Brian.. Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 I was wondering how others see the robot collecting world at the moment. I was on the bandwagon back in the 1980s and I've lived through quite a few changes. Of late I think I've seen these developments: The Ebay flush of robots is slowly drying up. Vintage robot discoveries have virtually ceased. Prices for the unboxed common old robots have dropped considerably. Reproduction robots have taken a back seat. There's little collector interest in the new ones, though the general public love them. There's been a growth of the one-off robot usually and incorrectly called prototypes (though they don't seem to sell) Ebay sellers have increased their use of the BIN, often with ridiculously high prices There's an awareness of real rarities, usually space toys, and the first examples sell for a fortune. The market is shallow and prices soon tumble. Robot reference books no longer feature in conversations Prices at physical auctions have gone through the roof - often much higher than Ebay. You can't find sleepers anymore. The number of specialist robot dealers has declined and Toni's still lying low. Just my impressions, folks. I'm usually wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morbius Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Right on with your points Brian and I'm not just saying that. I've been at it since the mid-'70s when a local comic shop owner put his dozen or so old tin 'bots in the window of his store for a few days including his Mechanized, then finding the old Roto Robot in Goodwill for 25c. Later the article in Starlog #26 with Stephen Sansweet and space toys just blew me away and never been the same since. Glad I got into the tin decades ago for what is today pocket change, never took the hobby too seriously. Not to mention 17 years or so when my collection languished and few humans actually saw it and I believe only one item, the repop Mechanized from Ray Rohr was added then through a strange circumstance the Rohr Robby was on the shelf and that was a thrill and a half. As for the multi-coloured 'prototypes' some are quite nice but look too new, I believe they're gathering NOS pieces such as with the Piston Robot and tinkering them into new incarnations that never existed for sale originally. I would never consider them a prototype, just a new robot. And for $1,000+ I don't care for them that much...and where do they fit in? I was just saying to wife of Morbius last week there're very few nice old 'bots on e-bay aside from the ones with high B.I.N. especially some (*seemingly) illogical prices from Japan, maybe they're confusing their yen with $. As another Alphadromer often says, "know your seller" and that's been a great advantage here with members and dealers on Alphadrome (thanks guys)! Some of the pics on e-bay never seem to change, you have to wonder if the one in the picture is ever really sold such as the ROM's. I've got a lot of time to peruse, I'm seeing more plastics out there now. Laurie told me some 30+ years ago the winds would be changing from the old tin one day. There's a new generation out there that grew up with the plastics and they're looking for their old toys again. She's usually right! Now if only we'd tucked away those minty SW figs that the 'experts' said back then would never be worth anything as there were 100 million out there of everything. Yup, they bought it all up and now it's on e-bay. p.s. I don't care for that AFA guy. I'd rather touch the toys than a hermetically sealed case. Brian, do you realize that from where I am, you're posting 'from the future'??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Your impressions (per usual) are pretty spot on: Not sure what you mean by vintage robot discoveries - we have recently had a sale of a boxed Machineman - a boxed Electroman surfaced - I've seen over a dozen highend boxed examples suface in the past year (all private sales). Yes there are certainly less pickens around or as Robert Lesser once told me the shoebox filled with robots has been steadily picked clean -but like everything money brings them out. Most high end items are either going in auctions or being sold privatley and not seeing the light of day but they are still around to a degree. So that is another of todays trends - highend private sales. Dealers do not have advertise - they have a ready market with an email or phonecall. Space toys are big and alot of interesting items have beeen newly discovered especially in rockets and cars. Most of the long time collectors have most of the robots they need and spacetoys are now getting the high end prices. The one offs are due to the factory not having the resources any longer to produce in mass for the consumer market and they are now reduced to cobbling together these pieces with leftover parts. We need a new reference book -perhaps on rare spacetoys. I think another trend is more of an appreciation for what I call 'artbots' - artistic renditions of robots. We have seen many compelling pieces both by Japanese artists and right here at home with Andybots -Steve's rays and bots, Rigg creations etc. The hobby overall is still quite strong and that is a good thing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian.. Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 Steve, I meant that we don't seem to be finding previously unknown robots or boxes. I definitely agree that the hobby is as strong as it has ever been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Toyman Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Brian, Excellent observations, I also see what you see, I've traded in toys and antiques, albeit on a modest scale, for years and the same thing seems to apply in other collecting trends (maybe trend is the wrong word?) nothing 'new' or rare seems to turn up, I see now what I've seen in the past with Dinky toys, Hornby trains, pottery, furniture etc, we're getting older and trends change. New blood enters the collecting world and you can see that the big money is now buying 70's and 80's carded figures, Super hero items, even loose playworn vinyl figures are fetching $1,000's. Having said that, top end vintage toys of any description still seem to command top $$$ but further down the trough, it's hard work getting rid of anything, except as you say, modern repros to the general public, which is very true! I suppose we should be thankful that we saw the good stuff years back before it caught on! I've switched from watching TT's listing to watching Marco's wonderful toys ( By the way, I still have that very wacky plastic "Lunar Monster" that you sold me ) Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 We need a new reference book -perhaps on rare spacetoys. Like this, Steve? http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROBOTS-AND-SPACE-/231264325400?_trksid=p2054897.l4275 (Well, it's new to me, anyway.) I believe this is the catalogue mentioned here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fineas J. Whoopie Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Good points guys. As most of you know I have been forced to sell off some of my collection and the high end stuff never gets on ebay because all I have to do is let a couple of friends know that the piece is available and it usually gets sold without ebay fees at a price that makes both of us happy. In a strange way I'm more of dealer than a collector lately and most transactions (yes mostly rare space toys) take only a few emails, texts or a phone call. No slick website or sharing of funds with ebay needed. There is a lot going on out of the public record. Most of the "new discoveries" have been in space toys lately, like the Yoshiya space car and others. The last huge discovery in the robot world that I can remember is the box for the "Orange" or "R" robot. That was huge! How many years has it been now? But if you are looking for the thrill of seeing a piece that you have never seen before on a regular basis my advice is to get into rayguns. One of the most posted phrases over on the raygun forum here on Alphadrome is "never seen it before" There is so much that most of us raygun fans have been unaware of that longtime collectors like Big Bang and collectors from overseas are hipping us to. It's a rich field that seems to be constantly unfolding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I believe the Space Adventure with the silver crank spacetrooper was a recent 'new find'. (I'm thinking a that this was a pre production salesman sample). It would be great if more finds like this were made. Joe that book is wonderful - mainly high end robots and astronauts with some nice space toys - had it for a number of years now -didn't realize it would be made available to the public. Fineas - I know little about Ray Guns but just recently I'm hearing an expert like Big Bang showing me recent examples of pieces that he has never seen before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fineas J. Whoopie Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Steve - my point exactly re the rayguns. I just didn't want to seem like I was talking for everyone when I talked about the previously unknown aspect of some of the recent "new discoveries". If Big Bang hasn't seen a raygun before you know its rare, but when I haven't seen a piece before, I assume he's got multiples!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboz Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 To quote stock terms if I was a new collector I'd say Buy Existing collectors , Hold Some great deals on the bay' & I predict more than a couple collections will hit auction houses within the next 3-5 years If you're collecting the staples of vintage tin there still seems to be a healthy supply & more robust offerings internationally. This is a nice time to build a collection IMHO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 But if you are looking for the thrill of seeing a piece that you have never seen before on a regular basis my advice is to get into rayguns. Hey, we need no other competitors! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dratomic Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Yeah, I agree on all accounts. Especially Alessandro's. C'mon, Don, stop making it even harder for us! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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