Baggies, the facts!

[LonnieFisher]

Why do people want to force their opinion on me? I just can't see switching as honest if something is sold as "original". Why is it so hard to understand "original"? If money looks the same and isn't original, it is counterfeit. If something is switched it isn't original. Do you understand yet? How many times should I have to explain the concept of "original"?

[sauce]

I like original MEGO elastic inside my T0 and T1 bodies. Let the tomatoes fly!

[kryptosmaster]

I like original MEGO elastic inside my T0 and T1 bodies. Let the tomatoes fly!

I defy you to tell the difference.
I can find the exact same elastic and restring a Mego and you'd never know.
I understand some people are overly anal about minute details but there's a point where you become ridiculous.
If a genuine vintage Mego part is used to replace a missing or damaged original Mego part and it is the EXACT same part that came from the EXACT same factory and EXACT same batch of parts then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's not like they have serial numbers. Just because one of those parts ended up in a Wizard of Oz box instead of a WGSH box means nothing. They are the SAME.
By your (Lonnie) logic then, an SI that is pieced together from loose parts (pants from one original SI set, shirt from another, etc) is worth less than one that happened to luckily stay together from Day 1. That's silliness.
Rich

[sauce]

Dude, Rich, it's not silliness, it's just not what you care about.

Can we just liken this conversation to trying to determine whether or not a high heeled foot fetish is silly? Yeah. To each his own.

*Tomatoes and Japanese eggplants are flying*

[Sandman9580]

It may honestly not matter one way or another, if they are truly 100% identical, but still, it just doesn't feel right to me.

If it's indistinguishable from any other Mego part then it doesn't matter where it came from. ... as long as the part is identical. that's why you have people swapping out bodies with common figures to make their more valuable figures better.
Rich

If something is switched it isn't original. Do you understand yet? How many times should I have to explain the concept of "original"?

By your (Lonnie) logic then, an SI that is pieced together from loose parts (pants from one original SI set, shirt from another, etc) is worth less than one that happened to luckily stay together from Day 1. That's silliness.
Rich

By way of analogy, maybe it's possible to take a page from Star Wars collectors. If a Star Wars figure that came out in 1977 is re-released on a later ROTJ or POTF card, and is opened, and the card is thrown away, there's no meaningful way to determine which movie the figure (or his accessories) came out with. So that "drags" the value of a 1977 loose figure down to the level of a 1985 loose figure, the two values find equilibrium, and all loose figures end up being worth the same, pending condition.

Now, if I find a loose, complete figure that is included with a ripped-open 1977 card, and I know the dealer to be honest, and he assures me that that figure really did go with that card, whether I believe him or not... it doesn't matter. Once the card is opened, the figures are worth the same as other figures in the same condition. This is the reason why unopened figures are worth more.

[megozilla13]

I think a better analogy would be..... If you had a mint zorro and completed him with a blackbeard sword (which is the same) and wanted to sell it, would you call it not original. According to Lonnie's definition, its not. Or how about a broken thumb on a figure, if you replace the hand, do you mention it when selling it? Do you call it, not original?

And TCM Hitchhiker..... I think you may be right about the baggies being meant for the Big Jim figures with the rubber arms. It makes sense.

[megoapesnut]

for mailer box figures I've seen two different types of plastic material used for the baggies. One is real crinkley and the other is softer.

That is interesting as I ran across the same thing with my boxed CIPSA POTA figures. The accessories and clothing for the Urko figure is sealed in a crinkly baggie and the stuff for the Ursus figure is sealed in a softer baggie. All of my Mego POTA mailer figures are in the crinkly type baggie.

And another interesting thing is that I recently purchased a POTA soldier figure from someone and it was sent in a small box with packing peanuts, but the figure was in a plastic bag to protect it and I just happened to have it laying next to my mailer box figures one day and realized that the baggie is almost identical. I asked the seller and he said that it wasn't from a mailer figure. He is not sure where it came from, but he never owned any mailer figures so we are pretty sure it's not from a mailer. But you would be hard pressed to know that it wasn't if you had them side by side, as I did.

[LonnieFisher]

By your (Lonnie) logic then, an SI that is pieced together from loose parts (pants from one original SI set, shirt from another, etc) is worth less than one that happened to luckily stay together from Day 1. That's silliness.
Rich

Your example of MY logic is false, so please speak for yourself and not me. I in no way implied this. Original SI is original SI. Duh! Just like I was saying...Your point of my view is a worthless opinion.

[LonnieFisher]

I defy you to tell the difference.
I can find the exact same elastic and restring a Mego and you'd never know.
I understand some people are overly anal about minute details but there's a point where you become ridiculous.
If a genuine vintage Mego part is used to replace a missing or damaged original Mego part and it is the EXACT same part that came from the EXACT same factory and EXACT same batch of parts then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's not like they have serial numbers. Just because one of those parts ended up in a Wizard of Oz box instead of a WGSH box means nothing. They are the SAME.
By your (Lonnie) logic then, an SI that is pieced together from loose parts (pants from one original SI set, shirt from another, etc) is worth less than one that happened to luckily stay together from Day 1. That's silliness.
Rich

I could tell re-strung figures. And I'm pretty sure Bryan could too. You can't find the EXACT elastic. It might be close, but not exact.

[Sandman9580]

I think a better analogy would be..... If you had a mint zorro and completed him with a blackbeard sword (which is the same) and wanted to sell it, would you call it not original.

If Mego gave Blackbeard's sword to Zorro, then so can we.

That's the short answer. The long answer is, while I wouldn't refer to it as "not original," I would mention now that the sword was donated by a different figure. Why? Because here it's good etiquette. Some people who collect Megos (obviously) seem to care about this, and you have to make concessions to the community you're selling to. Whereas with vintage Star Wars, even if I mentioned it, no one's really going to care.

Also, I would not expect "disclosures" like this to negatively affect the sale price (it's not repro items we're talking about), and I think price is the sensitive issue here; in this case, we're talking about $4,400, not $40. So that intensifies everything. And with honest sellers, the more rare and expensive the figure, the greater "moral pressure" there is to disclose any little thing that could possibly be perceived to be "wrong" with it.

So I empathize with Lonnie. But I stand by what I said: Star Wars or GI Joe, vintage Barbie or vintage Mego, it shouldn't affect the perceived value because the "rational market" does this for us, and it doesn't like to deal in unknowns. This accessory may have come with this figure, it may not have--I might be lying, I might not be. The collective market has little tolerance for this kind of uncertainty, so it equalizes the value of loose items across the board. And if one is as valuable as the other, we're going to make everyone crazy if we start insisting it be otherwise.

[megozilla13]

Your example of MY logic is false, so please speak for yourself and not me. I in no way implied this. Original SI is original SI. Duh! Just like I was saying...Your point of my view is a worthless opinion.

My example is based on exactly what you wrote.....

ORIGINAL is not something that has not been switched. " Not derived from something else"is the definition that applies here.

thus a Zorro with a sword derived from a Blackbeard figure is NOT original according to you. If thats not what you meant, then you should explain yourself better.


mikej

[MegoNutt]

thus a Zorro with a sword derived from a Blackbeard figure is NOT original according to you.

mikej

I've gotta agree here. In the strictest sense, if that particular sword did not originally come with that particular Zorro, it is not original. Original Mego yes, but not original Zorro. In the strictest sense, it doesn't matter if everything was made at the same time, in the same factory, and both Zorro and Blackbeard were packed with the same sword. If Zorro doesn't have THE sword that he was originally packed with at the factory and stuffed in his little Zorro box, he is not original. Original Mego yes, not original Zorro.

[LonnieFisher]

I've gotta agree here. In the strictest sense, if that particular sword did not originally come with that particular Zorro, it is not original. Original Mego yes, but not original Zorro. In the strictest sense, it doesn't matter if everything was made at the same time, in the same factory, and both Zorro and Blackbeard were packed with the same sword. If Zorro doesn't have THE sword that he was originally packed with at the factory and stuffed in his little Zorro box, he is not original. Original Mego yes, not original Zorro.

I agree...

[beartex2000]

This is a very interesting tread! It seems we are trying to apply MIB or MOC expectations to a loose figure. Once the cat is out of the bag..or in this case the Peter is out of his baggie, how can one know he is 100 mint unless you are buying him from the original owner?

[megoapesnut]

This is a very interesting tread! It seems we are trying to apply MIB or MOC expectations to a loose figure. Once the cat is out of the bag..or in this case the Peter is out of his baggie, how can one know he is 100 mint unless you are buying him from the original owner?

And even then you would not know for sure as the owner could be misleading you that

1) It is complete with THE stuff that came off the card/ out of the box or...

2) that he is even the original owner.

We could go round and round on this forever. The bottom line is that you, as an owner of any given figure, have to be happy with what you have because, unless it is SEALED on a card or in a box, you will NEVER know for sure! And the value of it is whatever it is worth to you!!