It is a dark time for collectors ........

Lately there were a lot of news about Repro weapons which are swimming and able to match almost originals by material, colour and feeling. Further there are almost all searched after Equipment and lose parts as Falcon Training ball, Speeder Bike flaps .... and so forth ...made as Repro almost not to be revealed as Repro. Same story for all the variant Weapons (Lili Ledy). Just wait for the metallic blue Bespin Blaster coming up as Repro.....

Well I don't want to start this Topic to discuss Repro's. We had a lot of these discussions and I suppose we all are more or less the same opinion.
And of course it is clear what is happening at the market. If you have to pay $30 - $40 for a Leia Blaster there will be people who want to gain profit from this fact.....

What bothers me is the question what means this for the future of our Hobby?
I'm at first a loose variant collector and never saw any sense in grading loose figures and putting them in an acrylic case......... But in times when it will become even harder to reveal fakes grading could be the future for the high priced collecting items. Well of course AFA and UKG already made a lot of mistakes (ToyToni)- I know. But figures already graded before the rise of the well made Repros ......

If I can't buy from a well known collector I avoid buying figs with weapons because they are more pricy and probably fake....... Because of this I start thinking what will the future be.
Would like to hear your thoughts

For me, it's the super high prices, that have taken the fun out of the hobby. That's why I'm turning more & more to customizing. Like you said, the high prices and the introduction of more reproduction items, go hand in hand.

I wasn't particularly clear headed on this issue for a while. Personally I didn't find repros problematic if they're clearly marked as such. The problem with that of course is, it will never happen across the board lol like if there were repro weapons that were marked in the mold so there was no question about it, I don't see that as a problem if someone wants to complete their shelf display, and it's clear under inspection that it's fake.

It's a fact that vintage Mocs are opened every year, it's got to be a fact that vintage weapons are permanently lost every year too, so it only goes in one direction with the original stuff.

There isn't really any way to stop the people creating repros, educating new collectors on how to spot them could surely help but hat task is getting more difficult all the time as you stated.

Fakes are getting harder to spot, I have bought from ebay before and been burned on loose figures, I used to also think they were fine if clearly marked but i'm changing that view as more often than not they are not marked in any way

I've been fooled by repro weapons a few times but the more I learn, the less they can fool me. That said, can be very difficult to tell repros from photos sometimes. It hasn't really been one of the reasons I don't buy much these days though. That said, I've been willing to take the risk in the past but repros are getting so much better now that things might change for me.