Looking for a substantial discount on your next Kenner ALIEN purchase? Well, bad luck. You’re forty years too late. This vintage Kenner ALIEN toy still inside it’s unopened box is now worth a lot more than what it was originally sold for back in 1979. It is now being offered by its seller on eBay for a respectable US$1999.99. 
This is a fabulous item wearing its curious four decades old Kenner ALIEN toys history prominently on the upper right corner of the box. The discount price sticker displayed on this sample attests to how these children’s toys were originally intended to be sold for US$14.97 only to be later marked down and sold for the discount price of US$4.97 each. The substantial ten dollar clearance sale reduced the original sale figure of the toy down to under five US dollars. This would have occurred sometime during late 1979 (or early 1980s) and is documented on the label. Such discounts were common for these grotesque Kenner toys when they failed to live up to the sales figures of their exceptionally more popular Star Wars brethren. Tens of thousands of these ALIEN toys were sold in this manner mark down sales to clear dead stock forty years ago. My, has their valued climbed once again to lofty heights!
Today, this unopened sample is worth significantly more. A US$2,000 price tag may be a steep price, even by today’s collector standards; but consider the toy has never been removed from its unopened package with a single side of original tape assuring adequate proof this is the case. Had this item been in a less damaged state, then the price could be justified as US$2,000 is price expected of unopened pristine samples of this toy. And they do sell for such amounts. Unfortunately, this item is not in that league and not in the highly desirable perfect condition demanded by such prices. It suffers from ugly crush damage to the upper front edge along with various creases and other imperfections that contribute to challenging this value.US$2,000? Maybe. Maybe not. You can never be certain until it’s paid for.
Nonetheless, that “Two Guys” clearance sale price sticker is a fantastic accompanying document permanently affixed to the box and greatly adds to its historical narrative. Today, instead of selling at a discount, this unopened sample could easily sell for less, say, US$1497. Especially unopened along the bonus of boasting such a clear piece of sales history so obviously well placed as it is here.
Looking at it another way, maybe this item could still benefit from a discount. Yes. This item could easily sell today for US$1497. I’m certain of that. That’s only one hundred times the original (US$14.97) retail cost. But it would still be a 25% discount off the current price of US$2,000. BARGAIN!
-Windebieste.
