It wasn't until Tim Mcfarlane purchased the mark McGuire 67th, 68th, 69th and 70th home run ball.  He added Sammy Sosa' 33rd, 61st and 66th.  What does this have to do with  Mcfarlane NBA figures?  Not long after paying literally millions for these major league historical collectibles he was able to arrange a licensing agreement with  Major League Baseball  (MLB) to issue  a new line of offically licensed MLB figures.  Following this came agreements with the NFL, NHL and at last the NBA.

The first liine of offical NBA Mcfarlane figures was NBA Legends 1, and in the next few weeks you will see NBA Legends 2.  They sell to retailers in cases of 12 figures.

Note:  You can still buy a full case of 12 figures of NBA legends 1 on the spawn web site, there are 12 cases available and they are going for half off the original case price!

Which brings me to fhe first rule of collecting NBA Mcfarlane figures.

Rule number one - Be patient.  Thousands of regular figures, both legends and others, are produced.  The exact number is high confidential corporate information but the current chatter says that the numbers produced are much higher than you might think making the regular figures avalable any time you wish to buy one.

Rule number two: Variant and Chase figures are also produced at a much lower run rate.  These are the equivalent of Sports Cards inserts.  They arenot numbered, no mcfarlane figures available to the public are numbered.

Technically, Variant figures are just like the regular figures except for a change in jersey color.

Chase figures have one or more different chanracteristics, like  Ben Wallce which comes in a regular shaggy hair style and a variant corn row hair style.

There are not as many true Chase figures in the NBA line as there are Variant figures.

Still, variants and chase figures go for 2 to 5 times more than regular figures depending upon the popularity of the player.

Rule number 3:  If you are pateint you will find large lots, either a case of 12 or a large lot that a collector wants to sell and these lots and collections  go at very low per figure prices.

Rule number 4:  Warch out for what are called Custom figures.  Mcfarlane has at times sold unpainted figures that a collector will paint by hand.  Ido not know why but they are sold at times and my personal opinion is that they are only as valuable as yo think they are, very few collectors are interested in them and resale will most likely be difficult.

Rule number 5:  Enjoy your collection.  There may be thousands of figures available today but your figure is always a 1/1 because it is yours.  Variants may be more rare than regular figures but you can own as many NBA stars as yo want by winning bids on the lowest price regular figure and have just as much pleasure completing your collection whereas if you target a complete variant collection you couls spend somuch money that you might now have as much fun.

The latest hot trend involves player signed Mcfarlane NBA figures.

By focusing on collecting signed figures and by gettiing your figures signed at signing shows you can make your regular (or variant) figure a true 1/1 and increase both its value and  its status as a rare collectible.

Compare this to signed basketballs which go for a lot of money but which are also signed by the hundreds or thousands at one time so that the player can make more money.

A signature by Michael Jordan, Lebron James or Dwayne Wade can turn a $25 Spalding indorr outdoor rubber basketball in to a $100-$300 hot collectible.

As the signed Mcfarlane catches on you will be seeing the actual figure of the player with his signature on the sealed container insuring that both the signature and the figure itself will stay in Mint comdition forever.

No matter which rule applies to you.  Regardless of how many figures you wish to collect.  if you want to focus on NBA or MLB or NHL sports mcfarlane figures you can create your own persnal one of kind collection at reasonable prices.

Have fun !