the rarity system

[playmo1989]

Besides ... there's allways the issue of trading on. A set might be bought by a trader -only to be put on again on Ebay hoping for some profit, being bought by a trader who passes it on again ...
In this scenario the set is seen three times on Ebay, while it is only 1 set.
and it might be the same set offered three or more times by the same trader as it doesn't reach the acquired minimum ...

true one set can be seen a lot of times with a different seller !!!!

before ebay how people were buying discontinioud old sets i think ebay exists for 10 years now if i'm not mistaken??
 
the numbers of production of each item are written somewhere ??
and why playmobil doesen't really care for his history?

 

[Ali Baba]

Checked the book about the rating system.

It says it rates only complete sets, with box. Doesn't say wether the box is opened or not.

About the ratings: it is only about rarity and explicitly not about collectors value or how much a set is wanted by the buyers or collectors.

How the rating is actually done is not explained. It is indeed rather vague. The specials for instance: specials from the same series, produced during the same year, sometimes have different ratings. Were the not produced in equal numbers? See for instance the first series with perfor-box. The vulture with bones, third in the series, is more rare than the others. Was it produced in lesser numbers?

Riddles riddles. Why don't we ask the writers?

[Martin Milner]

About the ratings: it is only about rarity and explicitly not about collectors value or how much a set is wanted by the buyers or collectors.

How the rating is actually done is not explained. It is indeed rather vague. The specials for instance: specials from the same series, produced during the same year, sometimes have different ratings. Were the not produced in equal numbers? See for instance the first series with perfor-box. The vulture with bones, third in the series, is more rare than the others. Was it produced in lesser numbers?

I imagine that all sets start with an initial production run, and then have follow-up runs depending on demand. If the initial run never sells out, why do a follow-up?

The Vulture was a very poor special. No human figure + easy availability of both vultures and bones in other sets = no real reason to buy this one.

Here's another thought. If it was a REALLY poor seller, unsold boxes may have been returned to Playmobil (or never sent out), and their contents either reused in other sets, or recycled for their plastic.

[Rasputin]

Here's another thought. If it was a REALLY poor seller, unsold boxes may have been returned to Playmobil (or never sent out), and their contents either reused in other sets, or recycled for their plastic.

Hi

I do not think I like your "Another Thought". To imaging Playmobil taking perfectly good sets and dumping them in the grinder  no No NO, all Playmobil is in the hands of happy children playing out their imaginations. The kids are amassing huge collections for us to buy up when they are "too old" to play 

Rasputin "The Mad Monk"

[Ali Baba]

I imagine that all sets start with an initial production run, and then have follow-up runs depending on demand. If the initial run never sells out, why do a follow-up?

The Vulture was a very poor special. No human figure + easy availability of both vultures and bones in other sets = no real reason to buy this one.

Here's another thought. If it was a REALLY poor seller, unsold boxes may have been returned to Playmobil (or never sent out), and their contents either reused in other sets, or recycled for their plastic.

That's why I took the perfo boxes as an example. After the first production run the boxes were changed. So, a hand full of sets in a limited period, one run. Already a difference. The least popular set is now the most rare. If it didn't sell at all, why did they issue it in a new box?

About recycling unsold boxes. Returning them to playmobil is very costly. Don't think it is economically very wise. Especially if you want to reuse the plastic. You'll have to sort out all the bits by color to reuse them or you can only make black plastic out of them.

More likely they will be dumped as special offers or something.

[playmo1989]

The least popular set is now the most rare. If it didn't sell at all, why did they issue it in a new box?

 
this is not true in all the cases !!!!

[Ali Baba]

I didn´t say that. I said that about the first run of perfo box specials.

[playmo1989]

I didn´t say that. I said that about the first run of perfo box specials.

 oh sorry !!!!  yes true