Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Adventures in Toy Hunting!

Has it been a couple of weeks since I last posted a non-review?  I need to slow down some.  The reality is that I dedicate like one day a week to working on the blog, and it's been pretty hectic so I haven't had a chance to sit down and write.  Enough of the excuses, it's rambling time!

As much as I love where I live, there have been a few times over the twenty years that I've lived here where I've contemplated moving.  The reason?  Lack of a collector community.  Let me explain.  We have two comic shops now.  When I first arrived, comic shops were like 7-11's (something else we don't have here) - one on every corner.  Now my options are limited to a guy at a flea market, or the awesome comic shop that I actually frequent.  And by frequent, I mean I show up when my Transformers comics come in.  If I actually want to buy a vintage Transformer?  I'm out of luck.  Seriously out of luck.  Still, I do like to try to find what I can locally and as such, I struck out a few weeks ago and did some looking around at places I rarely go.

First, I went to the flea market, of which I'm not a fan.  It's always crowded, everyone is smoking, and the only wares for sale are knock off designer clothes and handbags.  At any rate, there is a guy there that you could charitably call a vintage toy dealer.  He's more like a guy that finds toys on the side of the street and sells them.  I've talked about this guy before, and for some reason, I decided to give him another shot.
Here's a nice shot of his stall.  He actually cleaned up and organized!  Yes, this mess is actually organized.  At least he doesn't have the rack of figures that are zip tied to the rack anymore.
Feeling brave, I actually spent about 30 minutes digging around the place to see what I could find, Transformer-wise.  What I found was the same headless Warpath that he had the last time I was there like 2 years ago.  Price?  $10.  On to other ventures.

About a week ago, I had to buy a new headset for the 360.  I generally prefer the wired headsets, but I have kids and they've already broken 3 headsets, so I decided to go wireless.  I didn't feel like going to a GameStop, so I decided to try out a used game store by my house called "Play and Call" or something like that.  What I saw when I walked in was pretty impressive.  They had vintage games and systems!  Dreamcast!  Nintendo 64!  Old Sega!  NES!  They also had cheap game accessories that I wouldn't put near my 360.  As I wondered around place, I realized that they had a second room.

In this second room were quite a few long boxes of comics.  A lot of the comics that they had were Marvel Transformer issues.  And a lot of early 1990's Image.  I mean a lot.  Like Darker Image?   They had it.  Same thing for a lot of Youngblood.  However, they did have a wall that had this:
They had a ton of 1990's Star Wars figures, which aren't pictured, but they had quite a bit of MISB M.A.S.K. and Go-Bots.  I don't know how well everything will show up in the above pic, since I took it with my phone, but there are some deluxe Go-Bots on the middle shelf.  The prices were a bit high for me, the deluxes were $50, when I think they should be around $30.  I didn't bother talking to the guy working there since he was pretty swamped, but if I were so inclined, I'm sure I could haggle the prices down. 

So that's what I have available to me if I want to shop locally for vintage toys.  A disgusting flea market stall or an overpriced video game shop.  I wonder if my wife would want to move to Singapore just so I can buy Transformers locally?  Whelp, guess it's time to stalk eBay and the forums again...


8 comments:

  1. I'm with you on relocating to Singapore haha , its funny you made this post today. I went to visit a new toy store today, I think sometimes going to markets etc.. its all about discovering new items and physically handling toys you may or may not be familiar with. eBay and online shopping becomes mundane and unexciting sometimes.

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    1. I'm with you on physically handling toys before purchasing. However, given the dearth of collecting options around me, eBay is all I'm left with.

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    2. Hong Kong would be a better choice for buying toys, prices in Singapore are jacked up a little from HK prices.

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  2. I've seen a lot of vintage toy peddlers who seem to price at or above book value no matter the condition of the toy. Like, a yellowed Wheeljack with nothing but half a spoiler for 50 bucks. You usually see that type of thing at flea markets or antique malls. I always wonder how they stay in business.

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    1. The guy at the Flea Market, when you ask how much something is, will pull out his iPad and look on eBay before giving you a price. Because he's a jerk.

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  3. I have nothing local. Not a one. lol. Flea market? nope. Vintage anything that isn't books or "Stratford festival" junk, nope. I've resigned myself that I will have to buy everything online, except TFcon and the smaller shows I can make it to in the city. It makes the shows just a bit more special though,

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    1. But at least you have Cons to go to. I'd kill for a local one.

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