In my life, I have no more than my share of toy collectors. Although I own a few collectible toys from my childhood, I definitely would not include myself among that group of people. They are interesting, but they are also a pretty strange crowd. It takes a certain kind of temperament to be an antique collector. You need to have a fanatical passion for completing your collection. Toy collectors are driven to make everything match and fit perfectly, something which I don’t feel myself.
The first time I met a toy collector, it was shortly after I unloaded the box of my childhood toys from my parents house. I was pretty surprised when they found it in the first place. They had been doing some renovation and, for the first time in years, had gone into the storage room in the basement. I had been worried that everything would have been ruined by the slightly higher than normal humidity down there, but to my surprise my toys were in pristine shape. My baseball cards were all there, as were some of my windup toy cars, my toy dolls from childhood, and many other things.
I didn’t really think about going to a toy appraiser for some time. Then one of my friends brought some friends of his ? toy collectors ? to look at my old collection. When I casually opened the box, they were amazed. They told me that there were some things in there that toy collectors would pay a fortune to get their hands on.
You see, toy collectors vary in their passions. Some of them like baseball cards, some of them like dolls, some of them like antique cars, and some of them like model airplanes. They do, however, all share one thing in common: they all love antiques. If it is old, chances are that you can find someone who will pay quite a bit of money for it as long as it is in good shape.
With this in mind, I sought out a toy price guide. Every group of toy collectors has their own manual, so between the baseball cards, the dolls, and the cars, I had to get three different books. What I saw amazed me. My collection was worth thousands of dollars! Although I do not want to sell off anything quite yet, it is nice to know that the option is there if I ever need the money.
|
