Interesting, rare and sometimes cheap ebay items.

[Sky Shadow]

Anyone speak Italian? What do you think these are? http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOTTO-3-QUAD...item56642ec37a

[BruiseLee]

Just plugged it into google translate and the heading says this if it is of any help to anyone:

LOT 3 PAPERS TF TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED NEW STOCK FUND

[griffin]

Run it by Dirge for translating Italian.

I'm curious as to what they are as well, as that's some nice Gen1 character art on thick card (from what I can tell).
It'd be nice if there was a big set of them somewhere, to cover a wall with.

[griffin]

I see that they have some MOTU ones as well, with similar title (words), so I'm thinking that they might be mini-comics.

[Sky Shadow]

The section it's in is 'notebooks', so I'm thinking they're blank exercise books. I just thought the covers were cool images of the second wave of Autobot Pretenders.

[griffin]

A loose Japanese Grandus from 1991, with a yellowed Micron (Micromaster), auctioned off and getting 48 bids.... US$910 (about AU$1000).
I didn't think it was that rare. Imagine how high it would go MISB, or with a box. (another JP Gen1 toy on my list that I'll never get )

US$800 for some JP Headmaster Heads... they'd want to be the originals and not the 2010 KOs. (Trizer, Lione, Rodney)
It's interesting to see that the price-tags still on them, say that these were originally sold (in 1987) for just 250 yen (that's only about AU$2.80).
That would have to be one of the best investments I've ever seen for a TFs toy (probably even better than the Dino cassettes, which would have retailed for more). From US$2.80 to AU$880 in 17 years... that's about 32,000% profit, or about 1,800% increase in value each year. Imagine that sort of return on an investment.... buying a hundred of each in 1987, and you'd be set for life.
JUST A WARNING - I was bidding on some of this person's items, and the same shill bidder with zero feedback came along and pushed up several of their auctions in the last half hour... and then cancelled a bid on one item when they went above the maximum bid of the current winner.
The seller may well be innocent of this, but this isn't the first time it has happened to me on rare JP Gen1 items, just because the seller wasn't getting as many bidders as they had hoped (and then offer it to me at my max bid instead of what I would have won it at if they weren't in on the shill bidding scam).


And now for something completely different. On the creepy end of the Transformers scale... I'm guessing that a comic book featuring the holographic girl from Car Robots/RID in a really wrong pose, with "ages 18 up", I don't think this is your ordinary IDW type of Transformers comic. The lack of Transformers or Takara branding, suggests that this is a fan-produced "3rd party" project, meeting the needs of the Japanese guys whom Kissplay was aimed at.

[ILikeSoundwave]

I didn't know they made a KO Abominus, tempted to get one but it's quite expensive http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151285941666

[Sinnertwin]

I didn't know they made a KO Abominus, tempted to get one but it's quite expensive http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151285941666

That's an easy one
He was never released in a giftset outside of the D84 Japanese & D84 GiG Italian 'Tundertron'

It's loose figures which'll be the concern now

[griffin]

JUST A WARNING - I was bidding on some of this person's items, and the same shill bidder with zero feedback came along and pushed up several of their auctions in the last half hour... and then cancelled a bid on one item when they went above the maximum bid of the current winner.
The seller may well be innocent of this, but this isn't the first time it has happened to me on rare JP Gen1 items, just because the seller wasn't getting as many bidders as they had hoped (and then offer it to me at my max bid instead of what I would have won it at if they weren't in on the shill bidding scam).

They just sent a second-chance offer at the final (shill) bid price, instead of what I would have won it at... suggesting that they are in league with the shill bidder by not ignoring the fake bid (and profiting from the extra money that those fake bids brought in).
It probably doesn't cost them anything to relist, so they won't care if I reject it on principle... but I could see if ebay would bother to investigate them for shill bidding.

[griffin]

After saying that I was going to report the shill bidder to ebay, the guy dropped it down to what I would have won it at. (I didn't threaten them at all, or demand they change it to my winning amount, but while we were haggling a couple of his other items that didn't sell, the suggestion that it was suspicious that so many of his items benefited from the one shill bidder, may have had him worried)
It's only $10 difference, but it is the principle of it... and why throw away money that is rightfully yours?

In the end it probably didn't matter, as I was able to talk him down $200 on a couple of other JP Gen1 boxed mint figures... that still ended up costing me nearly AU$3000.
Mint Boxed Sixknight ($400), Metrotitan ($820), Dai Atlas ($700), Road Fire ($700), plus $50 shipping.
Metrotitan and Sixknight had the shill bidder, but I won Metrotitan without the shill bidder affecting the final price. Dai Atlas didn't get any bids at $800, and Road Fire was just listed at $800. Both looked to be mint and white (and Dai Atlas was NOT the KO C888-version)... which is hard to find with these ones. I wasn't too keen to spend $800 on Road Fire though, as it is about half the size of Dai Atlas.
Offering $600 each plus postage, he came back with $700 each including postage. (postage wasn't going to be much since I was already paying $50 for the Metrotitan... but seeing the current selling rates of these in worse condition, and getting combined shipping, I figured, what the hell)

Now to see if they show up, and if they arrive in one piece.

JP Gen1 toys are way too expensive now... I don't think I've spent this much at once on TFs toys since Grand Maximus.
That should be my expensive JP purchase for the year.