I came to the conclusion that Hasbro and I had different intentions for the Star Wars line around 2007...it was the Pax Bonkik repaint figure that broke me of my "I want them all!" habit for good. At that point I decided the only complete collection I wanted was a master list unique to me, so I went about making that list and I've been gratified over the last decade+ to get 20 or so figures off that list. No mistake--there have been figures I never thought of that I have bought because they were cool or neat (this was pre-Disney, after all) but for the most part I have approached everything from the beginning of the Vintage Collection until now as "gravy."

The change at Hasbro seems obvious over the years. It used to be an attitude of "new figures sell well, we need to make new figures." Today, there must be a formula that they crank things through. "The line will be most profitable if we maximize mold usage and minimize new tooling development. Individual waves can only support 18% new tooling at the current MSRP." It definitely changes how the old idea of the "Parking Lot" of potential figures will be approached. And part and parcel with this comes a much lower product run than what they used to make.

It's sad, because for that window between 2013-2018 they tried to adhere to the "new figures" paradigm by cutting costs with the 5POA line. But the new media (and more importantly, the unwillingness of Disney/LFL to share resources for said media in a timely and robust fashion) led to a glut of poor character choices that made the line flop with kids and collectors.

The worst part is, even with the TVC line getting drowned in it's necessary repack percentages, I can see the supposedly popular Black Series slowly but surely becoming more reliant on repaints, rereleases, and kitbashes to maintain its profit margin. That 8-year old line line has a lot less depth than the TVC does at this point, so the prospects there are scary and could strangle it to death if left unchecked.

Yeah, they switched me over to direct payments at the end of August. It has been pretty seemless as far as impact to my financials.

The upside was no more PayPal fees.

They do daily deposits Mon-Fri straight to my bank account, the funds show up in 24hrs. Sales from over the weekend are usually in my bank account on Wednesday morning.

Downside seems to be when a buyer has an issue that they report, eBay automatically puts those funds on hold (there have been a lot of delayed shipments since the beginning of December thanks to the USPS, and buyers have taken it up with eBay even though they have a tracking number.)

I still think one of my projects this year will be to set up a dedicated webstore and ween myself off of eBay as my primary storefront. It is great for exposure and I will still use it to advertise new stuff, but the fees still add up and I could get a wider selection out for sale without having to worry about listing thresholds and other fees.

My replacement order (placed yesterday 8am) did indeed show up today at 3pm.

It's a good sized box, but I'm waiting until this evening to open it up (so I can do an "unboxing video" for Instagram  )

Thanks for pointing that out Nick. I was able to reorder just now as well, mine say they will ship tomorrow. Taking it with a huge grain of salt, but they know I'll dance to whatever tune they are playing.

It is the (non-movie prop) staff that came with the Kenner Bib Fortuna figure...that was another grin-worthy moment for me, Bib was my first ROTJ figure.

I think what finally pushed him over the brink was the hassle he was having with eBay's funds-holding policy when the long delays started to hit due to the lack of airmail during the pandemic. I can speak from personal experience over the past couple weeks when the post office has been under so much backlog, if a buyer thinks the package is taking too long eBay holds onto the money (or takes it back) until successful delivery, no matter that tracking was uploaded on time and you can clearly see the package is sitting in the middle of the country doing nothing. I can only imagine what kind of havoc a three-month delay in shipping (and thus receiving payments) would play on his ability to turn a profit.

That said, I am glad to see him back, I picked up a couple things I didn't "need" just because I like having the option.

Thanks for pointing these out, I looked up some pictures and I might be going to look for these, this is right up my weirdness alley...

How much more evidence do we need that there are no Star Wars fans on the current Star Wars team? The irony is they are all "made up after the fact" names, except Zutton who is called by name by Bea Arthur in the Holiday Special.

Agree, hopefully they have time to change it to Takeel or Snaggletooth before the release.