Bandai collectors tag on or off?

[Gooberzilla]

[Baltan II]

[howze01]

[Destroysall]

[TitanoGoji16]

I cut the tags off, but I still keep them.

...I should probably try to remember where they are.

[kidnicky]

Isn't tag reattachment dishonest?

[howze01]

[Baltan II]

With my method, I'm reattaching it with the identical tag anyway, so no.

If you're doing that sort of thing with vintage figures, however, I could see some complaint being made about it. And punching an entirely new hole into the toy is definitely an issue if you end up doing that.

[howze01]

[kidnicky]

[Gooberzilla]

[howze01]

[gojira138]

[gforever]

For me it's an ironic story. As a kid, I cut the tags off (like destroysall)but then in middle school when I got my first part time job, I understood the keeping the tags on was important so I did so for my new purchases. But year after year of collecting, my collection has grown so large and keeping the figs clean is a pain in the ass but with the tags on, it's even worse. You fear to damage the tag when you run the figure in water for the hard to reach spots when air cans just can't get out. So about 3 years ago, I decided to pull the tags off as I will not sell my figures and removing the tags to make displays much cooler.

What I do is, use a hair dryer to warm up the tag hole and then pull it out. I then place the tags with those plastic hangers inside a photo album. By doing this, the tags will be preserved and the figures can be regularly cleaned without damaging the tags.

So like howze01, if in the future I decide to put the tags on, I'll just re-attach back into the original tag hole which could take days with this many Bandai figs.

If you're using the used car analogy, let's seller A has a tagged figure. It's in mint condition with no paint rubs or chips but the seller never cleaned it once so it's covered in dust. Seller B has a figure that's been cleaned and looks as mint as it can get but has a reattached the tag. Both list the item on eBay at the same time. Buyers will be more attracted to the clean figure versus the mint figure covered in dust. Even for used cars, don't they usually detail the car and make it shine before selling it to you?

I guess it really comes down to what kind of collector or seller you are and how much you value the figure being in it's complete original state. For me, I like clean figures as long as they are reasonably priced, with attached or unattached tags, and with no damage.

[Legion]

Concerning the "original tag holder" concern...considering that at this point many of the oldest Bandais are well over two decades old, how often new collectors (like myself at the time) removed tags and how easy it is for resellers to re-tag vinyl figures it's really impossible to know if the 15-20 year-old Bandai figure you just bought even has it's original tag, let alone it's original tag holder.

These days I don't remove the tags from new Bandai toys. And I'm slowly (very slowly) upgrading many of my 90's Bandais for figures with attached tags. But as long as you have the original tag - unattached or not - your Bandai figures should still retain most if not all of their value. Then again, these toys certainly aren't going to be putting your kids through college nor will they be instrumental in buying a new house or a new car. Especially not now as most of the Bandai line is worth less to collectors than they were about a decade ago. I remember a time when if you found a figure like Baragon or Biollante at their original price from a store or dealer who didn't know better you could easily (and very quickly) sell it for enough money to pay your car insurance bill for a couple of months. Try doing that now.

I say buy them and enjoy them. Remove the tags if you want to. Just save the tags, and the holders if you want to be that anal about it.

[howze01]

[Gooberzilla]

[Legion]

[Baltan II]

[Legion]

[Gooberzilla]

[Legion]

[Baltan II]

[Hawanja]

[swfreakjpb]