How to get eBay alerts for action figures, Funko Pops and Hot Wheels

Carded, boxed or loose: say which

The same figure can sell for very different prices depending on its packaging, and sellers describe it with a short set of terms:

Put the packaging you want in Must include, like MOC or sealed, or Exclude loose for a carded-only Spotter. For a loose figure, put complete in Must include and count the accessories in the photos.

Action figures

Name the line, the character and the wave or year, because popular figures are reissued. A 1970s Kenner Star Wars figure and a modern Hasbro figure in a vintage-style package share the character name and almost the same card, and Hasbro’s Retro Collection even carries the Kenner logo. When you want the original, Exclude Vintage Collection, Retro Collection, the names of Hasbro’s modern lines.

Vintage card backs have their own vocabulary. Kenner Star Wars cards are known by the number of figures pictured on the back, like 12 back or 21 back, and collectors pay differently for each. Put the card back in Must include if it matters to you.

Three traps for vintage figures:

• The date on the figure isn’t the year it was made. Most carry a copyright stamp, like ©1977, that marks the design’s copyright year. A figure stamped 1977 may have been produced years later, so don’t date it by the stamp alone.
• Reproduction accessories. Weapons and capes for popular vintage figures are widely reproduced, and a loose “complete” figure may come with a repro blaster. Ask whether the accessories are original, and Exclude repro, reproduction to drop the listings that say so.
• Re-carded figures. A loose figure can be resealed onto a card to pass as MOC. Check the bubble’s edges for glue and the card for signs it was opened, and treat a vintage MOC figure at a loose price with suspicion.

Funko Pop

• Box number. Every Pop has a number printed on its box. Numbers repeat across lines, so pair the number with the line and character, like Funko Pop Star Wars Darth Vader 01.
• Exclusive stickers. Store and convention exclusives carry a sticker on the window naming a retailer or a convention such as SDCC or NYCC. Put the exclusive in Must include. Fake stickers added to common Pops are a known scam, so compare the sticker with a genuine one before you pay an exclusive’s price.
• Chase and variants. Some Pops have a rarer chase version, packed in smaller numbers and marked with a Chase sticker. Other variants are listed by their finish: glow in the dark (GITD), flocked, metallic. Make one Spotter per version you want.
• Box condition. In-box collectors look for creases, dents, sun fading and window scratches. OOB means out of box and custom means repainted or altered; Exclude both for an in-box Spotter.
• Fakes. Counterfeit Pops copy popular exclusives. Warning signs include blurry box printing, a wrong font, a sticker that looks too flat or too shiny, and one seller with many copies of a rare Pop. Genuine Pops usually carry a small production stamp under a foot or on the head.

Hot Wheels

• Treasure Hunts are mainline cars made in smaller numbers. On recent ones, look for a small circle-flame logo on the car and on the card behind it. They look ordinary at a glance, so some get listed without the words.
• Super Treasure Hunts (STH) on recent releases have Spectraflame paint, Real Riders rubber tires, a TH logo on the car and a gold circle-flame logo on the card behind it. Make one Spotter with super treasure hunt and one with STH for each casting you want.
• Card condition. Carded collectors judge the card and blister: soft or bent corners, creases, a cracked or crushed blister, price stickers. Some collectors prize unpunched cards, where the hanger tab was never pushed out.
• Customs passed off as Supers. Regular cars can be repainted, fitted with rubber tires and resealed on a card. Check the card back for glue marks and compare the car with photos of the genuine release.
• Redlines are the 1968 to 1977 cars with a red stripe on the tires, mostly collected loose and judged on paint, wheels and originality.

How Spotter Otter’s AI helps with toys

• Start from a photo. Take a photo of a Pop’s box, a figure’s card or a Hot Wheels blister, or upload a screenshot. Spotter Otter reads the line, character, box number and stickers it can see, uses eBay’s image search for clues, and writes a description for you to check. It identifies the toy; it doesn’t authenticate a sticker or a card.
• Or say it in your own words. “Vintage Kenner Boba Fett, carded, 21 back, no reproductions” becomes an eBay search and a list of must-haves from Luna, Spotter Otter’s AI. You confirm them and set a maximum price, which is required.
• Must-haves are read the way sellers write them. Ask for a carded figure, and a listing that says it’s loose is left out; one that doesn’t say gets a Maybe, so you can check the photos.
• Paste a link to a sold-out Pop’s page on a store, or to an eBay listing of the same toy, to start a Spotter for it.

Knockoffs and reproductions

Knockoffs are unlicensed copies, from crude fakes of popular lines to well-made third-party figures sold openly. Reproductions include reprinted card backs and boxes, repro accessories and whole repro figures. Exclude knockoff, bootleg, reproduction, repro, third party to drop the ones that are labeled. Short abbreviations like KO are better spotted by eye, since two letters turn up inside ordinary words.

Spotter Otter doesn’t appraise or authenticate toys. It finds the listing, and you check the photos and the seller. Purchases are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee if an item isn’t as described.

Price it from sold listings

Search the toy on eBay, turn on the “Sold Items” filter, and compare like with like: carded with carded, the same card back, the same sticker, the same grade. A loose figure, a carded one and a graded one are different items. Set your Spotter’s maximum from those sales, before shipping.

Example Spotters