Without San Diego Comic-Con as a place for Funko collectors to meet this year, the company decided to do something extra special. The tiny toy favorite dug deep into its vault and came out with well over 100 super rare items, including multiple prototypes, which will be auctioned off on eBay with all proceeds going to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. And io9 has your first look.
“[This] came from ideation between eBay and Funko on how to better connect with our fans and customers during what would have been San Diego Comic-Con,” Dave Bere, Director of Retail & Brand Marketing at Funko, told io9 via email. “We’ve made SDCC one of our trademark events for fans over the years and knowing that this year was going to be unlike any other really allowed us to think differently and focus on giving back.”
While the auctions will consist of all manner of ultra-limited and sold out Funko items, the highlights are the prototypes. During the design phase, every Funko product has a prototype before it gets mass-produced. Sometimes they’re painted, sometimes they’re not, but rarely do they make it into the wild where collectors can get their hands on them. That changes beginning at 8:00 a.m. PT on Sunday, July 18, when the eBay homepage gets taken over by Funko.
“The appetite among eBay’s 174 million shoppers for Funko Pop is huge and they know they can turn to our marketplace to find the rare, new and trending figures,” Sam Bright, Vice President and General Manager of Verticals at eBay North America told io9 via email. “We want to celebrate their dedication and bring them the first-ever exclusive auction of Funko Pop prototypes and experiences that they can’t find anywhere else. Further, by hosting auctions of these amazing pieces, we felt we would drive the most support for our mutual cause.”
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Exclusively on io9, take a look at just a small sample of the over 145 auctions that will go up on Sunday.
There are many, many more pieces too—Flintstones, Looney Tunes, DC Comics, WWE, It—all of which will be revealed Sunday.
“Our Funko Cares program is always looking for ways to give back to the community,” Bere said. “With most people under quarantine, fans are looking to connect to their favorite brands through virtual experiences and opportunities. Given the current climate, our teams had to think differently this year, and together with eBay, it was a no-brainer to support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund through this auction.”
So really, this is the ultimate win-win situation. Fans get the chance to celebrate in the Comic-Con spirit and bid on highly collectible Funko figures, and all proceeds go to a worthy cause.
All seven-day auctions go live on www.eBay.com beginning at 8:00 a.m. PT Sunday, July 19.
Correction 7/17/20 1:15 p.m.: The original article included images of a Pop that wasn’t in the auction so they have been removed. It’ll be released at a later date. Also Sunday is the 19th, not the 18th.
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Source: gizmodo.com
