When did loose POTF R2 pop up saber figures shoot up in value??!!

[E-V8-9d9]

I'm trying to get my head wrapped around this: most of my collection was in storage up until recently, and in my collection is a loose POTF R2 with pop up saber. I start poking around online to see where values have gone on things, and I see this little droid now selling for $500-$700 LOOSE??!! Is this because there are so many new fans and collectors out there? Or, was this figure just a shorter run than the other POTF figures?

I can remember when Yak and the rocket-firing Boba were the big money figures. Man have things changed!!

 

[DarthBeek]

The Saber alone can fetch $600 to $650 ....

 

[Wolfman79]

I watched a nice loose one sell for exact same about as a carded one in the same day!
Madness

 

[Pop-Up Saber]

That is crazy, considering I purchased mine carded for ~$150 bucks a long time ago. Looking at some Ebay auctions, he's easily a $800- a grand now, ungraded. And there's the Droids version...

 

[StarFin]

It's all about that pop up saber.

 

[Pop-Up Saber]

Crazy to pay a $500+ for a few grams of 40 year old degraded plastic. LOL. Seriously, I guess there are way less of the pop-up saber R2s in circulation than ANH or ESB/ROTJ versions. $carcity = value.

 

[Matty2dark]

$carcity = value

Correct.

To be honest, all pieces went crazy with the covid price hike. I doubt whether there would be a price adjustment. But oh well.

As for the R2, there is a general slight increase. For graded 80-85 loose figures, there is a significant upward trend. There is fewer for graded carded figures but some indication of an increase

 

[Pop-Up Saber]

Very nice charts~! Definately asserts the orders of magnitude pricing variation between Pop-up Sabers vs. the ol' Sensorscope R2's