Luke Judge

Ivory has long been considered a very beautiful artistic material to the human eye, and has a long standing history dating back many centuries of humans using ivory for carving exquisitely capturing works of art, and for working functions too. All though some people may not even realize it, there are many different animals that ivory can actually come from, but what is considered to be absolutely “Real” in the true meaning of it is, to be from the teeth and tusks of mammoths and elephants.

Since elephant hunting for ivory was banned in the 1970′s, the only real remaining source of what would be considered “Real” material allowed today is the 10,000 year old extinct mammoth. If you ever come across real elephant ivory during today’s collections, it must have been crafted before the time period of the ban or illegal elephant tusks. It is best to NEVER support any type of purchasing of today’s real elephant tusks,if you have knowledge of it coming through illegal means. Make sure that you collection has only very old, but legal elephant tusks or the currently legal mammoth ivory.

The most common ivory of today are the older elephant tusks, the extinct mammoth , the sperm whale , the hornbill and the walrus ivory. There is also the hippopotamus teeth which is also very common, and maybe more than that of the others in some areas of the world, including the mammoth tusks. It is Hippopotamus ivory that is often commonly used for inlays, buttons or most any other flat surfaced items or upon most any flat surfaced area. It is walrus and the sperm whale ivory that is more commonly used in the makings of smaller objects of usage or artistically hand crafted collections of design. Highly popular in China, is the hornbill beak for making small brooches, buckles and other small wearable and collectible designs.

Even with so many choices it is the mammoth ivory that may be the most valuable due to it being the only one of two “Real” ivory originals, but also for the fact that mammoth tusk is unique within its self because of how many thousands of years old it is, and because of being directly from an extinct animal. Because of the mammoth being extinct so long ago, all though seemingly plentiful today, there will be a time when mammoth ivory will again be extinct in the another way. Even though the true number of mammoth still to be excavated is really unknown, there will be a time when there will be no more mammoth left to excavate for the makings of new mammoth tusk collectibles.

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There are many types of people who are interested in the value of their figurines. There are those who are buying and selling action figures and don’t want to get ripped off. There are others who have no wish to buy or sell and are just curious to discover what their collection is worth. In this article I’ll show you how you can find out what a figurine is worth, from identifying what action figure you have, to putting a value to it.

The first thing is to identify your figurine. To do this you need to determine what company produced it, what character it is, and what date it was produced. If you have the figurine’s box, this can be as easy as just reading… well… the box. If you don’t have the box, you might find a date stamped on the figure itself, but for all the other information you’ll have to search the Internet.

I would start by searching various action figure websites, looking for pictures of the figure I want to value. If, for example, you have some sort of army figure, then you might look for a website dedicated to G.I. Joe figures, hoping to find yours. Hasbro provides pictures of past G.I Joe figures on their website. Many other manufacturers do the same, although finding their pages of old action figures can be difficult. Another approach is to look at eBay. In its “Action Figures” category there is a “Military & Adventure” subcategory, and perhaps a figure just like yours is currently on sale. If you still have not found out what your figurine is, you might consider taking it to your local shop or to a convention.

Once you’ve determined what your action figure is, it’s time to determine it’s condition. You can either have your figure professionally graded by the AFA, have someone at a convention or comic shop grade it for you, or you can find a “grading guide” on the Internet so you can grade your action figure yourself. Going through the advantages and disadvantages of each of these in detail is beyond the scope of this article, but you can easily find out about each by searching the web.

With all that information collected you can find out your action figure’s value. I would recommend looking at as many different sources as possible, because the more sources you look at the more accurate your evaluation is likely to be. My first port of call is usually an action figure price guide. I then compare the guide price with what the figure is selling on auction websites such as eBay, along with any other website I can find displaying a price for my figure. By comparing these prices, you will get a rough idea of what your figurine is worth.

It’s important to remember that just because you’ve arrived at a particular value doesn’t mean someone will definitely buy it at that price. If you happen to possess the last figurine that a collector needs to complete his collection, he may end up paying twice the guide price, if not more – hey, he might give you his house – but equally you may receive less. Sometimes what you get for your figurine is down to plain, old luck.

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