For most people, plastic collectible Funk Pops—small vinyl figurines with oversized heads—might be a fun novelty item to own of a favorite pop culture icon. But for local collector Dustin Green, Funko Pops are serious business.

Green casually mentioned he had a large Funko Pop collection that took up an entire wall of his bedroom. And immediately, I had to know more.

Green started collecting in 2006 when he was in middle school. And at first, it was just a simple and fun hobby.

“I used to go down to this little card shop, and they sold them there, and I kinda got addicted to them that way,” Green said. “I had just got my first job, basically, and I had some disposable income. I kinda started collecting the Marvel ones.

“As time went on, they became almost an investment. If you know which ones to get and you get the exclusive ones…you see how that one has a little sticker on it,” Dustin said as he held up one of his Pops, Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy, “That simple little sticker takes it from a $10 toy to a $200 collector’s [item].” 

The first Funko Pop that Green bought was a Luke Skywalker, and he said that most of the Pops that his mom, Crystal Green, has are from Star Wars.

“I gave her all my original Star Wars ones, and the funny thing is, those are worth more than any in my collection,” Green says. “The first one I ever bought (Luke Skywalker) is now worth around $500, and I paid like seven dollars for it.”

The most Pops Dustin has in his collection are Deadpool from Marvel, if you count Deadpool as a sub-series.

“I have 31 Deadpool-specific Pops,” said Green, though X-Men Pops comprise the largest number of a series in his collection. “I think I have around 50 different X-Men Pops.”

Both Dustin’s parents have their own Funko Pop collections in addition to his. “I think between (the three of us), we have a total of around 500 individual Pops, not counting duplicates,” he claimed. Of his own collection, Dustin has a total of 284 Funko Pops.

Since starting his collection, Dustin has been collecting Funko Pops as well as gifting Pops to others, his parents included. “I paid a hundred dollars for one [Funko Pop] for my mom once. Max, I pay around fifteen dollars for some of the bigger ones, and so we actually figured I paid around probably three to four hundred dollars of my money and then another probably around five hundred [in] gifts of Pops. So probably around nine hundred to eleven hundred dollars since 2006. But there’s a difference between the value of a Pop and the price of a Pop.”

Dustin’s absolute favorite Funko Pop is from his Deadpool collection. “It’s gonna be one of my Deadpool [Pops] that I got for my birthday a couple of years back and strictly because it was from a friend—I met him online, and I hadn’t been able to talk to him, and then he was able to come over to my birthday party, so it was just really sentimental. It’s the Happy Birthday Deadpool.” 

Dustin has continued to build his Funko Pop collection and he plans to continue collecting.

“It would be legitimately impossible to collect every single Pop that I like, so now I kind of stick to exclusive ones that kind of have that potential to be worth money in the future,” Green said. “It’s really one of those things that if it’s not one that really fits into my collection or is one that I love or is a gift from somebody, then I’m good.”

If Funko keeps creating Pops, people will continue collecting, especially Green.

To learn more about Funko Pops, visit these websites:

https://rarest.org/entertainment/funko-pops

https://funko.fandom.com/wiki/Pop!_Categories