The Dangers Of Going To The Well Too Often In The Vintage Collection

As we all know, the Vintage Collection is a numbered collection. This is the perfect gimmick to prey on the obsessive compulsive nature of collectors. This doesn't affect every Vintage Collection collector, and I dare say it doesn't apply to most. But if you are among the few with the cursed affliction, you simply cannot abide gaps in numbered things you collect. It works for comic books. It works (or used to) for baseball cards. It's why the numbering of the SDCC mini cards drives some collectors mad. Not having a VC66 and VC67 in their collections is similar to not having a 1986 Topps Rusty Staub for a baseball card collector. It doesn't matter that Staub was at the end of his career, and that card has little collectibility otherwise. You can't say you have a complete 1986 Topps set without one. Plus it was one damn sweet card:


I am among the cursed with the numbered Vintage Collection. I wasn't always that way. When TVC 1.0 was active, I would pick and choose the ones I keep on card. Granted, it was a lot of them, but not all. Then in 2018, we made the decision to reshoot our entire Vintage Collection gallery leading up to the relaunch of the line. I had to go acquire the gaps in my carded collection to photograph them. Through that process, the completist bug set in, and my numbered Vintage Collection has been complete and unbroken since. But no more (at least for now). Weathering the numbered $22 Boba Fett repaints was easy for me because I'm a Fett fanatic, but I know those pushed some erstwhile completists out of the game. The upcoming Finn, however, is the straw that breaks the camel's back for me. I rebought a Jyn, First Order Stormtrooper, Rey, and Kylo Ren I didn't need just to have a complete carded collection, but I'm pushed to the brink.

No amount of fancy paint app updates can get me to repurchase a former pegwarmer, one which is $5 bin fodder at conventions and comic shops. I'm never going set up an ST display. The figure is valueless to me, so I will be passing. Now, you may be saying:

You're skipping one figure. Big whoop.

Ah hah, but it's not just one figure. I'm breaking a compulsion. I've often said that once a collector off-ramps a habit, it's very hard to get them back on. Did I really want to keep that half measure Aldahni Andor carded? Nope, but I had to to maintain my numbered collection. Did I really want to buy a second Antoc Merrick's X-Wing, Speeder Bike, and remnant Speeder Bike? Nope, nope and nope, but I had to to maintain my numbered collection. By Hasbro choosing such a terrible repack selection, I am freed from my compulsion. They watered down what the numbered Vintage Collection means, so I feel no urge to maintain it. I am now free to pass on those figure that don't inspire me. I am now free only buy one vehicle or play set going forward. It's liberating.

Hasbro has done damage to the brand by opting for such a laughable repack in my opinion. This also goes for the Rogue One Cassian Andor, but that will presumably come with the same VC number as the original release, so it doesn't have the same "watering down" affect. Hasbro needs to treat the Vintage Collection with more respect if it wants the fans to view it as special. The silver race track card is not some magic elixir that can spin garbage into gold. It's a multiplier, and in my unscientific gut estimation, it's a 20% multiplier. This Finn is a $5 figure, which means the TVC magic bumps it all the way up to $6. Hasbro is going to try to get $17 for a figure that has about $6 worth of market appeal.

Here's where Hasbro get's the last laugh and why I qualified this stance with "at least for now" above. The overall market demand for this Finn is so weak that it's assured to see deep price cuts to the point where I can't resist the pull of restoring my complete numbered TVC carded collection. And then I will be back in like Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III.

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