If someone buys this, my quest for this fellow will be at an end...

Patient Zero for $350???
<a href=https://cgi.ebay.com/Sideshow-Comic-Con-Exclusive-12-The-Dead-Patient-Zero_W0QQitemZ6066426389QQihZ009QQcategoryZ348QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem>link to Patient Zero</a>

Indeed. I refuse to pay anything like that for him.

GOOD GOD!

That's a lot for Zero IMO.... I mean, way to take advantage of low edition sizes and popular demand!

Glad I got mine!

This is just getting ridiculous! Sellers are getting way to greedy... it is a cool figure to be sure... but no way is it worth $350! That $325 sale was not good for others looking to score this figure, me included

This is what sucks about "Special Editions" Speculater b@stard scalpers buy em' not giving a honey about the toy and screws us real collectors who really want it for our collection.

don_of_the_dead said:

This is what sucks about "Special Editions" Speculater b@stard scalpers buy em' not giving a honey about the toy and screws us real collectors who really want it for our collection.

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Umm...if you were a real collector, you could've picked him up anytime during the last 12 months when he was averaging around $10-25 over retail. Only after they announced Subject 5 did the prices started going up. I certainly don't fault these guys...hell, if I had him, and I knew people were willing to pay that much, he'd be packed and ready to ship in a heartbeat. I'm just a lil upset at myself since I saw him from time to time and said I'd pick him up but never got around to it...grrr. But really, for that kind of money, I'd rather trade him in to pay for the next Marvel Vs. Diorama =/

daelith said:

Umm...if you were a real collector, you could've picked him up anytime during the last 12 months when he was averaging around $10-25 over retail. Only after they announced Subject 5 did the prices started going up. I certainly don't fault these guys...hell, if I had him, and I knew people were willing to pay that much, he'd be packed and ready to ship in a heartbeat. I'm just a lil upset at myself since I saw him from time to time and said I'd pick him up but never got around to it...grrr. But really, for that kind of money, I'd rather trade him in to pay for the next Marvel Vs. Diorama =/

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Where the hell do you shop? The cheapest I've seen him for is $100.
I just think there is too much greed in our hobby. I'm a cost plus shipping kinda guy.

don_of_the_dead said:

Where the hell do you shop? The cheapest I've seen him for is $100. I just think there is too much greed in our hobby. I'm a cost plus shipping kinda guy.

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I browse Ebay alot; not sure about you, but I happen to find alot of deals on ebay. I remember seeing Patient Zero going for 50-75.00 for a long time after Comic-con 2005. Once Subject Five hit, he started going over 100...then there were 2 that went for ~225....and the last one went for 325.00. As for the subject of greed and collectibles, welp, greed is all around us, my friend. Theoretically, we don't need fancy cars and we really don't need to collect this stuff and toss money away at it when people in Africa are starving do we?


Lastly, the star wars maquette I bought just a couple of months ago for $80 is now worth $200. If the market dictates that they're worth $350 next week and I sell it to finance the Lurtz 1/4 statue that I have on order, would you consider me a scalper?

Yup, this is getting crazy...You can buy a PF Vader for that price....NO 12" figure is worth that much IMO...

350 bones ha? is it really worth it?

ll i agree w/ don of the dead. i haven't seen Zero go for much less than $100 since i started watching for him in Feb. course i'm sure i missed some.

kingdarkness03 said:

Yup, this is getting crazy...You can buy a PF Vader for that price....NO 12" figure is worth that much IMO...

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Yeah, true.... I paid about 185 bones for him....And that was a lot to drop on a 12" figure. I would not have paid any more.... Entirely too much money to buy ONE figure.

At least I can make my money back if I sell mine.....

I do hope that this figure eventually drops again after the fervor dies lol ) down. But $325 is a bad precedent, its true that collectibles are only worth what your willing to pay for it... but when there is blood in the water the sharks start to circle. Especially with a low-run figure like this.

And I'll admit I should have picked one up when they were closer to $100 (that's when I first learned of his existence, didn't know about the con exclusives last year) but I figured that price would be constant for a while. But these recent spikes in price are ridiculous and when people buy them it just encourage sellers to demand more and more money.

kingdarkness03 said:

...NO 12" figure is worth that much IMO...

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Well, collectibles values are mostly set by the buyers of the world. If the buyers are not willing to pay for something, then the sellers eventually reduce the price. I don't won't to start a debate about it, but will just say that, anything is worth what people are willing to pay for it. Just look at the Witch King Crown; most people say it is not "worth" the eBay price, but without a doubt, the "value" is consistently around $500 or more. I think the main problem is that sometimes we confuse the terminology; worth and value are two completely different things.

Another thing to remember is demand and supply. That is the number one thing that determines the price of anything in this whole world! If a product is truly supply scarce (as is Patient Zero), and high in demand (as is Patient Zero), the value goes up! If the item is supply scarce (as are some of the SSE PF monsters), but there is low demand, then the value is flat or falls. You can also have "demand scarcity". Most people would say an edition size of 1000 or 1500 is too high for the average Premium Format figure, but when that figure is Darth Vader, Obi-Wan or Darth Maul, it becomes "demand scarce"; that is, the edition size is reasonable, but the demand is so high that it becomes hard to find anyway. This of course will also drive the value up.

So, to sum up, Patient Zero is...

a) Supply scarce (only 300)
b) In demand (high demand at the moment)

...therefore, he IS worth the money people are getting for him, because buyers are willing to pay it to get him. I'm not saying whether it is right or wrong, just stating the facts.

Your understanding of economics is admirable... but the point can still be made that a few overzealous buyers can really screw the pooch for the rest of us. A few years back I was collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. figures and there is one particular figure that is (legitimately) real difficult to find: Satan Cross. But you could usually get for a reasonable $10-$15 (regular figures were at most $1 each). Then one day the figure was offered as a BIN of $50... it was bought and then the new price became $50... and has pretty well stayed much higher since then. So I do agree its worth what a person pays for it, but at the same time paying too much for a figure can encourage sellers to charge more and buyers to expect to pay more when the numbers and demand might really not have shifted all that much. But either way the price ends up being too high and I don't get the figure I want

galactiboy said:

Your understanding of economics is admirable... but the point can still be made that a few overzealous buyers can really screw the pooch for the rest of us. A few years back I was collecting M.U.S.C.L.E. figures and there is one particular figure that is (legitimately) real difficult to find: Satan Cross. But you could usually get for a reasonable $10-$15 (regular figures were at most $1 each). Then one day the figure was offered as a BIN of $50... it was bought and then the new price became $50... and has pretty well stayed much higher since then. So I do agree its worth what a person pays for it, but at the same time paying too much for a figure can encourage sellers to charge more and buyers to expect to pay more when the numbers and demand might really not have shifted all that much. But either way the price ends up being too high and I don't get the figure I want

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Actually, when the item was purchased at $50, the supply DID decrease because there are fewer sellers willing to part with the item for $10-15. Because eventually the buyers agreed to the new price standard, there is an increase in demand (more buyers willing to buy at new price). Buyers don't set the price in supply and demand markets; instead, market value is set only when there is a convergence of buyer and seller perceived values.

daelith said:

... Buyers don't set the price in supply and demand markets; instead, market value is set only when there is a convergence of buyer and seller perceived values.

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Exactly! I may not have made myself as clear on the point, but that was one of the points I was trying to make. If the buyer is willing and the seller is willing, then that is the value at that moment...


And galactiboy you made a very valid point also! Sometimes, a few "sells" can make "demand" sway one way or the other. Just like edition size makes demand increase or decrease. Would the Grey Hulk vs Spiderman be as hot with an edition size of 500 instead of 50? I think not...

All in all, as most of us usually finish with, it is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. During my many years of collecting, I have seen my own "notion" of the value of something drift up as I tried repeatedly to get an item and failed. If I always miss out on an item because I was only willing to go to a certain point, I tend to go a little higher next time; and then to miss it again, it is easy to end up paying an amount you never thought you would at the beginning.

I'll be damned if I ever pay that much for a 12" figure, not even if it was a Talking Vader with a Light-up-saber, removable helmet and Meditation Chamber environment (Hint Hint Sideshow). I too would much rather use the money to finance another PF or Vs. piece. I guess I will have to be happy with Subject 5 for now.

Very true Lcummins, it can become a bit of a frustrating situation when you miss a figure and see the price steadily creep up. But its nice when you are on the other side and your figures appreciate exponentially I just wish I could be on that side of things me