Orange Hayabusa Spartan Sells for $305!

I usually don't do singular posts about eBay auctions, but this is one that warranted special attention. Anyone who visits DigitalMonkeyBox can probably figure out that I collect McFarlane Toys' Halo figures, given the large amount of posts I do about them. McFarlane's Halo line consists of an over-abundance of exclusive figures, some of which are impossible for me to buy at their respective stores. So, I need to hit up eBay to get the few that exist in areas not near me. I have a strict limit on how much I will actually spend on a figure. Sometimes this means having to wait one to three months until the "just released" excitement and prices die down, but I've been largely successful in nabbing the harder-to-get figures for non-ridiculous prices.

For Series 3, McFarlane Toys decided to have two worldwide exclusives that are not available in the United States. The first is the silver Spartan Mark VI which is available at many familiar stores, just not in the U.S. The second is an orange Hayabusa Spartan which is only available at Game Station U.K. and Game Australia. For the record, I was lucky enough to nab a silver Mark VI for the cheap price of $18 just before auctions started going for $37 - 60. By the time I spotted this Orange Hayabusa on eBay it was already well out of my price range, but I wanted to keep an eye on it since it was the only one I had seen. It sold for the insane price of $305. What's crazier, is that if you look at the history, you can see that other bidders were willing to spend $200 and up. I am curious as to why I'm not seeing more of these on eBay. Are all the orange Hayabusas being kept in the collections of Halo fans in the United Kingdom and Australia? If more don't show up on eBay, or only show up once in a while, then this will be the most valuable of McFarlane's Halo figures. If that's the case then the next one that shows up on eBay could see an even higher ending bid. I think I can safely say that this is one Halo figure that I will never own.

Clearly the declining economy does not take into account orange ninja Spartans.

- Shawn - 10/11/08