I've just found this article in Chris' site Xena Stuff, and I couldn't wait to share.
Why the importance? Well, it includes several photos taken from the Creation Ent merchandise catalogs that show the original price that many Creation Ent replicas were sold for. Now, as a Creation Ent Xena replicas collector myself, I find this VERY important. It provides a most valuable starting point reference - a very useful tip to know if a price may be ok or not.
Let's analyze these cases one by one, and do a little comparison to see how these numbers look like today - are the current prices of the Creation Ent replicas higher, lower or similar that back then?
>> NOTE: Please note that this article doesn't intend to take into account the devaluation of money because of inflation. $499 could buy a lot more in the late 90's early 2000's that it can now in 2014. However that's not the point of this information - my only purpose is to analyze how the prices of these replicas have behaved since they were first in the market up to now.
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| Original Chakram - Original price: $499 |
First, of course, the Original chakram. It originally sold for $499 plus shipping. Nowadays, that'd be a quite good/low price for one of these. Although they are not the most difficult replicas to spot on sites such as eBay, these chakrams are certainly very rare, and their price tends to reflect that. Their range do varies a lot (I'd say between $600and $1,200), but it's never cheap.
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| YY Chakram - Original price: $499 |
The Yin Yang chakram was also sold for $499. In this case, if we were to sell/buy one of these today that'd probably be a slightly high price. In the past two years I've seen them go from $300-$600 - so it is very possible to find Yin Yang chakrams for less than their original purchase price.
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| Xena's sword - Original price: $569.95 |
Xena's sword is a tricky one. I've seen them go for far less than the price shown in the magazine ($300, for example) and for much much more (even more than $1,000). The price always depends on the COA number (a low number will sell for more) and of course on the seller - price is after all subjective to the one that sells and the person that buys. But compared to the current "market price" I'd say the original price would now be a very good deal.
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| Gabrielle's staff - Original price: $269.95 |
The case of Gabrielle's staff is far more simple. Of all the replicas here, I have the impression they are the ones that nowadays sell the worst. Their price is usually very low - between $200 and $300. Thus, the original price in the Creation Ent magazine remains a good reference.
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| Gabrielle's sais - Original price: $569 |
Ah, Gabrielle's sais. What do I say of you? Even being numbered in 1000 units (the double of pieces as the chakrams) they don't pop out for sale as often as many collectors would expect. And their price is always difficult to predict. I've seen them sell for $200 and for $700. Why? No idea. Visibility? Convergence of people seeking them at the same time?
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| Xena's breast dagger - Original price: $299 |
The breast dagger is also a curious case. My first impression to that price is - really? more than Gabrielle's staff? It's waaaaaay smaller. But yes, ladies and gentlemen, it did sell for more. Nowadays the breast daggers are quite unpredictable as well. However, based on my personal experience I'd say their "normal" current price range would be $150-400.
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| Callisto's sword - Original price: $499 |
Callisto's sword. If you go to the dictionary and look for "treasure" the picture of Callisto's sword should be around there somewhere. These are the most rare of all the replicas here. In many years I've seen only TWO of these - and only one for sale in recent times. And it went for more than $1,500. So yeah, considering that, their original price would now be a bargain.
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| Gabrielle's Helicon sword - Original price: $499 |
Curiously enough, Gabrielle's Helicon sword is also a very rare replica. In a long long time I've seen only one on eBay, last year, and it sold for $875. That's expensive. I guess many fans with completist longings are after one of these (I know a few of them), and that's why always, whenever one of these appears, a very hard battle is fought for it.
Chris' images go this far, but I've added a couple of my own.
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| Gabrielle's S5 necklace - Original price: $59.95 |
From todays' perspective, I'd say Gabrielle's S5 necklaces were very affordable in the beginning (even cheap), but now? Now they sell for far far more. I've seen several of these beautiful necklaces come and go in the last few years, and I've almost always seen them sell for more than $200. Wow!
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| Gabrielle's S6 necklace - Original price: $59.95 |
Same happens with Gabrielle's S6 necklaces. Maybe even more so - these necklace replicas usually go past the $250. That's quite an increase, if we consider they were originally sold for 60 bucks.
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That's all. There were other Creation Ent replicas (Ares' sword, Xena's gauntlets, Xena's armbands, xena's whip...), most of them late replicas done in the end of Creation's tenure as replica distributor - but these were done by commission and as far as I know were never announced in any of Creation's merchandise catalogs. That's probably why they are so rare (as hard to get as Callisto's sword or Gabrielle's Helicon sword). Take Ares' sword, for example - they only did 5 of them! 5!
Till here this little review on Creation's replicas original prices. Do keep in mind, please: these images and my own elucidations are nothing but mere references. Prices ALWAYS fluctuate, they are not fixed. There's no such a thing as a stable price - prices always change depending on the offer and the demand. Nevertheless, I hope you find this info useful.
More Xena coolness soon! Cheers!
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