Paging through the newest Lee's Toy Review today. Small section called "Hot Online Auctions". Seems a G.I.Joe SkyStriker in a "sealed" box sold recently somewhere for -- $3,500!
Nothing to indicate it was AFA graded or anything, unlike some of the other auctions listed. Personally, I don't give AFA or any similar outfits much credibility, although I know some people do and it can and does affect auction prices. Apparently not the case here.
But -- $3,500!??! Okay, it's a cool plane. It's arguably the best plane in the collection. I wish I still had mine. Heck, I wish I could travel back in time to that display I saw in a Target around Christmas 1984 or thereabouts where there were over a hundred of these things on the top shelf for $15 apiece. They all vanished by December 26, too.
I am not at all putting down the SkyStriker. One of the finest items ever to make its way into the G.I.Joe collection. No argument there whatsoever.
But seriously!? You could trick out one of these things to be an actual flying plane with radio-controls and a working missile launching and bomb-dropping feature, and I STILL wouldn't pay $3,500 for one if I had that sort of money to throw around on a toy. ANY toy.
So, speculation time -- what would be a fair price for a MIB SkyStriker these days, and how in the world did this one get so high -- assuming something other than a multi-party bidding war between people with a rather astounding level of disposable income.