I stopped collecting Figuarts because of this. My Figuarts collection used to be FUCKING massive, then I realized I was GROSSLY overpaying for these figures when I could have just been patient and saved at least 30% of their original price on the aftermarket. I took way too fucking long to realize AmiAmi and Mandarake existed. There was a time in my life where I thought it was okay to spend 120 USD for an SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Chaser. I sold that one years later because I was having some personal issues, and then years later, when I wanted to get back into Figuarts, I found him for literally less than 40 USD on both Mandarake and AmiAmi. So after swearing off of Figuarts, I got back into them again because I found out about secondhand. I somehow convinced myself I was saving money lol I was so amazed by how cheap Figuarts could be on the aftermarket.

Not long after that, I built up another collection; probably the most Figuarts I ever owned. I had over 80. I literally had an entire room dedicated to my collection. One day it just clicked to me; wow, these guys are getting really dusty...how in the fuck am I going to keep maintaining these guys? I was like, only 6 months in before I came to my senses. Why was I spending so much money on these guys if I'm just going to display them...and then let them get dusty? There was no point. I love Kamen Rider, but this was absolutely, insanely unhealthy. It's true that there isn't a better 1/12 scale option if you want to collect Kamen Rider figures, but why do I need to have the absolute best of the best? The answer is that I don't; at all. Figuarts are not my calling.

But then, thank god for SO-DO and RKF. I've enjoyed collecting Kamen Rider stuff SO much more; knowing I'm spending so little for so much quality AND quantity. Plus, since I seal the stickers myself and do a little painting, they feel more personal to me. Personally, I don't collect the model kits, but I can see others doing so for similar reasons. They're also smaller and always come with their own stands, so it's just...too convenient. If they get a little dusty, I won't feel bad since they're so cheap. I'm so much better off spending less than 50 bucks a month to have almost every single suit and form change from the currently airing series, and more. 50 bucks wouldn't even get me a SINGLE Premium Bandai exclusive Figuarts nowadays.

I could go on for much longer, but my Figuarts phase was one of the worst phases of my life, in hindsight. I'm absolutely done with that and I cannot fucking wait to sell off the last of my Figuarts collection. I can't even stand to look at the boxes I have lying around.

This is sort of where I'm at too; just substituting Figuarts with Figure-Rise Standards and, uh, old Figuarts that are pretty cheap. Literally of the SHFs I still want to get, if there were Figure-Rises instead; I'd just go for the FRS for all of them except Kuuga. I'm actually quite happy to pay premium for higher-quality versions of my absolute favs (OOO, Tajador, Build, Cross-Z, Kuuga), but for others I really wish there was a much cheaper and readily-available option. Rider gimmick lines used to be this but then RKF happened and your only options now for that scale is SHF and FRSes which unfortunately only seem interested in doing main riders and a couple repaints.

That's kind of the issue with SHF no-one brings up these days -- with RKF and SO-DO being a completely different scale and FRS not doing anything current or beyond the main rider, SHFs are literally your only option for a 6' figure of a recent rider. Don't want to pay 12,000 Yen for a pre-owned SHF Valkyrie even though you just want a decent figure of her at that size? Tough, suck it up or get a smaller one.

It's a sort of balancing game with SHF now with what you can wait out and what you absolutely have to buy to avoid aftermarket prices.

This happened to me with SHF Jin. Jin's pre-orders went up right after his and Horobi's death. I thought that I shouldn't pre-order Horobi since he died and he didn't have any leaks of an upgrade unlike Burning Jin. I bought Jin, not Horobi, and now Horobi is so high up in teh aftermarket.

Won't repeat this mistake for Saber tho. I know Cailbur (and maybe Espada) are going to be high in the aftermarket, but I can also probably wait out Jaouh Dragon to be made into SHF.

I know exactly what you mean. I'm glad I ended up cancelling my Vulcan Shooting Wolf pre-order in the end; it was just because I couldn't justify it at the time but he's actually become surprisingly cheap and readily-available on the aftermarket. Guess it's because it's Rampage and Assault where people started liking him!

Though of the yet-to-be-announced SHFs I want - Rampage Gatling, Den-O Climax, New Den-O, W Gold Xtreme - I can see all of them getting pretty expensive on the aftermarket, so I'll just go for them as they happen. Oh how I regret not getting Seihou Kuuga's re-issue...

Seihous in general are going to become to expensive regardless. I wanna play the waiting game on Assault Wolf tho, since I like that form. Assault Hopper is already popping up in Mandarake for 6500 yen which is not bad. If they make Orthoros Vulcan, I'd prefer that.

The strange thing is, I can find both OOO and Den-O for close to retail price on Manda. OOO I can get due to his re-issues, but Den-O is wild to me.

Unless it's Shinkochou Seihou, I've found that every Figuart becomes cheaper if you just wait enough, or at least one guy will eventually show up out of nowhere who just wants to get rid of his figure(s), even at a net loss for himself.

Kamen Rider Chaser used to not only be hard to find, but even harder to find at less than 100 USD. Nowadays it's actually impossible to find him for more than 70 USD. I've even seen multiple listings around 50 USD.

Prices are bound to fluctuate and change, you just have to keep an eye out for it. I have had unbelievably good success with Ebay in this regard, back when I still collected Figuarts consistently.

It depends on the series. With Ex-Aid and Zi-O, for instance, most of their figures are pretty easy to get on Manda for cheap with the exception of certain popular or rare outliers like Dangerous Zombie and Ohma Zi-O. However, most of the Build and Zero-One figures became more expensive, rare or both on the aftermarket instead -- I've basically had to give up all hopes of ever getting Rogue or Valkyrie with how high their prices have risen. It's generally only the retail stuff that escapes that fate, but even then Rising Hopper has also gone up in price.

It doesn't depend on anything. Some of them take longer than others, but it always happens. I've never seen a Figuart that didn't hit a price below its MSRP at least once; not even the modern ones. When you're buying secondhand, people can throw on their own price tags, and sometimes people are desperate.

Mandarake is great but it isn't the gold standard for secondhand. I've seen plenty of good deals on AmiAmi, Okini, Ebay, and even Twitter. There are always outliers but their days will always come, too. The Dangerous Zombie I bought earlier this year was only 70 USD and it came from Ebay. Same guy was selling 3 of them.

Valkyrie is still very recent, so I definitely wouldn't hold my breath, but I'd still keep an eye out. I've seen multiple Rogues for less than 70 USD, which is still higher than the original MSRP, but not bad at all for such a prominent character. You'll definitely see more Rogue figures like that next year, since Prime Rogue has an updated head mold. The first batch of RabbitRabbit, if you can find it, is relatively cheap for similar reasons.

Retail releases are so cheap it's honestly hard for me to see them dipping below MSRP on the aftermarket, unless it's something that was kind of too expensive to begin with, like Shooting Wolf.

I'm talking about consistency too, though. Outliers will always exist - I got a pretty decent deal on Twitter a month back - but if I go on Mandarake or something right now, I can guarantee I'll see Den-O Liner or Lazer Turbo at a good price, and if they're not there, they probably will be within a week or two. This has never been the case with any Build figure aside from a small handful that aren't popular (Cross-Z Charge, Mad Rogue) and I won't be surprised if it's the same thing with Valkyrie and Horobi given how popular they got.