Affects of re-releases on collectors

[Rasputin]

It’s been quite a few years now of Geobra releasing classic playmo. There should have been enough time to see if this has had a positive, negative or neutral affect on collectors.  When it was first announced that older sets would be re-released I recall members opinions being all over the place. From “but my MISB value will tank”, “I can’t wait to buy those, I never got the chance originally”, to “I just want parts orders to complete what I have”, etc…..

How has it affected you ?
Has your collecting habits changed ?
Did you see a change in your values ?

[Joshua D]

I mainly collect western sets so I was very happy to able to replace the blue school house and the train station aka Store, because my older versions were incomplete and had broken bits. I would have liked to have gotten one or two of the medieval houses that were rereleased this past year but they were always sold out and now I can only find them going for ludicrous eBay prices! So that is one aspect I don’t like. eBay prices and my shrinking budget have forced me to spend more time digging up and displaying my “vintage” sets. In fact the only items I have any desire to purchase anymore are the re-releases. Hopefully, there will be some good ones in the coming year and they will be more readily available.

[Ismene]

For the most part, my must-have sets haven't been among the re-releases. I did get the lampposts and the advertising kiosk some years back, and the FAO Schwarz set was amazing. I already had most of the recent batch of Victorian re-releases. I bought that gorgeous recolored bedroom set - brown furniture is always welcome - and the dining room set that I already have because bookcases and china cabinets are always useful (plus I was obsessed with that tea cart as a child). However, I don't need another pink bathroom or pastel children's nursery. I'm debating the car and truck, but they are annoyingly not quite different enough to be absolute yeses.

I love the medieval houses, but I'm trying very hard to stick to buildings from one theme. We don't have attics and basements in these parts. I have to live among whatever I decide to collect, and there just isn't space.

I generally only keep MISBs if they are duplicate SMALL sets. Toys are meant to be played with. I'm sorry if people have lost out on their investments, but if it would make them feel better, we can compare the worthlessness of my Beanie Babies to their supposed collector values in the late 90s. 

I'll give the re-releases a B - more positive than neutral, but often lacking the sets and/or parts that I really want. I am happy that another generation can enjoy these classic sets and that collectors can fill-in some gaps in their collection.

[Juve-bil]

How has it affected you ?
I think the 80's and 90's sets are my favorites, maybe because of my age. I love this strategy
Has your collecting habits changed ?
Habits no, Expectations : Yes. I would love to have my old sets again (I miss many from my youth)
Did you see a change in your values ?

[Oliver]

For me, it's been great to be able to access sets I would never have been able to buy. My collecting has always been very scatter-gun anyway. It probably has led to some more unusual buying, principally when things are deeply reduced. Can you really not buy a Western Chapel when it's £5.99? Anything and everything while it's 30% off? But I've always been a sucker for a bargain anyway.

[Birdie]

Interesting questions!

1) It has affected my wallet    I get FOMO and buy stuff even though I haven't had time for projects in YEARS.

2) Yes. I think I wouldn't have collected more PM these last years if it hadn't been for the re-releases. I've ordered spare parts for the western buildings, but ended up also buying them new, even though I have the original ones. I got almost all of the Victorian re-releases, even though I already had multiples of most of them. I got some of the medieval buildings, most of the history families, and so on.

3) I've never been in it for the resale value. I notoriously shocked a few German MISB collectors by ripping open a box I had just bought from them at an event during the PPC tour 

I'm still over the moon that they decided to do these re-releases, but I wished they'd incorporate them into the existing themes, and add on to them.

I miss the aesthetic and the level of detail of yore (), and I dislike a lot of the new stuff: fronts of buildings rather than buildings, system WHY?!, continuously repurposed old molds, weirdly shaped clickies with weird faces, the merc for mediocre Netflix series, and so on.
(And I don't want to be all negative either: I think the Ayuma series has beautiful new features and structures. That big waterfall, the wobbly bridge connecting two islands that float on top of strategically placed waterfalls... imagine those were stripped of purples and sparkly bits, so they could be used for historic scenes  )

But to stick to the question: 8/10, very happy with the re-releases 

I'm very curious to know if they've been a financial succes - I suppose not?

[GrahamB]

I notoriously shocked a few German MISB collectors by ripping open a box I had just bought from them at an event during the PPC tour.

 
Go Birdie, Go!

[Macruran]

oh to have been a fly on the wall 

[Pynedor]

I think this has affected my collecting in some ways. With the themes that I mainly collect, there haven't been that many of the newer sets that have interested me, so I haven't purchased as many of them as I would have if they were more like the classic sets. I keep a lot of unopened sets, but since I wasn't around when many of the earlier ones I'd like to have were released or wasn't able to buy them at that time, I don't have many of them that are unopened or even complete with boxes, so I don't think I've seen much devaluation of the sets I do have. I don't think that'd bother me too much if it were to happen even for the sets that I do have since, like many of you, I don't plan on reselling things.

That said, I have bought several of the nice rereleased (or slightly revised) sets over the years though, like Set 6464 (Group of Outlaws), Set 6564 (Alpine Outing), Set 1004 (Magic Carpet), Set 4433 (Viking Fortress), Set 9891 (Viking Longboat), and the various Medieval houses and buildings (although I missed a few ). I also really like when they make nice, classic figure parts available by releasing figures or parts from old sets in DuoPacks (which hasn't happened much at all recently) or Fi?ures.

It has affected my wallet    I get FOMO and buy stuff even though I haven't had time for projects in YEARS.

That's definitely the same for me.

I'm still over the moon that they decided to do these re-releases, but I wished they'd incorporate them into the existing themes, and add on to them.

I absolutely agree with this too. When I can, I try to find used lots with parts from those older themes and try to incorporate them myself with some of the better parts from the newer sets!

I notoriously shocked a few German MISB collectors by ripping open a box I had just bought from them at an event during the PPC tour 

Go Birdie, Go!

I remember reading about that!

[tahra]

I find it annoying that they redo the same set. They should do different colors, like the last medieval ones, that came with new (gorgeous) klickys.... (my wallet disagrees, since being the same color - or almost - we couldn't really bring ourselves to buy the small victorian house or another large one)...

Other than that, great - a source of old missing parts.

3) I've never been in it for the resale value. I notoriously shocked a few German MISB collectors by ripping open a box I had just bought from them at an event during the PPC tour 

Yes, that was great! The look on their faces