungraded – cardback

77A ungraded $51.00 – eBay link

This shows the vagaries of the market place – a nicer example than the one above, but sells for less

77A ungraded

77A ungraded – cardback

79A ungraded $41.00 – eBay link

79A ungraded

79A ungraded – cardback

2 pack (with Han trench coat) $89.88 – eBay link

ROTJ 2 pack

ROTJ – 2 pack

It’s always interesting who they pack together in these packs, I think packing him with Han in his trench coat is a decent combination. Though seems there was more demand for Lando packed with Teebo – not quite as appealing in my view.

2 pack (with Teebo) $106.51 – eBay link

2 pack – Lando & Teebo