Should you sell your action figure collection?

Sell an action figure collection when it has stopped being looked at and started being stored. What makes figures sought after is whether they are boxed or loose, whether they are complete with their accessories, and which line and year they come from. Loose figures with their weapons and parts still matter; the same figures without them are a different matter.

Figure collections are personal in a way few collections are: they are usually a childhood, kept. That is exactly why they are worth passing on properly, as one collection with its story, rather than sold off a figure at a time until only the common ones are left.

What makes figures collectable

Boxed, carded or loose. A figure still sealed on its card or in its box is a category of its own. Boxed but opened comes next, and loose figures follow — but loose is not worthless, especially complete and clean.

Completeness. The small accessories make the figure: the weapons, capes, helmets and stands that went missing first. A bag of loose parts somewhere in the house can matter more than it looks.

The line and the year. Within one franchise, early lines and short-lived characters are what collectors hunt. The markings under the foot or on the back usually tell you the maker and year.

Condition. Sun-faded plastic, sticky decay, chewed hands and paint wear all count. A figure that lived in a display case shows it.

Before you sell

• Do not open anything sealed, and do not take carded figures off their cards.
• Do not wash or retouch figures. Paint wear is honest; retouching is not, and it shows.
• Keep the parts bag. Every loose weapon, stand and accessory belongs with the collection, even unsorted.
• Keep the paperwork. Catalogs, order forms and store receipts from the time are part of the story, and collectors love them.
• Photograph the display as it stands before anything is packed.

The ways a figure collection can go

Selling figure by figure is slow and endless: identifying each one, matching accessories, photographing, listing, packing. The sought-after ones go, the common ones stay, and the collection ends as a box of leftovers.

A collector fair or store takes what sells off a table that month.

One buyer for all of it is what we do. We take the whole collection, sealed, boxed, loose and incomplete, and the story of who built it goes with every figure to its next owner, with the collector's name on it. At Unseend, every figure is sold as a collector's object.

Wherever the collection is

We are based in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and buy collections anywhere in the world. Smaller collections can be sent, insured and arranged by us; for a collection worth the journey we come to it and pack it ourselves.

Short answers

Are old action figures worth anything?

Many are sought after, and a few seriously. Line, year, completeness and condition decide it; the markings under the foot are the place to start.

Are loose figures worth selling?

Yes, especially complete with their accessories. Loose is normal; most figures were played with, and collectors know it.

Do you buy single figures?

No, only collections: roughly twenty objects and up, or fewer if they are exceptional. Figures alongside consoles, Lego or cameras from the same house is exactly what we like.