Collecting vintage means that you are going back in time, searching through historical artifacts. These items are relics of a by gone time, never again will they exist in the same manner that they did.

Though it may seem impossible, not all collectors enjoy MOC. They like collections they can hold, fiddle with, inspect, display, and....... play with. Packages are neat, but meant to be opened.

These artifacts though come from a finite supply (regardless of numbers, finite) and each opened package limits the number.

-What figures have you opened AFTER a line had ended?

-Have you collected doubles (MOC and loose)?

-Did you hesitate? Feel guilty? Thoughts?

I open EVERYTHING. Even the vintage figures I am going back to buy now at a premium. If it is my collection, I open it. For me, that's kinda the point of a toy.

As an artist, I appreciate the packaging. I would like to have a collection of cards (unpunched, unused) but I just don't have the space for it.

No guilt in enjoying what you have. The guilt for me would be in NOT opening them and leaving them in the package "un-enjoyed".

Ive opened POTF SW, Droids and Ewoks figures just to get the coins. The only other ones (since Im not a real vintage collector)-- have been Pirates of Dark Water, some Darkwing Duck figures .

No regrets at all.

Amen, I like my figure loose too.

CCC.

That's a really interesting question, H-B.

Because there will always be a segment of the collecting community that will open a vintage package it can be said that every MOC vintage item gets a little bit more rare as time goes by.

I have bought some carded vintage figures to fill out a loose collection but obviously I try to get ones where the packaging is not in perfect shape. The more beat up the better, I guess. There wasn't any one that caused stomach pains to open, but I have released Flash Gordon, Dukes of Hazzard, Eagle Force, Secret Wars, Robin Hood, and a few other vintage figures from their cards.

I don't get a lot of vintage because I enjoy the modern technology of action figures (paint, articulation, etc.),

However I almost always open whenever I buy.

Superpowers Aquaman? Opened.

Secret Wars Iron Man? Opened.

I hope to one day get Mego Iron Man and Aquaman. I'll probably opened those to . . . unless they're really expensive.

My main vintage line right now is Bucky O Hare.

I collect both a carded sample and a loose sample.

I have opened up some cards. Some were badly damaged others were in fair condition.

At the price I was paying for moc it was cheaper to buy it moc to get in gurenteed C-9 condition complete loose than to buy loose on ebay and have to worry about the condition of the figure.

And yes I felt extremly gulity for doing so.

I keep debating this.

My Super Powers Green Arrow doesn't have his bow string or 2 arrows... I keep trying to find a carded auction for a SP GA that ends cheep enough for me to feel OK opening it just for those parts. Loose complete ones are really tough to come by.

Same goes for Golden Pharaoh's staff.


I have opened a SP Shazam and Martian Manhunter, but that was about 17 years ago when it was more reasonable to do that.

I think most vintage collectors that buy carded with the intent to open make it a point to hunt for poor condition cards and bubbles both so that they aren't opening a MOMC piece and so that they aren't paying a premium price for a mint card when that isn't what they're really after.

I enjoyed reading these responses.

Though not terribly old, I opened a MIB S:TAS Clark Kent Coupe. I pondered it for a little while, thinking about the decision I preferred.

When I opened it, I felt giddy, as if I was enjoying a forbidden fruit. I held the never before components and realized that years before these were created, and then frozen in time. I pulled out the Kenner catalog (remember those?) and flipped through it realizing that this could have been in the hands of someone else years ago. It really was a strange experience.

I know it is "my" collection, but I still have a bit of.... thought?....guilt? knowing that I am eliminating one more MOC/MIB from the world.

Pretty sentimental. Strange.

I normally do not open anything but in this one instance i opened a TMNT Shogun Triceraton which IMO is the rarest TMNT figure. It was an unreal feeling to me.

I always open. It doesn't matter how much I have spent on some vintage toy or how old it is. That sucker always comes right out of the box. A few years ago I got a MIB Filmation's Ghostbusters playset all the way from Italy. I had been looking for one for years and it took over a month to get it shipped to me. It was in great condition. I debated for about 2 minutes and then it was open on the floor of my living room and I was applying 25 year old stickers to the playset. To me...toys are meant to be played with. I love the way old toys look on cards...but what's the point if you can't get it your greasy hands on it and just remember what that new toy feeling was like when you were a little kid, just for a second.

Anything vintage i buy that's still in a package, I keep it in package (mostly carded windups) as well as my JLU, SHS and other lines, |But I also buy loose figures and have plenty of loose stuff on display. I have a nice collection of loose AND carded windups, I have all loose vintage S|tar Wars and MOTU, but on some of the new lines, I love how the card art looks of a large collection pinned on the wall. I have to box alot of stuff as well, so it's pointless to open something that's going in a box to save space anyway.

I always open. I'll try to buy loose if possible, but if it's on a card I open it. I've opened all my Darkwing Duck figures that I got carded, for example. Many I got loose, but the others I opened.

To be fair, I've never really had a super-valuable figure that was carded, though. If I got a carded Super Powers Cyborg, I might not open it. I've got one loose that's badly beat up, so I might be able to resist that temptation.

I am as Bryan, I also open things. It is a matter of (lack of) space, as bnjmnrlyr also has mentioned, and thus in my case there is no option to keep things carded, so when you accept that fact then you have no stomach pains, just go for it and open it.

I try to buy loose complete as much as possible. The Swamp Thing auction Chip brokered for me is a good example. I am not interested in package pictures, so obviously I'm not going to pay an absurd amount of money for a mint-in-package figure if I can get it loose complete or in a non-so-mint package and hopefully cheaper).

In the case of vintage items sometimes I keep the outer box, folded somewhere (I have the Superpowers Batmobile, Supermobile and Lex Soar 7 boxes kept that way. If not then they would have been sent to the trash bin long time ago.