OpAmerica Revisited

2016-10-17
Overcast (Cloudy)
19 Celcius / 66 Fahrenheit

OpAmerica Revisited

(OpAmerica Toy and Bank Museum)

   If you're a regular reader of my blog, you will have noticed that I have returned to writing new posts. Of course, there's a reason. I'm approaching the 400,000 milestone of posts that have been read, and so I wanted to add a group of posts to elevate the readership. Of course, I didm;t know iof the strategy would work, but it has. In the last few days, readership has returned to the 200-300 daily views, and I will soon hit that milestone within the next few days.

Please click here to visit this wonderful ebay store

Description:

A Nifty brand tin lithographed wind-up toy from Germany

Circa: 1923

After the toy is wound up and released, the rider and Nifty (the horse) move. 

The rider moves up and down on the horse, and Nifty moves about, 

and his head and tail move up and down.

Very Rare Antique

Andre Citroen Fire Truck Tin Wind Up Toy from France

Circa: 1930's

This fire truck brand is another new discovery. I have never heard of the "Andre Citroen" company before.

Very Rare Antique

Andre Citroen Limousine Tin Wind Up  Car Toy from France

Circa: 1920's -1930's

Another Andre Citroen toy with suicide doors that open up in the 

opposite way from our modern-era cars of today.

Rare Nifty Hi-Way Henry Jalopy 

Comic Wind-up Tin Toy

And finally, another Nifty brand toy. As with the topmost toy, this one is also based on newspaper comic characters from the 1920's-1930's era, when comic characters in the newspapers were once very popular.

OpAmerica  is a fabulous place to find all kinds of toys of exceptional value and rarity. 

Of course, they also sell less expensive and more common toys. That's business, of course.

The photography is always excellent, and allows me to work less on improving their photos,since there is rarely much work to improve upon. The only thing I usually have to do is resize the image to readily view on my blog, and to add the copyright notice that I always add to the single or image or composite image.  This affords me more time to search out more toys that I am always searching for and to meet new people and companies in this vast wide world.

Thanks for vising,

and as always,

Have a great time of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Opamerica-:A Fantastic Toy Store on ebay

Monday, November 16, 2015
  Sunny and seasonally warmer than usual

Opamerica:

A Fantastic ebay store

    When I first started to block, I'd purchase my own toys, photograph them,then resell them on ebay. I didn't have a "plan b", so buying toys was my first choice. After 2 years or so, the market slowed down, and I stopped. Also, the Canadian dollar (I'm Canadian, eh) took a nosedive,ebay started to demand that sellers ship via their Global Express mail, and the Canadian Government decided that they wanted to collect taxes (15% total) on all merchandise that came to Canada.

   Needless to say, my days with v were over. As it was before the changes, I was barely making a profit, but buying and selling to start my blog. I came up with "plan B" under pressure. What could I do instead of buying and selling? 

   I decided to write everywhere to all kinds of people and companies. I wrote to manufacturers newer toys), I wrote to antique dealers, toy sellers, collectors, museums. You name it, I wrote to them.  In time, people would write to me and give me their permission. I would write their blog post, and send then an e-mail when the post was added and ask them if there was anything that they would like me to edit, add, delete, or change.

   My "plan B" turned out to be a great idea. Now I could write about toys above the price of 

$ 175.00 Canadian. That was the most expensive toy that I ever purchased. Now, I could write about 5-6 figure toys -I was in "heaven". I preferred to select people who had lots of merchandise , excellent descriptions of their toys, quality photos, and excellent reputations.  Opamerica had all  four criteria. 

  The people at Opamerica work very hard with their ebay , and their many positive feedbacks show that. AS well, you can't find a finer place to read about old toy descriptions, and of course quality, quality photography.

"Antique Hubley Cast Iron 8-1/2" Tail Fin Racer Toy Car w/ Driver Exhaust Stacks

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 Antique Hubley Cast Iron Tail Fin Racer Toy Car!  This fantastic c. 1930s Hubley is a perfect addition to any Cast Iron Collection! This large car features raised exhaust stacks on the hood, and a cast iron driver figure.  The racer has a large tail fin on the end, and sits on 4 white rubber tires. This is one of Hubley's more rare large sized racers.

This antique Hubley Racer is in good condition for its age.  The body shows some moderate loss to the paint around the edges, and between the driver and the stacks.  The white rubber wheels, rims, and axles have been replaced.  The car rolls very well when pushed.

Measures approx. 8-1/2" L x 2-3/4" W x 2-5/8" H      216mm x 70 mm x 67 mm"*

*Description Courtesy of Opamerica

What's interesting in both cars is how the parts are kept together. With the fin racer below, the race car driver is held in his seat by the rear axle. The axle rod runs throughout an eyehole.

"Antique 1930s Hubley Cast Iron Take-Apart Brubaker Ford Coupe Toy Car 4" L

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I am pleased to offer this Antique 1930s Hubley Cast Iron Take-Apart Brubaker Ford Coupe Toy Car!  This fantastic early Hubley was designed by Jacob Brubaker, and features a two piece design.  The body is solid cast iron that attaches via the rear spare tire to a nickel plated chassis.  The spare tire holder has the early Ford V8 symbol.  The coupe sits on wood rims and original white rubber tires.

This Antique Hubley car is in good condition for its age, showing some light scratching and very light paint loss.  The nickel plated chassis and the areas of paint wear show some light oxidation.  The rubber tires are very cracked and only roll well on surfaces that provide friction.

Measures approx. 4" L x 1-3/4" w x 1-1/2" H  102 mm x 45mm x 39mm"*

*Description Courtesy of Opamerica

In the case of the Brubaker below, the undercarriage and number are held to the chassis (green) by the rear rubber tire. When you remove the rear spare tire, the chassis and the undercarriage separate.

Cast iron toys started in the early 1900's and continued until the late 1930's and a bit later. There main companies of the time in the USA were Hubley, Arcade, and Kenton, with a few others. They were located principally in Pennsylvania (USA).There many new immigrants who had come to America, knew of the huge factories that produced cast iron toys. When you search out these factories, you'll come across lots of historic and interesting photographs. 

Initially, cast iron toys were a supplement to many other products offered by the cast iron factories. Mostly their primary products were household products such as keys, locks, hinges and other materials.  With the huge increase in immigration and of course, children, toys would become a larger and larger part of their businesses.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be, 

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

An Exceptional Photographer/ebay seller Revisited

Saturday, November 14, 2015
          Cloudy and mild temperature

An Exceptional

 Photographer/ebay Merchant

Revisited

   I remember when digital cameras first came out. People would take poor-quality photos, then think that a photo-eidting software would fix everything-not! The only thing that happened was that bad photos simply didn't have to be made into prints.   Eventually, thank G-D, people started to take better photos and the photo-editing software raised the photography level a few steps higher!

   I first wrote to Ron Michaud, who lives in Maine, USA, about 2 years ago. He's an excellent ebay merchant who receives outstanding comments from his clients. I noticed his listings because of several things-lots of photos of his toys, quality photos and larger sized images, knowledge about toys.

Please click here to visit Ron Michaud's excellent collection of toys for sale on ebay

You can easily read the knowledge that Ron Michaud has when he writes about this Buddy L Sprinkler truck.  The truck is quite large measuring 25" ( 635 mm) in length.

I've taken 3 photos below and partially or fully extracted the truck and placed it against white. Of course, Ron;s photos certainly present the truck excellently. Ron doesn't just take front,side,top and bottom photos quickly, but he thinks about what he wants to show  in his merchandise.  He uses a regular focal length lens and in some cases prefers the wide-angle to exaggerate the toy. It's great to see suburb photography from a seller of toys!

I like the Buddy L toys because they have lots of features to them, 

they're large to play with, and they were built to last!

Whomever restored these toy and the others for sale (if they're  the same person) 

certainly did an excellent job.

I like this rear-angle and lower camera-angle photograph. 

It shows the "spigot" or tap that allows waterto pour from the rear of the truck.

The black rounded pipe at the rear of the truck is not a bumper - it's a pipe with holes. The truck is a sprinkle truck and would have been used to add water to roads in order to minimize dust on dry hot days of the summer.

I'll be writing Ron as soon as I add the labels for this post. I haven;t contacted him in a long time, and I would want to thank him for having allowed me to use his fine photos.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com