What Not to Do When Buying Antique Toys

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

 Part I:


What Not to Do When Buying Toys

or

What  They Don't Teach You in Antique Toy School

     I was listing  toys on E-Bay today. E-Bay periodically offers sellers an additional 50 free listings during a month. I had listed my normal 50 items at the beginning of March, and only managed to sell 19. I decided to wait for April, when yesterday, E-Bay made me "an offer I couldn't refuse". Excuse me Marlon Brando for borrowing your line from the Godfather movie.

    1. An item arrives not in the condition that you thought it would.

a. Sometimes E-Bay sellers accidentally miss something.  

This could be due to selling lots and lots of toys, and they don't have or take the time to study their merchandise carefully.

b. The lighting on their item is flat.

As such, dents will not show up, especially if the item is light coloured.
A lighting from the side is needed to bring out the dents.

c. Some E-Bay sellers are just "dishonest".

The famous expression"buyer beware"  or for my Latin readers "Caveat Emptor".

It's very important to ask questions of the seller, but I'll return to this after.

This toy has 2 dents in it.

When the seller photographed it, he lit the toy with flat lighting, so I couldn't see the dents.

The phoots above are nicely lit, but like the original seller do not illustragte the dents.

At least Ihad the temerity and honesty to describe the item with its "faults"

Idon't mind poor lighting, but when the seller does not describe the item "honestly", that makes me a bit mad, because I'm going to describe it properly, and may  lose some money on the resale!

The dent near the right front door.

Dramatic lighting (not the best for E-Bay) to illustrate the  front dent near the door.

Dents on the back of the roof near the J Chein Logo, 

as well as dents where the bus door is to the right front.

There is however another big problem that the seller did not describe.

Notice 2 things:

1. A hole where the word "Lines"is.

2. A cut-out oval between the 2 rear wheels.

This toy is a wind-up toy. 

Unfortunately the seller either did not know that this was a wind-up toy, or he

purposely failed to describe the toy as such.

I should have done my research!

There is a big problem with this toy.

Before you look at the next photo see if you can find the problem.

Can you see the problem now?

The problem is that there was a crack running down both sides of the motorcyclist.

THe crack was right behind the policeman's black book, so neither , nor the seller saw it.

Initially, I wrote the seller an E-Mail, but because I made a promise (please see below),

I decided not to  complain or ask for a partial refund, even though the seller failed to see or mention the crack.

2. Don't be over-eager to buy a toy.

There will always be another day to buy a toy.

Don't be too anxious to buy it.

I purchased the above toy knowing that I had the  red part 

with a replacement steering wheel and windshield.

I was able to purchase the toy for about $ 36.00 U..S.

The problem for me is that I purchased the item from an E-Bay seller who only ships priority. 

Even a small toy like this ended up costing me $ 26.00 U.S. in shipping costs.

I had wanted to bid on other items to have combined shipping on the final package.

However, I couldn't make another buy, and the merchant was kind enough to allow me to wait 4 days  to finish my bidding.

I'll be lucky to break even or not lose any money on this transaction.

3. If you don't ask, you'll never know

I'm very honest, and what I've started to do lately is ask a seller who offers selling to Canada, if he/she will ship to Canada via USPS First Class International. The cost of shipping that way is very inexpensive and can be anywhere from $ 4.00 - $ 12.00. Some merchants make a few dollars on shipping, while others will refund you $ `1.00 on a $ 4.00 shipping charge, because they overcharged! Talk about being honest!

In return, I have promised not to file a complaint should an item arrive broken or not arrive at all.

I have great confidence in both the USPS(United States Postal Service) and  Canada Post.

On occasion, when even an Australian has asked if he could bid, I have said yes. 

However, an item going to Australia, goes by boat and it can take  2 months to arrive!

I've only had to keep my word (promise) 3 times, and all 3 times, the items were terribly packaged!

So 3 out of 460 shipments is a great success rate!

Thank you Canada Post and USPS!

These are very small Tootsietoys.

Unfortunately, they don't sell or resell well.

I still have them after 3 months!

They were made later (1950's)and assume were a way of saving money

by using less materials.

Moral of this story: Do your homework.

An item that does not have a lot of bidders or is starting low may be an item that just won't sell well!

The 2 toys above are Hubleys.

I'll check later tonight in case they're Arcades.

They're cast iron and measure about 6-7 inches in length.

I was able to buy a set of 4 for a great price.

At the time (April 2011), I figured that I could re-sell them at a good profit.

It took me 2 months to sell these beautiful toys, and I made a small profit.

Almost a year later (March 7, 2012), I saw a cast iron toy like the orange one sell for $125.00 U.S. In May of 2011, I think I sold the above orange tow truck for $ 45.00-50.00 with a small profit.

Lesson to Be Learned:

Don't be in a rush to sell something if you know deep in your heart that what you have is worth what you feel you can get!

I purchased these wonderful tiny Tootsietoy Airplanes for a very good price.

At the time (June 2011),  I was very sloppy with how I organized my "toy room".

I kept these toys on the floor, and when I entered my room one afternoon, I failed to notice and forgot I had kept these toys on the floor.

Of all the toys to break, I had to step on the red plane with 3 propellers.

My selling price went from a starting price of $ 75.00 to $10.00 

and that took me almost a moth to sell!

Lesson to Be Learned:

Listen to your wife - she knows best, 

especially when it comes to keeping a clean and organized house!

This is a Hubley Cast Iron Pull Toy.

A string or cord would be attached to that circle on the frontmost hoof, and would be pulled along.

I purchased this toy because my father-in-law used to own racehorses.

The toy is about 100 years old, ergo a "true antique".

The toy is called a sulky, and the horse would have leather reins requiring it to "trot" in tandem with all 4 legs. Sulky horse-racing wasn't ever as popular as thoroughbred .

I purchased this item at a good price, hoping to sell it fast and make a good return.

Bad idea! It took 3 months to sell.

Lesson to Be Learned:

If you are a seller, don't let your emotion enter into your selection of toys.

If you're a collector, then your personal feelings don't matter!

I purchased this toy, not noticing that it was missing the steering wheel.

Lesson to Be Learned:

Never buy an item that is missing a part, especially if it's like the one above.

In this case, you'd need to almost replace the entire silver part of the car - which is an impossiblilty!

Now I'm stuck with this toy!

   I  still don't understand how someone can  buy a 1920 Bugatti  that is totally restored with a new paint job, replaced parts, new leather seats, and who knows what for $ 3,000,000.00.

But try and sell a $20.00 purchase that has been repainted for $ 35.00, and you might as well be selling ice cubes in the North Pole.

I never understood this concept (real items versus toys), but what can I say?

Lesson to Be Learned:

I did eventually sell this toy.

However there is a small proportion of toy collectors who don't mind a toy being "restored".

If I collected toys, I would be one of those people, but as a seller, I have to be more neutral with my emotions. I keep thinking that in 100 years, who anyway will know the difference!

Sometimes, I even would like to advise buyers  that if they want that antique look, then simply bury the toy in your back yard over a winter, and let nature take its' course.

I think that's what those sellers' do with these counterfeit toys! (reproductions).

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great morning, afternoon, or evening, 

wherever you may be.