Loose Action Figures Can Still Sell: This Spawn Figure Sold for $14.50
One of the things I’m learning with older toys is that they don’t always need to be complete, boxed, or especially valuable to be worth listing.
This McFarlane Toys Al Simmons Spawn figure was sold loose with no packaging. I picked it up as part of a larger toy lot after a friend had after a tenant move out and leave behind a bunch of items. I’d estimate my cost in this figure at about $2.
I listed it on May 16, 2020 and eventually sold it on January 29, 2025 for $14.50. That makes it a true long-tail sale: roughly 4 years and 8 months before the right buyer came along. If you factor in the cost of carrying inventory for that long, it probably isn’t a great transaction. I don’t really account for inventory carrying cost that way, though, and this was a very small item that took almost no space to store.
The Numbers
Item: McFarlane Toys Al Simmons Spawn Series 17 figure
Condition: Loose figure only
Estimated cost: $2
Sale price: $14.50
Listed: May 16, 2020
Sold: January 29, 2025
Item cost + eBay fees: $5.17
I charge shipping separately and usually let eBay calculate it for the buyer. Early on, I got burned a few times by underestimating shipping, so I stopped trying to guess and let the platform handle the calculation.
What I Learned From This McFarlane Spawn Loose Figure
The biggest takeaway from this sale is that loose action figures can still have a market.
Collectors do not always need the original box or every accessory. Sometimes they just want the character, a replacement figure, or something inexpensive to display.
That means when I come across older action figures in mixed lots, I don’t automatically dismiss them just because they are loose or incomplete.
The key questions become:
Is the character recognizable?
Is the manufacturer collectible?
Is the figure visually interesting?
Is it small and easy to store?
Is there enough demand to justify listing it individually?
This Spawn figure checked enough of those boxes to make it worth keeping listed.
It may not have been a big-dollar sale, but turning a roughly $2 item into a $14.50 sale is exactly the kind of small win that adds up over time.
The Bigger Test
This also gives me another category to keep testing. I have more older action figures and other long-tail items, so I want to see how often loose figures sell, which brands move best, and how much condition or missing accessories really matter.
For now, the lesson is simple:
Don’t assume a loose figure is worthless just because it isn’t complete.
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