by Mark Turgeon
Across the nation, millions of Americans spend tons of money each year on their favorite past time, which may seem useless to some: collecting items. Some collect action figures, comic books, or trinkets and knick-knacks; others collect celebrity autographs and signed memorabilia that can turn a profit.
Throughout the years, people and collectors would purchase their collections from trade shows or any other collectible show. With the internet in full effect and companies like eBay and other auction websites, anyone can sell or buy any collectible from their home. The internet and eBay a like site have created a greater trade and purchase market for those that are involved in a collectible industry.
Baseball cards, football cards, and other sports cards are all great collectibles, and only made more valuable by the addition of that prized signature. For some reason, celebrity autographs seem to amaze and impress our society, as if they were some sort of status signature.
The average person will sign their name millions of times in their life, and it’s completely worthless in street value. However, if a celebrity autographs a poster, a book, or even something like a napkin or piece of garbage, it instantly becomes highly valuable.
Prices on items always vary when a celebrity has signed them. It all depends what kind or item it and of course who signed it? Not all signatures from celebrities have the same value as others.
An example would be for legendary signatures are the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood compared to more contemporary easy to obtain autographs like Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, Britney Spears and other current celebrities. We happen to live in a society where we idolize celebrities so you might get that dedicated fan willing to pay anything for that particular autograph even if that celebrity is easy to obtain.
Many celebrity autographs can be found on the internet in all fields which include movies, music, sports, historical, or even political people. If you can not get out to get your own autographs and do not have access to meet your favorite celebrity, you can find just about anything searching online. While searching online always keep in mind if the item is genuine. Do research of the seller along with the signature, by comparing to an authentic one.
With all the great memorabilia out there, it’s often hard to tell the real items from the fakes and forgeries. Sadly, people do make a living selling fake celebrity autographs, so you should always find someone who can validate the item and it’s authenticity before you pay thousands of dollars for something that is fake and worthless.
November 30 2008 | Collectibles | No Comments »
by Jared Conley
Transformers figures are incredibly popular toys due to their excellent story lines, wild history, and simple coolness factor. While newer additions to the toy line are impressive with their gadgetry and intricate transformations, the clunkier and larger toys of the eighties are extremely desirable, partially due to their controversial history.
In the 1970’s, Japanese toy company Takara manufactured the popular Microman and Diaclone toy lines, which featured figures that morphed into robots, electronics devices, and vehicles. Hasbro was already partnering with Takara for the G.I. Joe toy line and continued the partnership to create the Transformers figures toy line, while simultaneously purchasing the Diaclone line outright.
A backstory was created for the toy line and a plethora new characters were added, while many of the original Diaclone toys were reworked to blend into this new story line. That’s the straightforward part of their history. Then things begin to get confusing.
Shortly thereafter, the Marvel comic was launched in the United States. It would later be released in the UK and Japan, inspiring new figure variations and dual names for figures in the process. In 1984 the TV series was launched, but the writers didn’t precisely follow the original backstory.
In 1986, the Transformers animated movie was developed, two more seasons of the cartoon series were produced, and the UK and Japanese story lines were still being developed. In the early 90’s, the second generation series was released (G2), followed by Beast Wars, followed by a new series of toys and comics developed by Dreamwave in the early 2000’s. All of this led to wild discrepancies in backgrounds, plots, characters, and many other aspects associated with the toy line and the backstory.
At the same time, Hasbro was launching more and more Transformers figures and sets, including Headmasters, Powermasters, Dinobots, Triggerbots, Trainbots, Throttlebots, Constructicons, Sparkobots, Protectobots, and many more. Many of these toys were truly engineering wonders. Wait a minute, don’t tell me that you thought there was only one toy line?!
Adding to this confusion are the new Transformers releases, inspired by the feature film. Some of these new toys even feature tie-ins with the popular Star Wars franchise. Although these transforming toys don’t carry the same geek appeal as Star Wars vintage action figures or the original Transformers figures, they are very popular with newer fans of both the Star Wars and Transformers series.
The bottom line is that Transformer action figures are more than just a fun memory for many collectors; they are also a prime example of design ingenuity, cooperation, and creativity rarely seen in the current mass market toy releases. Thanks to their past, vintage Transformers figures should remain collectible and valuable for many years to come.
About the Author:
Jared has amassed a huge collection of vintage toys, and is especially fond of Pez,
Star Wars vintage toys, and Transformers (more than meets the eye!). He blogs about the history of the toy lines, the plot variations, and the characters on his
Transformers figures blog.
November 26 2008 | Collectibles | No Comments »