I supose this could have been placed in the long running "ebay follies" thread, but this one deserves it's own discussion.
First off a little background.
When I first started buying
GW stuff on Ebay back around 2000 or so, one could score just about all the early
40k material one wanted (with the exception of certain very rare items like Space Slaan for example) for next to nothing. There really was not amarket for Rogue Trader miniatures, and the prices reflected that reality. Over the years this has changed. Granted, some common
RT era figures such as much of the Space Marine line have stayed low in price, but much of that eraly stuff has really started to take off in price. Back around 2000, you could get the specific marked Chaos Renegade figures for a couple of dollars a peice for example. Now they are almost impossible to find and when they do show up, theydemand quite a high price. A few short years ago, some of the early
RT ear plastic vehicle kits were quite cheap. Now assembled first pattern Land Raiders reach prices in excess of a hundred US dollars. Even damaged examples go for big bucks.
As a result of this increase in pricing, alot of Ebay sellers are putting "Rogue Trader" or "
Rt" in their item descriptions for an auction of any reasonably old figure to cash in on the collector's market. The end result is alot of figures get incorrectly labeled. (I punch
OOP,
RT, and Rogue Trader into the
40k section twice a week, so I see it) I'm constantly seeing things like 2nd edition blisters and the like with their destinctive yellow
40k logo labled as "Rogue Trader". At least this one is actually correct in some cases as older scuplts are often foun in that packaging, but you get my point.
This morning, I came across an auction that took the prize for worst example of a mislabled "
RT era" item:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rogue-Trader-Era-Games-Workshop-Stormtrooper-Squad-OOP-/200804822219?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec0e66ccb
First off, there is no such thing as an
RT era Stormtrooper figure. That troop type did not even exist until the
IG codex apeared for 2nd eidtion. Second, those are third edtion models.
Come on, Ebay sellers. With the existance of research sites like Stuff of Legends and the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wikki, how hard is it to do a little research and not end up looking like a clueless buffoon?
TR