Oh that’s super cool! 
Yea the ILYY Fury is still an amazing performer and competes with anything produced today. They have a few recent bi metal designs too. I wouldn’t consider them an old company really.
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Imagine a world in which yoyos were priced by their performance.
Higher performance = higher price. Simple as that. No regards for manufacturing date, materials or design.
I wonder how different the perception of value on yoyos would be.
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Anti Yos would be the price of Magic Yoyos and Magic Yoyos would be quite up there. A/RT would be mid range at best. Yea I said it. Come at me.
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Wooden fixies would cost 3 bucks. That’s a sad thought.
You’re not wrong bro. I’m with you on that.
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Imagine, the Humming Bird and Draupnir being practically unbuyable.
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Warning! If you are not a Bookreader; stop right here<————-<there
I didn’t read every single response word for word… so if I say something redundant; sorry in advance…
Let me say a few things about: value, perceived value and actual value.
Let’s go over a few abstracts first>
- You go out to buy a new car. No matter how many books you have read on the ‘How to buy a Car’ subject. The chances of leaving the Dealership with both a New vehicle and no blood in your shorts, are slim. You want a New … You PAY for a New car.
And right after you drive it off the lot; it loses approx. 20 percent of its’ value.
Every year for the next several years, your vehicle loses more resale value.
All of a sudden people start leaving notes under your windshield wiper. ‘Call me if you would like to sell your car’.
You ask around and find out that people have decided your particular car is on a want list for whatever reason: big horsepower engine, a racing suspension, a body that never rusts, high reliability, Classic body style people have come to love; or all of the above.
Most interesting is that only a select group of people feel about your car, that way. But there are more people that love your car, than the number of cars available to make them all happy.
So… if one of them wants to end up with your car, they have to be willing to either meet your price or at least beat what everybody else is willing to pay.
YOU have the advantage because you have the car. The ball is in your court.
Supply and demand…
- More abstract for clarity> > You are driving your Rolls Royce through the desert. Right in the exact middle of the desert you cars’ engine dies at the very same moment you get 4 flat tires.
You grab your briefcase(loaded with $1,000,000 in cash. You start your march through the desert. You make great progress as you walk through the night. But as the sun comes up, you suddenly realize things are going to get complicated.
You see palm trees in the distance and your outlook improves. As you get within a mile of the Oasis; you start fading rapidly. You are jogging and then you are walking and then you are limping and then you are crawling.
As you crawl along, all of a sudden you see the legs of a barstool. You tilt your head back and use the palms and fingers of your hand to shield your eyes from the 120 degree temperature. You actually believe you couldn’t crawl another 20 feet. And if you don’t get a drink of water, you are just gonna drop DEAD!
There is a guy sitting on the barstool. The barstool is next to a table with a bracket holding an umbrella to shade the man on the barstool. On the table is 1 very large glass of water.
The man on the stool suggests you look like you are gonna drop any moment. And you agree with his view.
You tell him, ‘If I could drink just one glass of water, I think I will live to tell this tale. How much will it cost me to buy that glass of water from you?
He asks you, ‘How much money do you have in that briefcase’? You tell him, ‘$1,000,000’.
One minute later, there is a millionaire sitting on a barstool. And a very tired looking penniless man sitting on the ground enjoying a tall glass of water.
What is the moral of the story?
A very long story for a very short answer.
What something costs is sometimes directly related to what you are willing to pay for it.
…Yoyo prices are/can be simply the direct result of someone finding out what people will pay for it.
If more than one person wants something, the prices suddenly moves in an upward direction.
If the seller wants a certain amount and nobody bites. He either just sits on it or lowers the price to generate increased interest.
If somebody says a Peak is worth $500. It is worth little if nobody want to buy it.
If somebody immediately buys it for $500, then others that find out, may possibly identify that as the going price… but that only works if another comes forward willing to pay that much. If a second seller inspired to cash in his yoyo, but nobody wants to pay $500, then we start all over again. And on and on…
One thing I find fascinating is that a certain yoyo is pereceived to have a certain ‘high worth’ yet the person with the yoyo is willing to ‘sell’ the yoyo. Curious? And I would have no doubt the people that sell Peaks(or whatever) aren’t selling the yoyos because they have to. They sell them because they are making MONEY on them.
There is an old saying, ‘If you wanna play, you gotta pay’.
I am not trying to say that certain items that sell for a small bundle are not good or fun or whatever.
I am simply saying that what some things are worth is based on nothing more than what a person is will to pay.
The most expensive painting on Earth, if given to you, would be an incredible thing.
But if you wanted to cash it in and Nobody would give you even a single penny for it.
Then its’ value and worth are two completely different things.
I would guess a fair price for a Peak in nice condition should cost about $200 thereabouts.
Peaks are only worth $400 or $500 because more than one person wants the one for sale.
The ones with the toys are the ones that set the rules it seems.
But they only win if you want to $play$
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Agree!
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Your stories never fail to bring a smile to my face
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I would guess the price is what I’m willing to pay. I’ve paid allot for somethings and not so much for others. In the end the truth is I have those throws I really wanted and I didn’t get them all at once. You want minty anti yo titanium you’re going to pay for it quite handsomely and if you’ve got the right mindset you’ll be smiling the whole time.
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Totally agree, thats how the market works!
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True statement… I don’t mind spending money on something that will bring a smile to my face… That’s why I collect.
As far as skill, I still consider myself a beginner and I will get a little better, but It would be somewhat stressful to me to turn it into another task to practice daily with work and family and other needs mixed in than to throw just for fun and as a stress reliever… it’s not like I’m planning to take Gentry or Evan on tomorrow or ever 
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I have another much shorter story for you guys that I always thought was pretty sharp…
When I was a kid, my parents sent me to a local Catholic school(grammar school age).
They just figured I would get a better education because the classes were much smaller and the Nuns were very strict. (And they were correct).
Many of the kids were from ‘up on the hill’. Miraleste, Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates(rich kids).
Most were driven to school in style in some of the best looking cars I seldom saw in my neighborhood.
We(the kids that mainly walked to school) would bring a variety of foods, fruits and vegetables and drinks to school in lunchboxes.
The more affluent kids would bring stuff in Tupperware type containers placed just right into small picnic type lunch baskets.
This one kid, every Wednesday, would bring an Egg Salad sandwich. Nice fluffy scrambled eggs with a hint of salt and pepper on nice fresh bread.
I am not an egg salad sandwich kinda guy. But I guess if you do em just right they taste most excellent indeed🤓.
Well, none of us mini hood rats got egg salad sandwiches for lunch, so this guy got something going pulled right out of his enterprising mind🤔.
Each Wednesday at lunch we would sit around in a certain area of the playground and eat our lunches. This kid would tear off a corner of his egg sandwich and tell somebody to try it.
Wow! That sure is good…
The word got around quick in such a small group at school.
Let the games begin. The kid was sooooo SICK of egg salad sandwiches that his plan hatched out of necessity if nothing else.
Early Wednesday he started asking people, ‘I don’t feel like eating my egg sandwich today. Does somebody want to swap with me’?
And in came the offers: ham and cheese, roast beef, peanut butter and any kind of jam you can think of, meatball sandwich, burrito, soft tacos, you name it. And an ever changing variety of sides: Potato chips, Fritos, potato salad, apples, oranges, jello, candy, etc… And don’t forget the multitude of drinks the different kids brought.
Many of the kids were pretty sick and tired of what they would regularly bring.
Every Wednesday a deal was struck. The kid would make the very best deal with whatever kid wanted to swap the most and/or best lunch for his lunch. Then the kid asked his mother to make him the egg sandwiches more like 3 days a week. And his food adventure really gained momentum.
A few months later, the kid started gaining some serious pounds! It was a total mystery to his parents.
His mother took him to the Doctor. The kid was a pretty honest kid. And when the a Doctor asked the kid straight up questions. The kid gave the Doctor straight up answers.
The Doctor asked the kid, ‘Tell me exactly what you eat each day’?
The kid told him that several days a week he would trade his egg sandwich to the highest bidder for anything he didn’t normally eat regularly.
When his Mom found out; well the Egg salad sandwich train, came to its’ last stop.
The sandwich was so good, the other kids did not get tired of trying to outbid each other to get them.
The kid was getting so much food in trade. He couldn’t even eat it all but he sure tried, lol.
…Supply and demand. 1 excellent sandwich and more than 1 person wanting it🙀.
20 something years later, I saw this kids name on a Business card. Not that it ‘was’ the same exact guy. But he had the same exact name. It stuck in my mind and I remembered that kid back in school that learned the ‘Art of the Deal’.
One day I was racing one of my Hot Rod Harley motorcycles up in the affluent part of town. I was rolling by this one building and I remembered the address on that card. (Realize that Business card I saw his name on was ‘not his Business card’). His name and number and address was hand written on the back side of somebody else’s’ Business card.
Anyway, I drove around the block and came back and parked in front of the Office. I read the name on the glass and it said South Shores Realty. So… I walked inside and low and behold, there he is… much older obviously but the same egg salad sandwich face!
He remembered me instantly.(I never ate one of his sandwiches).
I asked… ‘So, what do you do here’? He laughed and handed me his actual up to date Business card with all his pertinent information on the front.
He said, ‘I buy and sell houses. I took over my Dads’ Business. He told me I do such a great job that he retired early and now it’s my game.
I jerked his chain and told him, ‘ Remember back in the day when you use to get a good grip for those egg sandwiches’?
He laughed so hard… He said, ‘You know, I never really thought about that. But I guess that is how I started to get a hang of making a deal, lolol’.
…He seemed pretty darn successful in the Real Estate trade.
But I always pictured him getting people very interested in a house and then prolly telling them that there were other people wanting to offer on the same property to create that FOMO(fear of missing out).
So… whether it’s an egg sandwich or a house on the hill. If more than one person wants it, money talks and the rest reach for the Kleenex…
The end
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Awesome story Doc!!!
Just one question… which “hot rod Harley” did u race that day?
Asking since I’m into bikes too 
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1948 Panhead…
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That is a sad thought, but, they would be the most fun you could have for $3
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thank you mo! i don’t understand why people still haven’t figured this out…
people are paying lots of money for older pieces maybe because the iterative redundancy of the newer performance pieces may be getting stale… the uniqueness, failures, frailties, etc. of throws of yesterday gives a diverse experience range maybe some folks aren’t finding, and ARE looking for these days.
i still say though, if you sell your tivayder for less than retail, you are a SUCKER! that os the best value ti yoyo you could have got. 500 were produced, which may seem like a lot… then i point to bapes…
you can tell me something isn’t worth anything. the market dictates that though… cars, art, pens, knives, hummels, beanie babies, star wars toys, light sabers, spinning tops, records… like, where does it end!!!
most of us aren’t going to nationals. and, i dont understand why anyone else cares what tricks someone else is doing or pieces they have. jealousy? low self worth? looking to start trouble? elitism? does it really effin matter? you take YOUR toys with yourself, we‘ll take OUR toys and play together.
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imagine if you just machine manufactured wood fixies… you could get them to $.10 
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i dunno. i just treat yoyos as art pieces. i went to an art school and i’ve paid for my friends’/classmates’ work because i can appreciate the amount of time that they spent making it. till this very day i still cherish this tiny 4x4 inch painting from my close buddy who did her masters in painting. i paid triple digits for it as it was
- something i could appreciate
- money well spent by saving on other unnecessary expenses
- supporting small/local businesses
i do play with every single yoyo in my collection, cuz i do not run an art gallery but that’s how i decide on how i should spend the money i work for
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