But seriously. Let's say $40 for Sentinel Prime loose, $7 for the Bumblebee toy is $47. So that's a whopping $1150 for a box that never hit retail. And when there's one, there's bound to be a few more where this one came from.
That's about right. To some collectors, things that never see the shelves are very rare. I'll bet that there are only 10-25 of them that escaped the furnace. I'm surprised that it was only $1200. He could open it and probably get $2000 for the empty box from someone. It really depends on the sellers patience. Eventually some elitist collector will HAVE TO HAVE IT and pay whatever the price.
I personally open most of my TFs. Some I'm saving, like my prime first editions and doubles I may happen to acquire. (That's one of the reasons I love shmax.com so much. Before I found this site I was accidentally buying doubles every time I went hunting for like 2 or 3 months because I just couldn't keep track.)
People who know me know that I collect because I'm a fan. If you buy me something, expect me to open it. I had a friend ream me a little when we were in high school because he bought me this really nice Beatle's desktop daily calendar and I used it. Needless to say he got over it because we're still good friends in our mid 30's.
Speaking of being a fan first, I received generations Thrust for xmas this year and although he's older and worth a little bit, he's now standing in his proper place with Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ramjet and Dirge. There has been a spot set aside for him next to his fellow seekers for years and I was gonna pay the piper to get him this year but luckily, Santa beat me to it.
Collecting anything has it's pitfalls but I'll bet you 5 years from now he'll get his money back and then some for that item. I was watching the toy hunter a few weeks ago and dude sold a never released rocket firing boba fett for $17,000. (J spring, for those who are interested. There is an L spring version too but to my knowledge it's a unicorn.) That's not a typo, that's seventeen-thousand dollars. Sure it was not a box but it was one of, if not the only one to not get smelted.
Turns out that I should be collecting old kenner toys because they go for alot and they were all made about 4-5 hours from me so odds of finding good scores are pretty high. (Kenner was in Cincinatti and I live in NW Ohio) I do plan on keeping my eyes open wider come garage sale season this year after finding that out. (M.A.S.K. toys, even after being opened, usually go for at least 2x original price also so if you ever see any I'd advise picking them up and putting them on ebay.)
Wow, I didn't intend for this to be a novella, sorry guys. Happy New Year! I look forward to swapping more stories with you all over the course of 2013.
