What do Kodoto, Corinthian Prostar, Microstar and Soccerstarz have in common? Toothpaste? Bible stories? No, make another guess!
Okay, the name Soccerstarz would have given out a clue. You may be a Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or any other team supporter, but you got to agree that a miniature collection of your idol would looks good on any display cabinet. Hence.. we are introducing, the soccer figurines for every vivid soccer fan in the whole world!
There was a time, back in 1995, a group of soccer vivids came together and opened a shop, dedicated in selling Soccer figurines, they called themselves Corinthians. When they 1st released the figurines, many of us in Singapore would not have a chance to get hold of them as most of us were probably school goers back then. The 1st batch of figurines were named Corinthian Headliners, which consist of the England national Headliners figurines. Afterwhich, Corinthian then released various series such as the Scottish and English Premiership teams.
However, Corinthian was faced with a problem with teams of lower reputations were not selling fast, they had to make changes. In 1998, they sold their company, together with the Headliners name.
In come the Prostars series, where supporters of Headliners continued to make their purchases of secret sachets, single blister forms , window boxes and multipacks boxsets. One of the excitement of collecting the new Prostars were the introduction of the Platinum pack. This was the elite of Prostars, limited to certain quantity worldwide. Back then, you would not be able make purchase for such Platinum version of the Prostars, instead, you would have received them free for the purchases done with Corinthian. It also came with the various boxset purchased, absolutely free !
What's more interesting is, there were some unreleased figurines that Prostars holds (for various reasons). Collectors would not be able to collect them as they are not released anywhere.
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| Michael Owen Chaser Platinum, released by error. Sold on eBay for GBP 421.99 (Exclusive of postage) |
After awhile, Corinthians decided to launch a mini version of the figurines, naming them Microstars. Those figurines are smaller than the Prostars and were only released in sachets. The catch for such Microstars were the base colors, ranging from Green, Red, Blue, White, Silver, Gold and Black. With Black being the most rare and green the most common.
However, good times never lasted forever. Corinthian officially entered administration in year 2011, ending their dynasty of Toys figurines in an era where Soccer is still very much, sought after.
That was when the prices of Corinthian Prostars, Headliners and Microstars went up. The economic 101 rules still applies here. With no more supply coming in, the collectors would have no means of getting their whole set of figurines. Thats when the eBay became a popular place for collectors to camp at. Prices might go as low as 0.01 pounds (excluding shipping) at the start of an auction, but might end up at sky high value.
Take for example a Peter Cech figurine (with his helmet), would have cost a buyer S$12.90 at a local toys collection shop before the collapse of Corinthian. Following the cease of Corinthian, eBay recorded a sky high price of S$129 for the same piece of figurine. Which is 10 times the original price. This is insane you may say, but to the buyer, he would have thought this is all worth it.
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| Sold on eBay for SGD $129 (Exclude postage) |
This should be it for the 1st part of my sharing today. Stay tune for my next part of my sharing..
