Are we witnessing the rise of a new grail? It seems only days ago— probably because it really was just days ago– that we eyed the first arrivals of Weta’s The Argonath. Meanwhile the environment has also made its debut on ebay with its first sold listing– to the tune of $722.99 with 17 bids.

Whether this indicates instant grail status or a spectacular fluke remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain, not very many people, if any, saw this coming.

Edition Size: 500
Retail Price: $199.00
Still In-Stock?: No
Current Ebay Average: $722.99

Valuation: +263%

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Sideshow’s Aragorn PF is generally well regarded, and the edition sizes were not excessive– that said, it’s only managed to barely maintain its retail value– that is if it’s of the exclusive variety (which came with a switch out dagger hand).

Both editions were priced the same at $299, which seems to be bygone trend these days– nonetheless you are looking to sell at a loss if you’ve got the regular edition– unless you bought from a retailer at a discount. If you did better than 20% below retail you might have a chance of staying in the green.

Valuation: +0% Exclusive | -20% Regular

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

It’s been roughly 10 months since our last Market Watch for Sideshow’s Doctor Doom PF, and this pricey PF continues to be just that.

Three exclusives were sold in May, peaking at a staggering $1945. All told, the exclusive has increased in value 25% in the last 10 months.

Valuation: +435% Exclusive | +317% Regular

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

In this installment of Flipper Market Watch, we take a look at Sideshow’s Lord of the Rings flavored exclusive for this year’s Comic-Con, the Mount Doom diorama.

Sure, it’s only been two weeks since its priority pre-order came and went, and yet Frodo and Sam have already been plastered all over Ebay. With a relatively low edition of 300, we know that flippage was all but assured.

How have the flippers fared?

Of the 5 that have sold in that time, the highest price fetched was $199.99 (2 auctions managed this). Consider that after Ebay and Paypal fees, the gross total drops to roughly $178. And further if the sellers live in California, which both sellers do, it further eats away the number to result in a total profit of roughly $70. Not exactly a windfall considering the original out of pocket cost.

The lowest sold price was $148, which factoring fees and the good possibilty that this was the more expensive ‘non-attendee’ version (which also has shipping on top)– Mr. Flipper may very well walk away with less than he started out with. Yes, he’s doing the buyer a favor.

So if you missed out on this diorama, you might take some solace in the fact that flipping is barely worth the effort at the moment. Or get pro-active and scalp the scalpers by snagging a good deal out there.

Valuation: +78.4% Attendee | +63% Non-Attendee

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Sideshow Weta’s Balrog of Moria statue, aka “Big Daddy”, “The Original Balrog” etc. embodies the ‘holy grail’ of the line, fetching on the secondary market the bountiful ransom sought by the dwarves when they awakened this beast. No small feat in itself considering how vast the polystone range eventually became.

How is it holding up? While it’s certainly nowhere near its loftiest peak, that is fully expected. The decline in values have been all-encompassing for the SSW line. Still, by the look of things, the Daddy Rog remains the ruler of the roost, still maintaining the lead over its arch-nemesis Cave Troll. On the other hand, things aren’t looking so hot for the diminutive The Flame of Udun. See how they compare below.

Valuation: +296% Balrog of Moria | -69% Udun

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Here’s an oldie but goodie. Kind of an obscure item both cinematically speaking and in collectible-dom as well. What you’re looking at here is the haunting Santi and Bomb statue from Sideshow. Based on one of Guillermo Del Toro’s earlier films, The Devil’s Backbone.

I fell in love with this one right away and even had an order lined up back in the day. Alas, finances did not pan out and Santi left my grasp– judging by its value of late– forever it seems. Sure, GDT’s stock has since gone way up, but are we seeing a genuine indication of its worth or some other sort of fluke? Surely the edition size of 100 does help to support the case, but we are ultimately looking at a 747% appreciation, folks!

And while its got Sideshow’s name on it, Weta can at least claim co-parentage as the piece was sculpted by Weta Workshop’s Greg Tozer and Mary Machlachlan. Ah the one(s) that got away…

Valuation: +747%

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Things have changed since our last Market Watch for the elusive Sideshow Hulk Premium Format conducted nearly a year ago. You may have heard a thing or two about the words economy and meltdown, often in close proximity. People lost jobs. Banks failed. So as you’d expect, the value of this Marvel grail has gone……..up?

Oh yes. Since the last Market Watch conducted nearly a year ago, the Grey exclusive has seen a roughly 12% increase, while the regular edition has achieved an even more impresseve 30.1% gain.

Valuation: +224% Exclusive | +164% Regular

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Sideshow’s sublime Gore Group Doctor Doom Premium Format continues to command a staggering market value with the exclusive chalice and pedestal variant drawing over 4 times the original retail. Leaving little doubt to the throned wonder’s status as the most valuable of Doom collectibles.

This fact was dramatically underscored by the recent sale of an Artist Proof sample of the Doom Premium Format in the latest Diane Kamahele Memorial Fund auctions, fetching an impressive $3,500.

Valuation: +326% Exclusive | N/A Regular

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

Things are still looking green for Sideshow’s Hulk Premium Format. This Andy Bergholtz classic maintains nearly a triple increase in value for the exclusive Grey variant on current market, and double for the Regular.

Hint, Marvel Studios, make the Hulk grey in the next one.

Valuation: +189% Exclusive | +102% Regular

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)

If there is a science to the aftermarket game in collectibles, wisdom would surely point to Sideshow’s Darkness Premium Format as a shoo-in for achieving the coveted ‘grail’ status, or something close to it. It’s a great character design that tends to resonate with all geeks, whether or not they were particularly enamored with Legend, or even seen it. Praised by all from glimpse one through production, it’s a wonderfully executed showpiece for the Premium Format. To cap things off, Sideshow ensured success by imbuing it with that attribute synonymous with grails- a low edition size of 500 (for the exclusive).

So it is with some surprise that browsing Sideshow’s In-Stock section I find that the exclusive has come back for sale a good half a year after they’ve first arrived at their warehouses. While, oddly enough, the regular edition remains sold out. Naturally, curiosity took me to ebay where again I was surprised to find no recent completed sales for the exclusive. The handful of regular edition sales point to more or less an even hold on the value– the one lowball sale at $215 skewed the average a bit considering there were only three total sold auctions. So what happened?

Cult classics will be cult classics I guess.

Valuation: -10%

(See latest completed Ebay auctions)