¨Condition is that what can make or brake the value except the nostalgic value¨
Condition is the magic word when it comes to any collectable item and this is also the case with our beloved Beastformer lines. So since this has such an important influence on the financial value of ALL individual figures or items its important to get a certain feeling with it.
When people ask me why there is such a difference in price between one and the same item the shared story is mainly based on………. condition. Before you even start buying figures or items related to these lines or maybe even in general its important to define a certain goal which becomes your perspective that will help you out with making a decission of buying certain items or to stay away from them. Is your goal building a collection just for fun and you don’t add a lot of value to the good or ”pristine” condition of a certain item and your just happy with owning that piece in any condition than your good to go and buy and bid on almost all pieces you bump into for cheap or sharp prices, which under normal circumstances are the prices for items of which the condition is not as good anymore. BUT in case you do have to goal to end up with a collection in the best possible condition you’ve to consider if it is worth paying a low amount of money now for an item or piece you know you’ll be replacing in time anyway because its not the condition your looking to get eventually. This simple consideration will make things a lot more easy for you realising buying the item now in a less condition will only cost you money since your planning to replace it anyway. Its just a little view that cannot be shared enough amongst collectors to keep a little bit control over the virus that is called collecting…..
Now you might have determined wheter or not condition is important to you there is still a big chance you might not have the correct skills or knowledge to actually determine the condition of a certain item. Especially when it comes to grading an item based upon a poor description on pictures that or not very sharp or maybe taken in such a close up that little issues become a huge damage.
¨Detailled pics of small objects can give you a completely wrong view of the actuall condition since a little bit of paintdamage on a 2 inch figure can become a real big issue while in reality this issue is less noticeable¨
So by blowing up the actuall size of a small item you might get a completely wrong view of its actuall condition since based on the detailled photo you could easily grade the item 10 or 20% lower than what it would actually be in realtime. But nevertheless that should not mean the criteria set for the determination of a condition grade should not be very strict!
Since I am a pretty much perfectionist when it comes to collecting, I lost my count on how many times I have been replacing certain figures within my personal collection simply because a better one showed up or even some of which the paint just looked a little more smooth, I dare to say my way of grading when it comes to condition is pretty strict of not a little paranoid. This means that even the smallest issue that might not even be noticeable for some of you can cause a simple decrease of 5% without a doubt. Which is a little paranoid simply because of the fact were collecting childhood toys which means that probably all the loose figures out there have been played with in one way or another. But better safe than sorry.
Enough said let’s forward to the actuall grading system by which the condition of a specific item or figure is determined by the Beastformers Team.
Beastformers Blog 