Are the values of STAR WARS props/helmets dropping?

[cwoodreplicas]

Over the past few months/year, I have observed that the value at which props/helmets sell has fallen quite dramatically. I've experienced this in my own sales but also in observations online. Take the humble Graflex for example - I could go out now and buy a series of folmers for £500 or so, only a year ago the same would have cost me at least 50% more.

The same thing can be said of RS X-wing Helmets, blasters and a whole series of real parts (e.g. Balance Pipes). One explanation is that we were all a bit flushed with cash during the COVID years and prices rose dramatically but these days a bit skint! Or perhaps simply demand has dropped as those who collect these things have now satisfied that itch.


(hopefully this is the right place for this).

 

[yaris]

I used to sell Replica E11s from my own molds off deactivated Sterling. I made some very good money for hobby labor build fun. Shipped them all over the world.

You know what killed it.....?...3D Printing. Suddenly everyman and his dog had one and were providing not bad kits (some rubbish) for 1/5 of what I was casting and finishing.

The only way to combat that was to upsell with clear acrylic stands, ID plates, super nice packaging....etc that worked for a while and really took off during CoVid, but as economy's tanked and cost of living pressures affecting everywhere the market is at the bottom feeder lever for a lot of stuff now.

Black Series stuff is super cheap for the quality you can get.

I don't think it's right across the board with low market prices, but there are a number of forces (pun intended) that are driving prices down.

 

[Mr Mold Maker]

My personal experience as a commission painter of Star Wars stuff, mainly helmets, is that 2018-2022 was incredibly busy. A ton of interest all around from fans and collectors. Then rather sharply, it fell off in 2023. Into 2024 it has continued to be incredibly stagnant. I think a lot of the points above are correct. Just a bad combination of a lot of factors, but I will also add that there has been a severe lack of overall quality in the shows/movies, which certainly has made a lot of collectors not want stuff from those things. At least that is what I’m hearing from collectors. My hope is that the Mando movie will reinvigorate folks and give us some new cool things to want to make.

 

[Knightmare]

The franchise has taken a massive hit for sure . But people are getting crushed by inflation that does IMO impact the collectors market .

 

[Halliwax]

I think crappy series and poor economy has finally hit the prop community..

People have lost interest, and those still interested it’s just too expensive to live.

At least that’s how it’s effected me

 

[cwoodreplicas]

I think crappy series and poor economy has finally hit the prop community..

People have lost interest, and those still interested it’s just too expensive to live.

At least that’s how it’s effected me

Agreed. I wonder however, like any asset these things can go up and down in value - perhaps we experienced a golden few years of collecting where these things doubled in value, only when they come down again it’s difficult for us to accept it. Demand certainly feels like it’s fallen.

This question came to mind as it’s time to renew my collection insurance and I needed to value my collection. It’s definitely fallen in value now - and that’s the reality.

 

[Psab keel]

All of the above has contributed to the waning market for SW collectibles and props. The shift in the type of collectors is a factor too. Consider how the number of makers in this space have dwindled and people are more apt to buy a prop rather than make it.

How is this relevant you ask? When you've got a majority of people unable, unwilling, or uninterested in understanding, the labor and expense that goes into a limited run of a high end prop made of premium materials, their reflex is to scoff at the price tag of a better made piece when they could get a similar item (albeit less accurate and made of cheap materials) for a fraction of the price.

This creates a vacuum where newcomers or less informer buyers assume that small artisans can afford to sell their wares at mass produced prices and ship for free because Amazon does it, when the reality is that artists are barely scraping by to begin with.

No one with a brain collects anything as a serious investment strategy, but you do hope that if you sell off something from your private stash that you won't lose too much money on it. It's been my experience that any funds you recoup are often used to acquire a new prop.

I hope your collection isn't devalued too much by the downturn.

 

[pengbuzz]

All of the above has contributed to the waning market for SW collectibles and props. The shift in the type of collectors is a factor too. Consider how the number of makers in this space have dwindled and people are more apt to buy a prop rather than make it.

How is this relevant you ask? When you've got a majority of people unable, unwilling, or uninterested in understanding, the labor and expense that goes into a limited run of a high end prop made of premium materials, their reflex is to scoff at the price tag of a better made piece when they could get a similar item (albeit less accurate and made of cheap materials) for a fraction of the price.

This creates a vacuum where newcomers or less informer buyers assume that small artisans can afford to sell their wares at mass produced prices and ship for free because Amazon does it, when the reality is that artists are barely scraping by to begin with.

No one with a brain collects anything as a serious investment strategy, but you do hope that if you sell off something from your private stash that you won't lose too much money on it. It's been my experience that any funds you recoup are often used to acquire a new prop.

I hope your collection isn't devalued too much by the downturn.

Agreed; the mentality of buyers is often "gimme a Rembrandt for the price of a 5 minute doodle". They don't consider that the materials aren't cheap, and to shape and finish the piece appropriately (you need to respect the materials) takes time, skill and the right techniques and equipment. And the cheaper ones aren't going to look right or hold up as well, because the materials and techniques used aren't the same quality.

It's the difference between a cheap plastic lightsaber hilt from a toy store or Party City, and a hand-machined one that's been polished, assembled with screws, D-rings and clamps/ switches that are screen-accurate.

 

[MasterJedi]

I think everything in this hobby has taken a hit. I've been in the custom lightsaber community since 2016, and with companies like TXQ pumping out low-quality products for cheap, it's completely tanked the value of everything in the hobby. If you don't have experience with high-end hilts, untrained eyes and new members of the hobby see nothing wrong with TXQ, and therefore see no reason to spend more on quality. And since nobody sees the value in nicer hilts, the price of nicer hilts have plummeted. I fought hard to just sell a nice ESB Vader hilt I had lying around, and it still took me almost a month, and I had to drop my price $200 below asking. And I think similar things are happening in the general prop-collecting community at large.

Couple that with the current state of the economy, it's unfortunate that this hobby is under some strain.

 

[janglesworthy]

I saw a massive drop back in either July 2021/22 whenever the big gas price hike happened. I don't know what is going on in Florida but most people that I sell to come from Florida.

 

[Clerval]

For accurate donor part constructions and even unaltered source material, it isn't a case of the market bottoming out- it's levelling to where it should have been at best. Sellers got damn lucky for a while. There's a false sense of item scarcity... though now as said in the other thread, your kids don't want your crap, and pieces will continue to become more available. For raw material, you can look in every corner of fandom and know plenty of folks who've acquired donor bits and they're simply sitting on shelves, collecting dust, now relegated to objets at most. They're out there.

For all classes, yeah you've got economic hits on fun money, low quality 'good enough' far outpacing other esp in the fan-produced/hobbyist realm, ie 'oh my cousin has a 3D printer', flooded markets, and the EBay moron factor with everyone trying to get their fortune in one sale. Saying that folks want champagne on a 7UP budget doesn't address that the champagne is 5X what it should be. A piece has to earn its price. Folks who build also need to learn that for most, what the material sourcing and build time is vs what it should be is ridiculous. There's a reason most aren't in production as pros. I won't pay out 80 hours for a 50 hour job. It's dangerous to assume audience ignorance. It's a factor at a certain level of work, yes, but folks who do know and follow things won't show up to buy when they can do the math and often can do the work.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

The WORST part of this is that while I would love to capitalize on this and scoop up some replicas I missed while they're cheap, I'm stuck spending all of that previously "extra" money on freaking groceries now!

 

[Halliwax]

The WORST part of this is that while I would love to capitalize on this and scoop up some replicas I missed while they're cheap, I'm stuck spending all of that previously "extra" money on freaking groceries now!

I totally understand. I found myself one night this week when cutting tshirt logos , taking all my ST props out of the display cases, boxing them up and putting them in storage

 

[pengbuzz]

The WORST part of this is that while I would love to capitalize on this and scoop up some replicas I missed while they're cheap, I'm stuck spending all of that previously "extra" money on freaking groceries now!

Hopefully the same thing that happened to props will happen to groceries.*



*- not intended to be political in any way, I just like food!

 

[EvanESB]

I agree.

I’ve bought some vintage pieces this past year and seems like I paid what they went for when prices were high. But selling right now nothing moves and prices go lower. Bad timing on my part but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The knowledge and members you gain and talk to is unmatched.

Just sharing my experience.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

All the factors above are certainly key, but I also see the pool of collectors shrinking. With the advent and access to technologies that make production "easier," the kind of 'hardcore' collector is dropped off. I think most people are okay with things that resemble something closely and is, more importantly, cheaper than some old piece of militaria or junked camera equipment that reproduces the original prop exactly but doesn't come with blinky lights and a sound board for a third or less than the 'real deal.'

I loved making my lineage casts, but the pool was always small for that piece then and it's non-existent now, especially when there are far more readily available replicas at far less the cost of just one of the hilts I produced (some of which had taken direct measurements off of what I made). The interest just isn't there for "originally made" items as it was when the buzz for the Disney movies sparked interest again. Everything now is made for those that want it now and want it cheap, and there has always been more of that crowd that die-hards that need to match ancillary details like the number of rivets, or a once-there-now-gone rubber button.

 

[janglesworthy]

your also competing against a group of people who rip assets out of video games, print, cast and sell. Because they are taking actual professionals work the general quality of all these things has jumped massively.

Pre Star Wars Battlefront 2 no one had a good clone trooper helmet/armor, after that game came out everyone has it for example. When you also have games like that where some of the assets were made from 3D scans of the original prop/costume the general quality of everything shape wise jumps up.

 

[cwoodreplicas]

Thanks for all contributing here folks - good to see that I'm not the only one picking up on this, and also that the US and UK are both similarly impacted by it all.

Psab keel is right when he says "No one with a brain collects anything as a serious investment strategy" .


I also feel as if the demand has totally dropped, probably a mixture of bad content (being polite) and perhaps the number of collectors has peaked! I wonder how many more 'real parts' obi wans will be made, or whether we are nearing the end of it.

I always thought some of these items will go with me to the grave, and I still believe this.

 

[Dogsbody2]

Problem with Star Wars is there is so much of it now...Its quantity over quality...You want a Star Wars part its easy to order something online or download and print one..

 

[TheDragon]

Problem with Star Wars is there is so much of it now...Its quantity over quality...You want a Star Wars part its easy to order something online or download and print one..

I don't think that it's so much the amount of "lower quality"/less accurate props that is the issue but instead that people aren't willing to pay the additional cost for the "better" alternative when there is commercial offerings that previously didn't exist. As for example, the 200 hundred something dollar black series scout trooper helmet is a much cheaper alternative to the 600 dollar + fan-made version as well as being more readily available and a safer bet for most.

I especially got a bad taste in my mouth after being stuck waiting for an anovos item for over a year past its scheduled delivery date before waiting months for a refund (and that was a licensed product).

What I think i'm trying to say is accuracy (and or lineage) isn't as big of a deal for some (I would even say the majority) to justify far greater price tag as companies like Hasbro have now entered the picture where these props could only be previously bought from fan-made makers.