MR FX Saber Values, yellowed maul blade

[JMech]

Hi all

New to the forum as recently dug out some of my old sabres, Maul, Vader, Mace, Luke esb. Anyway as I get nearer old fart and kids are getting older I have not kept up with markets or repairs. Having looked a lot seem to have stopped repairing the MR lightsabers.
One of my Mauls has a crack running up the blade, must have damaged in storage, anyway a friend has offered to sell me his but it looks as if the blade is more yellow when off, certainly more than mine which is nice crisp white, I am informed can happen with age.
Does this devalue the blade, have played with it and the lights, sound is all good, pretty much perfect in every other way. Offered for £150 and wondered if this was a fair price?
Good friend so will probably go ahead unless this is a silly over price just to replace my damaged one and complete my Maul again. Or does anyone know a way to replace just the blade and polycarbonate diffuser and approx cost.

Sorry if this has been asked loads, searched for yellowing carbonate, yellowing blade and got zip.

Thanks for any help and suggestions

JMech

[WEDGE ANTILLES]

just a caution: the diffuser-tube turned yellow on my obi-wan III and it became VERY brittle. I found it's not just a yellowing of the diffuser, it's a breakdown of the plastic. the diffuser tube 'cracked' in numerous places, just from regular use (no sparring or dueling).  in the end, I was able to gently 'flex' the entire blade back and forth, and this cracked the entire diffuser-tube into tiny brittle yellow shards. then I removed the tip of the saber blade and physically "poured" those tiny plastic shards out through the end of the blade.  then I replaced the tip of the blade.   result: the ENTIRE diffuser is now gone from this saber, in the form of tiny little plastic shards, which "poured" out the tip of the blade like powder.  this happened ONLY on my obi-wan sabers. (2 of them -- I "flexed" the blade and poured out the shards on one saber; the other saber is still pristine-with-yellow-blade, but I'm afraid to even breathe on it, for fear of cracking that yellow diffuser tube).
--> when the diffuser tube turns yellow like this, it becomes super-brittle, and can be actually be "flexed' into tiny shards of plastic dust WITHOUT damaging the rest of the blade.  that's how brittle it becomes. I was shocked.


(what causes this? I don't know. I have seen obi-wan sabers with perfect white diffusers after 10 years on display.  it seems to be a manufacturing defect, where certain production runs used bad plastic in the diffuser tube). 

[JMech]

Wow! What value would one put on a blade that has gone yellow? As they are no longer in production I can't buy a new one and have seen them on the bay of thieves going anywhere from £100 to £250. Though £150 was good but perhaps not? Don't want to overpay but do want to get another so I can display as double blade.

[WEDGE ANTILLES]

that sounds like a good price. I've seen them go for around $250US (plus shipping). I don't think the yellow blade would affect the price much, if at all.  it's not really an issue that is discussed in collector's circles -- collectors just aren't looking out for that kind of thing, so they wouldn't really consider it to be 'damage' per se -- buyers are more concerned with cracked blades and popped LED's.  if the saber is in perfect working condition (no blown speakers and no dead LEDs) then it would command the same price regardless of the yellow blade.

[JMech]

Awesome, thanks Wedge. Now to go collect and complete my saber.

[WEDGE ANTILLES]

here is a list of the most recent Ebay auctions which ended in an actual sale.

Auction Tracking and Collection Management for Film and Comic Memorabilia

(this site keeps track of Ebay auctions and compiles statistics.  the 'average selling price' is often skewed by Hasbro sabers and broken/incomplete sabers, so unfortunately, the 'average selling price' is not very helpful -- you really need to look at the individual actions to find ones that are comparable to yours -- take some time browsing the list of completed auctions to get an idea of what your sabers are actually worth).

cheers.