Moving on.

[jgon2098]

I am writing to wish the admins of this forum and the Australian Generation One collecting community well.

I have been out of the transformers hobby for quite some time (4-5 years). For the past three weeks, I contracted my friend Specimen-17 to manage the sale of my inventory and collection. The listings concluded today. We were very squeezed with time, with a bit of luck we will give it another go early next year. But all in all, this is the end of the line for me and has been coming for quite some time.

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There was several things that really caught my attention during the liquidation:

1. It was really positive to see the the amount of Australian bidders and winners. The Aussie G1 community has expanded quite abit since my last interaction. (Rob Nguyen, Hi.)

2. The amount of 3rd Party, reissues and KO replica (identical) items/accessories in the market now. These have and I believe will continue to hammer the value of G1 toys in the near to medium future. The value of G1 toys no longer stand the test of time as they once did.

3. The amount of shilling activity that occurs now on eBay. You need to be really careful of the market value of items when you go through completed listings. Many dealers shill the crap out of multiple identical listings to create a false sense of high value to an item that they own or have listed for Buy It Now on eBay or displayed in their physical shops. You would be wise to click on the bidding history of these completed items, if you see the prices are jacked up by alot of low feedback bidders, you'll know the ending value is not a legitimate representation of market value.

4. Griffin bidding on some items.

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Final Shoutouts to:

Valkyrie: For being a good friend and waiting over 4 years for his package.

Heroic_Decepticon: For being a good guy.

Specimen-17: For assisting in the sale. This guy is as legitimiate as it gets. No shills, no early auction ends, describes all defects, even if they are trivial to the naked eye. He has been in this business since 2002. His understanding of variants, detection of KOs is unparalleled.

TheDirtyDigger: Not sure if the man is still around, but if your reading this, you still owe me multiple high definition pictures of your wife in skankily dressed outfits. Love ya mate.

[TAAUBlaster]

I never had a chance to get to know you, but everyone here always speaks very highly of you. Good luck in your future endeavours man.

I managed to snag a few items during the sales, and they will have a safe and secure home here Specimen-17 was a pleasure to deal with.

[theshape]

You had some amazing pieces (that artfire!). If you dont mind, may i ask these questions?

1.Why you chose to move on?
2.Will you be keeping any pieces?
3. Did the final price of any items surprise you?

Goodluck for the future

[griffin]

There was several things that really caught my attention during the liquidation:

4. Griffin bidding on some items.

Did that surprise you for some reason?
As you noted, I wasn't the only Australian bidding... but I was probably the least successful, with no wins out of all the items I bid on.
(I didn't even bother bidding on the toy items I was interested in, because I knew they'd go well beyond what I valued them at... and they all did go for more than what I would have bid.)

It's sad to hear of a collector moving on and selling up their collection, but it is good to hear that many items went to collectors in this country, as we don't have many of those sorts of JP Gen1 items in circulation here.

[autobreadticon]

sad to hear you go the memories and friendship people have of you will last forever ,

[1AZRAEL1]

It is sad to see you hang it up buddy. Been great to have known and met up with you on a number of occasions, and still have the pieces you've sold me too.

[jgon2098]

Did that surprise you for some reason?

Griffin you are OTCA royalty. Your participation brought a smile to my face. Really glad you showed up towards the end.

it is good to hear that many items went to collectors in this country, as we don't have many of those sorts of JP Gen1 items in circulation here.

The dinocassets are all in the hands of Aussies and ex Aussies

1.Why you chose to move on?
2.Will you be keeping any pieces?
3. Did the final price of any items surprise you?

1. Change in priorities.

2. No. I have no emotional attachment to any piece. When you make a decision like this, there is no room for sentiment. The decision was swift and easy, because the reasons were clear and logical. You will all face this day sometime in the future, don't make it hard on yourselves, be clear and be firm and enjoy the ride while it lasts.

3. Many. I guess eBay is like that. Bargains and overbidding lol.

The Japanese items mostly did piss poor (with the exception of Artfire, which went way over my estimates). Dino cassettes were rubbish. KO hit the loose/boxed market hard as expected, which affected the basis used to apply a premium on graded samples. Didn't help either that some American douchebag was pulling bids out the last 30 seconds. (They really should implement a timeframe restriction to that).

Japanese merchandise did exceptionally well. As specimen mentioned to me, this must be the gap in alot of peoples collections now, that and all the masterforce, operation combination lines.

KO bootlegs mostly did well as expected due to shortage in supply.

AFAs were poor. Probably why no one auctions them any more, most are BIN listings.

Do not be fooled that AFAs will always add value to your collection. Sometimes they will, most cases they won't. Any price is dependant on the basic principles of supply and demand (and in this case the popularity of the character). The demand for AFA G1 appears to have dipped considerably (not sure if this had anything to do with their qualified grading BS) but the dropoff is quite clear in my eyes. Something changed in this market. I have my theories but cannot confirm.

There is also alot of highly visible inconsistency in AFA grading which somewhat defies the purpose of having a grading scale.

[liegeprime]

Well, whatever endeavour you go to next, may you find contentment and success. I only had a look at the listings. Didn't bid on any as the prices are too rich for my blood hahaha. Thanks for telling me about it a few months before it hit ebay as well. Cheers jgon2098

[theshape]

Thanks for the replies

[Bidoofdude]

I didn't know you, but I wish you well in your future. While it's sad to hear you go, at least you're moving on well and not having too much sentiment in your stuff. Good luck.