Saturday, 22 June 2013

My Mini Empire (Part 3)

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I wanna start off by thanking the viewers for your great support(Yes thats you!!) to the blog posts and remember to like the page =)

Today, after introducing Prostars. Headliners, Microstars, Soccerstarz and Kodoto, i will be sharing more on repainting of the existing figurines into your favourite soccer team player.


Picture from Andy Wolfe
So, you can't find your favourite player in your favourite team? Fear not, there are many repainters and remodel artists who can help you create the figure you always wanted. However, as these are custom made, you have to pay at a higher price.
So how much is a reasonable price to pay for a repaint figurine? Well, i can't put a price on them on a general basis. All i can say is, it has a broad range from as little as 5 pounds to more than 80 pounds per figure. The painting, the finishing, the resemblance of the player, the printed logo on jersey are all pricing factors.

Just type corinthian repaints on google image and you have a rough idea what i am talking about.

Personally, i have collected quite a number of repainted models. Reason for doing so? I believe i am paying for an art work done by a great artist. Money spent? Well, thats another factor. Repaint models dont sell as much as normal figurines in the resale market. So, it is really up to individual whether they want to have a piece of repaint or they would prefer painting it themselves. Having scored F for Art and Craft back in my schooling days, i better dont damage more figurines.





The next topic i will be sharing will be on the corinthian cards. What? Cards? Whats there to share? Yes, most collectors would just take their figurines out from the blister and dont even take a look at the card that were in the same blister pack. These cards gave us some insight on how rare these figurines exactly are. Information such as the total number of figurines released for this particular figurine can also be found.



In the above 2 cards, we can see Phil Neal seemed to be more rare than Inamoto. There were only 1,067 figurines produced for Neal while there are 16,564 figurines produced for Inamoto. However, in this case, the figurines demanded for Neal is relatively low, hence the cost of purchasing Phil Neal is still relatively cheap.


The above pictures shows the cerificate of authenticity for a team box set and an elite box set. Currently, the team box sets are selling at a rather high price as compared to the rest of the figurines. Box sets when displayed, seems nice and majestic, no wonder buyers would spend hundreds of dollars just to own a piece of their favourite team. For Elite packs, the volume produced are relatively low. It comes in only 750 or 1500 for the figures produced. Hence, the prices for some more famous players such as Maradona, Ronaldo, Zidane could go as high as 80 pounds. However there are some lower end players which can be sold for less than 10 pounds.

So, does that means the number doesnt really show which players are more in demand? Well, you got to see it this way, if there are 10000 Messi figurines in the market but there are 25000 Messi supporters who wants his figurine, do you think the price will go up? Certainly! Same rational for other lower produced figurines. Such as Zamorano Select 500 series, as the name goes, there were only 500 ever produced but maybe there are less than 300 collectors want this figurine, hence the price will still be relatively low.

Besides the rarity of the figurines mentioned, some cards such as the retail series would give some background of the player/manager.



For world club legend cards, the cards will also show why the player is worthy to be a legend. Information such as the highlight of his career and club statistics are written clearly on the card.


For Club gold world great series, besides giving information of the player and the collector number, the card will also gives information of the series that this figurine was produced.


There are some series where the card gives the owner some liberty of rating the player of their choice. It would be quite interesting to see how you friends rate your favourite player against your choice. 10 years on, you can take the cards out and see how generous you had rated the player back then!


Lastly, for the platinum figurines, their cards are relatively simple but classy. Not much of an information , only listed the series and the issue number for authenticity purposes. As compared to the same series non platinum version.


I am a fan of numbers, so i collect blister issued number 0001. However, it is also with a cost. Number 1 figurines are generally more expensive than lets say number 1234. Having said that, some collectors prefer the number which the player wore on his jersey, such as Robbie Fowler number 9 of liverpool.

Whichever preference you have, it is your collection. At the end of the day, be happy with what you have. Some sellers may sell at the market rate, while some will sell at below cost price(or what some of you called "blood deals").

By displaying the cards together in a collector's album might seem nice and most importantly, it saves you space. I have known collectors who dont collect figurines but only the cards. So, be it Prostars, Kodoto, Microstars, Soccerstarz, Headliners, Pocket Sport or even the cards, we as the soccer fans of the beautiful game, will always have something special to showcast to the world.

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