[DRAFT NOTE for Kim: this first-person piece has three [Kim: add a specific example here] spots below to fill with real shop stories before publishing.]
The short version: What collectors chase changes with each generation. When I started, 1970s lines were red-hot because the people buying them were reliving their childhoods. That demand has cooled as those collectors aged out, and I think even vintage 1980s Star Wars figures could soften over time as a whole generation sells up at once. Collecting value is cyclical, not guaranteed - so collect what you love, and if you're going to sell, the time is usually while people still remember wanting it.
I've been at this nearly ten years now. I opened Uncanny back in 2017, and I was buying and selling for a good while before that. In that stretch I've watched what collectors want shift under my feet more than once - lines that couldn't stay in stock going quiet, and quiet corners of the hobby waking up. This piece is me thinking out loud about those cycles, because I'd rather you heard the honest version from someone in the trade than the hyped-up one that tells you everything old is money. It isn't. Some of it is, some of it was, and some of it will be - and which is which depends a lot on who's holding the money and how old they are.
Quick Answers
Are vintage toys still worth money?
Some are, but it's not a given, and it changes over time. A vintage toy is worth what someone will pay for it today - and that's driven by how many people still feel a pull towards it. When the generation that grew up with a line is in its earning years and chasing its childhood, prices are strong. As that generation ages out, downsizes or passes on, demand cools and prices can drift down even on genuinely hard-to-find pieces. Age alone doesn't make a toy valuable. Demand does, and demand moves.
Why has demand for 1970s toys dropped?
Because the collectors who chased them have moved on. When I started, lines like The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch and Bionic Woman had a keen following - mostly people reliving the telly of their own childhood. That crowd has aged. Some have downsized, some have shifted their spending to other parts of life, some have passed away. The toys didn't get any less likeable; the people who most wanted them simply aren't as many, or as active in the market, as they were. That's the cycle in plain sight.
Will vintage Star Wars figures lose value?
I think some could soften over time, yes - and I say that as someone who likes them. Not because they aren't great pieces, but because of supply. A large generation of collectors holds those 1980s figures, and over the coming years a lot of those collections will come onto the market at once - through bereavement, moves into care, medical costs, or just life changing. When plenty of supply meets demand that's already cooling, prices come under pressure. It might not happen evenly, and the hardest-to-find pieces may hold up better, but the broad direction worries me more than the hype admits.
Should I buy collectibles as an investment?
Enjoy them first. I'd never tell you a toy is a pension. Collecting value is cyclical and uncertain - it depends on a generation's nostalgia, and that fades and shifts. If a piece happens to hold or grow in value, treat that as a bonus, not the plan. Buy the things that make you happy to look at on a shelf. If you only ever buy what you'd be glad to own even if it never went up a penny, you can't really lose.
The cycle I've watched
When I got going, the demand that struck me most was for 1970s lines. The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch, Bionic Woman, that whole era of action figures tied to the shows people watched as kids. The collectors after them weren't chasing an idea of value - they were chasing a feeling. They were buying back a piece of being eight years old in front of the telly. That's a powerful engine for a market, and while it's running, prices stay firm and pieces move.
That engine has cooled. The people who drove it have aged, and as a group they're less active than they were - some have stepped back, some have downsized their collections, some are no longer with us. The figures sit a little longer now, and the prices that once felt locked in have loosened. None of that is a knock on the toys. It's just what happens when the generation with the strongest pull towards something moves through its life stages.
[Kim: add a specific example here - e.g. a 70s figure or set you couldn't keep in stock in 2017/18 that now sits, or a regular customer from that era who's since downsized or passed on. A real name or item makes this land.]
The pattern in one line: a toy is worth most while the generation that loved it is in its earning years and reaching back for it. Before that and after that, it's quieter - and the prices follow.
Generations and what they chase
Here's the part I find genuinely interesting, and a bit sobering as a shop owner: the next generation doesn't seem to want the same things in the same way. The younger crowd, the ones raised on screens, lean more towards art, prints and stickers than towards a shelf of boxed action figures. Their nostalgia is real, but it's pointed at different objects - digital-first stuff, art they can hang, smaller and cheaper bits they can collect without giving over a whole room to it.
That matters, because every cycle in this trade is really a story about which generation holds the money and what their childhood looked like. The 1970s wave was strong because that generation was earning and reaching back. The figure-collecting wave we're still in exists because the people who grew up on 80s and 90s toys are doing the same now. But the wave after that may be smaller for figures and bigger for art and prints - which reshapes what the next decade of collecting looks like, and what a shop like mine should be paying attention to.
[Kim: add a specific example here - something you've noticed first-hand about younger buyers, e.g. what walks out the door at a con versus online, or a request you keep getting now that you never used to. Grounds the generational point in real shop life.]
The wave that's coming
This is the bit I'd want a seller to hear most, because it cuts against what people are usually told. There's a wave of supply building behind the 1980s vintage market, and it has nothing to do with the toys themselves and everything to do with the people who own them.
A whole generation of collectors holds those collections, and over the coming years a lot of it is going to come to market - often not by choice. Bereavement, moves into nursing homes, medical bills, downsizing, a partner who wants the spare room back. These aren't grim hypotheticals; they're the ordinary way collections change hands, and they tend to cluster as a generation reaches a certain age. When that supply lands at the same time as demand is already softening - because the very people who'd buy it are the ones selling - prices feel the squeeze. Lots of stock meeting cooler interest only goes one way.
I'm not saying everything will crash. The hardest-to-find pieces, the genuinely scarce stuff, tends to ride it out better. But for the bread-and-butter vintage that everyone assumes only ever climbs, I'd be cautious. If you've held something for years on the belief it'll be worth more later, it's at least worth asking whether "later" is the part of the cycle where there are more sellers than buyers.
What it means if you're buying
Buy what you love. I know that sounds like a line, but it's the only advice that survives every turn of the cycle. If you buy a figure because looking at it makes you happy, the market can do whatever it likes and you've still got the thing you wanted. If you buy purely because someone told you it'd go up, you're exposed to a cycle you don't control, driven by a generation's nostalgia that will eventually move on to something else.
It also means you can buy well right now in the cooler corners. The 1970s lines that have softened are, for the right collector, more affordable than they've been in years. Cycles cut both ways - what's quiet today is a fairer buy than it was at the peak. If you genuinely love that era, this is a decent time to be in it. For a fuller picture of how I think about second-hand value, the piece on the real value of Funko Pops in Ireland walks through the same honesty applied to a very different line.
What it means if you're selling
If you're going to sell, timing and the cycle matter more than most people are told. The rough rule I work to: the time to sell something is usually while people still remember wanting it. Sell into demand, not after it. A line that's hot because its generation is reaching back will get you a stronger price now than the same line will in ten years, once that generation has aged out and a wave of other sellers has hit the same market.
That's not me telling you to panic-sell. It's me telling you to be clear-eyed. If you've a collection you're holding "for later", be honest with yourself about whether later is a stronger or weaker point in the cycle. And don't fall into the trap of assuming high-end always equals easy money later - some of it is genuinely hard to move second-hand, which I get into in why Hot Toys and Sideshow figures are hard to resell.
When you do decide to sell, talk to someone who'll be straight with you about where the market actually is rather than flatter you to get the stock. That's how I try to run it. You can see what that looks like on our we buy collections page, and there's plenty of softened-but-lovely vintage in our vintage toys (20+ years old) collection if you'd rather buy into the quiet part of the cycle than sell out of it.
Collect what you love
If you take one thing from a dealer who's watched a couple of these cycles turn: don't treat toys purely as a pension. The value is real but it's cyclical and uncertain, tied to whose childhood is currently in fashion and who's old enough to be selling. Collect because it makes you happy. Enjoy the shelf. If a piece appreciates, grand - that's a bonus on top of years of liking the thing. If it doesn't, you've still had years of liking the thing, and that was always the point.
[Kim: add a specific example here - a personal closer, e.g. a piece in your own collection you'll never sell regardless of value, and why. Ending on something genuinely yours makes the whole thesis ring true.]
Thinking of selling a collection? Talk to us
If you're weighing up selling, come and have a straight conversation. I'll tell you honestly where I think the market sits for your pieces - including if the honest answer is "hold" or "this part's softening". We buy collections, we pay fairly, and we can arrange UPS pickup across Ireland and Northern Ireland so you're not lugging boxes anywhere. No pressure and no flattery to get the stock off you. Reach us on the contact page, message us on WhatsApp at +353 85 827 2191, or email us at info@uncannycollectibles.com, and we'll give you a real answer.