Ok. I'm A Nerd. Please Help?

So, years ago - almost 10 now I suppose - I was into buying/collecting those Todd McFarlane MLB action figures - my wife cruely calls them "dolls."

I have somewhere around 75 or so. I haven't purchased one in five years probably. Like a dork, I kept them in the packaging - think 40-year-old virgin where Andy doesn't want the boys to open the sealed toys.

Thing is, only a few of what I have are "rare" or "variants."

So, I had no idea what to do with them until my wife suggested I put them on a shelf in my son's room - he's four-months-old - and we're doing a baseball themed room. The daughter's is Disney princess themed. She loves it. Then again she's two.

But I'm having trouble allowing myself to open the "dolls." These aren't going to be worth anything when I'm 75 right? Tell me they won't be.

They're just toys, right?

I'm such a looser.

 

Depends how rare they become, but since they were mass produced, I doubt they would be worth huge money.

In general, things are definitely worth more money if they are in original packaging, or at least if you have the original packaging.

Have you tried googling to see what they are worth now? That could give some clues to future worth.

 

Yeah, they're pretty average in price. They aren't rising in price - or demand that I can see. They're sold at Wal-Mart. So yes, they're totally mass produced.

 

Just rip 'em open. As a former Star Wars collector, I can tell you their worth won't be much. If you do have one or two rare or repaints, you might want to keep those mint. Otherwise, open them, put 'em on the shelf, and when the boy gets old enough, for god's sake let him play with them.

 

Two generations ago, nobody thought about collecting toys and thus very few survived in good condition and became very valuable. Last generation, everybody saved toys and as a result almost nothing is all that valuable.

 

If you have the Carlton Fisk, Brooks Robinson or Nolan Ryan ones I will buy them off you before you rip them open.

 

If he's only four months old, what would be wrong about selecting a few displaying them in the box in your son's room until you have a little more information about their value?

I'm a woman, and I'd be cool with that.

 

go on ebay and buy duplicates of the ones you like

 

Earlier this summer I finally caved in to several years of pressure from the wife and sold my comic book collection to the local shop. I didn't want to, mainly for sentimental reasons, but figured there were enough decent ones there to get at least a couple hundred bucks when the time came.
And I could have, if I wanted to spend two years selling off individual pieces on eBay.
Most of my stuff was from the 1990s, when comics were way overproduced and readily available. The really valuable stuff is from the 1980s and before. For three boxes of comics (several hundred comic books), I got $30 cash and $40 in trade at the store.
Toys are the same way. In the last 10-15 years there has been so much product pumped out that there's more supply than demand. Unless you have some strange, limited edition variant or repaint, you're not getting much in return when you sell them. If you wait 20 or 30 years, then maybe you will. But right now? Enjoy the hell out of those things. They're worth about as much as the hunks of plastic that they are.

 

I think I saw this episode on Pawn Stars.

 

I'd say keep the dolls in the boxes and buy new stuff for the boy's room.

 

My mom insisted that I keep all of my baseball cards from the 1980s and 1990s, even though I wanted to throw some away at some point. She said you never knew if a player would get popular... Too bad the cards of that era are so over-produced that pretty much none of them are worth money, even my rookies of Will Clark and Barry Bonds and Clemens. sigh.

Meanwhile, she made me throw away all of my video game boxes and a lot of my manuals as my collection grew. Now a lot of those games go for $100+ on eBay, and even just the manuals can sell for $5 each. double sigh.