[BrittinVA]

Good morning, I am a new member but have been a collector for many years. Generally I have not gotten into Joes as a collector, but certainly had my fair share in childhood and have admired vintage Joes from afar as an adult. I look forward to reading and learning from the collective here.Here is my question. Currently, there are two Ebay listings for 1985 Snake Eyes V2 (I'm not sure of the rules of adding links but they are easy enough to find). Both are in factory sealed mailer bags but do not contain file cards nor accessories. Both are being advertised as salesman samples. They are asking a very high price, one of which is graded by a company I am not familiar with. The sellers are saying that they came from Hasbro employees.I cannot find ANYTHING on salesmen samples from the ARAH line. Anybody here familiar with these completely blank mailer bag figures? Thank you so much in advance for your time and I am looking forward to reading and contributing.

[Sataninjaku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrittinVA

Good morning, I am a new member but have been a collector for many years. Generally I have not gotten into Joes as a collector, but certainly had my fair share in childhood and have admired vintage Joes from afar as an adult. I look forward to reading and learning from the collective here.Here is my question. Currently, there are two Ebay listings for 1985 Snake Eyes V2 (I'm not sure of the rules of adding links but they are easy enough to find). Both are in factory sealed mailer bags but do not contain file cards nor accessories. Both are being advertised as salesman samples. They are asking a very high price, one of which is graded by a company I am not familiar with. The sellers are saying that they came from Hasbro employees.I cannot find ANYTHING on salesmen samples from the ARAH line. Anybody here familiar with these completely blank mailer bag figures? Thank you so much in advance for your time and I am looking forward to reading and contributing.

Salesman samples are definitely a thing, the 1990 Salvo in my collection is one, in fact. While bags are easy to fake, at least one of the listings you're likely referring to (you are absolutely fine linking them, in the future) is sold by a reputable, long-time dealer of G.I. Joe pre-production items.

[BrittinVA]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sataninjaku

Salesman samples are definitely a thing, the 1990 Salvo in my collection is one, in fact. While bags are easy to fake, at least one of the listings you're likely referring to (you are absolutely fine linking them, in the future) is sold by a reputable, long-time dealer of G.I. Joe pre-production items.

Awesome, thanks for your response. So, provided the bag wasn?t fake, a lone figure in an empty sealed bag with no accessories and no file card would be generally regarded as a salesman sample? Are there any other tell tale signs, or indication that the bag is fake? I?ve never really heard of these before and I?ve watched the Joe mail in bags for decades, even once owned a Duke mail in on red back file card at one point, which I regretfully sold. But I?ve never seen a lone figure bag like that. Have long been thinking of adding a couple pieces and that is certainly a new niche to chase!

[Sataninjaku]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrittinVA

Awesome, thanks for your response. So, provided the bag wasn?t fake, a lone figure in an empty sealed bag with no accessories and no file card would be generally regarded as a salesman sample? Are there any other tell tale signs, or indication that the bag is fake? I?ve never really heard of these before and I?ve watched the Joe mail in bags for decades, even once owned a Duke mail in on red back file card at one point, which I regretfully sold. But I?ve never seen a lone figure bag like that. Have long been thinking of adding a couple pieces and that is certainly a new niche to chase!

Well, given many of the samples are low-run, almost-if-not-finished figures, there's less of a "tell" than there would be with outright prototypes, and I'd imagine it'd be a case-by-case thing- for example, once I removed Salvo from the bag ( I'm an opener, value be damned), the only way I'd know that it was different was that this specific figure's rivets are unpainted, the fact that he included only the helmet, launcher, and pack, and the fact that the figure was sold alongside many other pre-prod listings as a part of a former Hasbro employee's estate. In short, the bag and trusting the source are really what's really going to carry the most weight.

On to the bag itself, the seams should obviously be even and clean, but it's also going to come down to feel. Different plastics have different feels, and the feel of this bag should match that of any mail-in, as I don't imagine Hasbro would use a different plastic especially for samples.

Barring that, given the nature of this niche of the hobby, there's not really much info out there about this stuff. It's really going to come down to how much you trust the seller.

[BrittinVA]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sataninjaku

Well, given many of the samples are low-run, almost-if-not-finished figures, there's less of a "tell" than there would be with outright prototypes, and I'd imagine it'd be a case-by-case thing- for example, once I removed Salvo from the bag ( I'm an opener, value be damned), the only way I'd know that it was different was that this specific figure's rivets are unpainted, the fact that he included only the helmet, launcher, and pack, and the fact that the figure was sold alongside many other pre-prod listings as a part of a former Hasbro employee's estate. In short, the bag and trusting the source are really what's really going to carry the most weight.

On to the bag itself, the seams should obviously be even and clean, but it's also going to come down to feel. Different plastics have different feels, and the feel of this bag should match that of any mail-in, as I don't imagine Hasbro would use a different plastic especially for samples.

Barring that, given the nature of this niche of the hobby, there's not really much info out there about this stuff. It's really going to come down to how much you trust the seller.

This is excellent information, thank you. I took the plunge on one of these this morning after contacting the seller and asking for information, and comparing to the other two that were listed. It was intriguing to me because I had never seen one before, and while the price was a little high it wasn?t as high or higher than a loose graded figure so I went for it. Good to know about the bag texture, I remember the unique feeling of the plastic of the Duke mailer. I didn?t know where to start with my Joe collecting and a salesman sample being so unique really piqued my interest. I really have always loved the mailer bags so if nothing else this can be a start of that collection.