A Call to Collectors

by Crazy Ivan

As those that follow the goings on of Myachi are well aware, the new 5.0 series is out and available exclusively at Myachi HQ.  Right now the names of the new sacks have a palpable mystique, as if angelic choirs sung in the background behind terms like "Red Shredder" and "Academy Pink".  But as all of us who have collected Myachis for a while know, soon they will just be the common sacks every newb is jamming with.

This means that like always, all the old sacks get bumped up a few spots in the value chain.  Sure, it's not like a 4.5 is suddenly rare, but it is slightly more valuable now that collectors realize that what is on store shelves now is all that's left.  You might not need to hurry to grab the Ivy League or the Boss Tweed, but if somebody hasn't added the Labyrinth Blue or the Agent Orange to their collection there's a sudden sense of urgency.

The impact reverberates back through every series like a wave.  The 4.4s are still pretty common but already a 4.3 is hard to come by.  There are still a few 4.2s and 4.1s available at HQ but that supply is dwindling and but for a lucky stop at a local toy store you're not going to find anything older than that shy of E-Bay (with the requisite exception to the 3.2X: The series that wouldn't die).

So like every new series, the 5.0 makes older stuff more valuable.  Not exactly big news.  This happens every time a new series is released and we've all seen that before.  The bigger news is in the new packaging.  We've made tweeks to the package before, sure.  We've changed out the cartoon characters here and there, added the Gon instead of the Myachi Mobile, put the legend of Myachi City on the back, taken it back off... but we've never done anything like this.

Notice the differentness.

The whole pack is different.  It's smaller, there are no finger knugz and the only similarity between it and the 4.5 is the fact that the cartoon characters are still on there, it still has the Glyph and it's still called a Myachi.  Thanks to our boy Adrian K (the new visual artist that painted our groovy mural), the new pack has a totally revamped image.

Our groovy mural.

Of course, that makes any sack that is still in a traditional knug carrying blister pack stands to rise in trade value by a far more substantial degree than they have in the past.  We may be phasing out the finger knugz altogether or they may only be available in combo packs.  Either way they probably won't return to the regular package.

If you're new to collecting Myachis it seems like things move really slow, but those of us who have been in the game since series 0.9, 1.2, 2.0 or XM7 know that what was commonplace a moment ago is a novelty in no time.  The number of each Myachi manufactured is still minuscule compared to other popular collectibles so for collectors that join the game from 2011 forward, a pack with finger knugz will be an artifact.

Ivan's Advice:

Not to sound too much like the crazy "Mad Money" guy, but you should give a lot of thought to leaving any unopened blister packs you have unopened.  Ask yourself how bad you really need another jammer.  Remember that the least popular sacks will be abundant because they will be bought last and the most popular will be abundant because people like to keep them shiny and pretty inside the package.  The rarest "in-blister" sacks will probably be the midlevel sacks.  Examples in the 4.5 might be the Sabertooth, the Bubble-Wrapped and the Shockwave Blue.

Now don't go crazy here.  There's no excuse to have a sack in the pack if you don't have enough to jam with.  Ideally you would want two of the same sack, one to open and break in and another to keep pristine.  Of course, if I told you that it would sound like I'm just trying to get you to buy two of every sack so I won't mention it.

If you have anything in Blister from 4.0 or earlier (except the aforementioned 3.2X), I would strongly advise that you leave it in the pack.  You can get a 5.0 that is as good a jammer so there is probably no need to open it unless it's a Myachi you've been wanting to jam with for a really long time.  If I picked up a 1.0 Calvin for a good price on E-Bay I would rip the sucker out in a heartbeat and I might be pretty conflicted about leaving a Diggity unyummied.  Anything else would stay in mint condition.

This is for all of you who were saying "enough with all this
collector's talk, I wanna see more of that awesome mural!"

Speaking of mint condition, be careful how you store your "in-blister" sacks.  Having them in a box or a pack where they're going to slide around and get bumped into a lot is a bad idea.  The glue will only stand up for so long and if the plastic shell on the front is jostled around on an old sack, it'll separate from the cardboard back.  This doesn't kill the trade value but it hurts it.

Storing them hanging on a wall is tempting because it honestly looks really cool, but it's also not the safest way to do it.  The Myachi will probably stay mint for a really long time, but with gravity steadily pulling at that glue it will eventually give out.  It might take a long time, but keep in mind that if you pick up a 2.2 Myachi in a blister card the glue has already been holding on since 2007 and you don't know how the previous owner stored it.

Your safest bet is to store the sack laying flat in a small box that will protect it from getting bumped around a lot.  If you can't do that, try to keep them flat in a drawer where they won't get moved around and no heavy stuff will be put on top of them.  You can interlace the old school blister cards for a little added layer of protection against crushing.

When storing your "in-blister" collectibles, you can interlace them
like you see above.  This helps protect them against getting crushed.

And for those who aren't collectors and are reading through this thinking to themselves "this dude is crazy obsessed with these little handsacks", I simply remind them that I'm not judging them.  I figure if you're going to be obsessed, you might as well dive into the deep end.