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Post by brcthrift on Feb 22, 2011 15:20:04 GMT -6
I still find a ton of stuff at thrift stores. I generally find 10 to 20 items a month that either make their way into my own collection or get sold for a nice profit. Hell, buying and selling toys is pretty much going to pay for a necessary renovation to my home.
Sometimes you just have to broaden your scope. Since my wife got into the hobby she has found lots of stuff that I never would have considered such as Cabbage Patch, My Little Pony, and Care Bears. Now, my wife is only interested in collecting green pictures of presidents, so we end up selling almost everything she takes home, but that is straight. It is extra money for the family and it means the collecting hobby doesn't impact my family bottom line.
My favorite part of the hunt at flea markets and trift stores is there is literally treasure out there on store shelves, in grab bags and mixed up in bins filled with junk and happy meal premiums. It is really rewarding when you pull a Stormtrooper Luke out of a bag that cost 59 cents knowing you'd have to shell out 100x that on ebay.
It is also fun to find a Scareglow with cape knowing that you can sell it really quickly and buy that straight arm Snake Eyes you'd been wanting.
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Post by muckmonster87 on Feb 22, 2011 15:35:33 GMT -6
haha yeah, those heart-stopping moments when you find a $50 jiggler from the 60s inside a 30 cent bag of halloween rubber stamps is what really keeps me going back to the thrift store. i agree with brcthrift, you gotta broaden your horizons when reselling. i branched out 2 years ago and started digging through the stuffed animals at thrift shops and found some real gold. a year ago i started researching how modern toy lines do on ebay, and now i do real well reselling galactic heroes and littlest pet shop. i can't walk into a thrift store without finding that stuff. if you think collectors spend a lot of money on toys, you should see what parents with bratty kids are willing to pay:)
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Post by else3573 on Feb 22, 2011 22:09:08 GMT -6
I have found some killer scores at Goodwill. A few off the head: *A bag of 50 of the original pink M.U.S.C.L.E Men for 99 cents! *A carded vintage MOTU Hordak, with the top of the card missing, but still intact and sealed in his bubble for 99 cents! *A Batmobile from Batman the Animated series in mint condition, with the plane that pops out and a Batman figure in it for $3 (I ended up selling this on Ebay a couple years later, since I didn't collect the line. It went for $38) Then there's also a free store filled with donations called Gods Closet, right next to the homeless shelter in my town. I lived there for a couple months about 7 years ago, and that's really when I got into collectiong toys, through that store, picking up stuff to decorate my room at the shelter. Now I donate alot of stuff (Clothes, toys, kitchen stuff, whatever I have to give) and see what's there from time to time. I have scored all these things for FREE: *An Incredible Hulk halloween candy bucket from the 70's. *Hundreds of Burger King and McDonalds toys still sealed in their original bags *Remote Control robot R2-D2 *Star Wars Puzzle from the 70's, still sealed in box! *TOMY windup Miss Piggy swimmer (one just sold on Ebay for $23.5) *ET figures and brand new ET coloring book from the 80's. *Pacman angel figurine *Loose MOTU Roboto *AD&D Minotaur *TONS of Pez Dispensers, including most of the Star Wars ones and an Easter Bunny from the 60's ( the older ones, without feet) *A Teen Titans Raven figure in mint condition *Power Rangers, Battle Beasts, TMNT, Animated Batman, JLU, GI Joe, Transformers, Disney etc. figures As far as reselling goes, I've done really well in the last few months. Case in point, I was watching a lot of 30 PVC figures from the 80's that happened to have a DKJR figure and 2 Pac Man figures (one that I needed, the other was double). I forgot about the lot and it went off with no buyers. I wrote the guy and asked him if he would sell it to me for a couple bucks over the opening bid, which he did. I got this lot of 30 vintage mini pvc figurines for $5 and $5 shipping. I sold 5 of them (Strawberry Shortcake figures) for $10, then sold one of the Mrs Pacman (that I already had) for $5 or so. I also listed the Donkey Kong Jr figure that I got in the lot, since I don;t have the others loose, and I already have him carded. I started the bidding at $12.00 and I cannot BELIEVE what he went for. Best part of this is that the buyer already paid and that they are a return customer. I think they buy stuff in the US and resell it in Japan.
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Post by else3573 on Feb 22, 2011 22:24:06 GMT -6
*Apparently that link isn't working. Anyway, I got 3 bids and that tiny little loose Donkey Kong Jr figure went for $101!! I was FLOORED to say the least when I saw how much it was at. It has already been paid for and I already have shipped it. I had figured if it went for my opening bid, I would have still been happy and made a small profit, but wow...
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Post by muckmonster87 on Feb 23, 2011 0:42:24 GMT -6
that's one hell of a turn around! i've bought up big lots from ebay on the cheap and resold the stuff with good results as well. there's also a free store here in baltimore i do a ton of work with, that i've picked up a couple things from. i donate truckloads of stuff monthly from house cleanouts and help out staffing there, so i don't feel bad at all about picking up some of the older stuff when it comes in if it's stuff i collect (monsters in my pocket, 80s pvcs, imperial dinos, etc).
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Post by else3573 on Feb 23, 2011 9:50:55 GMT -6
Yeah, I used to work there too when I was staying at the shelter (volunteer obviously). That's when I picked up most of that stuff.
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Post by rawlin on Feb 26, 2011 6:55:18 GMT -6
My current forum rank doesn't really suite me since we never had garage sales here. I've read that it's common in US but it just never reached our country.
The closest it comes to here is called a "Loppis" where someone just sell of a huge load of about anything old, mostly bottles and chairs and stuff. It's one of those here around each 5th-10th year.
There are also small second hand shops but they rarely got these kind of stuff. I've heard about one guy doing a real score once but as far from that it is very very uncommon.
I know of 2 stores that sell vintage toys but they are many hours by car from here.
I have to rely on eBay and forums to get the items I want. The prices usually depend on how common or rare a figure is. It's no fine line that all figures are worth the same, as someone above said. I still need to get a blue snaggletooth, they ain't very hard to get but always go for a pretty large sum.
I do not think it's cheaper here then in US, I buy a lot from US through eBay and even with the large shipping it's most of the times still a lot cheaper then going to any auction sites or the like, ex blocket or tradera. It does vary a lot though, sometimes I see stuff go for nothing and sometimes the same thing goes sky high.
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Post by BoogDoc7 on Feb 26, 2011 21:57:42 GMT -6
Yeah, I've heard that garage/yard sales are a pretty American phenomenon. I think that much of the rest of the world doesn't just accumulate as much stuff and passes on more than we do as well.
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Post by TheWatcher on Feb 26, 2011 23:53:10 GMT -6
Wow, wish my area was better for finding older toys. I have some swap meets near me, a salvation Army and a few thrift stores but all I ever find is junk. New Happy meal toys or stuff that is sitting on store shelves as we speak, that is if I am lucky to find any toys at all. It doesn't help that most people who live in the area are new to the area. My area used to be a under-developed rural area. Most of my collection came from ebay or trades.
As for the Swap Meet, I used to find some good stuff, but now all the older sellers have stopped selling and most ppl just sell new stuff like clothes, furniture and real estate? Many Hispanics turned the Swap meet into more of an open air market.
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