darkSpyro

Iv been checking ebay and amazon, and it is crazy expensive! Is it really that rare now???

It's the Holiday Gimmick. People want Zap because he's yet to be released as a Giants character and (most likely) won't be out until next year.

Just goes to show you can never predict "the market" - Wrecking Ball and Zap were the two figures that filled every store I was in a few months ago. Then they strategically make those two of the LAST figures to get re-releases, and Toys For Bob is able to sell off the backstock.

I'd almost say there was some method to their madness - but then they do things like release Legendary Stealth Elf BEFORE Series 2 Stealth Elf which leave me going, "Huh?"

Oh is wrecking ball rare too? i just saw two of them today. one at walmart and one at gamestop

some of the series 1s are super rare, like Boomer and Wham-Shell. All the others... stores can't give them away, because Skylanders players are too smart for their gimmicks. Why do you think Best Buy had a $3 skylander sale on black Friday? TO give us a deal? No, they do it to get rid of their extra characters. Which is also why Lightning Rod was in the ad (no offense LR fans). Some of these stores warehouses probably have pallets full of series 1 characters, and their reaction to Giants is pretty much "Holy crap, we gotta get rid of these old ones before the new ones come out and these wont sell anymore!" It's quite possible stores are just as aggravated at Activision's released schedule as we are.

I would check Wal-Mart from time to time to see if they have any. They seem to have the biggest stock of characters.

Best Buy had the best S1 stock out of all areas near me.

My best buy had a ton of s1 zaps 2 weeks ago, when I went back they had all wave 2 characters except hot head, no zaps
The 6 characters I see all the time are and

Series 1 are scarce in my area, but the most common I find out Cynders and Stumpies. But ya it's really only Series 2 Lightcore new guys Giants and no wave 2 (I'm purposely trying to drive Toy's for Bob's attention to me and my area, so don't mind if I keep saying wave 2!)

Quote: riverhippo

Skylanders players are too smart for their gimmicks.

If that was the case, then we wouldn't see people paying eBay prices.

I'm happy that I got Series 1 for about $80 below MSRP overall, even though it took me six months to finally track down a (free) Wham-Shell. Other people are willing to quickly boost their collection, no matter the cost - and end up paying $25 for an Amazon-exclusive Flameslinger that you can buy THROUGH Amazon for $9.99.

i snagged zap hex and dino-rang 3 pack a few weeks ago at target. only one i've seen.

Hmmm i still need zap, bash, and cynder from series 1. Havent seen zap at all, and bash and cynder i keep seeing in triple packs but i dont really wanna pay 25 to 30 dollars just to get one character out of the box. Lol, money is too tight for that

/\ got dat right. me needs sum more cash.

i think you have a fair amount of time before they become impossibly rare. But eventually, series 1s are going to be impossible to buy.

Yeah, I think riverhippo is correct. As we see after wham shell was in TRU on black friday he is gone again. Most of the S1 can be had if you are lucky. However, 6 months from now, I think it will be a no go on most of them.

I was just able to get series 1 Cynder, Bash, and Sonic boom together for 22 dollars. Not bad at all. Now if i can just get a ZAP il be done with the series 1 dragons...... Oops, i forgot legendary spyro and legendary bash :/ Meh, one step at a time lol

series 1 legendaries are easy pickins. TRU and TRU.com should have them still.

.... If Series 1 Zap is that expensive... what about my GITD Zap?!

I have all of series 1, but I was a bit worried. I needed Zap and Boomer and couldn't find them anywhere. Finally found a triple pack of each in Target, so now I have the complete set.

A GAME branch a couple of cities away from me had a fairly large Skylanders section with a small wall just for Series 1s, in which there were a lot of fresh Zaps. (as well as Double Troubles, Empire of Ice Packs and Chop Chop/Eruptor/Bash triple packs for some reason.)

is rare I need her

No, Stealthy is VERY common.

Quote: wreckingballbob

is rare I need her

Check TRU. Mine had a ton of them in. I think they must have dumped some old boxes of them out when they ran out of L-Stealth Elf in either the most brilliant marketing strategy or the stupidest contingency plan I've ever seen.

My local TRU had a shelf full of them

If you go to Toys R Us on-line, you can kind of get an idea of which ones are common and which ones are rare. The ones that are common will say available for shipping, and the ones that you can hardly ever find at stores anymore are either not listed, or say "available - check your local store" (meaning good luck, we probably don't have it).

Gezzzzzz good thing i got mine before the rucks and besides, i haven't seen one since SUMMER!

In my area (West Yorkshire, UK) the only rare series 1 characters are Dino-Rang and Boomer (though I have both) everyone else is really easy to find.

I gave up looking and spent $25 on ebay for zap.

Quote: GigaCamo

Gezzzzzz good thing i got mine before the rucks and besides, i haven't seen one since SUMMER!

I actually never wanted Zap, but I found the GITD one and said 'heh, good enough'.

All of the Series 1 stuff except for the Adventure Packs are sold out in my area.

Quote: dragon_fang21

I was just able to get series 1 Cynder, Bash, and Sonic boom together for 22 dollars. Not bad at all. Now if i can just get a ZAP il be done with the series 1 dragons...... Oops, i forgot legendary spyro and legendary bash :/ Meh, one step at a time lol

You got sonic boom? I thought you said you only wanted the dragons! And sonic boom is not a dragon (I know plenty of people that mistake her for one), she's a griffin; there's a BIG difference.

But why bother getting Series 1 Zap? Why not just wait for Series 2 Zap instead in January with the Scorpion Striker Battle Pack and Hot Dog (and you can just sell the hot dog if you don't want it).

My Sams Club has tons of the Zap 3-Packs

Quote: dragon_fang21

I was just able to get series 1 Cynder, Bash, and Sonic boom together for 22 dollars. Not bad at all. Now if i can just get a ZAP il be done with the series 1 dragons...... Oops, i forgot legendary spyro and legendary bash :/ Meh, one step at a time lol

Whirlwind is the Air elemental dragon.

What everyone needs to understand is this.

About ten years down the road:

Any Series 1 Skylander > Any non-Series 1 Skylander

Quote: riverhippo

About ten years down the road:

Any Series 1 Skylander > Any non-Series 1 Skylander

About ten years down the road:

All Skylanders will be worth $300+

Quote: Victormaru

Quote: riverhippo

About ten years down the road:

Any Series 1 Skylander > Any non-Series 1 Skylander

About ten years down the road:

All Skylanders will be worth $300+

No, it won't. There are far too many "complete" collections out there. The thing that makes value is rarity in the collection business. Like with comic books or baseball cards - I can't tell you how many people I know that swear they had some rare Spider-man or Batman comic that complain because if their mom hadn't thrown them out when they grew up it would be worth a fortune. But, that's the reason they are worth a fortune - moms threw them away, creating rarity. The collectors just need to hope moms start throwing the figures away in the coming years - but too many people realize that collectible toys could have value down the road.

Take, for example, the rarest baseball card. Honus Wagner. How many people that don't know a lot about baseball know who this player is? Not many. It isn't valuable because of how good a player he was (and he was very good), but because only 50 or so of them even exist anymore, and most of those aren't in great condition. They are also over 100 years old.

Now don't get me wrong, a complete Sklanders Series 1 collection that is in excellent condition (or preferably unopened) will fetch a decent price in 10 years or so, but nothing outrageous like some of the old rare Atari games or Star Wars figures.

How rare is a Series 1 Zap? Surprisingly.

.... Buuuuuut everyone's going to want to get rid of theirs in a hurry when the Scorpion Striker gets here, so this trend of outrageous Zap prices will just continue to become a trend of outrageous Missing Eight prices. I sold an extra Ghost Roaster, loose and with nothing on him (no code, card or sticker) for $20. That's the price of the adventure pack. It's hilarious how expensive those are going to become now.