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XX Plasma/ Ice Info Please!

CarGuy

Finally got rid of the default title...
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When I started collecting I assumed that X Metal XX production ranking went like this:
(1) X metal
(2) Plasma/ Ice
(3) 24K
(4) Ti02

Now an educated guess would be:

(1) 24K - due to multiple releases
(2) X metal
(3) Ti02 - due to multiple releases
(4) Plasma/ Ice

Do I have it right now?

For new XM XX collectors it would seem like when you look on eBay- and for the last couple years- that you can find at any given moment a X Metal, 24K or Ti02. If you wanted a nice boxed set in these colorway if there weren't one there that day, there would be the next. You can find any R1 colorway in this same fashion, and boxed too. But the Plasma/Ice is rarely seen except for single pairs that swininc throws up occasionally, and a boxed pair- well you just don't not see the the Plasma/Ice in secondary markets boxed.

All that having been said, can someone share with me what they know about XX Plasma/ Ice? Everybody likes the underdog so what gives with this colorway? I like Juliet Plasma/Ice colorway and with the XX you get hammerstems... which I like too.

What was the production of this colorway for XX if anybody has an idea? Why do you just not see these?
 
X-metal was by far the most common. A couple years ago probably 75% of the XX's on ebay were X-metal. I've seen quite a few faux TiO2's cobbled together from plasma/X-metal frames as well as XX/Juliet hybrids. Also both my Plasma and X-metal frames i got on ebay were listed as Juliets, and there is quite a bit of that going on as they are easy to confuse. The others are harder to mistake since those exact colorways were never produced as a Juliet.

Anyway, X-metal and 24K were both re-issued with hydrophobic versions, TiO2 was not. What effect that has is not clear to me as the hydrophobic versions are rare and represent only a small number of the listings you see on ebay.

if i had to guess on production numbers i would say maybe 50% were X-metal, 25% were 24k, 15% were TiO2, and 10% were plasma. but thats just a guess.
 
X-metal was by far the most common. A couple years ago probably 75% of the XX's on ebay were X-metal. I've seen quite a few faux TiO2's cobbled together from plasma/X-metal frames as well as XX/Juliet hybrids. Also both my Plasma and X-metal frames i got on ebay were listed as Juliets, and there is quite a bit of that going on as they are easy to confuse. The others are harder to mistake since those exact colorways were never produced as a Juliet.

Anyway, X-metal and 24K were both re-issued with hydrophobic versions, TiO2 was not. What effect that has is not clear to me as the hydrophobic versions are rare and represent only a small number of the listings you see on ebay.

if i had to guess on production numbers i would say maybe 50% were X-metal, 25% were 24k, 15% were TiO2, and 10% were plasma. but thats just a guess.

Dont forget that with the Romeo1 recall, customers were allowed to trade in their ROmeo1 for a pair of equivalent value. And that basically was the XX at that time, the most value for money option was obviously the 24k, so theres just alot more of them around.

To be honest, it actually took me a longer time to find an Xmetal example than a 24K example. floating around the market wise, I would say 30% were X-metal, 40% were 24k, 20% were TiO2, and 10% were plasma.

the rarity of the plasma frame is probably not a production bias.. its just a case of the least attractive of the bunch.

Imagine them new in store. as is the case with today, the black/black pairs sell the best (Xmetal in this case), because well, most people are boring. 24K was the most 'worthwhile' to get, so that sold alot too. TiO2 is rarer because well, it was the 'silver' to the 24k's "gold", and not many want to come in second. Plasma was simply the underdog..

and remember this is right after the Romeo had been around for a few years. people KNEW about the plasma surface issues.. so naturally, they were avoided as well.
 
The target information is unlikely to be known as the questions are i) what was the global distribution of each of the 4 XX? and ii) how many pairs of each XX were produced, including 2nd generation and later 2009 issues? This much is known; after the original issue of all 4, the Ti02 and the 24K both had 2nd generation issues with XT######A, and XG######A serials. In 2009 the X Metal and 24K were reissued in different boxes (04-144 & 04-145).
As far as the original pieces are concerned their UK availability was;

XM -black May 00 to April 04
Ti02 - black May 00 to August 03
24K - 24K May 00 to April 04
Plasma - Ice March 02 - October 03

From my own experience the Ice pair is far harder to find than the other three, as it was available for a shorter time (in the UK at least), had no 2nd gen, and no 09 release. It is possible that it 'lost' sales to the long standing plasma-ice, and plasma-ice P juliets, and perhaps less pairs were purchased during a comparable period of availability to the others.
 
You could only trade in your Romeo's for Plasma or TiO2's, not 24k's. The deal was equal or lesser value. The most expensive Romeo was $285, the 24k was $325, all the other XX were $275 and were available with the trade in program.
 
dcl10 said:
You could only trade in your Romeo's for Plasma or TiO2's, not 24k's. The deal was equal or lesser value. The most expensive Romeo was $285, the 24k was $325, all the other XX were $275 and were available with the trade in program.

I have always heard and read different.
 
You could only trade in your Romeo's for Plasma or TiO2's, not 24k's. The deal was equal or lesser value. The most expensive Romeo was $285, the 24k was $325, all the other XX were $275 and were available with the trade in program.

Im pretty sure Dann of O-review fame traded his romeo1 for a 24k XX. iirc he mentions it in his 24K XX review video.
 
Im pretty sure Dann of O-review fame traded his romeo1 for a 24k XX. iirc he mentions it in his 24K XX review video.


That was the TiO2 he got for his Romeo, I know he was talking a lot about the 24k in that video so it's easy to get confused. Specifically he mentions he got the 24k's used, and that's why he wears them more often since they were already a little beat up.
 

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