Old Antique Toys: Toy Database

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Sunday February 12, 2023 Overcast 2° C 35.4° F

Revisiting AntiqueToys.com

Please click here to visit Antiquetoys.com

If you follow my blog, you'll have noticed that I haven't written much for the last 2 years. I got Covid in the beginning of January 2022, and got a whole list of problems from Covid! I saw more doctors and had more tests that in all of the other 73 years of my life! Right now, I'm feeling great, but I'm having trouble trying to gain back 17 pounds (7.71 kilograms) that I lost. I've even been to a dietician who gave me advise on how to regain my weight loss, and to eat 5 meals a say!

For my last post, I had to do research to find out the true identity of that exceptional 4-Horse Brake Coach. A reader had asked me to try and identify the cast iron toy, and I came across 2 possible answers - Pratt & Letchworth and Hubley. I gave the answer as "Hubley", (and I was wrong!!!!!), but the reader was able to contact an exceptional website with an exceptional owner - Mr. Ed Sandford. The reader had found Mr. Ed Sanders from a blog post that I wrote years ago. I phoned Ed, and talked with him for a while. Later I wrote him, and said that I would like to write a post for him, for having helped the reader find an answer. I also mentioned to Ed that I was going to write an updated post for having helped the reader find an answer to his inquiry.

So, today's post is a big thank-you to Mr. Ed Sanders for having helped the reader out, as well as having taken the time to chat with me about the reader's inquiry. Years ago, I found Ed Sander's website exceptional. It had great photos, excellent information and identification of toys, and of course one could buy fine toys listed on his website.

Flash forward to today and the weeks before, and I was totally taken aback at how much his website has evolved to be one of the finer websites about toys and for buying toys on the Net (of course, that's my "humble" opinion).

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That screen-capture is the opening page. You can see all of the categories that this extraordinary website contains

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A "sampling" of some of the many different categories

that will allow you to research your toy.

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Ed's photography is exceptional. A plain white foundation
allows the toy to be presented without any distractions. As well,
when you click on the photo, you are redirected to another page,
where there are plenty of other photos to examine.

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Each category of toys is then broken down into other sub-divisions.
This website is like an encyclopaedia, and filled with extensive information, and
great photography.

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Ed's background before entering the world of selling toys and writing, was having been an engineer. His extensive research, superb organization of his website, and excellent photography all can be attributed to his training and education in this the field of engineering.

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I already mentioned that Ed also sells fine toys. He writes nice and thorough descriptions, describing repairs, scratches or even missing pieces. Obviously, Ed is well-educated in knowing his toys, as this Harris toy originally came with accessories.

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And last, but not least - my favourite - excellent photography.
In focus, well lit, large photos, and lots of photos of the item being sold.

Of course, I hope many of you visit his great website.
It's a cornucopia of encyclopaedic material overflowing with what any toy collector
or buyer might want.

So that's it for today.

Thanks for dropping by,
and as always,
Have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman, and
I can always be reached at:
toysearcher@gmail.com

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Hobby db - An Exceptional Toy Database

Wednesday, October 27, 2021 Sunny & Clear Skies 12 C 54 F

Please click on this sentence to redirect to this great resource

Several years ago, Sept. 5, 2016, to be exact, while I was building up my blog, I received a letter from Mr. Christian Braun. Usually, I would search the web for interesting website, collectors, and toy manufacturers In this case, the reverse happened. He wrote to ask me if I might write a blog post about his recent company hobbyDB. Of course I agreed right away, and wrote back.

As it turned out, Christian's company and website was exactly what I needed to help me learn about toys, and to find them as well. From that position, not only would I be able to write about different people and companies, but I would be able to have a very good resource and knowledge base to provide information to my readership.

His website is available to readers, who can sign up and be able to use this marvelous resource without any fees. There are now 2,000 volunteers that add the information and photos to hobbyDB. And further, Christian and his team made it possible for these volunteers and others that like toys to own part of the site (they use a crowdfunding platform called Wefunder to manage the sale of shares to their users, more here https://wefunder.com/hobbyDB). hobbyDB is thus now owned by 1,100 of its users. hobbyDB, to quote Christian, is "Built by collectors for collectors and owned by collectors - hobbyDB is the world's fasting growing collectibles database."

Below is a screen-capture of a member of hobbyDB, whom I selected to illustrate how the website functions. The detail is blurry, because the screen-capture is a low-resolution that I can't capture with any larger resolution. The immediate screen-capture below illustrates a search that I did for a member who goes by the name "Stroget". Actually, his name is Karl.

The screen-capture presents to the viewer the listings that Karl Schnelle has added to the database of toys

Please do not copy without their written permission

The screen-capture below provides the reader with all kinds of information about toys that members of hobbyDB have added to the data-base. Not only is the information very informative, but notice the choice of different searches that a reader can select in order to either find information about a toy, or to learn about a toy.