For the seller

Selling a designer toy collection

Designer toy figures on a shelf

Designer toys are collected as editions, like prints: what a Bearbrick or a KAWS figure is worth depends on which release it is, how many were made, whether the box is there, and whether it is genuine. Two figures that look nearly identical can be entirely different things, and the differences are in the details: the size, the collaboration, the colourway, the year.

These collections are usually built piece by deliberate piece, over years of drops, queues and resales. That makes them exactly the kind of collection we like: chosen, documented in their owner's memory, and worth passing on whole with that story attached.

Bearbrick

Medicom's Bearbrick has been released since 2001 in fixed sizes, named by percentage: the small 100%, the 400%, and the large 1000%, with sets and series between them. The interest sits in the collaborations and the scarce releases: artist series, brand collaborations, the pieces made for one exhibition or one shop. The size is printed on the foot, the release is identified by the print and the box, and the box belongs to the figure.

To the question is Bearbrick a good investment, the honest answer is the one that applies to every edition-based collectable: some releases have become seriously sought after, many have not, and nobody reliably knows in advance which is which. Collect what you love; that is also what tends to be loved later.

KAWS

KAWS figures, the Companions above all, are editions by a living artist, and they are among the most copied objects in the field. What matters: the release and colourway, the condition, the box, and authenticity. Genuine pieces carry their markings and their finish consistently, and the box, card and receipt from the original sale are worth keeping with the figure always. A collection with its paperwork is a different conversation from a shelf of figures without it.

Art toys and sofubi

Around the famous names sits the wider field: sofubi from small Japanese makers, small-run resin and vinyl from independent artists, convention exclusives, hand-painted one-offs. Editions are tiny and documentation is thin, so the collector's own knowledge, of what was bought where, when, from whom, is a real part of what the collection is. Write it down, or better, tell it to us and we record it.

Before you sell

  • Keep every box, card and receipt. In this field the box is part of the object.
  • Do not clean figures beyond a dry dust, and keep them out of the sun; vinyl fades and yellows.
  • Keep sets together, and keep the collection together: the scarce pieces are what make the everyday ones a collection.
  • Be straight about authenticity. If a piece was bought outside the official channels, say so. It saves everyone time, and it is no scandal; the copies fool careful people.

How we handle designer toy collections

We buy them whole: the grails, the everyday releases, the sofubi nobody else can identify, together. One person looks at the whole collection, from your photographs and in person when it is worth the journey, anywhere in the world. Before anything is sold we record the story of how it was built, drop by drop, and it stays with every figure, with the collector's name. Everything is sold on as the collector's pieces they are.

Designer toys next to cameras, watches or vinyl from the same house is not a complication; it is exactly the mixed collection we like best. The full picture is on Pass it on, and where to sell a collection compares the routes honestly.

Short answers

Are Bearbricks worth anything?

The collaborations and scarce releases are seriously collected; common releases much less so. Size, release and box decide it, and the print on the foot tells you what you have.

How do I know if a KAWS figure is genuine?

By the markings, the finish and the paper trail. Keep the box, card and receipt with the figure; a collection with its provenance is worth far more attention.

Do you buy single figures?

No, only collections: roughly twenty objects and up, or fewer if they are exceptional.

Why we keep the story

A collection is not a pile of objects.

It is years of somebody deciding what was worth keeping, and sold off piece by piece that is the first thing to go. So before anything is sold, we sit down with you and record it: how it started, what the best of it was, the piece that got away. That story stays on every object with the collector's name, and goes with it to whoever keeps it next. You get a page where you can see where each piece ended up.

Three ways the story gets recorded

On camera, where it lives. We travel to the collection and film it properly: you talking about how it started, the room and the shelves as they are, the objects in your hands. Wherever in the world the collection happens to be.

On a call. If the collection is sent to us rather than collected, we have the same conversation over a video call and write it up, with one photograph of the shelf as it stood.

In writing. If you would rather not talk at all, answer a handful of questions in your own time and in your own words. It goes on the objects exactly as you wrote it.

It never changes anything else, and you can always say no to it. Some conversations run ten minutes, some an afternoon. Read the collections we have taken on

If it is a whole collection

We buy whole collections, not single pieces: one person takes all of it, and the story is kept with every object. Tell us what you have and a person replies within two days.

How passing it on works, in full

1The collection
What is in it
Pick everything that applies. Something else opens a line to tell us.
Roughly how many pieces
A guess is fine. Nobody has counted.
How would you describe it
There is no wrong answer here, and a lot of ordinary is a normal collection.
One or two sentences. This is the question we care about most.
2Where it is, and how it could reach us
Town and country is enough.
How could it reach us
Unseend is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sending and bringing are as welcome as a visit; if it is sent, we pay the freight and insure it.
When does it need to be gone
No hurry is a good answer. It lets us plan a visit properly.
3Condition and photographs
In your own words. Broken, incomplete or untested is fine and is normal; it only needs saying.
Photographs
Three to ten photographs The room and the shelves as they stand. Phone photographs are fine, and a slow walk round on video says more than any of them.Send them to hello@unseend.com
Or attach them to the reply that comes back within two days. Any of them works, and nothing is looked at until a person reads it. Do not clean up first — the shelves as they stand tell us more than a tidy arrangement.
4The number, and the story
A number or a range, whatever you have in mind. You will get an honest answer either way.
Would you tell the story of it
Filmed at the collection wherever it is, on a video call, or written in your own time. It never changes the price.
5How to reach you
The reply comes here, from a person, within two days.
Only if you would rather be called.

Answered within two days, by the person who would come, and by email at every step after that. Nothing you send is shared with anyone, and your photographs are deleted if we do not go ahead.

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