Answer: Whether or not you choose to open your Funko Pops is completely up to you, however, if you want your Funko Pops to retain or increase in value, you may not want to open them. Once they are opened, they lose a significant amount of value.

Funko Pops have exploded in popularity over the last few years and it seems like many of us have acquired at least a few of them. Some people choose to open them, and some people choose to leave them in their packaging. Ultimately, this is completely up to you, but there are a few things you might want to think about before you go and open all those Funko Pops you have stacked against your bedroom wall. Hopefully by the end of this post, you will be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not you should open your Funko Pops.

Do Funko Pops Lose Their Value If They Are Opened?

As with any collectable, be it action figures, figurines, LEGO sets—really anything traditionally thought of as a collectable, yes, if you open your Funko Pops, they will lose value from a monetary standpoint. I say from a “monetary” standpoint, because that doesn’t mean that they won’t still be valuable to you. Maybe they will be even more valuable to you after they have been opened, who knows. Maybe you’ll get more enjoyment out of your Pops after opening them. If this is the case, maybe you should open them.

How Much Value Will Your Funko Pops Lose If They Are Opened?

Even though your opened Funko Pops may still be valuable to you, be aware, they will likely not be very valuable to potential buyers if you ever decide to sell them. It has been said that Funko Pops lose 80% of their value when they are opened. I can’t say for certain that this is the case for every single Funko Pop out there, but is not hard to believe at all. Pops were made to be collectable items, and their boxes were made to accommodate for that. Taking them out of the box removes part of what makes them collectable. You can think of the box as part of them, and without the box, they’re incomplete.

Opened Funko Pops

Now that certainly does not mean that no one will buy your opened Funko Pops. There are certainly plenty of people who have appreciation for open Pops. They are just not going pay you as much for them.

Check out my post about selling a Funko Pop collection if your interested in selling your Pops.

How Do You Find Out If You Have Valuable Funko Pops?

There are lists of highly valuable Funko Pops that you can find online by doing a simple Google search, but instead of searching through those lists trying to find the Funko Pop in question, I recommend going to eBay and doing a search for that Funko Pop. This way you can see how much other people are asking for it.

If you want to see how much people are actually willing pay for it, I suggested looking at the Sold Listings on eBay. What this will show you is how much people have actually paid for any particular Funko Pop recently. If you are planning on selling, take the sold listings into account, and don’t just pay attention to the active listings.

Opening Funko Pops, But Keeping Their Boxes?

You can open Funko Pops and keep the boxes if you really want. If you like to display them out the of the box, but want to put them back in their boxes eventually, this might be the avenue you should take. (I wrote an article about displaying your Funko Pops. If you’re interested, check it out.)

The thing to keep in mind if you do this is space and storage. You are essentially doubling the amount of space in your home that any one Funko Pop is going to take up. This might not be a problem if you only have a few of them, but if you have hundreds, things could get out of hand if not effectively managed (I wrote a whole post on storing your Funko Pops that you can check out here).

Luckily, Funko Pops are generally pretty easy to take out of their packaging. This means that you are likely not going to damage the packaging when removing the Funko Pop, and when it comes time to put it back in box, it will feel almost like it was never removed.

Will My Funko Pops Increase in Value?

The whole reason you’re probably reading this is because you’ve seen the prices people are willing to pay for certain Funko Pops, and you want to know if you possibly have one of those extremely valuable Pops. If you do, then that makes the decision to open it a little more difficult.

Here’s what I’ve observed with Funko Pops: there are a lot of them. No, that doesn’t accurately describe it: there is an ocean of them, and more are constantly being made. With Funko Pops, it seems there is a direct correlation between scarcity and demand. Rare, exclusive, and Limited Edition Funkos may see a significant increase in their value. Take a look at the Walgreens exclusive General Grievous for example, and that’s not even one of the most expensive.

Chances are, your average run-of-the-mill Funko Pop that can be purchased from just about any retailer won’t see a huge spike in value over the years. Not that its guaranteed not to see an increase in value, but it is less likely.

Funko Pops Were Made for Collectors

Funko Pops are popular right now. There is no denying that. What’s interesting are the demographics that Funko Pops are popular with. Yes, kids like Funko Pops, but if you want to find the people who really love Funko Pops, you need to look no farther than their parents.

Funko Pops have caught the eye of many adult fans of things like Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Marvel, and so on. Many people feel that there is something very nostalgic about Funko Pops, and they feel drawn to them because of that. There is likely a Funko Pop for every one of their childhood heroes: Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Batman, Superman, Godzilla, etc. The kids who used to mow lawns to buy action figures have become adults, and action figures have been replaced by Funko Pops for them.

Let’s briefly talk about the aesthetic aspect of Funko Pops. The uniformity and the fact that they look so good together when you have a few of them is part of the reason collectors like them so much. Once you have a few of them displayed on your shelf, its easy to see why you’d want to add more.

The fact that adults are predominantly buying them is probably part of the reason why some see a huge spike in value in a short period of time. There is no way the average eight year old is ever going to be able to pay $150 for a Funko Pop, and their parents likely aren’t going to spend the money on it, but a twenty-eight year old collector certainly will.

Why Are Funko Pops Popular, and Are They Just a Fad?

Obviously, the value of your Funko Pops is going to be partially determined by their future relevance. Yes, right now collectors are willing pay a good amount of money for those desired rare Pops, but if they go the way of the Beanie Baby, then they would have been a poor investment decision; especially on the part of the people buying them simply to make a future profit.

The thing is, Funko Pops have outlasted Beanie Babies by quite a bit, and don’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. Part of what might give them more longevity is what they represent. They represent characters from, well, pretty much everything. You’ve got Star Wars, Marvel, DC, The Walking Dead, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Halo—the list just seems to go on and on.

It stands to reason that as long as nerd culture is thriving, and adults continue to be entertained by these franchises; Funko Pops will remain relevant. Right now, it doesn’t seem like they’re going anywhere.

Conclusion

There certainly will be value lost if you open your Funko Pops, there is no denying that. If you suspect that the Funko Pop you are going to open could be extremely valuable in the future, think really hard about whether or not opening it is really worth it. Then again, we live in uncertain times. Things are changes so quickly, its hard to predict what will happen next. Its possible that a few months after I post this, nobody likes Funko Pops anymore and they’ve moved on to something else. I’d say that’s unlikely, but its possible. So, you do you. If opening that thing makes you happy, go for it. I, personally, would recommend checking the Sold Listings on eBay before you do that, but that’s just me.

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