How to Make a Fortune From Antique Toys
By Pat Higgins
Antique toys are becoming very rare and collectible, but due to their age, many have some slight imperfections. This is something you have to consider when buying them, as a toy which has an original part missing or broken is worth less in value than a perfect one; this will reflect in its sale price if you ever want to sell it at a later date.
A toy with its original box/wrapping and in new condition will be worth more than one without the box even if the toys are identical in look, age and condition. The ones that fetch the highest prices at auction are the ones that have never been played with and are still in the original box. These are very rare as most toys are bought for children to play with, and very few children would want to have a toy just to keep in its box on a shelf to look at but not handle.
The people who have made the most money from selling antique toys are those who had the foresight to see what would become a future collectible, bought the toy and put it away in storage for safekeeping until many years later when the time’s right to bring it out and sell it. There would likely be a demand at that point because of the toy’s value as a rarity.
I regret to say that I only kept one toy from my childhood, a Bagatelle game made from Bakelite (a forerunner to modern plastics). It has metal balls like marbles that are shot around the board by pulling a knob attached to a spring. The harder you pulled back on the knob, the faster the spring would react, and the balls would shoot around the board and land in pockets with varying scores. The aim was to get the highest score you could by getting the balls to fall into the right pockets. I suppose you could say it was a type of early pinball game, but it gave me many hours of fun when I was about 5 years old. I would love to know what games/toys other people have kept over the years.
Pat Higgins is webmaster of FindAnyToys.com which offers a diverse selection of toys from the latest electronic gadgets to antique collectibles from bygone days.
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