Got a Ground Blast Heavy Duty

[Mercenary696]

I finally got my hands on a Ground Blast Heavy Duty. For the past few days I have seen over a dozen show up on eBay. It's really hard to tell just how many of these there are, but I still feel it was a decent price. It's one of those things that if you wait to long, it might disappear, only to come back at a much higher price. For the money I spent, which was about $160.00, it was worth it to me. I bought it for my collection anyways, not to flip and make a quick buck. I think about the last three combat series figures like Recondo, Torpedo and Sgt. Boulder and see how hard those figures are to find MIB. If you do come across them, they run at least $50.00 each, Recondo being the most expensive.

I was skeptical at first when I saw these GBHD figures show up in mass. I was not sure if they were legit or what. The one I got looks case fresh. Very little to no wear to the plastic or container anywhere. It is beautiful. It's great to have a figure like this.

[QBERT]

I was going to ask why all of a sudden is there a rash of Ground Blast HD's on ebay? I thought it was a super-low run and almost impossible to get.
There is like 8 of them on ebay right now. Are they all legit? and why are they mostly in Hong Kong. That looks/sounds fishy to me.

[tkprime]

Man when KB Toys was still open I bought one of these from my local store, Of course at the time I had no idea he was rare, I'm sure somewhere there's a boatload of these, it'll prob be one of those (warehouse finds) that everyone always hears about, remember back in the 90's Kenner toys found a large surplus of cased Star Wars toys in a warehouse, so I won't be suprised to see more of these in the future.

[Roshan]

These are legit, and by my estimations there are about 120-130 up for sale right now on the Chinese websites. When I talked with a seller who had 80 for the quantity, he said he had more than that available. This is definately a warehouse find. The figures that came in the case were kamakura, storm shadow, windblade snake eyes, and ground blast heavy duty. So obviously the first three are glutting the market right now, but the ground blasts are making brisk business after everyone saw the first one go for so 200+. Now ebay will be oversaturated and the price will drop like a rock, since this collectible is almost niche at this point so the amount of buyer who will pay a premium is quite low. I'm predicting ending prices of $25 on this thing over the next couple of weeks. And even then, the seller's will be making a profit. You can get these guys for 85 rmb on taobao and after being shipped to the states it'll run you close to $15, less if you do it in bulk.

[cobrabat]

thats really cool. thanks for sharing that.

[green firefly]

Very interesting. Thanks for this thread. I got burned by a fellow collector on Ebay when I bought a silver-caped CC for too much right after they started shipping to all of the TRU's. This time I am going to wait for the market to flood.

[destro226]

picked up mine on the bay. now i have to wait for delivery

[Mercenary696]

I had a feeling that they had produced a significant quantity based on the quality of this piece that I got. I imagine this figure was produced at a time when Hasbro decided to change the direction of the line to just GI JOE with Kung Fu Grip, instead of Sigma 6 and Ground Blast Heavy Duty didn't come over to the new line like Frontal Assault Duke and Windfire Cobra Commander.

I have been collecting toys on and off for many years and I have seen many warehouse finds, even before the internet. It's very possible there might be thousands out there. I think it will take a few months to have a better feel for the quantity. I just saw a seller in the U.S. sell 3 at $90.00 each yesterday on eBay. At some point, it wont be worth it to post them to some dealers in Asia.

Either way, I am happy I got one. He is a great figure. If they come down to that $50.00 - $25.00 level, I will get another to take out of his package for my loose collection.

What I would really love to see is the GI JOE Club do exclusives each year for Sigma 6 figures that were unproduced like Short Fuze and Dusty. Hasbro has already done all the work with the prototypes. I am sure they can produce about 500 of each and sell them for a good price. It will most likely never happen, but it would be cool if they did.

[havokss22]

That is an awesome pick up. Congrats on the newest addition to your collection. I really want to buy one also, but just can't justify the price tag right now.

[Roshan]

Just an update, things look like they're slowing down on taobao, but only because sellers there are getting the clue that everyone wants heavy duty and noone wants the other three figures in the case. So they're starting to sell all four as a set only. This should keep prices from falling to ridiculous lows, but I still think holding out for $75-100 is a safe bet.

[Mercenary696]

Looks like they are leveling off at about $50.00 each now. They just keep posting them, so they still got more. It's tempting to get another for my loose collection.

[QBERT]

Yea, people ease back and wait. The price will drop. There are quite a few of these going around now.

[Roshan]

Well it took a couple weeks, but the bottom has dropped out for Heavy Duty

G. I. Joe Sigma 6 Ground Blast Heavy Duty (Rare) - eBay (item 220420527146 end time May-26-09 11:24:17 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/G-I-Joe-Sigma-6-Ground-Blast-Heavy-Duty-Rare_W0QQitemZ220420527146QQihZ012QQcategoryZ349QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

auction just ended for $37

Now is the time to buy for you bargain hunters.

[green firefly]

I've received an attractively low second chance offer, but I'm still gonna hold out and see if I can get one cheaper.

There are not enough S6 collectors to sustain a "high" price given the number of GBHD's that are apparently out there.

[QBERT]

i'll wait til they hit the $30.00 mark.

[Unclassified]

man ppl actually buy these things?, i would take it for free, if i knew i could sell it..

[Roshan]

I've got 10 more coming from china. I'm thinking of army bulding him :P

[Dedboy]

Well it took a couple weeks, but the bottom has dropped out for Heavy Duty

G. I. Joe Sigma 6 Ground Blast Heavy Duty (Rare) - eBay (item 220420527146 end time May-26-09 11:24:17 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/G-I-Joe-Sigma-6-Ground-Blast-Heavy-Duty-Rare_W0QQitemZ220420527146QQihZ012QQcategoryZ349QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

auction just ended for $37

Now is the time to buy for you bargain hunters.

This is not an accurate gauge for the current price, due to having to factor in the ridiculous shipping price as part of the purchase price. After shipping, this figure actually cost $62, which is more of an accurate price. Since most of these are coming from Hong Kong, the shipping price plays a big factor in the total overall cost of this figure. I also caught wind of the quantity of this figure available diminishing quickly, so I think we may see another spike in the price or, at the very least, a leveling off around the $75 mark.

[Roshan]

The quantity is not diminishing quickly. The original supplier now knows the item is hot and is raising his prices under the guise of the item now being scarce. He's not going away soon.

[green firefly]

I've got 10 more coming from china. I'm thinking of army bulding him :P

Please share your source and price.

[RuckusJr]

I bought some stuff off Taobao and ordered a couple to sell on ebay to offset my ridiculous shipping charges.

[Roshan]

Shipping is the worst. Each GBHD weighs 2 pounds. That's why I sold my first three. I'm trying to talk my buyer into sending surface which takes a few weeks by boat, but it's much cheaper.

greenfirefly - there's no secret, just go to taobao and search. It's a pain cause I have to translate each page from Chinese. All my buyer does is facilitate the transaction, everything else I do myself as far searching them out. Prices varied. I found them for between $10 and $18 before shipping. Shipping nearly doubles the cost though, but I'm getting a bunch of loose 3 3/4" figures too shipped with it and they're virtually free to ship with all the weight of the GBHD's.

[green firefly]

Okay, I found GBHD's at Taobao.com for about $12-$16 a piece. I couldn't figure out how much shipping would be though. I had a seller from Hong Kong tell me it would be $25 for the shipping a few weeks back. I can see why you have a buyer, Roshan.

http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db2-1a9e9eb155a7cb9d422e5333b83cf474.jhtml?cm_cat=5001 6630

http://www.google.com/search?q=80+yuan&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_en___US288

[Roshan]

Also taobao doesnt quite work like ebay. once it's sold it doesn't disappear from the taobao. Most of those GBHD's you see on taobao now are all sold. The supplier's shutting the door on sales for a while thinking of raising the price. Unfortunately for him the market is already saturated.

[CrimsonGuardVet76]

How does one go about translating taobao into english?

[RuckusJr]

You can't really. I just copy text and put it into the google translator for some of the info.

[green firefly]

How does one go about translating taobao into english?

If you search for "taobao" on Google, there will be an option next to the site in the results titled "translate this page". I have Google's toolbar which has a button that let's me translate any page.

[Roshan]

How does one go about translating taobao into english?

Four years of college chinese, one year of immersion. That should just about cover it.

[Dedboy]

Hey, just wanted to let everyone know I finally got a few of these in and will part with my extras to help cover the ridiculous shipping cost that I paid to get them to me. PM me w/reasonable offers and we can work something out! As of right now, I have 2 extras. Thanks!!!