While being a collector has many pro’s, there is one con that really grinds my gears and stands out among the rest. We can’t play with our collectibles.

I collect all sorts of things. Things from comic books to figurines and even one of my personal favorites, vinyl’s. Now the vinyl’s I do break open and enjoy. If you’ve ever met someone that’s purchased a vinyl and has packed it away without listening to it at least once, please direct them to their nearest mental institution. Something as perfect as an old school Creedence Clearwater Revival vinyl needs to be enjoyed as much as CCR probably enjoyed all that the late 60’s and early 70’s had to offer. On the other end of the spectrum, if you meet anyone after reading this who has not had the beguiling experience of listening to a vinyl, please direct these poor souls to your local Barnes and Noble where such items can be purchased.

Ok, enough about my vinyl obsession, on to my PoP obsession. For those of you that have never heard of PoPs, they are tiny figurines with small bodies and large heads to make them appear cuter. I’m not sure how that works but those darn things are pretty cute. A company by the name of Funko created the PoPs back in 2010. There are now hundreds of different PoPs in all different categories, ranging from Marvel and DC characters to movies and video games. I recently purchased a “Leeloo” PoP from the movie “The Fifth Element” starring Bruce Willis, fantastic movie if I do say so myself. Here’s the thing, in order to take awesome action pictures with these figures they must be out of the box. When they leave this sanctuary the value of them decreases, or so I used to think it did.

My question is, what are your thoughts on collectibles decreasing in value when taken out of the box. Does this theory hold as true if they are undamaged and put back in their boxes? How would a buyer ever know?

The answer to this question isn’t going to change the way I torture myself with unopened boxes of figures or comic boxes closed in plastic. I’m still not opening a darn thing.