I'm glad I picked the right hobby. 2 2

[shadroch]

When I was young, I wanted to open a toy soldier store. By high school, I realized how impractical that was and decided to open a comic shop instead.

Last week, I attended the sale of one of the largest toy soldier collections I've ever seen and if I'd ever had doubts about choosing the right hobby, they were erased forever.

The collections owner was 72, had kept his childhood soldiers and started buying new ones sometime in the early 1970s. Over the years, he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his collection, and got back pennies on it.  I took the time to place minimum bids on all 280plus lots and won 57 of them with no one else making a bid.  One lot I won for $5 was a 1:18 scale WW2 plane that sold for $229 new ten years ago. I don't know the details from the sale but I doubt he walked away with  more than $10,000 , a fraction of what he put into it.  He allowed a local estate sale company to handle the sale and they obviously had no idea how to market the collection.   One lot I won for $17.50 consisted of 23 hand painted tanks and half tracks. I listed five on ebay and four sold the first day for $25 each.  Another lot cost me .forty cents a pop for some 300 1/144 scale WW2 planes he had hand painted.  I put up a lot of six planes for $10 and it sold within two hours. I think $3 each will be the long term price on them.

Edited September 21, 2022 by shadroch

[MAR1979]

Sad. Appears he was "blind to this addiction" now "all fall down, like toy soldiers"

BTW this may one future day be the fate of Comic Books.Time is the great equalizer.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by MAR1979

[Robot Man]

I never really collected for the money. I bought what I liked and paid what I could afford. I also hung on to most of them. I never had any idea they could be worth what they are today. Never.

Luckily, I bought the right stuff for the right price. I was also a bit of a forward thinker. Buying books that were not real fashionable at the time. I worked hard at it because I loved them and have had some considerable luck over the years. 

 

[shadroch]

The harder one works, the luckier one gets. I remember sitting on my friends stoop, reading Defenders #10 and thinking if I keep this in good shape, I might get $10 for it someday.

[batman_fan]

All I know is when my mother in law passes away, I will be rich beyond my wildest dreams.  She collects a wide rand of Franklin Mint items. 

[jdandns]

On 9/21/2022 at 5:55 PM, batman_fan said:

All I know is when my mother in law passes away, I will be rich beyond my wildest dreams.  She collects a wide rand of Franklin Mint items. 

I was super happy when I inherited a huge lot of their collector plates...and then I found out you're not supposed to eat food off of them. 

[lizards2]

I still have all my toy soldiers.

They will still march for me, to eternity.  

Edited September 22, 2022 by lizards2

[MattTheDuck]

And beyond 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 9/22/2022 at 5:22 AM, MattTheDuck said:

And beyond 

That was infinity.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 9/21/2022 at 4:10 PM, Robot Man said:

I never really collected for the money. I bought what I liked and paid what I could afford.

Same here. Comics have never been a money making endeavour for me.

Making money on books today that you bought years ago at market rates is nice of course, but I have always felt uncomfortable with making money now off of other collectors inexperience, bad judgement or bad luck. Whether he deserves it or not, I feel sorry for the old guy in Shad's opening post. He did all the work, out of love, over all those years and then other people take all the profit. No one helped him, it seems.

I remember going to the London Comic fair years back, and there was this nice old couple faffing about in a panic with loads of comic boxes the contents of which they clearly had no idea what to do with. I picked out some Spideys, asked a price, it was low to the point of robbery, and I bought them. I felt lousy about it, afterwards, imagining that the collection may have been their son's, who had died, or some equally unlikely scenario. Now, when I see 'the right person' offering something for the wrong price, I point it out. It's amazing how much better you feel about doing that, especially when they appreciate it. A small act of kindness.

A work colleague told me once that I was an idiot for doing things like that. He said I had earned the right, acquiring years of pricing knowledge, to use that experience to make money. He had a point, but it's just not in my nature. It's probably why I have never made meaningful money in comics (my timing is also useless), and would be a lousy dealer.

Fortunately, my love is for the items, and making money is incidental. I buy what makes me happy and am lucky enough to be able to do so, within reason. I hope the old soldier guy in the OP's post had a ball collecting his figures down the years and I hope he never gets to fret unduly over his failure to liquidate the collection to his own advantage.

[seanlinc]

You know you collect what you like but there is the reality that with the money you put into it you don't want things that depreciate over time. I have a friend whose dad collects those old die cast tractors but was looking to start selling them off. He was discouraged prices had gone down alot so was going to wait. I told him probably should start selling now as I'm guessing the people that collect those are a rapidly aging demographic and I doubt there are many younger collectors of such things. Comics on the other hand does have younger collectors coming into the hobby so hopefully we don't go the way of die cast tractors or God forbid Stamps.

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:09 AM, shadroch said:

When I was young, I wanted to open a toy soldier store. By high school, I realized how impractical that was and decided to open a comic shop instead.

Last week, I attended the sale of one of the largest toy soldier collections I've ever seen and if I'd ever had doubts about choosing the right hobby, they were erased forever.

The collections owner was 72, had kept his childhood soldiers and started buying new ones sometime in the early 1970s. Over the years, he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his collection, and got back pennies on it.  I took the time to place minimum bids on all 280plus lots and won 57 of them with no one else making a bid.  One lot I won for $5 was a 1:18 scale WW2 plane that sold for $229 new ten years ago. I don't know the details from the sale but I doubt he walked away with  more than $10,000 , a fraction of what he put into it.  He allowed a local estate sale company to handle the sale and they obviously had no idea how to market the collection.   One lot I won for $17.50 consisted of 23 hand painted tanks and half tracks. I listed five on ebay and four sold the first day for $25 each.  Another lot cost me .forty cents a pop for some 300 1/144 scale WW2 planes he had hand painted.  I put up a lot of six planes for $10 and it sold within two hours. I think $3 each will be the long term price on them.

[F For Fake]

Along the lines of toy soldiers, one day, in the future, someone is going to have to reckon with my toy collection. We don't have children, and my niece isn't interested in any of that stuff, so either I'll end up selling, or my wife will have to sell it if I'm gone. And by that point, will anyone out there care about G.I. Joe? They're already EXTREMELY fragile. The idea of these brittle plastic toys surviving another 10-20 years or more...doesn't seem likely. However, I love them. And while I've put a lot of money into them, I never thought of them as an investment. They're just something I collect.

Transformers may do better. Transformers have endured in pop culture in ways that Joes and He-Man etc have not. They still make big-budget motion pictures, they're still making new cartoons, they're still making video games, and most importantly, they're still making a ton of toys. So I believe there will still be generations behind me that will care about Transformers. But Joes?  Not likely.

As for the comics and other stuff, my wife has my spreadsheet inventory which also includes a list of who to contact. Hopefully it won't come to that. In a perfect world, I'll live to sell the stuff, I'll make a little money, and we can retire in peace. but whatever happens, I've loved HAVING the stuff, and that is what matters.

[shadroch]

I have a " friend " I met through the internet who is my go to guy when I can't idenitify a toy soldier.I sent him a photo of a couple of Russian infantry pieces I'd never seen before. I expected an instant answer but several hours later he got back to me that the pieces were made in Poland in the 1960s and were never available commercially in the West.  He estimated they would go for $10-15 a figure on ebay although neither of us found any past sales. I paid $10 for about 130 pieces that were described as " big, thick, Cossacks, not very common"

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

On 9/22/2022 at 9:21 AM, shadroch said:

I have a " friend " I met through the internet who is my go to guy when I can't idenitify a toy soldier.I sent him a photo of a couple of Russian infantry pieces I'd never seen before. I expected an instant answer but several hours later he got back to me that the pieces were made in Poland in the 1960s and were never available commercially in the West.  He estimated they would go for $10-15 a figure on ebay although neither of us found any past sales. I paid $10 for about 130 pieces that were described as " big, thick, Cossacks, not very common"

That sounds "perverted."

[B2D327]

Funny coincidence as just a few days ago, I was thinking about what would happen to my eclectic collection of comics, toys and vinyl records when my time comes. I’ve made a decent profit selling here and there but all my acquisitions came from the love of each hobby and profits usually went back in to one of them with the exception of a necessity but never looked at as an “investment”, so to speak. I came to the conclusion that I’d continue along that path of buy/sell and let fate decide where it goes afterwards. I can’t take it with me so unless my kids take some kind of interest, all I can do is tell them what they may be able to get for it but it won’t be my problem anymore. I honestly got my money’s worth and years of enjoyment out of it while I could. I would imagine many collectors may feel the same. 

[Krydel4]

On 9/22/2022 at 6:19 AM, F For Fake said:

Along the lines of toy soldiers, one day, in the future, someone is going to have to reckon with my toy collection. We don't have children, and my niece isn't interested in any of that stuff, so either I'll end up selling, or my wife will have to sell it if I'm gone. And by that point, will anyone out there care about G.I. Joe? They're already EXTREMELY fragile. The idea of these brittle plastic toys surviving another 10-20 years or more...doesn't seem likely. However, I love them. And while I've put a lot of money into them, I never thought of them as an investment. They're just something I collect.

Transformers may do better. Transformers have endured in pop culture in ways that Joes and He-Man etc have not. They still make big-budget motion pictures, they're still making new cartoons, they're still making video games, and most importantly, they're still making a ton of toys. So I believe there will still be generations behind me that will care about Transformers. But Joes?  Not likely.

As for the comics and other stuff, my wife has my spreadsheet inventory which also includes a list of who to contact. Hopefully it won't come to that. In a perfect world, I'll live to sell the stuff, I'll make a little money, and we can retire in peace. but whatever happens, I've loved HAVING the stuff, and that is what matters.

Joes will be around for a good while. Eventually there will be another cartoon series. And if they ever make a good movie... who knows. 

[toro]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:09 AM, shadroch said:

When I was young, I wanted to open a toy soldier store. By high school, I realized how impractical that was and decided to open a comic shop instead.

Last week, I attended the sale of one of the largest toy soldier collections I've ever seen and if I'd ever had doubts about choosing the right hobby, they were erased forever.

The collections owner was 72, had kept his childhood soldiers and started buying new ones sometime in the early 1970s. Over the years, he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his collection, and got back pennies on it.  I took the time to place minimum bids on all 280plus lots and won 57 of them with no one else making a bid.  One lot I won for $5 was a 1:18 scale WW2 plane that sold for $229 new ten years ago. I don't know the details from the sale but I doubt he walked away with  more than $10,000 , a fraction of what he put into it.  He allowed a local estate sale company to handle the sale and they obviously had no idea how to market the collection.   One lot I won for $17.50 consisted of 23 hand painted tanks and half tracks. I listed five on ebay and four sold the first day for $25 each.  Another lot cost me .forty cents a pop for some 300 1/144 scale WW2 planes he had hand painted.  I put up a lot of six planes for $10 and it sold within two hours. I think $3 each will be the long term price on them.

I think half the fun of a hobby like that is the satisfaction of seeing your work after you have painted the figures.  If I did that my figures would look like a 2 year old had had painted them. 

At some point way in the future I think this hobby will also be a niche hobby too.  I won't have made a ton of money off of the collection, but since I read and enjoy the books I will have gotten my monies worth.  Of course I will be long gone before the hobby gets to that point.

[shadroch]

On 9/23/2022 at 6:23 AM, toro said:

I think half the fun of a hobby like that is the satisfaction of seeing your work after you have painted the figures.  If I did that my figures would look like a 2 year old had had painted them. 

At some point way in the future I think this hobby will also be a niche hobby too.  I won't have made a ton of money off of the collection, but since I read and enjoy the books I will have gotten my monies worth.  Of course I will be long gone before the hobby gets to that point.

Practice makes perfect. My first paint jobs were horrible. Now they are merely really bad and with time, I'm sure I can achieve mediorcrity.

[Ken Aldred]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:03 PM, shadroch said:

Practice makes perfect. My first paint jobs were horrible. Now they are merely really bad and with time, I'm sure I can achieve mediorcrity.

Mine were always a bit rubbish when I did model kits as a kid.  I admire people with the high level of fine motor control to do it really, really well.