Swarovski Black Panther NLE 2010 has new Crystal Cat Competition

The Black Panther, Swarovski NLE 2010, sold out very quickly when it was released for online purchasing in April last year. With a retail price tag of $960, the Swarovski Black Panther (jet was the official color) was one of the most affordable NLE issues that was produced by the crystal giant.  And a maximum production quantity of only 500 figurines, this was another nice feature that made this black cat quite desirable.  Shortly after the sell-out date, the Swarovski Black Panther sky-rocketed to its current secondary market price of $2500-$3000 USD.

 

All this being said, the Swarovski Black Panther may have some competition in the very near future.  The crystal brand is releasing another colored panther…the Swarovski Moroda Panther.  The Swarovski system number is 1096051.  Looking at the product picture at the Swarovski web site, you may very well think that this newest panther is brown, which would indeed make it a bit different from the original Black Panther.

Swarovski Moroda Panther, 2011

However, if you look at another new release, the Swarovski French Angelfish, this release has a lot of ‘moroda’ colored crystal accents, and the official Swarovski product description for the fish states that Moroda is black.  BLACK?  BLACK!

Well, of course any color differentiation cannot be done until a collector has both Swarovski Panther figurines side by side.  But at the moment, I am feeling uneasy about this new release.  My NLE Swarovski Black Panther has gone up in value…something that cannot be said very often these days.  If this new cat, the Moroda Panther, is a shade of black, history indicates that the (jet) Black Panther values will drop as many collectors will likely settle for purchasing the Moroda Panther for a fraction of the price.

I have seen this new-similar-design approach in the past, and it nearly always brings down the value of the original design as buyers will simply not pay higher prices for retired figurines when Swarovski has other cheaper, suitable alternatives.  Examples of this phenomenon include: Swarovski SCS Dragon (DO1X971) and Dragon (7550 000 005), Swarovski SCS Turtledoves (DO1X891) and Turtledoves (7621 000 011), Swarovski SCS Dolphins (DO1X901) and Dolphin (7644 000 001).  (and there are other look-alike figurines, these are only a few).  All the Swarovski SCS crystal figurines dropped hundreds of dollars, 30% – 50%, depending on the figurine.  While the economy certainly contributes to the decline in value of the secondary market in general, I do believe that for these figurines, it was precipitated by the release of the similar-looking figurines which, by the way, are all still current on the Swarovski web site.  I foresee history repeating itself…good for the company with more sales of a newly-released panther, no-so-good for collectors who have valuable retired Swarovski figurines, in this case, the beautiful (jet) Black Panther.

If you like the Swarovski Panther design, but prefer clear crystal figurines, the crystal brand does offer the figurine in clear crystal, but it is retiring very soon (2011).  The clear cat has a system number of 874 337.  The Swarovski designer credited for the elegant design is Heinz Tabertshofer.  All the Swarovski Panther figurines come in a firm blue box, a cleaning cloth, and gloves.  All retail(ed) for $960.

If you are a feline fanatic, you may be interested to know that there are other Swarovski crystal wild cat figurines:  Swarovski Leopard, Swarovski Lion, Swarovski Golden Shadow Lion, and Swarovski Tiger.  Most of these can be found at the Crystal Exchange America web site:  http://www.crystalexchange.com/ .